Despite it being Christmas week, the Vatican did upload a single manuscript this week, a copy of John Climacus from Vat.gr. As has become customary, I will use the end of year vacation to present some numbers about the progress of digitizations this year. First, a quick snapshot of the year in numbers Total Manuscripts Digitized5: 1973 Manuscripts w...

For what is, probably, the last digitizing week of 2024, the Vatican added a full seventy-nine manuscripts. Like the last few weeks, the vast majority are from the Capp.Sist.Diari, totaling fifty-two. The Chigiani collection contributed seven, five each came from Sire and Vat.lat, and two each from Borg.cin, Ott.lat, and Vat.estr.or To the right is f.1...

A total of nineteen manuscripts were digitized this week. Like last week, the vast majority, fifteen, are from the Capp.Sist.Diari collection. The remainder are one each from Chig, Vat.arm, Vat.lat, and Vat.pers to the right is the start of the Gospel of Luke found on f.170r of Vat.arm.40. This manuscript is a copy of the four gospels from 1644, decora...

Only thirty-five manuscripts were digitized this week, sadly down from the last two weeks. The bulk of these, nineteen, were from the Capp.Sist.Diari. This was followed, distantly, by Chig with six, and three each from Barb.lat and Vat.lat. A single manuscript was added from each of Capp.sist, Ott.lat, and Vat.turc. Finally Bonc.O.9 was added to that ...

Another solid week added fifty-one manuscripts to the Vatican systems. Continuing the trend of last week, these were spread across a large number of Fonds, with no single collection dominating. The largest number, nine, came from Chig, with Barb.lat and Vat.lat each contributing eight. Five manuscripts were added from Ott.lat, four from Capp.Giulia, two...

And we're back in the swing of things with sixty-one manuscripts digitized in the past week. A wide spread of collections this week, with nineteen coming from Vat.lat, thirteen from Ott.lat, eleven from Barb.lat and 10 from Chig. A further three came from a rare fond, Vat.estr.or, two from Santa Maria Maggiore, and one each from Vat.gr, Borg.cin, and Bo...

Hopefully not an omen of things to come, only two manuscripts were digitized this week, one from Barb.lat and one from Ott.lat. The manuscript from Ott.lat, Ott.lat.1438, is a 15th C copy of multiple texts on rhetoric and oration. To the right is f.6r, the start of an abridged copy of Bartolomeo da Bologna's Scriptum super Rhetoricam ad Herennium appears...

Only five manuscripts were digitized this past week. These consisted of three from Barb.lat and two from Ott.lat. Sadly the data issues with a significant number of Pal.lat manuscripts, and a much smaller number of Reg.gr ones, continues to cause processing issues. The good news is that the block of affected manuscripts seems not to have changed, so hop...

There were only thirty manuscripts added this week, all on Monday. The largest contributor was Ott.lat, with eleven manuscripts, followed by Vat.lat with eight, Barb.lat with four, and Borg.Cin with three. One manuscript each came from Borg.lat , Chig, S.Maria.Magg, and Vat.gr. Due to some website weirdness at the Vatican, there was reporting of about t...

Back to slow weeks with only fourteen manuscripts digitized this week. The largest contributor was Ott.lat with six manuscripts. Both Barb.lat and Vat.lat added two, and one each came from Bonc, Chig, S.Maria.Magg, and Vat.gr. It's a bit of a meme, at least when I talk to people, about how weirdly unrealistic the oxen of St. Luke seem to be in manusc...

A busy week, with eighty-one manuscripts digitized into the repositories. The largest contribution came from Ott.lat, whose 26 manuscripts represent nearly 1% of the entire fond. Other large contributors were Vat.lat, with twenty-one, and Barb.lat, with fourteen. Smaller numbers of manuscripts came from Vat.gr, with six, and Chig and Santa Maria Maggiore...

Only fourteen manuscripts were digitized this week, all on Friday. They were split across the recent friends, Vat.lat giving six, Barb.lat giving four, and three from Ott.lat. The last manuscript is from Borg.ill. At the right is f.2r from Barb.lat.1449, a 15th C copy of Thomas Waleys' Campus florum, a book of extracts from the Fathers and other import...

