Now It's the Vatican Terence

One of the most sumptuous picture books of late antiquity was handed to a team of scribes and artists under King Louis the Pious in France in the 9th century with a request to copy it faithfully.

That copy, now known as the Vatican Terence, is one of the world's most precious items of book art, since the original was lost. On November 14, the Vatican Library brought this treasure, Vat.lat.3868, online.

It contains the Latin comedies of Publius Terentius Afer, together with many wondrous illuminations. While far younger in date as an artefact, it is more sophisticated than the Vatican Vergil, a truly late antique codex that is also online (Vat.lat.3225), thanks to the variety and quantity of its pictures and the evidence they convey about the staging of classical theatre.

For an introduction, read the Wikipedia article, or Jeremy Norman 's outline which quotes extensively from a David Ganz book review.

Other copies of the late antique original do exist, and scholars have argued long and hard over their interrelationships. The Vatican owns one of these others, the 10th-century Basilicanus Terence, and it too is online as Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.H.19, but it is universally agreed that the Vatican Terence proper is the finest of them all.

A total of 67 manuscripts came online Nov 14. Here is the full list:

1. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.H.49
2. Urb.lat.712
3. Urb.lat.839
4. Urb.lat.840
5. Urb.lat.943
6. Urb.lat.950
7. Urb.lat.953
8. Urb.lat.958
9. Urb.lat.993
10. Urb.lat.996
11. Urb.lat.998
12. Urb.lat.1006
13. Urb.lat.1008
14. Urb.lat.1013
15. Urb.lat.1034
16. Urb.lat.1037
17. Urb.lat.1045
18. Urb.lat.1048
19. Urb.lat.1049
20. Urb.lat.1059.pt.1
21. Urb.lat.1059.pt.2
22. Urb.lat.1060.pt.1
23. Urb.lat.1060.pt.2
24. Urb.lat.1062
25. Urb.lat.1120
26. Urb.lat.1121
27. Urb.lat.1130
28. Urb.lat.1138
29. Urb.lat.1139
30. Urb.lat.1140
31. Urb.lat.1141
32. Urb.lat.1145
33. Urb.lat.1147
34. Urb.lat.1151
35. Urb.lat.1153
36. Urb.lat.1155
37. Urb.lat.1157
38. Urb.lat.1158
39. Urb.lat.1159
40. Urb.lat.1160
41. Urb.lat.1164
42. Urb.lat.1165
43. Urb.lat.1166
44. Urb.lat.1169
45. Urb.lat.1170
46. Urb.lat.1173
47. Urb.lat.1174
48. Urb.lat.1175
49. Urb.lat.1180
50. Urb.lat.1192
51. Urb.lat.1193
52. Urb.lat.1194
53. Urb.lat.1198
54. Urb.lat.1205
55. Urb.lat.1207
56. Urb.lat.1219
57. Urb.lat.1236
58. Urb.lat.1237
59. Urb.lat.1244
60. Urb.lat.1245
61. Urb.lat.1265
62. Urb.lat.1266
63. Urb.lat.1269
64. Urb.lat.1275
65. Urb.lat.1284
66. Urb.lat.1293
67. Vat.lat.3868

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 79. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Cicero Palimpsest

Of all the world's palimpsests, probably the most famous is that at the Vatican Library which recovered for us much of the Roman political philosopher Cicero's work De republica (On the Commonwealth).

Palimpsests, of which Rome has a good number, mostly contain familiar texts which we hardly need to read yet again. Angelo Mai's discovery in 1819 that Vat.lat.5757, a 7th-century copy of Augustine's On the Psalms, was written over a lost book, a 4/5th-century uncial text of De republica, was immensely more thrilling.

The 151 leaves contain roughly a quarter of Cicero's dialogue, enabling us to at least read it in summary form. There are quotes from De republica in other works, but had it not been for this book recycling by the poor monks of Bobbio in northern Italy, the Cicero work would have stayed lost forever.

The digitization of the Cicero Palimpsest is very painstaking, with alternate natural-light and ultraviolet exposures to show up the undertext, and careful analysis of the bifolium and quire orders. The big text in this violet view is the Cicero:

Mai's discovery triggered 200 centuries of hunting for more palimpsests. Among the finds, the Archimedes Codex discovered by Heiberg has perhaps been the second greatest prize.

