Armenian Treasures

We owe much to Armenian monks for the preservation of the early Christian past. Many ancient works that are now lost in their original Greek, such as key books by the great Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, survive only in Armenian translation.

That's why we should be so pleased that a new crop of digitizations and uploadings at Digita Vaticana includes Vat.arm.3, a finely illuminated 13th-century codex that is believed to have been the first Armenian manuscript to enter the Vatican book collections in the 15th century. This was exhibited in the Rome Reborn exhibition 20 years ago in Washington and St Louis and the catalog stated that it was thought to have been donated to the papacy by the Armenian delegates at the Council of Florence.

Its texts are mainly liturgical but there are also texts on chronology, geography, astronomy, mensuration, philosophy and history. I'm not aware if any of these are unique, but it's great to just browse this thick codex and admire the care with which it was made. From the illuminations, here is a fine red-beaked bird from folio 213r:

There's also a fine bird lady on folio 317r as part of what seems to be a matrix of consanguines or arbor consanguinatis: 

The digitizations are evidently advancing despite the summer heat in Rome. The latest 51 bring the tally of items on the index page to 2,633. Here is my list:

1. Borg.copt.109.cass.I.fasc.1,
2. Borgh.262, Decretales of Pope Gregory IX, glossed by Bernardus Parmensis (also known as Bernard of Parma, Bernard Botone, Bernard Bottoni), seems similar to Ms. 1 at Syracuse University
3. Borgh.366, Augustine of Hippo, City of God, 15th-century manuscript
4. Cappon.132, handwritten copy from about 1730 of an earlier treatise on perspective drawing by the mannerist painter Giulio Romano (see below). Consult the catalog at Archive.org for more information about this and other Capponi items below.
5. Cappon.179,
6. Cappon.182,
7. Cappon.198,
8. Cappon.203,
9. Cappon.223,
10. Cappon.226,
11. Cappon.227,
12. Cappon.230,
13. Cappon.236,
14. Cappon.256,
15. Cappon.257,
16. Cappon.262,
17. Cappon.263,
18. Cappon.265,
19. Cappon.266,
20. Cappon.267,
21. Cappon.268,
22. Cappon.274,
23. Cappon.280.pt.1,
24. Cappon.280.pt.2,
25. Cappon.291.pt.1,
26. Cappon.294,
27. Cappon.299,
28. Cappon.304,
29. Cappon.305,
30. Cappon.310,
31. Cappon.311,
32. Cappon.314,
33. Cappon.315,
34. Cappon.316,
35. Cappon.317,
36. Reg.lat.1360, a manuscript of the 12th-century Chanson d'Aspremont, a French narrative poem of heroic deeds (Wikipedia)
37. Sbath.723, one of the Arabic manuscripts collected by Paul Sbath of Aleppo, Syria
38. Urb.lat.4, concordance of the Bible, 15th century
39. Urb.lat.8, Joachim of Fiore, Thomas Aquinas, Lawrence of Pratis, 15th-century ms
40. Vat.arm.3, Eusebius' Epistle to Carpianus, and other texts, featured in Rome Reborn (see above)
41. Vat.ebr.116, Talmud Bavli, Tract Bava Kamma
42. Vat.ebr.140, part of the Babylonian Talmud (thanks to @TuomasLevanen for these 2 notes)
43. Vat.lat.65, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, glossed
44. Vat.lat.110, commentary on Ecclesiasticus, palimpsest layer apparently includes some 7th-century (?) material from Pliny the Elder
45. Vat.lat.143, Lanfranc of Canterbury, commentary on Pauline Epistles
46. Vat.lat.146, Peter Lombard on Pauline Epistles, 14th century
47. Vat.lat.172, Dionysius Areopagita
48. Vat.lat.1895, Diogenes Laertius
49. Vat.lat.2878, 15th-century, humanist copy of Cicero's Epistulae ad Atticum (discussed by Peter Lebrecht Schmidt). The front of this codex was abused for a bit of papal bookkeeping, being used to record a mule-leasing agreement: Astolfo, superintendent of mules of the palace, must deliver on 1 January 1570 to Bernardino Cirillo, preceptor of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit and the pope's majordomo, and take back into custody on the 31st of the same month, all those mules on the attached inventory in the stable of the palace (the actual inventory of the mules is not there, which would have been too much of an insult to Cicero and Atticus).
50. Vat.lat.6549, Henry of Bourbon (apparently Henry IV of France who issued the Edict of Nantes), paper manuscript
51. Vat.lat.14153, Italian literary autographs

As ever, tell me via the comments box below if you know more about any of these codices. [This is Piggin's Unofficial List 22.]

Here is a drawing of devils flying around evil idolatrous Rome from Borgh.366, folio 1r

Angles of view in treatise on perspective drawing, Cappon 132, folio 14v:

By the way, a knowledge of medieval Armenian is something that certain scholars brag about, much as a scratch golfer would brag of his zero handicap. A few weeks back, a reviewer for the Bryn Mawr Classical Review was publicly berating any of his inferiors having the temerity to write about Philo without learning Armenian first: The language barrier is not unsurmountable and does not justify studying this part of Philo from the translations of the (Armenian) translation only. That sounds a bit like those ads that claim that anyone can learn to play golf like Tiger Woods if they buy this or that set of clubs. Sigh. If only life were that easy.