Only thirty-five manuscripts were digitized by the Vatican this week, which probably isn't due to Rosh Hashana. The manuscripts were pretty widely spread for a rather quiet week, with the sixteen from Vat.lat as the only fond with more than ten. Following that were the two popular ones of late Barb.lat with eight, and Ott.lat with three. Three parts of...

A total of fifty-three manuscripts were digitized this week. The largest number were from Vat.lat, with eighteeen, and Ott.lat with sixteen. Nine came from Barb.lat, completing the triumvirate of fonds that have been in the majority over the last few weeks. Further manuscripts came from Bonc, with four, Chigi and Vat.gr, with two each, and one from Capp...

An entirely respectable seventy manuscripts were digitized this week. Following, somewhat, recent patterns, the top three fonds were Ott.lat, Barb.lat, and Vat.lat. The largest fraction came from Ott.lat, with thirty-three manuscripts representing nearly 1% of the entire fond, followed by Vat.lat with seventeen and Barb.lat with sixteen. The rest were ...

Only eight manuscripts were digitized this week, all on Thursday. They are divided across the Vat.lat, four, Ott.lat, three, and Barb.lat, one, collections. To the right are drawings from the plans for St Peter's Square, as drawn by Bernini, found on f.1r of Vat.lat.14620. It shows the large colonnade, called the "Arms of the Church" in the guise of a...

A reasonable total of fifty-eight manuscripts were digitized this week, coming from only three fonds. The largest number, twenty-eight, came from Vat.lat, Ott.lat contributed nineteen, and Barb.lat added eleven. To the right is the first real page, f.2r, of Vat.lat.11249, a copy of the Rule of St. Benedict translated into Italian. The large miniature s...

No more snide commentary on digitization speed, the Vatican brought one hundred and three manuscripts online this week, the first time they have crossed the hundred mark since fall of 2023. The bulk of the volumes are closely split between Vat.lat, with thirty-six, Barb.lat with thirty-two, and Ott.lat with thirty-one. All the rest of the manuscripts we...

Another quietish week brings thirty-one more manuscripts into the Vatican repositories. This week the bulk of them, fifteen, came from Ott.lat. Eight came from Vat.lat, six from Barb.lat and one each from P.I.O. and Urb.lat. The 1465-66 manuscript of Macrobius' Dream of Scipio was written by Antonio di Domenico da Toffia, confident of Pope Paul II and ...

No Manuscripts were digitized this week due to the August vacation. The Fond explaination pages were updated for letters R and S

Only twenty-three manuscripts digitized this week as we steam headlong towards August vacation. The largest source this week was Barb.lat, with nine, followed by Ott.lat and Vat.lat with five each. Two came from Vat.et, a rarely-seen Fond, and one each from Chig and Vat.gr To the right is f.1v from Barb.lat.1668, a book of tables for studying grammar a...

Another quiet week brings sixteen more manuscripts online as work winds down for the August vacation. The set was pretty evenly split between Barb.lat, with eight, and Vat.lat with seven. The lone remaining manuscript came from Ott.lat, a 15th C Lucretius that was once owned by Pope Alexander VIII One of the ongoing projects of late has been the digiti...

There were only seven manuscripts digitized this week, all on Friday. Of these, four were from Barb.lat and the remaining three from Vat.lat, too small a sample to draw any firm conclusions about digitization patterns. To the right is f.3r from Vat.lat.11219. This is the title page from a 19th C manuscript about the Pontifical Expedition of 1840, which...

In total fifty-eight manuscripts were digitized by the Vatican this week. It looks like several recent patterns are starting to stabilize, the largest fond represented was Vat.lat, with twenty-eight manuscripts in the 11xxx range, many from German sources. The second largest collection was Barb.lat, contributing seventeen manuscripts, both more of the 1...

A slightly more active week, with a total of forty-one manuscripts digitized. The bulk of these came from Vat.lat, eighteen, Barb.lat, thirteen, and Ott.lat, seven. The remainder were just two from Chigiani and an unidentified, by me at least, Syriac volume from P.I.O. To the right is the title page, found on f.1r, of Vat.lat.11133. This is a copy of S...

Editorial note: It is Jewish custom to remember the departed on the anniversary of their deaths. It is in that spirit that I always try to mention Jean-Baptiste Piggin on the 27th week of the year, the week in which, in 2019, I learned of his passing. Jean-Baptist started the work of tracking BAV manuscripts in February of 2015, and continued it for jus...

