A "Tree" of Genealogy

The quest for the first "family tree" has been one of my scholarly interests for years. Readers of this blog will know by now that stemmata, ramifying diagrams with ancestors at the top, were invented in antiquity (provedly before 427 CE). The inversion of those diagrams into family trees with ancestors as the roots and their descendants as boughs and leaves was a slow transformation that took well over a thousand years.

One of the most interesting way-stations in that process is the invention of the term "family tree," where "tree" in its medieval sense simply meant a diagram that could be scaled up at will (just as a tree or a crystal grows) without specifically denoting that the diagram must visually resemble a natural tree.

Christine Klapisch-Zuber in her major work, L'Ombre des Ancêtres, fixes the first fusion of "genealogical" and "tree" in Latin in 1312 by Bernard Gui, a Dominican inquisitor and bishop in the south of France, who wrote a history of the French kings.That means that in the latest wave of Vatican digitizations, special interest attaches to a 1369 translation of this work into French by Jean Golein.

This forms the second part of the codex Reg.lat.697, which can now be consulted online. La Généalogie des Roys de France commences at folio CXIIr. Note the flowers and tendrils which indicate that the idea of arbre is already playing on the minds of the artists. As one sees in the example below, the main line of kings is at centre-page, descending page by page through the book, and little roundel-link stemmata of each king's non-monarchical relatives are set off to one side.

This is not Golein's autograph of course. That, according to Delisle, is in the parliamentary library in Paris. The first part of the Vatican codex contains Golein's French rendering of the Flores chronicorum, also by Bernard Gui, which is a history since the time of Jesus of the popes and Roman emperors. Reg.lat.697 is wonderfully illuminated and offers us this notable conclave of cardinals:

The full list of digitizations this week (lacking 25 extra items that slipped online on Friday morning as I was finishing) follows:

1. Borg.copt.67,
2. Borg.sir.16,
3. Chig.C.VIII.230, with fine initials and miniatures including this Annunciation (though I could have sworn this angel has a horn!)
   
4. Ott.lat.1302,
5. Reg.lat.652,
6. Reg.lat.653,
7. Reg.lat.654,
8. Reg.lat.659,
9. Reg.lat.660,
10. Reg.lat.664,
11. Reg.lat.676,
12. Reg.lat.678,
13. Reg.lat.691,
14. Reg.lat.697, translation into French by Jean Golein of the Flores chronicorum of Bernard Gui (above)
15. Reg.lat.707,
16. Reg.lat.709,
17. Reg.lat.725,
18. Reg.lat.731,
19. Reg.lat.735,
20. Reg.lat.737,
21. Reg.lat.740,
22. Reg.lat.746,
23. Reg.lat.759,
24. Reg.lat.761,
25. Reg.lat.766,
26. Reg.lat.770,
27. Reg.lat.803,
28. Reg.lat.864,
29. Reg.lat.880,
30. Reg.lat.882,
31. Reg.lat.888,
32. Reg.lat.891,
33. Reg.lat.913,
34. Reg.lat.935, Reuilion
35. Sbath.251,
36. Urb.lat.843.pt.1,
37. Urb.lat.843.pt.2,
38. Vat.gr.1312.pt.1,
39. Vat.gr.1312.pt.2,
40. Vat.lat.1299, Expositio in Iohannem, anon.
41. Vat.lat.1302,
42. Vat.lat.1310,
43. Vat.lat.1317,
44. Vat.lat.1325,
45. Vat.lat.1382, Bottoni, Glossa Ordinaria, with some fine arbor juris diagrams, one of which has this interesting detail in the bottom panel:  
    