Attic Nights

A literary Roman justice, Aulus Gellius, born in 125 or 128 CE, began, during his studies in Athens, to compile a commonplace book in 20 volumes that was to become known as the Attic Nights.

This album of quotes from famous books and from the views of Gellius's erudite friends was famed through late antiquity and the medieval period as a source of philology, literary wisdom, history and scientific knowledge. The blogger Roger Pearse once memorably described it as the world's first blog.

The work suffered a curious transmission, being broken into two parts. There is a section comprising books I to VII, which may once have had with it the lost book eight. The other section, from IX to XX, seems to have become detached from the first in late antiquity and has a separate manuscript history.

On August 3, Digita Vaticana brought online a principal witness to this second section, Reg.lat.597, a manuscript penned by the famous Carolingian scholar and scribe Lupus of Ferrières in about 850. It contains the Attic Nights from 9.14.2 to 20.6.12 and is written in a very clear fashion as you see in this extract from the chapter titles 10.10 and 10.11 on folio 80v:

X above says: "Quae eius rei causa sit, quod et Graeci veteres et Romani anulum [hoc] digito gestaverint qui est in manu sinistra minimo proximus," which reads in translation: The reason why the ancient Greeks and Romans wore a ring on the next to the little finger of the left hand. (Online at Perseus, where this is title 10.10.) Read it, as the explanation is quite intriguing, and then consider how many people still wear rings that way 2,500 years later.

The full list of 42 manuscripts just released, raising the total to 2,582, is as follows:

1. Barb.lat.5693, letters of Italian poet and scholar Pietro Bembo (1470-1547)
2. Barb.or.2, a remarkable psalter on paper with the psalms in five languages in parallel columns: Ge'ez, Syriac, Bohairic Coptic, Arabic, Armenian; would that be a "pentapla"?
3. Borg.copt.109.cass.I.fasc.2,
4. Borg.copt.109.cass.I.fasc.3,
5. Borg.copt.109.cass.I.fasc.4,
6. Borg.copt.109.cass.I.fasc.5,
7. Borg.copt.109.cass.IV.fasc.8,
8. Borg.copt.109.cass.IV.fasc.9,
9. Borg.copt.109.cass.IV.fasc.10,
10. Borg.lat.900, charter
11. Borgh.184, Francucci, Scipione‏: La Galleria de Cardinale Borghese, 17th-century poetry in a beautiful curly hand
12. Borgh.235, Guido Ebroicensis, Sermones de tempore et de sanctis sive Summa Guiotina, 16th century
13. Cappon.224, 18th-century drawings from (classical?) cameos and other items in the Capponi Museum including the Romulus and Remus below at 83r

14. Cappon.251, Cosimo Baroncelli on the origins of the House of Medici
15. Cappon.264, Tuscany history and letters from the 14th century in 18th century hand
16. Cappon.303, Clement XII
17. Chig.a.I.19, sketches for the building of St Peter's Basilica, also an elaborate coach (below)

18. Chig.I.I.17,
19. Ott.gr.472, a charter
20. Ott.lat.3131, collection of drawings of objects in the Vatican Museum
21. Patetta.2909.pt.bis, Venetian poetry
22. Reg.lat.74, a palimpsest: the underlayer is an 8th-century lectionary which is partly legible in the digitization
23. Reg.lat.257, the 8th-century Missale Francorum, a major source of liturgy of the early mass. Lowe CLA 1 103. Here is the word canon (link goes to folio):
    
    
24. Reg.lat.597, contains the second part of the Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, apparently penned and annotated by Lupus Servatus, (c.805-c.862), Abbot of Ferrières (see Lindermann, Lecouffe, Pearse.)
25. Reg.lat.689.pt.2, contains a (7th-century) fragment of the Historiae of Gregory of Tours and other items in a scrapbook of old manuscript fragments (see Palmer).
26. Reg.lat.1040, Records of the Sixth Ecumenical Council: this manuscript was apparently in the possession of Archbishop Arn of Salzburg in 798 or 799
27. Reg.lat.1462, Fulgentius, from Fleury, start of the 9th century. This also contains the earliest poetry in a post-Latin language: the Alba of Fleury
28. Ross.1192, scrapbook of illuminations cut from a music manuscript, including the two gents peeping through a crack in the door below

29. Ross.1194, music, Exaudi nos Domine
30. Urb.lat.1767, Baldassare Castiglione, Book of the Courtier (Il Cortegiano) with a fine frontispiece (2v), detail explaining how to slip a note behind your chaperone

31. Vat.lat.45, a concordance to the scriptures (13th-14th centuries)
32. Vat.lat.54, study edition of Genesis and Exodus with beautifully interlocked blocks of notes and text
33. Vat.lat.56, ditto, glossa ordinaria et interlineari, 13th-14th century
34. Vat.lat.58, ditto, Exodus
35. Vat.lat.59, ditto
36. Vat.lat.62, ditto, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
37. Vat.lat.64, Numbers, 12th century
38. Vat.lat.72, Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Maccabees, preceded by annotated Paralipomenon (Chronicles)
    
39. Vat.lat.95, Peter Lombard, Commentary on Psalms
40. Vat.lat.140, study edition of Pauline Epistles with side notes and interlinear notes
41. Vat.lat.157, Nicholas of Lyra on the Old Testament, some illuminations
42. Vat.lat.197, Cyprian of Carthage, works, Renaissance initials

As always, please enter corrections or additions in the comment box below. [This is Piggin's Unofficial List 21.]