Check Jeremy Norman's brief account, or the Wikipedia article on De republica, or James Zetzel's very readable introduction via Google Books. The Cicero Palimpsest's digitization, completed on November 11, might perhaps be experienced as a reminder to all to keep faith with our political institutions after a week when Donald Trump won the US presidential election.

Naturally the codex is also of enormous interest to palaeolography, since it is an ultra-rare example of late fourth or early fifth-century uncial (CLA 1 35, Trismegistos 66130) and at the same time a quite rare example of seventh-century script (CLA 1 34, Trimegistos 66149). [Late add: see CLA too on the new Galway Database.]

Here is the full list of November 11 releases, which bring the posted total to exactly 6,100.

1. Urb.lat.365
2. Vat.gr.303.pt.3
3. Vat.gr.751, Book of Job and commentary with catenae, Apollinaris of Laodicea, variously dated 13th or 14th century, or earlier according to a Wikipedia list. With many beautiful miniatures throughout, some unfinished blanks. Leaf through and admire items such as this image of Job's early wealth:
   
4. Vat.lat.230, Praeparatio evangelica of Eusebius of Caeasarea, translated to Latin by George of Trebizond, HT to @LatinAristotle who notes this is one of 51 extant manuscripts of the translation.
5. Vat.lat.484
6. Vat.lat.533
7. Vat.lat.939
8. Vat.lat.957
9. Vat.lat.990
10. Vat.lat.992
11. Vat.lat.1009
12. Vat.lat.1011
13. Vat.lat.1022
14. Vat.lat.1023
15. Vat.lat.1025
16. Vat.lat.1026
17. Vat.lat.1027
18. Vat.lat.1035
19. Vat.lat.1059
20. Vat.lat.1073
21. Vat.lat.1124
22. Vat.lat.1126
23. Vat.lat.1142
24. Vat.lat.1903, Life of Hadrian
25. Vat.lat.3173, Horace
26. Vat.lat.3210, Pietro Bembo autograph
27. Vat.lat.3255, Georgics, heavily annotated
28. Vat.lat.3302, a manuscript belonging to Fabio Mazzatosta, a very wealthy student at Rome in the 15th century who died before getting his first job. This has the Punica of Silius Italicus. At 12,000 lines this is claimed to be the longest preserved poem in Latin literature. Here, just books 1-9, 12-17. With fine illumination, plus end-paper drawings like these horses:
    
    This seems to be by the German artist Joachim de Gigantibus. The BAV owns five of the seven Fabio Mattatosta Codices, all commissioned by M from his pal Pomponio Leto. The others are Vat.lat.3264 (Fasti of Ovid), 3279 Thebaid Statius, 3285 (Pharsalia of Lucan) and 3875 (Silvae and Achilleis). One more is at the British Library. Source: Diz. Biografico.
29. Vat.lat.5757 (above)

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 78. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Jerome's Latin

Among the earliest Collections of the Epistles in Jerome's Vulgate is the Codex Reginensis, Reg. Lat. 9, which arrived online November 7 as part of the Vatican Library digitization program.

It has an unusual distinction: it contains attached at the front a list of liturgical readings for the mass composed not in the Vulgate, but in the Vetus Latina, the older Latin bible text previously used by western Christians. The Reginensis thus figures as a source of both bibles: as witness R to the Vulgate and as witness Beuron No. 84 to the Vetus Latina.

The codex (Lowe CLA 1 100, Trismegistos 66195) is also of course of major interest for its script, dated to the middle of the 8th century and attributed to a North Italian scriptorium, though there have, I believe, been arguments it comes from Tegernsee.

The Monday digitizations, which I can only report now after recovering from a heavy cold, took the posted total to 6,071. 

1. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.E.32,
2. Ott.gr.147
3. Pal.gr.44
4. Reg.lat.9, Epistulary (above)
5. Ross.1169.pt.A , old fragments recovered from bindings
6. Ross.1169.pt.B,, ditto
7. Ross.1217, bibliographic notes on the collection, handwritten in German on forms, presumably from the period when it was in Vienna
8. Urb.lat.278
9. Urb.lat.427
10. Urb.lat.600
11. Urb.lat.602
12. Urb.lat.663
13. Urb.lat.677
14. Urb.lat.715
15. Urb.lat.745
16. Urb.lat.758
17. Urb.lat.762
18. Urb.lat.781
19. Urb.lat.808
20. Urb.lat.810
21. Urb.lat.854.pt.1
22. Urb.lat.880
23. Urb.lat.885
24. Urb.lat.893
25. Urb.lat.900
26. Urb.lat.903
27. Urb.lat.915
28. Urb.lat.918
29. Urb.lat.921
30. Urb.lat.922
31. Urb.lat.930
32. Urb.lat.933
33. Urb.lat.934
34. Urb.lat.935
35. Urb.lat.936
36. Urb.lat.940
37. Urb.lat.941
38. Urb.lat.945
39. Urb.lat.946
40. Urb.lat.947
41. Urb.lat.951
42. Urb.lat.957
43. Urb.lat.963
44. Urb.lat.966
45. Urb.lat.972
46. Urb.lat.976
47. Urb.lat.980
48. Urb.lat.983
49. Urb.lat.984
50. Urb.lat.988
51. Urb.lat.992
52. Urb.lat.994
53. Urb.lat.999
54. Urb.lat.1000
55. Urb.lat.1009
56. Urb.lat.1010
57. Urb.lat.1011
58. Urb.lat.1014
59. Urb.lat.1015
60. Urb.lat.1020
61. Urb.lat.1021
62. Urb.lat.1041.pt.1
63. Urb.lat.1128
64. Urb.lat.1142
65. Urb.lat.1143
66. Urb.lat.1148
67. Urb.lat.1149
68. Urb.lat.1152
69. Urb.lat.1162
70. Urb.lat.1163
71. Urb.lat.1178
72. Urb.lat.1183
73. Urb.lat.1184
74. Urb.lat.1185
75. Urb.lat.1324 , a Latin translation of Aristotle's Ethics by John/Giovanni Argyropoulos (HT ot @LatinAristotle)
76. Urb.lat.1538
77. Vat.gr.1502.pt.1
78. Vat.gr.1502.pt.2
79. Vat.ebr.164
80. Vat.ebr.329.pt.1
81. Vat.ebr.329.pt.2
82. Vat.lat.194
83. Vat.lat.241
84. Vat.lat.870
85. Vat.lat.909
86. Vat.lat.931
87. Vat.lat.933
88. Vat.lat.949
89. Vat.lat.965
90. Vat.lat.971
91. Vat.lat.977
92. Vat.lat.972
93. Vat.lat.979
94. Vat.lat.981
95. Vat.lat.995
96. Vat.lat.1004
97. Vat.lat.1006
98. Vat.lat.1013
99. Vat.lat.1014
100. Vat.lat.1020
101. Vat.lat.1057
102. Vat.lat.1082
103. Vat.lat.1086
104. Vat.lat.1090
105. Vat.lat.1093
106. Vat.lat.1096
107. Vat.lat.1107
108. Vat.lat.1121
109. Vat.lat.1131
110. Vat.lat.1137
111. Vat.lat.1959
112. Vat.lat.3285
113. Vat.lat.3340, Paulus Orosius, Historiae adversum Paganos, 11th-century codex in Beneventan script, according to Lowe.

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 77. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Italian Letters

Here are the latest 71 items digitized at the Vatican Library, most with a bearing on early modern Italian literature and history.