46. Vat.lat.1384,
47. Vat.lat.1389,
48. Vat.lat.1430,
49. Vat.lat.1436,
50. Vat.lat.1445,
51. Vat.lat.1451,
52. Vat.lat.1453,
53. Vat.lat.1455,
54. Vat.lat.1481, Priscian
55. Vat.lat.1483, Priscian
56. Vat.lat.1543, Macrobius
57. Vat.lat.1547, Macrobius, commentary on Dream of Scipio
58. Vat.lat.1567, Homer, Iliad, in Lorenzo Valla translation to Latin
59. Vat.lat.1587, Horace, works, 12th century
60. Vat.lat.1591, Horace, poetry
61. Vat.lat.1599, Ovid
62. Vat.lat.1604, Ovid, Fasti, 12th century
63. Vat.lat.1605, Ovid, 15C
64. Vat.lat.1618, Statius, Achilleidis
65. Vat.lat.1623, Lucan, Civil Wars
66. Vat.lat.1642, Seneca, tragedies
67. Vat.lat.1643, Seneca, tragedies
68. Vat.lat.1654,
69. Vat.lat.1681, Boninius Mombrizio
70. Vat.lat.1687, Cicero, letters
71. Vat.lat.1690, Cicero, letters, dated 1462
72. Vat.lat.1692, Cicero, letters, 15C
73. Vat.lat.1693, Cicero, rhetorical works
74. Vat.lat.1702, Cicero, rhetorical works
75. Vat.lat.1712, Cicero, rhetorical works
76. Vat.lat.1714, Ad Herennium
77. Vat.lat.1718, Ad Herennium
78. Vat.lat.1724, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
79. Vat.lat.1726, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
80. Vat.lat.1727, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
81. Vat.lat.1728, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations
82. Vat.lat.1733, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations
83. Vat.lat.1734, Cicero, De Officiis
84. Vat.lat.1739, Cicero, philosophy
85. Vat.lat.1740, Cicero, philosophy
86. Vat.lat.1741, Cicero, Scipio's Dream, plus anonymous works bound in back
87. Vat.lat.1744, Cicero, speeches
88. Vat.lat.1745, Cicero, speeches
89. Vat.lat.1748, Cicero, speeches
90. Vat.lat.1751, Cicero, speeches, dated 1452
91. Vat.lat.1753, Cicero, speeches
92. Vat.lat.1755, Cicero, speeches
93. Vat.lat.1756, Cicero, speeches
94. Vat.lat.1758, Cicero, philosophical works, 15C
95. Vat.lat.1759, Cicero, philosophical works, 15C
96. Vat.lat.1760, Cicero On Laws, Plutarch Lives in Brutus translation
97. Vat.lat.1761, Quintilian
98. Vat.lat.1763, Quintilian
99. Vat.lat.1764, Quintilian
100. Vat.lat.1765, Quintilian
101. Vat.lat.1768, Quintilian
102. Vat.lat.1771, Quintilian speeches, dated 1459
103. Vat.lat.1774, Quintilian speeches, dated 1455
104. Vat.lat.1776, Latin panegyrics
105. Vat.lat.1777, Pliny the Younger, Letters, 15C
106. Vat.lat.1779, Josephus in Rufinus Latin translation
107. Vat.lat.1782, Phalaridis et Bruti epistulae
108. Vat.lat.1784, Poggio Braccolini: De varietate fortunae (On the Vicissitudes of Fortune, 1447)
109. Vat.lat.1786, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II), many key writings
110. Vat.lat.1789, Epistulae 1-119 of Marsilio Ficino, as later published - Rome Reborn
111. Vat.lat.1799, Thucydides, Peloponnesian Wars, Lorenz Valla's Latin translation; dated 1452
112. Vat.lat.1800, ditto
113. Vat.lat.1810, Polybius, 15C
114. Vat.lat.1826,
115. Vat.lat.1829, Aulus Hirtius, Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, 15C
116. Vat.lat.6719,
117. Vat.lat.13619,
118. Vat.lat.14749,

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 119. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Delisle, L. "Notice sur les manuscrits de Bernard Gui," in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale et autres bibliothèques, XXVII, 2 (1879), 169-455. https://archive.org/

Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. L’ombre des ancêtres. Paris: Fayard, 2000.

Library Crime

Among the codices lately digitized and issued online by the Vatican Library is a volume, Reg.lat.716, that has been defaced. The rascal ought to be identifiable, since he seems to have left his thumbprints in the damaged opening initial:

This codex contains two works by the Late Antique theologian Lactantius, the Divine Institutions, incipit "Suscepto igitur illustrande veritatis officio...", and De Opificio Dei, inscribed to Demetrianus.

It is hardly likely the scribe, Nicolò de’ Ricci, is the fat-thumbed culprit, since he would not have been paid if he delivered work like this. (We know Nicoló was the copyist because he entered "Riccius scripsit" on the final page.) So could the culprit have been an uncouth owner? Or an unruly child? Investigators, to work!

Here is my latest list, with more additions in the pipeline this week.

1. Borg.arm.18
2. Reg.lat.44
3. Reg.lat.456, on Saint Benedict, an 11th-century manuscript
4. Reg.lat.461
5. Reg.lat.465, lives of half a dozen French saints, 11th century
6. Reg.lat.468
7. Reg.lat.474
8. Reg.lat.475
9. Reg.lat.483, Life of St Dunstan, etc, 12th century
10. Reg.lat.485, compendium (for the writing of sermons?), fully illuminated
    