Leonardo's Shadows

Leonardo da Vinci's art theory was compiled by a pupil, Franceso Melzi, in about 1540 into a celebrated Treatise on Painting, which explained perspective and shadows and numerous other techniques of art. It was widely read in later centuries. Digita Vaticana has just released a digitization of one of the manuscripts, Barb.lat.4304. Here is its explanation of the shadows seen on bodies at a distance:

Full background on the work and a comparison of the manuscripts can be found on the Treatise on Painting website at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia.

Digita Vaticana has been fairly busy as the Roman summer hots up, issuing a total of 204 items on July 14 and 23. Because of my own holiday in Sweden (more from that later), I am getting in arrears, so I beg pardon that the following list is not fully annotated. There are lots of art gems in this release. Here is a nativity scene from the beautiful Barberini Book of Hours:

Below is the full list of 204 items issued on July 14 and 23. The Digita Vaticana index and catalog server is now frequently out of service (more than 80 hours offline July 23-26), so in the following list, most of the links are to the digitizations themselves, where the servers tend to be more stable.

1. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.D.213,
2. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.E.5,
3. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.E.19,
4. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.F.22,
5. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.F.45,
6. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.H.45,
7. Barb.gr.10, Donatus Aelius, Ars Grammatica Minor: Pinakes
8. Barb.gr.93, Homer's Odyssey (excerpts)
9. Barb.gr.102, Manuel Moschopulus: Schedographia: Pinakes
10. Barb.gr.176, Phrantzēs, Geōrgios, 1401-1477, Chronicon minus
11. Barb.gr.184, Nicephorus Gregoras, 1295-1359/1360, Byzantina historia
12. Barb.gr.192, Miscellanea de historia Byzantina
13. Barb.gr.206, Poussines, Pierre, 1609-1686, Commentarii in Pachymerae Andronicum
14. Barb.gr.212, Hippiatricorum corpus
15. Barb.gr.269, Asclepius Trallianus (6th century):In Aristotelis Metaphysicorum libros
16. Barb.gr.276, Emperor Maurice, Strategikon, and part of the Cesti of Julius Africanus; this is a section of a manuscript of which the other part is in Paris, BNF, gr. 2442
17. Barb.lat.168, Livy's Roman history Ab Urbe Condita, from the famed Corvinius Library of Hungary, illuminated initials
18. Barb.lat.370, Nicholas Trivet (Trevet), English writer and chronicler (c.1257 – c.1334),
    In Psalterium
19. Barb.lat.443, incl. Francois de Meyronnes, Passus super universalia (Glorieux)
20. Barb.lat.487, Barberini Book of Hours (use of Rouen): the reconstitution of another Rouen book of hours was a hot topic on the blogosphere this week with Lisa Fagin Davis. Read this online and savour the saving of 968 euros.
21. Barb.lat.3942, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso
22. Barb.lat.3984, Book of Virtues and Vices, illumination (examples below) by the Italian painter Master of the Dominican Effigies
23. Barb.lat.4086,
24. Barb.lat.4304,
25. Barb.lat.4357, 1542 Venetian atlas of portolan maps which belonged to Henry VIII of England (articles by Francesco Solinas and Peter Soustal ... and they are legible!
26. Barb.lat.5379, Confession of Pope Alexander VIII, purchaser of Queen Christina's library
27. Barb.or.18,
28. Barb.or.46 ,
29. Barb.or.155, Hebrew alphabet, Arabic astronomy and astrology, in mixed manuscript
30. Borg.cin.536,
31. Borg.ebr.9, Isaac b. Jacob Alfasi's Code with glosses
32. Borg.ill.12,
33. Borgh.206,
34. Borgh.220,
35. Cappon.127,
36. Cappon.163,
37. Cappon.172,
38. Cappon.176,
39. Cappon.181,
40. Cappon.186,
41. Cappon.193,
42. Cappon.195,
43. Cappon.197,
44. Cappon.200,
45. Cappon.204,
46. Cappon.207,
47. Cappon.209,
48. Cappon.210,
49. Cappon.218,
50. Cappon.219,
51. Cappon.220,
52. Cappon.221,
53. Cappon.225,
54. Cappon.228,
55. Cappon.233.pt.1,
56. Cappon.233.pt.2,
57. Cappon.234,
58. Cappon.235,
59. Cappon.240,
60. Cappon.243,
61. Cappon.253,
62. Cappon.255,
63. Cappon.258,
64. Cappon.259.pt.1,
65. Cappon.259.pt.2,
66. Cappon.260,
67. Cappon.284,
68. Cappon.287,
69. Cappon.296,
70. Cappon.313,
71. Chig.A.VII.220,
72. Chig.C.VI.163.pt.A,
73. Chig.G.IV.113,
74. Neofiti.3, Levi b. Gershom's Commentary on the Pentateuch
75. Neofiti.12, Aba Mari ben Mosheh ben Yosef Astruḳ, Minḥat ḳenaʼot, about 1400
76. Ott.gr.25, works of Nilus of Sinai
77. Ott.gr.39, works of Theodoret
78. Ott.gr.48.pt.1, works of Philo
79. Ott.gr.48.pt.2, ditto
80. Ott.gr.48.pt.3, ditto
81. Ott.gr.59, poets, misc. works, item by Methodius
82. Ott.gr.64, legal synopsis
83. Ott.gr.67, theological, mainly Philocalia of Origen