1. Urb.lat.302, Orthographia of Giovanni Tortelli
2. Urb.lat.420
3. Urb.lat.425
4. Urb.lat.630
5. Urb.lat.656
6. Urb.lat.657
7. Urb.lat.669
8. Urb.lat.673
9. Urb.lat.689, Le Satire di Lodovico Ariosto
10. Urb.lat.695
11. Urb.lat.755
12. Urb.lat.800
13. Urb.lat.806
14. Urb.lat.807
15. Urb.lat.809
16. Urb.lat.833
17. Urb.lat.834
18. Urb.lat.841
19. Urb.lat.857
20. Urb.lat.860, political and other discourses
21. Urb.lat.861
22. Urb.lat.863
23. Urb.lat.866
24. Urb.lat.874
25. Urb.lat.878
26. Urb.lat.879.pt.1, Diverse Letters, compilation dated 1612
27. Urb.lat.879.pt.2
28. Urb.lat.882
29. Urb.lat.884
30. Urb.lat.886
31. Urb.lat.891
32. Urb.lat.894
33. Urb.lat.901
34. Urb.lat.904
35. Urb.lat.906
36. Urb.lat.907, Cristoforo Centella, etc.
37. Urb.lat.908
38. Urb.lat.911
39. Urb.lat.912
40. Urb.lat.914
41. Urb.lat.924
42. Urb.lat.925
43. Urb.lat.928
44. Urb.lat.938
45. Urb.lat.939
46. Urb.lat.942
47. Urb.lat.944, Guerriero, da Gubbio, m. 1481? Cronaca di ser Guerriero da Gubbio dall'anno MCCCL
48. Urb.lat.948
49. Urb.lat.949
50. Urb.lat.952
51. Urb.lat.955
52. Urb.lat.956
53. Urb.lat.961, the Ravenna Cosmography, a hugely important survey of late antique writing on geography which is preserved in three main manuscripts, all somewhat defective. Urb.lat.961 is a main source of the editions.
54. Urb.lat.971
55. Urb.lat.973
56. Urb.lat.979
57. Urb.lat.981, Cesare Nucci
58. Urb.lat.986
59. Urb.lat.987
60. Urb.lat.990
61. Urb.lat.995
62. Urb.lat.1005
63. Urb.lat.1022
64. Urb.lat.1024, letters of Cardinal Alessandro Sforza
65. Urb.lat.1031, in Spanish: 16th century, Enríquez del Castillo, Diego, 1433-1503 Cronica del rey Enrique IV
66. Urb.lat.1032, antiquities of Crete
67. Urb.lat.1179, Leonardo Arretino
68. Urb.lat.1186,
69. Urb.lat.1221, De re militari of Vegetius, 15th century, at fols 64-132v. Written (at Urbino?) by scribe Federigo Veterano.
70. Vat.ebr.251
71. Vat.ebr.479

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 76. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Nasty Medicine

The latest big batch of online manuscripts from the Vatican Library includes medical works that list some very nasty medicines. Leafing through Pal. lat. 1084, thought to date to the 13th or 14th century, my eye was caught by a table of electuaries. In early medicine, an electuary was a mixture of powdered herbs with honey to disguise the vile taste.

Here is a purgative with 11 ingredients including lapis lazuli:

(Choke.) It would have been healthier to refuse the medicine and send the doctor away.

For the book historian, the layout demonstrates that a type of scientific stemmatic table which is found in early printed books has deep roots in medieval manuscript practice:

Another of the manuscripts, Pal.lat.1078, a 16th-century Italian herbal, contains fine drawings of herbs, apparently used in medicine, but also in alchemy. Here at fol. 13r is Herba Triacho (which would appear to be Tussilago farfara, a plant with small white flowers and undulate leaf margins):

The main DigiVatLib site onlined three manuscripts on October 26:

1. Chig.G.VIII.226
2. Urb.lat.185, Dialogues of Plato, translated to Latin, by Marsilio Ficino of Florence (thanks @LatinAristotle for correcting this)
3. Vat.ebr.668

The Biblioteca Palatina, based in Germany, has gradually brought the 76 Vatican items below online over the past seven weeks, many medical including works by Galen. Here I summarize them from their RSS feed:

1. Pal. lat. 762 Codicis Iustiniani imp. libri IX (13. Jh.)
2. Pal. lat. 797 Nicolai de Messiato: Sammelhandschrift (15. Jh.)
3. Pal. lat. 811 Repertorium universale iuridicum, theologicum, morale [Pars IV] (15. Jh.)
4. Pal. lat. 813 Repertorium universale iuridicum, theologicum, morale [Pars VII] (15. Jh.)
5. Pal. lat. 836 Ludolphi carthusiani liber de vita Ihesu Xpisti in ewangelio (15. Jh.)
6. Pal. lat. 839 Ludolphi Carthusiani de vita Ihesu Xpi pars secunda a cap. I ad LVII (15. Jh.)
7. Pal. lat. 840 Petri Trecensis (Comestoris) historia scholastica sive commentaria in Biblia (12.-13. Jh.)
8. Pal. lat. 841 Petri Trecensis (Comestoris) historia scolastica theologice discipline (13. Jh.)
9. Pal. lat. 843 Petri Comestoris scolastica hystoria (13. Jh.)
10. Pal. lat. 847 Novum passionale editum a predicatore quodam, i. e. (Iacobi a Voeagine) legenda aurea sanctorum, in quatuor partes divisa (13.-14. Jh.)
11. Pal. lat. 848 Jacobus : Iacobi a Voragine Legenda sanctorum (14. Jh.)
12. Pal. lat. 853 Vitae patrum (14. Jh.)
13. Pal. lat. 854 Sammelhandschrift (14. Jh.)
14. Pal. lat. 855 Sammelhandschrift (15. Jh.)
15. Pal. lat. 856 Sammelhandschrift (10. Jh.)
16. Pal. lat. 857 Sammelhandschrift (1300)
17. Pal. lat. 859 De gestis et translationibus trium Regum (15. Jh.)
18. Pal. lat. 860 De gestis et translationibus trium Regum (15.-16. Jh.)
19. Pal. lat. 861 Retraet(ati)o breuis et succincta perfectissime uite sanctissimeque venerabilis ac devotissime religiose gloriose memorie nomine Colete ordinis (15. Jh.)
20. Pal. lat. 863 Sammelband (14.-15. Jh. ; 16. Jh.)
21. Pal. lat. 865 Florenti Gregorii Turonici: Liber vitae patrum opere ; Liber in gloria confessoruni (9.-10. Jh.)
22. Pal. lat. 866 Huberti de Romanis: Sammelhandschrift (13. Jh.)
23. Pal. lat. 872 Livius, Titus: Ab Urbe condita (Decas III) (Italien, 15. Jh.)
24. Pal. lat. 917 Plutarchus; Cruser, Hermann [Übers.]: Biographie des Pyrrhus und Marius, lat. (16. Jh.)
25. Pal. lat. 967 Historia monarchiarum ;Tractatus de geographia (Deutschland, 16. Jh. (nach 1558))
26. Pal. lat. 969 Burlaeus, Gualterus: De vita et moribus philosophorum et poetarum (Italien, 15. Jh.)
27. Pal. lat. 987 Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus; Aristoteles: Sammelhandschrift (Frankreich, Ende 13. Jh.)
28. Pal. lat. 999 Quaestiones et commentum in Logica (Deutschland, 14. Jh.)
29. Pal. lat. 1000 Quaestiones in Logica (Deutschland, 15. Jh.)
30. Pal. lat. 1001 Johannes (Petrus Hispanus): Summulae logicales ; Commentum in Summulas logicales Petri Hispani (Deutschland (Heidelberg?), 1491-1498)
31. Pal. lat. 1003 Melanchthon, Philipp (Theologe); Culmann, Leonhard: Reportationes dialecticorum (IV-V) ; Disputationes seu argumentationes theologicae (Deutschland (Heidelberg?) (I) , Nürnberg (II), 16. Jh./Mitte (I) ; ca. 1545 (II))
32. Pal. lat. 1010 Bruni, Leonardo; Aristoteles: Super Analytica posteriora Aristotelis (Deutschland, Mitte 15. Jh.)
33. Pal. lat. 1018 Thomas : Commentum in Ethica Nicomachea Aristotelis (Deutschland, Ende 14. Jh.)
34. Pal. lat. 1020 Aristoteles; Gerardus : Ethica Nicomachea ; Commentum in Ethica Nicomachea Aristotelis (Deutschland (Heidelberg?) (I) , Brixen (II), Mitte 15. Jh. (I) ; 1482 (II))
35. Pal. lat. 1023 Franciscus Mediolanensis ; Ambrosius Crassus ; Leodegarius Rotomagensis: Sammelhandschrift (Nordfrankreich, 1540-1542)
36. Pal. lat. 1028 Albertus : Commentum in Ethica Nicomachea Aristotelis (Deutschland, Ende 14. Jh.)
37. Pal. lat. 1030 Thomas ; Burlaeus, Gualterus; Albertus : Sammelhandschrift (Paris, 1367-1370)
38. Pal. lat. 1032 Petrus ; Aristoteles; Albertus ; Johannes : Sammelband (Deutschland, 15. Jh. (I) ; um 1387 (II))
39. Pal. lat. 1038 Melanchthon, Philipp (Theologe): Sammelband (Wittenberg (I) , Deutschland (II), 1543 (I) ; 16. Jh. (II))
40. Pal. lat. 1040 Johannes : Sammelhandschrift (Deutschland (Heidelberg?), 1479)
41. Pal. lat. 1041 Johannes Egen ; Nicolaus Francus Vimacuus : In libros naturales Aristotelis (Heidelberg, 1512-1537)
42. Pal. lat. 1043 Camerarius, Joachim (1534-1598) Centuriae viginti (Deutschland (Nürnberg?), um 1560-1584)
43. Pal. lat. 1045 Albertus ; Johannes : Sammelband (Prag (I) , Paris? (II), 1366 (I) ; 14. Jh.)