11. Reg.lat.491
12. Reg.lat.492
13. Reg.lat.573, Life of Saint Wandregisel (French: Wandrille) (c. 605–668), Frankish courtier, mon, abbot
14. Reg.lat.574
15. Reg.lat.609, annals
16. Reg.lat.617, the remaining 68 folios of a 9th-century set of Frankish annals
17. Reg.lat.618, Rudolf Glaber and Adoman
18. Reg.lat.627, Johannes Rufus, History
19. Reg.lat.629
20. Reg.lat.632
21. Reg.lat.634, church history compilation
22. Reg.lat.643
23. Reg.lat.645, lives of bishops Honorat and Hilarius
24. Reg.lat.646, life of St Dunstan
25. Reg.lat.650
26. Reg.lat.655
27. Reg.lat.682
28. Reg.lat.684, Placido Raggazoni, 1574
29. Reg.lat.716, Lactantius (above) with thumbprints.
30. Reg.lat.718
31. Reg.lat.723
32. Reg.lat.732
33. Reg.lat.747, eTK: Propter quid homines Homerus temporicanos vocavit (15c); .Alexander of Aphrodisias
34. Reg.lat.748
35. Reg.lat.786, eTK: Fabrica est continuata rerum trita (15c); Vitruvius
36. Reg.lat.800
37. Reg.lat.848
38. Reg.lat.883
39. Ross.847
40. Sbath.144
41. Urb.lat.1420
42. Urb.lat.1427
43. Urb.lat.1428; eTK. Cum inter seculi sapientes antiquitus (14c); also: Cum inter seculi sapientes antiquitates
44. Urb.lat.1442
45. Urb.lat.1455
46. Urb.lat.1457
47. Urb.lat.1458
48. Urb.lat.1459
49. Urb.lat.1462
50. Urb.lat.1465
51. Urb.lat.1470
52. Urb.lat.1472
53. Urb.lat.1473
54. Urb.lat.1475
55. Urb.lat.1477
56. Urb.lat.1479
57. Urb.lat.1483
58. Urb.lat.1497
59. Vat.ebr.612
60. Vat.lat.1410; Justinian, Digest
61. Vat.lat.1448
62. Vat.lat.1632; Plautus compendium
63. Vat.lat.1651; Pliny, Letters, a 15th-century manuscript
64. Vat.lat.1689
65. Vat.lat.1695, Cicero, De inventione
66. Vat.lat.1698
67. Vat.lat.1705
68. Vat.lat.1709
69. Vat.lat.1716
70. Vat.lat.1717
71. Vat.lat.1725
72. Vat.lat.1732
73. Vat.lat.1749
74. Vat.lat.1770, eTK: Cum natura sublimis qui omnibus tribuit esse (15c); De mirabilibus mundi
75. Vat.lat.1803, Poggio's Latin translation of Xenophon
76. Vat.lat.1804
77. Vat.lat.1841, Livy, Ab Urbe Condita
78. Vat.lat.4651

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 118. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Comix

A kind of 11th-century comic book, with cartoon-style drawings showing successive scenes in the history of the church, such as the Ascension and the first six Councils, is a highlight of the newest batch of digitizations by the Vatican Library. 

Page through these outline drawings, which are economically colored by simple ink washes. The depictions of the councils place the Roman emperor and his retinue at the top, groups of clerics at center, and images of fallen heretics below, like this:

This codex contains the canon-law Collection in Five Books and other materials. At fol 303r is a remarkable arbor juris in the form of a rota:

The latest round of digitizations brings the online total to 14,128 items. Here are some of the novelties.

