Twenty-three manuscripts were digitized this week. It appears that the pace slowed this week due to the digitization of some drawings of the Gismondi Collection on the Visual Material side of the Vatican Libraries. This collection of the 20th C sculptor Tommaso Gismondi¹ (1906-2003) includes woodblock plates, copper plates, book, ceramics and nearly 2,500 engravings, spanning the 16th-20th C. The nearly 300 drawings, which include some of Gismondi himself, were partially digitized this week. The bottom border is a small section of Gismondi.Disegni.49, a drawing of the roman countryside by Mario Barberis, dated 7-9-1908.

In the manusctipts this week we have a Greek Prophetologion written as palimpsest over a 10^th and 12^thBarb.gr.338 and a late 16th C Jesuit work in Japanese explaining Christian doctrine in the form of a dialogue, Barb.or.153.pt.A. In latin we have several works by the, so called "Oxford Calculators", including one by William Heytesbury (Vat.lat.2137) and another by his teacher Richard Kilvington(Vat.lat.4353), and a copy of Sophismata by their contemporary Albert of Saxony (Vat.lat.3057). As someone only seeing the final product, not the decision tree, I always wonder if there is a pattern to what gets digitized, or am I just seeing constellations in the random stars.

To the right is a page, f.34v, from Vat.lat.4314 a copy of St. Augustine's Book of Virtues and Vices that I think dates to the 12^th century. The hand is a lovely stage of Protogothic, still preserving the clear letter distinctions and curving letterforms of the Caroline but with all the abbreviations of the upcoming Gothic. It also has very clear punctuation, with the punctus elevatus and punctus interrogativus frequently used and clearly distinct.

Notes

1. See the summary of the collection at the Prints Cabinet homepage