44. Pal. lat. 1049 Johannes ; Albertus : Sammelhandschrift (Lippspringe, 1376)
45. Pal. lat. 1050 Petrus Nickel ; Johannes Versor: Sammelhandschrift (Leipzig (I) , Heidelberger Region (II), um 1465 (I) ; um 1530 (II))
46. Pal. lat. 1051 Nicolaus : Compendium physicae sive de philosophia naturali (Deutschland, 15. Jh.)
47. Pal. lat. 1052 Nicolaus : Compendium Metaphysicae (Deutschland, 15. Jh.)
48. Pal. lat. 1053 Nicolaus ; Simon Dacus ; Johannes ; Martinus Rentz ; Johannes ; Hugo ; Luder, Petrus: Sammelband (Heidelberg, um 1469 (I) ; um 1456 (II))
49. Pal. lat. 1055 Ovidius Naso, Publius; Aristoteles; Valerius Flaccus Setinus Balbus, Gaius; Propertius, Sextus; Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Vergilius Maro, Publius: Sammelhandschrift (Deutschland , Leipzig, um 1488)
50. Pal. lat. 1057 Rocca, Angelo: Commentum in topica Aristotelis (Italien?, 14. Jh.)
51. Pal. lat. 1058 Knab, Erhardus; Aegidius ; Thomas ; Ps.-Augustinus: Sammelhandschrift (Frankreich und Deutschland, 15. Jh. (1400-1427))
52. Pal. lat. 1069 Crescentiis, Petrus /de: Ruralia commoda, Libri XII (Italien, 14. Jh.)
53. Pal. lat. 1072 Grynäus, Simon: De ignitorum meteororum natura commentarii duo ; De cometa anni 1577 ; De planeta Veneris conspecta anno 1578 (Heidelberg, 1579-1582)
54. Pal. lat. 1078 Herbarium (Italien, 16. Jh.)
55. Pal. lat. 1082 Galenus; Hippocrates; Ibn-Riḍwān, ʿAlī: Medizinische Sammelhandschrift: Articella (Italien, 13./14. Jh.)
56. Pal. lat. 1084 Galenus; Archimatthaeus; Baron, Roger; Johannes ; Trotula; Gilbertus : Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (13./14. Jh.)
57. Pal. lat. 1085 Baron, Roger; Aegidius ; Johannes (Petrus Hispanus): Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (13./14. Jh.)
58. Pal. lat. 1086 Johannes Calderia; Aegidius : Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (2. Hälfte 15. Jh.)
59. Pal. lat. 1087 Johannes ; Johannes : Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (13./14.. Jh.)
60. Pal. lat. 1089 Johanntitius; Hippocrates; Theophilus; Philaretus; Galenus: Medizinische Sammelhandschrift: Articella (1. Drittel 14. Jh.)
61. Pal. lat. 1091 Galenus: Liber collecorii (Heidelberg, letztes Viertel 15. Jh.)
62. Pal. lat. 1103 Galenus; Ibn-Riḍwān, ʿAlī: Medizinische Sammelhandschrift: Articella (1. Hälfte 14. Jh.)
63. Pal. lat. 1104 Galenus; Ibn-Māsawaih, Abū-Zakarīyā Yūḥannā; Guilelmus : Medizinische Sammelhandschrift: Articella (Italien, 1. Hälfte 14. Jh.)
64. Pal. lat. 1106 Serapio : Liber aggregationum in medicinis simplicibus (Deutschland, 15. Jh. (1439))
65. Pal. lat. 1107 Serapio ; Petrus : Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (Bologna, 15. Jh. (1426))
66. Pal. lat. 1132 Johannes Matthaeus de Gradibus; Bacon, Rogerus: Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (Heidelberg, 1473)
67. Pal. lat. 1140 Isrāʾīlī, Isḥāq Ibn-Sulaimān /al-; Knab, Erhardus; Johannes Matthaeus Ferrarius de Gradi: Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (Heidelberg, 1472)
68. Pal. lat. 1349 Euclides; Johannes Andreae; Petrus Bertrandus; Bartholomaeus ; Galenus; Rāzī, Muḥammad Ibn-Zakarīyā /ar-; Albertus ; Bonaventura: Miscellanea (Paris, Speyer, 1360-1370)
69. Pal. lat. 1485 Cicero, Marcus Tullius: Orationes (Italien, 15. Jh.)
70. Pal. lat. 1509 Cicero, Marcus Tullius: Epistulae (Italien (Venedig), 15. Jh.)
71. Pal. lat. 1516 Cicero, Marcus Tullius: Opera (Italien (Toskana), 15. Jh.)
72. Pal. lat. 1517 Cicero, Marcus Tullius: Sammelhandschrift (Frankreich , Italien, 15. Jh.)
73. Pal. lat. 1541 Seneca, Lucius Annaeus : Sammelhandschrift (Deutschland, 15. Jh.)
74. Pal. lat. 1583 Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus; Pius / Enea Silvio Piccolomini; Plutarchus; Bruni, Leonardo; Bonjohannes : Sammelhandschrift (Heidelberg, 15. Jh.)
75. Pal. lat. 1585 Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus; Pius / Enea Silvio Piccolomini; Petrarca, Francesco; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus : Sammelhandschrift (Deutschland, 15. Jh.)
76. Pal. lat. 1824 Luther, Martin: Auslegung der ersten 25 Psalmen (Weimar, 1556)
77. Pal. lat. 1957 Französische Bibel (Nordostfrankreich, Anfang 14. Jh.)