1. Barb.lat.2182
2. Ott.lat.2531 , HT to ParvaVox who notices this is another #Carolingian codex: the Annales Necrologici of Fulda kept and updated from 779 to 1065.
3. Reg.lat.28
4. Reg.lat.39
5. Reg.lat.40
6. Reg.lat.57
7. Reg.lat.58
8. Reg.lat.60
9. Reg.lat.62
10. Reg.lat.65
11. Reg.lat.97
12. Reg.lat.115
13. Reg.lat.119
14. Reg.lat.121
15. Reg.lat.208, an 11th-century book for school use, with the Fabulae of Avian, popular for elementary Latin lessons and for classes in grammar as part of liberal arts courses. eTK lists the section beginning: "Electuarium ad omnia vitia stomachi quo utebatur Karolus rex."
16. Reg.lat.228
17. Reg.lat.231
18. Reg.lat.240 , HT to @ParvaVox who notes the content of this #Carolingian treasure: the treatise by Florus of Lyons in which he attacked vs John Scotus Eriugena. @chaprot (Pierre Chambert-Protat, the expert on Florus) notes: Reg.lat.240 is a special one though because although we don't know where it comes from, it contains a letter of transmittal: 240 is the one and only witness of this letter, but it has lost the rubrica. We don't know to whom Florus wrote it! Thanks to @DigitaVaticana, every relevant witness of this work is now digitized and fully accessible on the internet.
19. Reg.lat.242
20. Reg.lat.249
21. Reg.lat.259
22. Reg.lat.262
23. Reg.lat.264, 14th century. eTK lists section beginning, "A febribus Beneventanis que aut citissime." Fols 169r-186r contain Augustine, De opere monachorum
24. Reg.lat.265
25. Reg.lat.270
26. Reg.lat.275
27. Reg.lat.298
28. Reg.lat.305
29. Reg.lat.313
30. Reg.lat.322
31. Reg.lat.340
32. Reg.lat.345
33. Reg.lat.347
34. Reg.lat.350
35. Reg.lat.351
36. Reg.lat.355
37. Reg.lat.356 . HT to @ParvaVox on Twitter who recognized this is as beautiful 9th-10th-century glossed copy of Walahfrid Strabo's Visio Wettini from St Gall. HT @JBPiggin pic.twitter.com/1h2yNP0fkj
38. Reg.lat.361
39. Reg.lat.365
40. Reg.lat.367
41. Reg.lat.370
42. Reg.lat.383
43. Reg.lat.389
44. Reg.lat.391
45. Reg.lat.392, binding of several 15th century copies of philosophical works, the main one of which is Duns Scotus writing on John Sharpe, Quaestiones quodlibetales, probably in Advent 1306 or Lent 1307. eTK lists a section beginning, "Aliqui dicunt quod natura materialis se ipsa individuatur."
46. Reg.lat.397, eTK lists a section beginning, "Cum animadverterem quamplurimos medicorum non solum iuniores."
47. Reg.lat.401
48. Reg.lat.403
49. Reg.lat.409
50. Reg.lat.414.pt.1
51. Reg.lat.414.pt.2
52. Reg.lat.415
53. Reg.lat.420
54. Reg.lat.428
55. Reg.lat.429
56. Reg.lat.437
57. Reg.lat.431, 15th century, a mixed codex with penitentials, an order of the mass, some Augustine and other materials. eTK lists a section beginning, "Post naturam corpoream et incorpoream." Also: De animali
58. Reg.lat.440
59. Reg.lat.441
60. Reg.lat.444
61. Reg.lat.447
62. Reg.lat.449
63. Reg.lat.450
64. Reg.lat.451
65. Reg.lat.452
66. Reg.lat.459
67. Reg.lat.487
68. Reg.lat.575
69. Reg.lat.583
70. Reg.lat.584
71. Reg.lat.591
72. Reg.lat.602
73. Reg.lat.623
74. Reg.lat.651
75. Reg.lat.677
76. Reg.lat.683
77. Reg.lat.690
78. Reg.lat.710
79. Reg.lat.728
80. Reg.lat.733
81. Reg.lat.793
82. Urb.lat.1007
83. Urb.lat.1296
84. Urb.lat.1302
85. Urb.lat.1482
86. Urb.lat.1679
87. Urb.lat.1738
88. Urb.lat.1752
89. Urb.lat.1756
90. Vat.lat.1301
91. Vat.lat.1312
92. Vat.lat.1319
93. Vat.lat.1339, a rich 11th-century collectio canonum (see above)
94. Vat.lat.1434
95. Vat.lat.1441
96. Vat.lat.1450
97. Vat.lat.1555
98. Vat.lat.1582
99. Vat.lat.1584
100. Vat.lat.1585
101. Vat.lat.1601
102. Vat.lat.1602
103. Vat.lat.1603
104. Vat.lat.1606
105. Vat.lat.1607
106. Vat.lat.1614
107. Vat.lat.1616
108. Vat.lat.1620
109. Vat.lat.1624
110. Vat.lat.1625
111. Vat.lat.1629
112. Vat.lat.1630
113. Vat.lat.1633
114. Vat.lat.1634
115. Vat.lat.1635
116. Vat.lat.1636
117. Vat.lat.1638
118. Vat.lat.1646
119. Vat.lat.1648
120. Vat.lat.1649
121. Vat.lat.1652
122. Vat.lat.1655
123. Vat.lat.1656
124. Vat.lat.1657
125. Vat.lat.1684
126. Vat.lat.1699
127. Vat.lat.1700: HT to @gundormr who notes: 1700 is a nice 12th century copy (of Cicero) with some glosses. It looks as if the 1700 series below is mostly Cicero.
128. Vat.lat.1708
129. Vat.lat.1710
130. Vat.lat.1711
131. Vat.lat.1713
132. Vat.lat.1719
133. Vat.lat.1731
134. Vat.lat.1736
135. Vat.lat.1752
136. Vat.lat.1754
137. Vat.lat.13102

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 117. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Matteo's Grotesques

Matteo da Milano was a talented Italian illuminator working in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Originally from Milan, he did most of his work in Rome and Ferrara for the Estes, the Medicis, the Orsini and the della Rovere families. His specialty was illustrating for the wealthy clerics from these ranking families and was noted for the borders which he decorated with grotesques, jewels, cameos and other all'antica features, carefully drawn flora and fauna (see article by Andreina Contessa).

You can see the style in S.Maria.Magg.12, a lovely music manuscript for use by the choir from Advent to Lent, made for Santa Maria Maggiore of Rome and now in the Vatican Library.

It is one of the latest codices digitized in color by the Vatican Library. My full list:

1. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.H.3.pt.bis, collection of materials on Shroud of Veronica. Curious because title page is got up like that of a printed book, indicating how dominant print style had become by 1616.
   
2. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.H.62, biographies. Paolo Vian has added a 2014 note at the front saying the catalog item dealing with this codex seems to be partly duff.
3. Borg.ar.265
4. Borgh.216
5. Ott.lat.2862
6. Reg.lat.243, miscellany with Augustine at ff. 1-53 (11th century)
7. Reg.lat.261, 15th-century miscellany of Alcuin, Chrysostom and others
8. Reg.lat.279
9. Reg.lat.281, HT to @ParvaVox who recognizes this as a beautiful 9th-century manuscript of De vita contemplativa by Julianus Pomerius, copied by Agambaldus, monk and scribe.
10. Reg.lat.299
11. Reg.lat.328
12. Reg.lat.339 : another HT to @ParvaVox who noticed a remarkable Carolingian stemma at fol. 7r in this 9th-century codex showing a funny-looking, cartoon-style Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. I will have to do some more digging to figure out where this belongs in stemma history: it's not a history book as such, but mainly a theology compilation.
13. Reg.lat.346
14. Reg.lat.372
15. Reg.lat.435, Martyrologium, plus an interesting legal glossary at ff 41r-44v: Summula seu definitiones de legalibus verbis; 12th or 13th century French.
16. S.Maria.Magg.12, magnificent 15th-century music codex (above)
17. Urb.gr.120
18. Urb.lat.320
19. Urb.lat.859
20. Urb.lat.1065.pt.1
21. Urb.lat.1072.pt.2
22. Urb.lat.1123
23. Urb.lat.1225
24. Urb.lat.1229
25. Urb.lat.1230
26. Urb.lat.1238
27. Urb.lat.1222
28. Urb.lat.1234
29. Urb.lat.1239
30. Urb.lat.1240
31. Urb.lat.1246
32. Urb.lat.1248
33. Urb.lat.1256
34. Urb.lat.1262
35. Urb.lat.1772
36. Vat.gr.86, black and white microfilm only
37. Vat.gr.1702,
38. Vat.lat.1040, eTK index of science manuscripts lists incipits Utrum de corpore mobili ad formam and Circa initium primi libri de generatione
39. Vat.lat.1438, legal Bartholomew of Brixen and Bernardo Bottoni
40. Vat.lat.2151, eTK index of science manuscripts lists incipit Prohemium huius libri continet duas of late medieval logician and metaphysician Walter Burley
41. Vat.lat.6767
42. Vat.sir.343

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 116. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Moovel Mash-up

A little over a year ago, the remarkable Roads to Rome map of Europe was published by researchers at Germany-based Moovel Labs. It's an algorithm-generated grey-and-white diagram which assembles the shortest land routes from every point in Europe (including Turkey and European Russia) to Rome.

The map (which you can zoom into and explore on an interactive viewer) won global interest because of its dendritic simplicity. It has a soothing balance about it, calling to mind blood vessels in a living organism or the veins in an outlandishly shaped leaf. And yet it is quite packed with data. You can see at a glance where any two Europeans' paths will meet up if they both set out for Rome.

Somewhere, either on your local roads, or speeding long-distance towards Italy by motorway, your two ways will merge, and the fat trunk lines mark the routes where the great throng will pour towards Rome's Seven Hills.

It turned out I was not alone in wondering if this was somehow long ago foreshadowed by the Tabula Peutingeriana, a 12th-century parchment copy of a late-antique visualization of travel itineraries of the Roman and Persian worlds where Rome is depicted as the very middle of a spider-like web.

Moovel Labs' spokesman told me others had mused about this too. It seems however I was the only person who took that question so seriously as to eventually overlay Moovel's Roads-to-Rome data on the Peutinger with a view to publishing the outcome.

The principal obstacle, it turned out, was a practical one: no compact, high-resolution digital surrogate of the Peutinger Diagram yet existed. The current standard mapping, Richard Talbert's Peutinger Map A, was only available in a server-side viewer.

The work to create a better surrogate was detailed in an earlier blog post. I have now marked by hand on this surrogate the roads picked out by the Moovel algorithm. This overlay is a 370-KB SVG file that should open in most browsers. The trunk route northwards out of Rome to Florence has been widened to 28 pixels and there is a descending hierarchy of ramifying routes down to the smallest breadth, 2 pixels, where you can clearly see each Peutinger chicane, or zigzag marking a rest stop.

None of the beauty of the Moovel diagram carries over to the elongated Peutinger layout, which looks like nothing so much as a tangle of utility cables in a muddy trench. The adaptation is in no way limpid, which underlines how the design of any diagram is not a neutral thing, but closely bound to its purpose. The Peutinger designer had very different intentions from the Moovel team's purpose.

Despite this, three informative conclusions can be drawn from the exercise.

First of all, the Peutinger Diagram ostentatiously shows 12 roads that terminate at Rome, but this spider's-web presentation is a conceit. Most of these roads peter out in central Italy. The Moovel map emphasizes just one northbound (leftwards) and one southbound (rightwards) route, and a moment of reflection recalls to us that even mighty Rome itself is really no more than a stop along a peninsular trunk road.