84. Ott.gr.69, speeches of Libanius
85. Ott.gr.73, Euthymii Zigabeni Panoplia dogmatica
86. Ott.gr.74, Theodori Heracleensis Commentarius in Psalmos
87. Ott.gr.76, John Chrysostom
88. Ott.gr.88, Lectionary
89. Ott.gr.90, Dio Chrysostom, Pinakes
90. Ott.gr.91, various authors, includes De laudibus Constantini
91. Ott.gr.94, Clement of Alexandria
92. Ott.gr.99, John of Cyprus, works
93. Ott.gr.100, Explicatio quorundam Evangelii locorum ex diversis Patribus
94. Ott.gr.107, John Chrysostom, homilies
95. Ott.gr.109, philosophical: Pinakes
96. Ott.gr.110, Almageste
97. Ott.gr.111, Epitome Historiae Romanae Cassii Dionis
98. Ott.gr.112, Tatian, Oratio Ad Graecos
99. Ott.gr.121, In Aristotelis Metaphysica
100. Ott.gr.124, Procopius Gazaeus, Catena In Canticum Canticorum
101. Ott.gr.127, Oecumenius Catena in acta apostolorum; Justinian, Letters
102. Ott.gr.128, Athanasius Alexandrinus
103. Ott.gr.133, Catena In Lucam
104. Ott.gr.134, ditto
105. Ott.gr.142,
106. Ott.gr.146,
107. Ott.gr.153,
108. Ott.gr.154,
109. Ott.gr.157.pt.B,
110. Ott.gr.158,
111. Ott.gr.159.pt.1,
112. Ott.gr.159.pt.2,
113. Ott.gr.160,
114. Ott.gr.161,
115. Ott.gr.167,
116. Ott.gr.170,
117. Ott.gr.172,
118. Ott.gr.173,
119. Ott.gr.175,
120. Ott.gr.176,
121. Ott.gr.177,
122. Ott.gr.178,
123. Ott.gr.180,
124. Ott.gr.182,
125. Ott.gr.188,
126. Ott.gr.192.pt.2,
127. Ott.gr.195,
128. Ott.gr.205,
129. Ott.gr.206,
130. Ott.gr.210,
131. Ott.gr.211,
132. Ott.gr.214,
133. Ott.gr.221,
134. Ott.gr.225,
135. Ott.gr.228,
136. Ott.gr.231,
137. Ott.gr.239,
138. Ott.gr.243,
139. Ott.gr.250,
140. Ott.gr.251,
141. Ott.gr.262,
142. Ott.gr.266,
143. Ott.gr.267,
144. Ott.gr.269,
145. Ott.gr.273,
146. Ott.gr.284,
147. Ott.gr.286,
148. Ott.gr.288,
149. Ott.gr.289,
150. Ott.gr.292,
151. Ott.gr.295,
152. Ott.gr.299,
153. Ott.gr.300,
154. Ott.gr.308,
155. Ott.gr.315,
156. Ott.gr.325,
157. Ott.gr.361,
158. Ott.gr.471,
159. Ott.lat.479,
160. Reg.lat.87.pt.1,
161. Reg.lat.267, uncial, probably from Fleury, includes work by Fulgentius (fl. late 5th century), Lowe CLA 1 104
162. Reg.lat.615, Heriger's Vita Sancti Remacli, probably copied under Heriger's direction, with word spacing and punctuation discussed by Paul Saenger in his book on silent reading
163. Reg.lat.960, Philip of France ...
164. Reg.lat.1283.pt.C, Fragmenta Sallustiana
165. Reg.lat.1858, Roman de la Rose
166. Ross.358, Hebrew: Two works by Jedaiah b. Abraham Bedersi
167. Ross.438, Hebrew: Maḥzor for the entire year, Roman rite
168. Ross.499, Hebrew prayers through year including fast days, Yom Kippur, etc.
169. Ross.532, Hebrew, work by Abraham Conat
170. Ross.533, David Kimhi, commentary on former and latter prophets
171. Ross.534, Mosheh ben Yaʿaḳov, Sefer mitsṿot gadol, about 1400
172. Ross.1167, scrapbook of illuminations cut from (music) manuscripts
173. Urb.lat.666, a fine Renaissance manuscript of the works of the late antique poet Prudentius, dated 1481 according to the catalog
174. Vat.ebr.7, fol.105r begins Leviticus. All Hebrew. Impressive size, clear to read, notes @TuomasLevanen on Twitter
175. Vat.ebr.117,
176. Vat.ebr.121, #Aramaic, part of the Babylonian Talmud (hat tip to @TuomasLevanen on Twitter)
177. Vat.ebr.614,
178. Vat.estr.or.58,
179. Vat.gr.681,
180. Vat.gr.1927, notable 12th-century Greek psalter with illuminations to most of the canticles
181. Vat.gr.2026,
182. Vat.lat.18, Vulgate Bible
183. Vat.lat.22, Vulgate Bible, Bolognese?
184. Vat.lat.25, Vulgate Bible
185. Vat.lat.26, Vulgate Bible, fine initials
186. Vat.lat.27, Vulgate Bible, 13th century, some initials
187. Vat.lat.33, Vulgate Bible, 13th-14th century, some initials
188. Vat.lat.35, Vulgate Bible, 14th century
189. Vat.lat.38, New Testament, 13th century
190. Vat.lat.44, Gospels, 12th century, with elegant version of canon tables
191. Vat.lat.52, study edition of Genesis, 13th century, with both marginal and interlinear glosses
192. Vat.lat.53, ditto
193. Vat.lat.61, study edition of Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, with glosses
194. Vat.lat.67, study edition of Joshua, Judges, Ruth etc. with glosses
195. Vat.lat.69, study edition of Kings, with glosses
196. Vat.lat.77, study edition of Job and Isaiah with glosses, 14th century
197. Vat.lat.86, Psalterium Galllicanum cum glossa ordinaria Walafridi Strabi et Anselmi Laudunensis glossa interlineari, 12th century 
198. Vat.lat.87, study edition of Psalms, glossed, 12th century
199. Vat.lat.99, study edition of Ecclesiasticus and parts of New Testament
200. Vat.lat.100, ditto, Proverbs etc.
201. Vat.lat.103, study edition of Isaiah, 12th century
202. Vat.lat.105, study edition of Isaiah, 13th century
203. Vat.lat.132, Gospel of Luke, study glosses
204. Vat.lat.3970.pt.2, more of the catalogue by Cardinal Sirleto (1514-85) following a part digitized in February