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 75. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

First Handbook

If you are keen on historic warfare or the fantastical war machines created for battles in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, you'll be hooked by a 1455 book by Roberto Valturio on the military arts which is full of wonderfully creative images of military machines, real and imagined.

The Vatican Library's manuscript of De re militari (On matters military) arrived online October 24 and Urb.lat.281 is a real page-turner. Leonardo da Vinci is reputed to have read this and to have been inspired by it to some of his own inventions. On folio 147v we find an astonishing dragon machine with a cannon in its snout, capable of firing incendiary missiles:

That is just part of the image.This particular dragon just happens to have a basket on its head with nine commandos wearing blue helmets, ready to jump down and hack you to bits.

Who doesn't remember the James Bond Aston-Martin with knives that emerge from the hubcaps? In this book, it's a heavy battle-wagon drawn by oxen that does the same.

On  fol. 168v there's a tortoise, a machine for getting up close to walls and battering them down, and of course it even looks like a tortoise:

Ponder the weird raking fire weapon on fol. 166r:

Or how about some 15th-century Meccano on fol. 144r:

Valturio (1405–1475) (see French Wikipedia) was a man of letters rather than a proper engineer and this handbook is derivative rather than original. It even starts off with a copious list of sources:

De re militari is also remarkable in book history. A couple of dozen manuscripts were made at great cost to be presents to princes (this is Federico da Montefeltro's copy), but 17 years later a print version appeared in 1472 for the new mass market. It is regarded as the first modern handbook on any subject, dealing with the entirety of its topic in a systematic way, and integrating images and text.