Secondly, there may be no motorways on the Peutinger Diagram, but roads then and now follow the same lie of the land and connect the same main population centres, so many of the ancient routes live on as multi-lane highways and can be easily found among the Moovel trunk and branches. However many lesser shortcuts and even some main ancient roads were evidently unknown to the Peutinger designer.

A road north from Florence over the Apennines to Bologna seems from Pelagios to have existed then, and is followed today by Italy's trunk autostrada, yet the Peutinger designer simply ignores its existence as an irrelevance. Throughout the pre-medieval era, northbound travellers from Rome mostly preferred another, longer route, the Via Flaminia, then the Via Aemilia, as Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen very accessibly explained some years ago.

All these missing routes are denoted in my mash-up by dotted lines. Also missing is the route from Bologna to the Venice shore (Altino) and on to Aquileia.

The Moovel map guides traffic through the claustrophobic Fréjus, Mont Blanc and St Gotthard road tunnels under the Alps, ignoring old busy routes like the Via Francigena. Back in the day, the traveller had to huff and puff through the thin air of the Montgenèvre, Little St Bernard, Great St Bernard and Spluegen Passes over the Alps (named in the Peutinger "In Alpe Cottia," "In Alpe Graia," "In Summo Pennino" and "Cunuaureu": see René Voorburg's magnificent Omnes Viae to find these). Only the Brenner Pass crossing shown on the Peutinger Diagram remains a main road today.

Thirdly, the Peutinger Diagram is entirely unknowing about northern Europe. Three of the Moovel's fat trunk routes to the far north thus fall off the top edge of the Peutinger Diagram, which finishes at the Netherlands and southern Germany and has no cognizance of the Baltic countries or Russia. However latitudinally, the scope of these two diagrams is very similar, stretching from Britain to eastern Turkey.

Overlaying the Moovel data on the Peutinger emphasizes how cramped (and unmaplike) the late antique project is. Where the roads fan out on the Moovel chart, the Peutinger Diagram crams them together like stiff fingers on an arthritic hand, in effect classifying the routes into regional blocks as sets of local itineraries.

My experiments with the Peutinger Diagram will continue. Don't forget to check my project page on ResearchGate to monitor progress. Collaborators and followers are very welcome to announce themselves.

Bekker-Nielsen, Tønnes. ‘Terra Incognita: The Subjective Geography of the Roman Empire’. In Studies in Ancient History and Numismatics: Eds Aksel Amsgaard-Madsen, Erik Christiansen and Erik Hallager, 148–61. Aarhus: Aarhus UP, 1988. Online.

Talbert, Richard J. A. Rome’s World: The Peutinger Map Reconsidered. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.

Bell Towers

St Peter's Basilica in Rome was not built in a day. Its bell towers are additions. Pope Urban VIII decided in 1636 to adopt the architect Bernini's scheme. This can now be examined online in a book of planning drawings, Vat.lat.13442.pt.1, including a curious little lift-the-flap page with design alternatives:

Many of the drawings are overlays on an engraving by Matthias Greuter. This was printed as a kind of master drawing for the project, which lasted many years. A start was made on the south tower, but due to technical problems the work was suspended. The completed parts of Bernini's structure were dismantled in 1646.

The portfolio is one of the manuscripts placed online in the last few days by the Vatican Apostolic Library. My list:

1. Carte.dAbbadie.18 (black and white, low-res)
2. Carte.dAbbadie.19 (black and white, low-res), translation from Arabic by Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, the 19th-century Franco-Irish explorer
3. Pages.1, Codex Leidradi (HT to @ParvaVox and @LatinAristotle who point out Bishop Leidrad of Lyons' autograph ex-libris in this very early (8th century) copy of Aristotle's Organon.)  Here is the inscription as transcribed by @LatinAristotle:
   
   The codex begins with Porphyry's Isagoge in the Latin translation (early 6th century CE) of Boethius. Check it out on ELMSS. @ParvaVox adds the reference CLA IV 417. Note the diagrams including this one:
   
4. Reg.lat.458, a Lives of the Saints compilation (from cathedral priory of St Andrew, Rochester, Kent?) including a life of St Pol de Léon
5. Vat.gr.463
6. Vat.gr.758 ,
7. Vat.lat.518.pt.1
8. Vat.lat.752, philosophical: Bonaventura, Aquinas
9. Vat.lat.1300
10. Vat.lat.1439
11. Vat.lat.1440, Pope Innocent: Apparatus in Decretalium Gregorii, with this opening initial:
    
12. Vat.lat.1444
13. Vat.lat.1452
14. Vat.lat.1457
15. Vat.lat.1463
16. Vat.lat.1501, Notabilia of Johannes de Soncino
17. Vat.lat.1509
18. Vat.lat.1529 , Pietro de Crescenzi, Ruralia commoda, 14th century
    