To finish, here are Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and Noah's Ark from Barb.lat.3984:

As always, if you can contribute or correct information, please use the comment box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for more news on digitizations. [This is Piggin's Unofficial List 20.]

Pirates, How to Deal With

A celebrated account of how Julius Caesar was held ransom by pirates has at least two endings. That by Livy maintains Caesar paid the ransom, then went back, seized the pirates and crucified them. The version by Polyaenus has it that Caesar, after borrowing a ransom from Miletus, organized a feast for the pirates:

In high spirits at the large sum they had received, they gave loose to their appetite, and drank freely of the drugged wine, which presently sent them to sleep.  In that state Caesar ordered them to be slain, and he immediately repaid the money to the Milesians.   (Book 8  Chapters 1-25: Romans)

Neither method was employed with the recent wave of piracy on the Somali coast. I leave it to readers to debate how best to deal with pirates. Polyaenus has a series of more than 800 recipes for dealing with all sorts of human pests.

Among the digitizations July 9 at Digita Vaticana is a Greek manuscript of these Strategemata, Barb. gr. 263. For the current state of thinking about Polyaenus, consult a review of recent conference papers on the book, where it is asserted that the most authoritative title of Polyaenus’ work is Strategika, not Stratagemata.  There is an English translation at Attalus.org.

This week saw 15 new items uploaded, bringing the total to 2,336. Here is a diagram on optics in Greek from Barb.gr.114

1. Barb.gr.42, Proclus Atheniensis, 410-c. 485, In Platonis Cratylum
2. Barb.gr.114, Damianus (4th century), Optica, in which sight is said to be an emanation from the eyes. See the Dictionary of Scientific Biography for more about this little work.
3. Barb.gr.115, Plutarch, c.50-127, Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat, arguing that poetry is deceptive and particularly dangerous to young people
4. Barb.gr.116, work by Psellus, Michael, 1018-1078
5. Barb.gr.136, Aristotle: Physica
6. Barb.gr.263, Polyaenus: Strategemata
7. Barb.gr.270, collection of works of Plato: Platonis et Pseudo-Platonis opera nonnulla cum lectionibus variis atque indice
8. Barb.or.44, Latin-Hebrew dictionary, 17th century
9. Barb.or.53, a list of Hebrew books that were banned in church domains: Renato da Modena, O.F.M.Cap., m. 1628 [ספר זיקוק], Index expurgatorius. Index vanitatum multarum expurgandarum a libris Hebraeorum praecipue in tribus glosis nempe Chaldaica, Hierosolimitana ac Babilonica, nec non in omnibus commentariis Rabbinorum Collectus
10. Borg.ebr.1, Yosippon with introduction by Judah Leon Mosconi
11. Neofiti.2, Ibn ʿEzra, Avraham ben Meʾir, 1089-1164 [פירוש התורה לראב"ע], Abraham b. Meir ibn Ezra's commentary on the Torah; by one of the most celebrated medieval Jewish scholars of all; Wikipedia; this copy was made at Cataluyud in Spain in 1473 with some beautifully ornamented incipits and pericopes in filigrees of violet and red ink. One from 156r is shown below
12. Ross.360, Maḥzor (Sephardic rite), with additional piyyutim and hoshanot and index of the piyyutim
13. Ross.437, Maḥzor made at Lucca, Italy in 1448, for the entire year (Roman rite), including a list of twenty-two fast days, additional piyyutim, prayers, halakhic and other treatises with the index of the seliḥot; certain rubbings out (and perhaps the snips?) are by a censor. At the bottom of 411v you can read the censor's inscription: "Corretto p[er] me Gio[vanni] Dom[en]ico da Lodi neofito di comissione del fr. Ang[elu]s Capillus."
14. Ross.925, Abravanel, Yitsḥaḳ ben Yehudah, 1437-1508 [פירוש ס' שמות לר"י אברבנאל]. Commentary on the Book of Exodus
15. Vat.lat.12993, Richard Rufus of Cornwall: Scriptum super Metaphysicam