A total of 72 manuscripts came online in this batch. Here is the full list:

1. Pal.gr.14
2. Pal.gr.265
3. Urb.lat.81
4. Urb.lat.96
5. Urb.lat.248 , ‏@LatinAristotle on Twitter (Pieter Beullens) points out this is Galen, De simplicium medicamentorum facultatibus in the Latin of Niccolò da Reggio
6. Urb.lat.281, De re militari (above). Anthony Grafton's Rome Reborn catalog calls the book the most important Renaissance forbear of Machiavelli's Art of War. The St. Louis catalog notes that this copy is dated May 11, 1462 and signed by the scribe Sigismondi Nicolai Alamani.
7. Urb.lat.410
8. Urb.lat.423
9. Urb.lat.674
10. Urb.lat.732
11. Urb.lat.740
12. Urb.lat.763
13. Urb.lat.772
14. Urb.lat.774
15. Urb.lat.789
16. Urb.lat.793
17. Urb.lat.797
18. Urb.lat.812
19. Urb.lat.814.pt.
20. Urb.lat.820.pt.1
21. Urb.lat.823.pt.3
22. Urb.lat.825.pt.2
23. Urb.lat.827.pt.1
24. Urb.lat.827.pt.2
25. Urb.lat.828.pt.3
26. Urb.lat.829.pt.1
27. Urb.lat.829.pt.2
28. Urb.lat.829.pt.3
29. Urb.lat.832.pt.2
30. Urb.lat.836
31. Urb.lat.837
32. Urb.lat.847
33. Urb.lat.848
34. Urb.lat.850
35. Urb.lat.854.pt.2
36. Urb.lat.855
37. Urb.lat.868
38. Urb.lat.870
39. Urb.lat.873
40. Urb.lat.881
41. Urb.lat.883
42. Urb.lat.887
43. Urb.lat.889
44. Urb.lat.890
45. Urb.lat.892
46. Urb.lat.897
47. Urb.lat.910
48. Urb.lat.916
49. Urb.lat.923
50. Urb.lat.926
51. Urb.lat.927
52. Urb.lat.931
53. Urb.lat.960
54. Vat.gr.303.pt.1
55. Vat.gr.303.pt.2
56. Vat.lat.855
57. Vat.lat.897
58. Vat.lat.920
59. Vat.lat.922
60. Vat.lat.923
61. Vat.lat.947
62. Vat.lat.951
63. Vat.lat.960
64. Vat.lat.963
65. Vat.lat.996
66. Vat.lat.1002
67. Vat.lat.1028
68. Vat.lat.1031
69. Vat.lat.1032
70. Vat.lat.1043.pt.2
71. Vat.lat.1089
72. Vat.lat.3281, a magnificent old palimpsest containing fragments from a 5th- or 6th-century Vulgate Bible, scribed in southern Italy perhaps as soon as 50 years after the death of Jerome. It was torn apart and re-used in the 12th century for the Achilleid of Statius in Beneventan script (Lowe 1 14, Trismegistos 66110).

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 74. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Chart Before Jerome

Before Jerome of Stridon produced his revised Latin version of the Christian Bible in about 400 CE, the version that remains in use today, a Latin edition by translators unknown had existed and had been in wide use. The Great Stemma, the world's oldest network diagram, is product of that culture.

My new reconstruction of the Great Stemma appeared several weeks ago, initially in an English translation. Hot off the press today is an update containing the Vetus Latina or Old Biblical Latin text.

Seeing the chart reconstructed to the original shape is amazing enough. Seeing it in its original language from the time before Jerome adds to the verisimilitude. We don't know exactly when the Great Stemma was made. It was certainly before 427 CE. If it was not made before 400, its ignorance of Jerome's work is in no way surprising. It took centuries for the Jerome Bible to establish itself.

Flipping text upside-down and making it land dead centre in every circle or roundel were among the challenges in the initial reconstruction. One of my difficulties this time round was squeezing these Vetus Latina labels, which mostly take the stereotypical form of "Salomon filius David" (Solomon son of David), into the roundels.

It helped to adopt a condensed/narrow font (CSS: font-family: "Arial Narrow", "Helvetica Condensed", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;), but many of the labels still burst the confines of the circles. In a handwritten chart, you used to be able to vary the text size or squeeze it close together, or split words in unconventional ways. With modern, regularized, typographical text, that is hardly possible, and I did not want to make the text any smaller or it would not have given the impression the chart used to make, so I have allowed labels to spill when they are too long. Tell me what you think.