Despite the Vatican Libraries' COVID-closing, two manuscripts were added to the online repository. In addition this post continues the discussion of the meanings of the Vatican Library collection names. Collections starting with A and B are covered in Week 12 and collections C through N are in Week 13. This week we are covering O, P and R (sadly no collections start with Q).

• Ott - Ottobonianus. This collection started out as the private library of Pietro Ottoboni(2 July 1667 – 29 February 1740), Cardinal Nephew to Pope Alexander VIII (Born Pietro Ottoboni as well). The Vatican Ottoboni collection was purchased from Pietro's heirs in 1748. In 1797 some 500 manuscripts from this collection were confiscated by French troops, though all but 36 were later returned.
  • gr - Ottoboniani greci - The 473 Greek manuscripts of Pietro Ottoboni contain many early biblical manuscripts, including two 11th C minuscule MSS, Ott.gr.297 and Ott.gr.432 (dated to 1055).
  • lat - Ottoboniani latini - The Latin side of the collection contains 3,394 manuscripts and the occasional printed book, eg. Ott.lat.577. The collection has one of the three critical witnesses of the poems of Catullus, Ott.lat.1829.
• P.I.O - Pontificio Istituto Orientale the PIO is a section of the education consortium containting the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Biblical Institute devoted to the study of Eastern Christianity. Though the idea was proposed originally by Pope Leo XIII, it was finally founded by Benedict the XV in 1917 and is managed by the Jesuits. Although the PIO has an excellent library, there are only two manuscripts currently digitized, both liturgical manuscripts with musical notation.
• Pagès - Pagès This manuscript of Porphyry's Isogogue comes from the library formed by Abbe Étienne Pagès in the early 19th Century. Shortly before his death in 1841 the collection was sold at a substantial discount to the Marists in Lyon in order that it might stay intact, he had some 50 nephews who might wish to convert their inheritance into cash. It was transfered to the Marist residence in Rome in 1902 to support students at the Roman universities. ¹
• Pal - Palatini - Originally the collection of Heidelberg, it was captured in 1622 during the Thirty Years Wars by the Catholic League in the person of Maximillian of Bavaria, who presented it to the Pope, Gregory XV to try and convince him to support Maximillian's claim to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, which is a quick summary of a complex political battle. It was incorporated into the Vatican in 1623, with the addition of a leaf containing the Wittelsbach arms, those of Maximillian. In 1797, the Pope ceded 37 MSS to the French State, these were then given back to Heidelberg after the Congress of Vienna and in 1816 a further 852 volumes, mostly in German followed from the Vatican. ² As of 2018 the collection has been fully digitized by the University of Heidelberg for their [Bibliotheca Palatina Digital}(http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/en/bpd/index.html) project.
  • gr - Palatini Greci - The Greek collection contains 430 manuscripts. The bulk are only available as scanned microfilm on the BAV website, but are available in glorious color, with metadata, at BPD: Codices Palatini graeci
  • lat - Palatini Latini - There are nearly 2000 Latin manuscripts in the Palatine library. All are available on both the Vatican and the BPD websites, though the Heidelberg site often has better metadata.
• Pap.Bodmer - Papiri Bodmer - This single papyrus, numbered Pap.Bodmer.VIII, as it was in the collection of Martin Bodmer, contains a fragment of 1-2 Peter. It was given to Pope Paul VI in 1969 and now resies at the Vatican.
• Pap.Hanna - Papiri Hanna - A single item collection, this was formerly Bodmer XIV-XV, the earliest fragment of the Gospel of Luke and the Lords Prayer. It was sold in 2006 to Frank Hanna III, who later donated it to the Vatican
• Pap.Vat - Papiri Vaticani - Papyrus manuscripts in various languages
  • copt - Papiri Vaticani copti - A small collection of fragments from Egypt written in Coptic, containint 28 objects. The 21 fragments forming the Dioskoros collection were donated in 1961 by Jean Doresse.
  • gr - Papiri Vaticani greci - The Greek papyrus collection contains 105 items. Some were added in the early 19th C, before substantial numbers of Egyptian manuscripts became available, but the bulk were added in the 20th C. In 1961 Jean Doresse donated what would become Pap.vat.gr24-79 and Pap.vat.gr64-105 are Ptolemaic examples extraced from cartonnage. None of the collection has been properly digitized, only Pap.vat.gr.11 is online at all, and only as a microfilm scan. ³
  • lat - Papiri Vaticani latini - The entire Pap.vat.lat collection consists of Byzantine legal documents from the archives of Ravenna. These were formerly displayed on the walls of the Sala de Papiri in the Vatican museum, a room special built for the purpose between 1771 and 1775. The image to the right is from the early part of Pap.vat.lat.6, part of the a document recording a donation to the Church of Ravenna by one Sisevera, a Goth. A transcription of the text can be found in ChLA XXi, #717
• Patetta - Patetta - The collection was bequeathed to the Vatican in 1945, upon the death of the noted book collector Federico Patetta (1867-1945).
• Raineri - Raineri - A collection of 270 Ethiopic manuscripts.⁴
• Reg - Reginensi - The library of Queen Christina of Sweden. Due to the circumstances of her death, her entire library was bought shortly after her death in 1689 by Pietro Ottoboni (see above).
  
  • gr - Reginensi Greci
  • gr.Pio.II - Reginensi greci di Pio II
  • lat - Reginensi latini Apart from a few manuscripts that he added to his private library, now part of the Ott.lat collection, some 1900 manuscripts were donated to the vatican to form the Reginenses Latini collection
• Ross - Rossiani The collection was donated around the time of WWI by Francesco De Rossi after having been built up in Rome from the middle of the 19th C. It was started by Jean-François Rossi, son of the writer Jean-Gérard de Rossi. It consisted of perhaps 1200 manuscripts and 8500 printed works, including 2500 incunables. The collection is quite strong in religous codices, with 20 Books of Hours already digitized alongside ~60 liturgical works. ⁵
• Ruoli - Ruoli These are the household records of the Papal and Cardinal households. Although there are 432 in the library, according to the inventory produced by Morello in 1973, only one has been digitized, and it is a scan from microfilm.

Notes

1. https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/The_library_of_tienne_Pag_s_the_development_and_use_of_a_collection_in_the_18th_and_19th_centuries/9415421
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Palatina
3. https://www.trismegistos.org/daht_coll/detail.php?tm=348
4. Bausi, Alessandro. “Ethiopian Manuscripts in the Vatican Library.” Coptic Treasures from the Vatican Library, 2012, 53–60. https://doi.org/10.1400/213513.
5. https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/mefr_0223-4874_1930_num_47_1_7203.pdf