19. Vat.lat.1535
20. Vat.lat.1544
21. Vat.lat.1545, Macrobius, Commentary on Cicero's Scipio's Dream, 15th century
22. Vat.lat.1549
23. Vat.lat.1550
24. Vat.lat.1551
25. Vat.lat.1553, De verborum significatu, by the 2nd-century lexicographer Festus, epitome by Paulus. Incipit: Augustus, locus sanctus, ab avium gestu. Edition: De verborum significatu quae supersunt cum Pauli epitome, ed. Wallace M. Lindsay, Leipzig: Teubner 1913.
26. Vat.lat.1557
27. Vat.lat.1559
28. Vat.lat.1561, Leonardo Bruni, De Militia
29. Vat.lat.1562
30. Vat.lat.1563
31. Vat.lat.1564
32. Vat.lat.1566
33. Vat.lat.1576
34. Vat.lat.1578
35. Vat.lat.1581
36. Vat.lat.1588
37. Vat.lat.1617
38. Vat.lat.1619
39. Vat.lat.1627
40. Vat.lat.1639
41. Vat.lat.1658
42. Vat.lat.1665
43. Vat.lat.1667
44. Vat.lat.1670
45. Vat.lat.1674
46. Vat.lat.1676
47. Vat.lat.1677
48. Vat.lat.1680
49. Vat.lat.1685, Cicero, Letters, a Renaissance manuscript
50. Vat.lat.1691
51. Vat.lat.1701
52. Vat.lat.13442.pt.1, drawings of Bernini's facade for the Basilica of St Peter in Rome (above)
53. Vat.lat.15414

Also worthy of note is the arrival online, in colour and hi-res, of Vat.lat.1528, formerly only available in black and white. This is a 14th-century copy of De Balneis Puteolanis, the medical poem on the healing benefits of thermal baths by Petrus of Eboli. This copy lacks the racy illustrations. It is listed in Thorndike-Kibre only under the prologue, Inter opes rerum deus est. See Ballester

At Heidelberg, 15 new manuscripts have arrived online, most of them scientific. Those indexed by Thorndike-Kibre are marked eTK below:

1. Pal. lat. 1171 Petrus : Medizinsche Sammelhandschrift (Italien, 14. Jh. (nach 1310))
2. Pal. lat. 1172 Petrus : Conciliator Pars I (Heidelberg, Mitte 15 Jh.), eTK: Quod necessarium non sit medico ceteras speculationis scientias (15c); Also: Unum in ternario ac omne
3. Pal. lat. 1180 Arnoldus ; Gentilis ; Bacon, Rogerus: Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (Heidelberg, 2. Drittel 15. Jh.), eTK: Ad investigationem ergo scientie de gradibus medicinarum
4. Pal. lat. 1188 Avicenna; Hippocrates; Copho; Arnoldus ; Leopoldus ; Hermes; Ps.-Vergilius; Augustinus Bathus Senensis; Antonius de Haneron: Miscellaneenband (Sachsen, Ende 15. Jh.), eTK: Debes considerare planetas hora revolutionis (15c)
5. Pal. lat. 1196 Isaac : Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (Frankreich, 13./14. Jh.), eTK: Cum in primis coegit antiquos disputare (15c)
6. Pal. lat. 1198 Liber medcinalis (Regensburg oder Freising, 1565)
7. Pal. lat. 1203 Kommentare zu den Aphorismen des Hippokrates (2. Drittel 15. Jh.), eTK: Intentio Hippocratis fuit componere librum pauci (15c)
8. Pal. lat. 1205 Arnoldus praepositus Sancti Jacobi; Arnoldus ; Maimonides, Moses; Jacoby, Johann; Gentilis ; Costofferus; Auicenna; Bernardus ; Magninus : Medizinische Sammelhandschrift (Deutschland, 2. Hälfte 15. Jh), eTK: Accidit interdum aeri qui est hic apud nos (15c)
9. Pal. lat. 1419 Ptolemaeus, Claudius: Opus quadripartitum (Deutschland, 2. Drittel 15. Jh.)
10. Pal. lat. 1420 Ptolemaeus, Claudius; Johannes ; Albertus ; Johannes ; Bradwardine, Thomas; Simon ; Johannes : Sammelband mit Quadriviumstexten (Italien (I) , Italien und Köln (II), Ende 13. Jh. (I) ; 14. Jh. (II))
11. Pal. lat. 1423 Pruckner, Nicolaus; Leowitz, Cyprian: Nativitäten ; Astrologische Urteile (Heidelberg, 2. Hälfte 16. Jh.)
12. Pal. lat. 1425 Leowitz, Cyprian: Tomus tertius nativitatum (Augsburg, Mitte 16. Jh.)
13. Pal. lat. 1436 Leopoldus ; Johannes ; Prophatius Judaeus: Astronomisch-astrologische Sammelhandschrift (Belgien, Mitte 15. Jh. (1447))
14. Pal. lat. 1439 Peuerbach, Georg /von; Regiomontanus, Johannes; Albertus ; Johannes ; Głogowczyk, Jan; Ps.-Hippokrates; Prosdocimus ; Hermes: Astronomisch-astrologische Sammelhandschrift (Krakau, Leipzig, 1487-1493), eTK: Aries facit calorem temperatum (15c)
    