For descriptions of the Hebrew manuscripts, I am in indebted as always to Malachi Beit-Arié (2008). Mark any corrections in the comment boxes below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for more news. [This is Piggin's Unofficial List 19.]

Strange Beasts

The caladrius was an all-white bird, which, when placed on the bed of a sick person, supposedly foretold if they would live or die. If the person were not going to recover, the caladrius looked away from them, but if they were to live, the bird looked directly into their face and drew the sickness into itself.

Medieval bestiaries, of which the digitized Aberdeen Bestiary is a fine example from the 12th century, were based on the Physiologus, an anonymous Greek-language book dating back to perhaps the 2nd century. On June 30, the BAV in Rome digitized and published online a 17th-century Greek manuscript of it, Ott.gr.354. Here is its caladrius giving a bearded man his doom on folio 64r:

All of the images in the Ottoboniani Physiologus are of great interest. Here is one of the sirens, from folio 45r:

This early Christian compendium contains 48 stories about the nature of real and mythical animals, plants and stones. In its mixture of fact and fiction, it is no more reproachable than the infotainment and "science documentaries" with half-truths, portentous voices and dramatic music which air on daytime television.

A Physiologus for TV with similar self-important commentary would be a great satire. Imagine the stock film clips which could be dug up for the elephant (folio 13r), of which we are told it cannot bend its legs, rarely has the desire to mate and practices water birth.

The Physiologus was once as well known as any TV series is today. It was translated into Latin and had enormous influence in the medieval world. Translations and adaptations from the Latin introduced the Physiologus into most languages of western Europe. Its magnificently bogus science shows up in most European literatures including the works of Shakespeare.

Below is the full list of 44 digitizations on June 30. For the Ottoboniani group, you can consult Pinakes or the old printed catalog at Archive.org for more details.

1. Barb.gr.105, Aesop's Fables, 6th century, Pinakes
2. Barb.gr.109, Epitome logica, Pinakes
3. Barb.gr.113, Manuel Chrysoloras, Pinakes
4. Ott.gr.174, Narrationes monachorum,
5. Ott.gr.219, Gregorius, etc: homiliae, apologia, etc., 
6. Ott.gr.223, Athanasius: vita, epistulae, etc. 
7. Ott.gr.242, Michaelis Glycae Capita Theologica ad varios directa, praemisso indice, 
8. Ott.gr.268, Miscellanea praesertim Patrum Graecorum incl. Gregorii Nazianzeni, 
9. Ott.gr.279, Alexandri Aphrodisiensis In Aristotelis Meteorologica, 
10. Ott.gr.281, Miscellanea homiletica, incl. Gregorii Nysseni, 
11. Ott.gr.282, Ioanis Tzetzi, 
12. Ott.gr.283, Andreae Caesariensis Commentarius in Apocalypsin, 
13. Ott.gr.296, Speculum beatitudinis humanae of 1581, 
14. Ott.gr.302, Porphyrii In Aristotelis Categorias Commentarium, 
15. Ott.gr.305, Miscellanea praesertim Patrum Graecorum, incl. Eusebii Pamphili in Cantica Canticorum, 
16. Ott.gr.320, Anatomia hominis, a.k.a. De partibus hominis, anon., 
17. Ott.gr.327, Pindari Odae / Carmina, 
18. Ott.gr.329, Arrianus super Epictetum, 
19. Ott.gr.331, Theodori Gazae Grammatica, 
20. Ott.gr.332, Platonis operae, plus Basilius Caesarensis, ad juvenes, 
21. Ott.gr.333, Miscellanea praesertim Patrum Graecorum, incl. Gregrorii Nysseni, etc, 
22. Ott.gr.334, Theoremata in Odyssaeam Homeri (on Homer), 
23. Ott.gr.337, Opuscula varia diversorum, 
24. Ott.gr.339, Miscellanea, 
25. Ott.gr.341, Isidori Pelusiotae, letters, 
26. Ott.gr.342, Homeri Ilias,  
27. Ott.gr.345, Maximi Planudi, notationes variae, 
28. Ott.gr.346, Miscellanea poetarum scaenicorum Graecorum, incl. Aristophanes, 
29. Ott.gr.347, Theodori Gazae introductionis grammaticae libri quattuor, 
30. Ott.gr.348, Ignatii et Polycarpi epistolae, 
31. Ott.gr.349, Didymi Alexandrini De Trinitate, 
32. Ott.gr.350, Niconis canones et decreta et constitutiones ad monachos spectantes 22, incl. Basilii canones poenitentiales, 
33. Ott.gr.351, Euripidis opera, 
34. Ott.gr.353, Gemini introductio in meteora, 
35. Ott.gr.354, the Physiologus, an Alexandrian work of Christian allegory attributed to Epiphanius; this is one of the H manuscripts in Sbordone's edition. I haven't yet recognized the unicorn in this manuscript. (Who can help me?)
36. Ott.gr.355, Miscellanea, incl. Aristophanes, 
37. Ott.gr.357, Expositio in III librum Regnorum et in loca quaedam biblica, incl. catena, 
38. Ott.gr.358, Miscellanea praesertim hagiographica, incl. Vita d. Theodori Studitae, 
39. Ott.gr.364, Polyaeni militaria, 
40. Ott.gr.368, Basilius in Isaiam, 
41. Ott.gr.369, Isaaci Tzetzae opera (poetry), 
42. Ott.gr.383, Isidori epistularum, 
43. Ott.gr.386, Aristotelis Analytica priora, 
44. Vat.ebr.16, a Targum Onkelos of the early 14th century, the translation of the Bible to Babylonian Aramaic (many thanks to Tuomas Levänen for pointing this out). This manuscript was used for variants in A. Berliner's edition of Targum Onkelos (Berlin 1884).

Below is a second rush of material digitized and placed online on July 1, which I will not blog about separately. The posted total on the Digita Vatica portal now stands at 2,321 items.

1. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.H.57,
2. Barb.gr.443,
3. Barb.gr.449, four gospels, 12th century, probably Cypriot, includes the dog and rooster at 5r (below) (Pinakes)
4. Barb.gr.475, New Testament?
5. Barb.lat.366, Jacobus de Cessolis (hat tip to Tuomas Levänen for pointing this out): The Book of Chess (Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium ac popularium super ludo scacchorum) was a Renaissance best-seller with its discussion of chess moves combined with moral commentary. A thesis by Alexander Bataller (big PDF) lists the main manuscripts at page 100 ff. This BAV manuscript in Latin (where some Philistine has sliced out all the miniatures) seems to date from 1418. There's also a translation to Italian online (Cappon.52) (see the earlier release). Wikipedia notes: The work was the basis for William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse (1474), one of the first books printed in English. Check Google Books for an 1879 German edition. Link here to a blogger on Spanish versions.
6. Barb.lat.663, includes material on Four Articles of Prague, relevant to current commemorations of Jan Hus and Bohemian wars 600 years ago
7. Borgh.219,14th-century Collationes sanctorales
8. Cappon.80, Italian poetry (catalog)
9. Cappon.144, on papal elections (catalog)
10. Cappon.160,
11. Cappon.217,
12. Cappon.244,
13. Cappon.248, burchiello poems (see catalog for numbered list)

If you can correct any of these entries, tell me via the comments box below. This is not an official or expert list and I simply copy what I can find online about these manuscripts. I do so as a public service. The best way to thank me is to follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin), where I will keep providing news of manuscript digitizations. [This is Piggin's Unofficial List 18.]

Ancient Science

Ancient science was kept alive through the Middle Ages by constant copying and anthologizing. One compilation that has come down to us was gathered at Constantinople at the end of the 13th century and contains the soundest text we possess of the Geography of Ptolemy of Alexandria. His work is one of the greatest scientific achievements of the ancient world.

Here is a Ptolemy diagram from the introductory book, How to Draw a Map of the World, with a simple trig lesson showing how to transfer arcs relative to your standpoint (at left). It's at 129r. One can read the text explaining the concept in part 1.2 of the Berggren-Jones translation at Google Books.

This codex contains Ptolemy's coordinates, but not the world maps attributed to him or his late antique editors.

Ptolemy's geography was famously wrong in certain key ways. Some of the most exciting research of the past decade has examined the possibility that Ptolemy was hit by a garbage-in-garbage-out situation whereby he unwittingly relied on false experimental data (the earth's circumference), leading to some spectacular failures in his essentially brilliant compilation.

Klaus Geus and Irina Tupikova argued in 2013 that mystery locations on Ptolemy's map are none other than the Gulf of Finland and Poland's Vistula River if one adjusts the false data. We now stand a better chance of identifying all 6,400 places for which Ptolemy gives coordinates in the Geography.

Various other scientific texts by authors as diverse as Euclid and Abu Ma'shar of Baghdad are all bound into the Vatican's massive 397-folio volume. Here is an unidentified diagram from folio 209v.

This codex, which is a kind of album of the best of ancient science, was brought to Rome by Isidoros, (c. 1385 to 1463), metropolitan of Kiev and later a Roman cardinal, and it thus ended up in the Vatican collection of Greek manuscripts as Vat.gr.191. It is one of the treasures that has finally entered our modern album of science, the internet. Digita Vaticana placed it online on June 22.