15. Pal. lat. 1446 Abū-Maʿšar Ǧaʿfar Ibn-Muḥammad; Qabīṣī, Abu-'ṣ-Ṣaqr ʿAbd-al-ʿAzīz Ibn-ʿUṯmān /al-; Māšā'allāh Ibn-Aṯarī: Astrologischer Sammelband (Deutschland, Mitte 15. Jh. (I) , letztes Drittel 14. Jh. (II)), eTK: Accipiat nomen suum

Finally, the Vatican Library is playing catch-up, having just posted some manuscripts already familiar from the Heidelberg site:

1. Pal.lat.1357, eTK: India ulterior finitur ab oriente oceano (14c)
2. Pal.lat.27
3. Pal.lat.33
4. Pal.lat.37
5. Pal.lat.38
6. Pal.lat.44
7. Pal.lat.48
8. Pal.lat.49
9. Pal.lat.54
10. Pal.lat.61
11. Pal.lat.62
12. Pal.lat.63
13. Pal.lat.64
14. Pal.lat.66
15. Pal.lat.69
16. Pal.lat.70
17. Pal.lat.71
18. Pal.lat.101
19. Pal.lat.130
20. Pal.lat.131
21. Pal.lat.203
22. Pal.lat.205
23. Pal.lat.312
24. Pal.lat.395
25. Pal.lat.397
26. Pal.lat.399
27. Pal.lat.711
28. Pal.lat.1089, eTK: Somnus corporis of Galen
29. Pal.lat.1930

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 115. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Law Professor

Take a trip on Google Street View to Bologna, Italy, where one of the greatest law professors, Accursius, c. 1182-1263, is entombed with his son in a curious elevated sarcophagus at the side of a busy street. The Tombe dei Glossatori is a pretty little green-roofed shrine.

Accursius senior, c. 1182-1263, was a professor in Bologna whose work became a definitive textbook through the medieval period. He is thought to have built up and revised his 2 million words of commentary on the Institutions, Code, Digest and Novels of Justinian over a lifetime of research and writing.

Consider now how law students for hundreds of years consulted this man's law commentaries, and take a look at a 14th-century manuscript of his Apparatus dealing with the Digest from book 39 onwards. The Vatican Library has just digitized Vat.lat.1426 and you will see that not only does the Digest occupy the centre space with the margins full of glosses, but there are also glosses on the glosses. This may not be the oldest manuscript, but Robert Figueira notes that no archetypal manuscript has ever been identified.

The Vatican copy is interesting for its idiosyncratic illuminations, which would be delightful subjects for Make Up the Caption competitions. What are they saying here about the faceless bricklayer at right?[The true answer, by the way, is that this is the section De operis novi nuntiatione, illustrated by a king giving orders for a building campaign. HT to @Glossaeluris.]

The whimsical artist also shows us a comical curule chair below with the carved arms shaped like heads of surprised hounds emerging from one body. The gaze directions of the humans seem to suggest something odd is happening off-stage at right. But what?

Here is my full list of digitizations recorded in the past week, whereby I will exceptionally include Palatina items that were previously online at Heidelberg:

1. Borg.et.23
2. Pal.lat.8
3. Pal.lat.26
4. Pal.lat.28
5. Pal.lat.29
6. Pal.lat.30, Diurnale Benedictinum with Psalter Romanum, 13th century, Tuscany or perhaps Piedmont, Beuron number 370. Original online release at Heidelberg has more details.
7. Pal.lat.31
8. Pal.lat.32
9. Pal.lat.34
10. Pal.lat.35
11. Pal.lat.1908
12. Pal.lat.1917
13. Pal.lat.1939
14. Pal.lat.1940
15. Pal.lat.1941
16. Pal.lat.1962
17. Pal.lat.1975
18. Pal.lat.1986, the strange Bellifortis (c. 1405) of Konrad Kyeser (1366 – after 1405), a German military engineer. Listed on eTK (a service kindly provided by Medieval Academy of America).
    
    
    Zsombor Jékely kindly invites us to compare this to a fragmentary Bellifortis in Hungary here: http://real-ms.mtak.hu/90/
19. Pal.lat.1990
20. Pal.lat.1994
21. Pal.lat.1995
22. Vat.lat.1426, Accursius (above)
23. Vat.lat.1538, Macrobius, Saturnalia
24. Vat.lat.1540, an unfinished copy of Macrobius, Saturnalia, in an Italian humanistic cursive hand. Gaps left for miniatures, opening line, "[M]ultas variasque res in hac vita nobis," lacks planned illuminated M, and start of book 8, "[P]rimus mensis post epulas non remoti," (folio 165r) lacks P. A scholar has instead obtained this codex at a discount and used it to collect glosses in the margins.
25. Vat.lat.1672

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 114. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.