Renate Burri's description (in German) of this codex (designated X in the stemma) can be consulted on Google Books. A stemma showing the place of X as a key source has been published recently by Florian Mittenhuber. Burri has argued that the first diagram above is by a Byzantine editor, Manuel Chrysoloras, not by Ptolemy. Her book on the manuscripts of The Geography was recently reviewed on BMCR. [For a later blog post on Ptolemy by me with more manuscripts, jump here.]

Also new in the uploads this week is one of the books that is known as a Barberini Codex, this one being an evangeliary made at one of the two main centres of monasticism on Lake Constance, either Reichenau or St Gallen, just a few years before 1000 CE. Here is its illumination of the Ascension (folio 84v):

Below is my own list of the 64 new items uploaded June 22, which take the posted total to 2,264. As always, I have compiled this in haste, using web searches to grab keywords, so this is subject to correction. The materials below with the shelfmark Borg. copt. are a variety of biblical and other materials, some of them only single leaves or papyri. For more information about the materials from the Capponi collection, Cozzo's 1897 printed catalog can be consulted at Archive.org.

1. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.C.152, contains a text of Aristophanes' Plutus (Pinakes)
2. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.D.182, Hilary of Poitiers
3. Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.E.25,
4. Barb.lat.711, great evangeliary made at Reichenau or St Gallen about 990 CE
5. Barb.lat.4424, architectural sketchbook of Giuliano da Sangallo (1443-1516) (see article by Nicholas Temple)
6. Barb.lat.5692, Pietro Bembo, letters
7. Barb.lat.6481,
8. Borg.ar.221,
9. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVII.fasc.138,
10. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVII.fasc.139,
11. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVII.fasc.140,
12. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVII.fasc.141,
13. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVII.fasc.142,
14. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVII.fasc.143,
15. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVII.fasc.144,
16. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVII.fasc.145,
17. Borg.et.24,
18. Borg.sir.16,
19. Borgh.204, Johannes de Fonte, Parvi flores,
20. Borgh.212, Maurus Salemitanus,
21. Borgh.214, Opera quaedam de re iuridica, 14th century,
22. Borgh.231, Abbas Antiquus,
23. Borgh.320, Thomas Aquinas,
24. Borgh.335, Cyprian of Carthage (c.200-258), a 15th-century compilation of his writings ,
25. Borgh.368, a fine 15th-century manuscript of Livy's Roman history Ab urbe condita,
26. Cappon.75, describes Medici celebrations
27. Cappon.149.pt.1, letters to popes 1643
28. Cappon.149.pt.2, speeches
29. Cappon.152, obituary verse
30. Cappon.153, Bologna university rules
31. Cappon.155, epigrammata
32. Cappon.157, Matthari Palmerii
33. Cappon.158, from papacy of Paul IV 
34.  Cappon.159, on council of Trent
35. Cappon.162, letter by Magalotti
36. Cappon.164, documents from Prague, Hungarian affairs
37. Cappon.167, letters and notes from Paris
38. Cappon.175,
39. Cappon.177,
40. Cappon.188, Northumberland's account of Anne Boleyn
41. Cappon.189, accounts of judicial executions
42. Cappon.191, Petrarch's I Trionfi (see below for a Renaissance manuscript)
43. Cappon.192, diplomacy in France
44. Cappon.202,
45. Cappon.205,
46. Cappon.206,
47. Cappon.208,
48. Cappon.212,
49. Cappon.215,
50. Cappon.222,
51. Cappon.232, Pecorone
52. Cappon.237.pt.C,
53. Cappon.241, life of Cola di Rienzo
54. Cappon.242, ditto
55. Cappon.246, correspondence of dukes of Modena
56. Cappon.250, vita de beato Johanne Bactista
57. Cappon.254, alchemy and occult
58. Ott.lat.2998, Francesco Petrarch's I Trionfi (The Triumphs) with illuminations for a noble Renaissance library (See Guerrini on a similar manuscript at the Morgan): here's a Greek god in thrall to infatuation, in hot pursuit of his love object (fol. 51r):
    
    The narrator is taken to a garden, sat down and shown a vast succession of mythological, biblical and historical figures making fools of themselves for love. This god's winged sandals suggest he may be Hermes, but the text implies the god may be "blond Apollo" chasing Daphne. In the margin of the same page is this odd couple:
    
59. Reg.lat.1395, verse, Matteo Bandello
60. Vat.ar.368, a hugely important and almost unique manuscript from Moorish Spain, The Tale of Bayad and Riyad
61. Vat.estr.or.110,
62. Vat.estr.or.147.pt.23,
63. Vat.estr.or.147.pt.25,
64. Vat.gr.191, 14th-century compilation of scientific texts with Euclid, Ptolemy's geography and astronomy (Pinakes),

Two more images from the Barberini Codex show the Three Magi (fol. 18v) and the Presentation at the Temple (fol. 24v)

As always, if you can add any information about any item, write in the comments box below, or tweet to me at @JBPiggin. [This is Piggin's Unofficial List 17.]