Due to the Nativity of John the Baptist on Monday, there were only six manuscripts digitized this week. These included two volumes from Vat.lat, two volumes, but part of the same shelfmark, from Capp.sist, and one each from Barb.lat and Ott.lat To the right is f.2v of Vat.lat.10657, a complex page from a complex manuscript. This is a palimpsest where b...

A total of seventy-eight manuscripts were digitized in the past week. In what is turning into the current pattern, the bulk of these were 17th and 18th C musical volumes, thirty-three of them from Chigiani and thirty from Barb.lat. The rest of the week consisted of six volumes from Vat.lat, four from Urb.lat, three from Ott.lat, and two from Capp.Sist....

A total of seventy-nine manuscripts were digitized in the past week, bringing the rate of progress back more in-line with historical norms, but above the last few months. In the pattern of the last few weeks, however, musical volumes from the Chigiani collection formed the bulk of the weeks additions, contributing a massive fifty-six codices. Beyond tha...

A total of fifty-six manuscripts were digitized in the past week by the Vatican. The work continues at pace on digitizing the musical volumes in the Chigiani collection, making up the majority of the twenty-one of their items added this week. Other contributors include Vat.gr with ten, Barb.lat with secen, cat.lat with only five, and Ott.lat with three. ...

Back to the recent pace with a total of thirty-five manuscripts digitized this week. The largest number of these, fifteen, were 17th and 18th C musical volumes from the Chigiani collection. These have been coming in small numbers over the last few months, but never this many at once. Following that was Vat.lat with seven, Ott.lat with five, Barb.lat wi...

A reasonably active week for the Vatican this week, with forty-nine manuscripts digitized. The largest number came from Ott.lat, with sixteen, followed by Barb.lat and Vat.lat, each with nine. Eight items from Borg.copt were added, all from the folios originally shelved together as Borg.copt.109. Five more of the 17th C musical manuscripts from Chig were...

A total of nineteen manuscripts were digitized this week, perhaps quiet due to the lead-up to Pentecost. Of those eleven came from Vat.lat, five from Ott.lat and one each from Barb.lat, Capp.sist, and Chig. To the right is f.2r from Ott.lat.113, the first book of the City of God (the one by St. Augustine, not the 2002 Movie, or the novel, by Michael J...

There were a total of thirty-three manuscripts digitized this week, which has probably been the pattern for the last month or so, taking into consideration the issues noted last week. The largest fond this week is Vat.lat, with twelve, followed by Ott.lat with seven, and Barb.lat with six. One of the less common collections, Capp.Sist, contributes five,...

How many manuscripts were added this week is a more complex question than usual. It was discovered on monday that the main listing page for the Vat.lat collection was loading too slowly for the system, which was timing out and not capturing the new manuscripts in this, the largest fond in the library, and had been failing in this way for seven weeks. Co...

The Vatican has returned to the slow pace of earlier April with only thirteen manuscripts getting digitized in the course of the week. Most of these, nine in total, came from the Barb.lat fond, and two each came from Ott.lat and Borg.ar. To the right is f.23r from Barb.lat.1441, a 14th C copy of the Instutions of Justinian, a foundational text of civi...

It looks like the Vatican has returned the the recent standard, with thirty-one manuscripts digitized in the past week. Following that pattern, the largest number of manuscripts, fifteen, came from Ott.lat, with Barb.lat following with seven. Both Capp.sist and Vat.gr contributed three, and one each came from Barb.gr, Vat.turc, and Chig, the last being a...

Even by recent weeks, this was a quiet week of digitizations, with only thirteen manuscripts added this week. The majority of these, eight, were from Ott.lat, three were from Barb.lat and one each came from Chigiani and Vat.gr To the right is is f.37v from *Ott.lat.886, a late 16th C copy of Laevinus Torrentius' Hymnorum, de partu Virginis, ad Pium V. ...

Another quiet week at the Vatican with twenty-six manuscripts digitized. In what is seeming to be a new pattern, the bulk of them, seventeen, were from the Ott.lat collection. Following that were Vat.gr and Barb.lat with three each and two from Barb.gr. There was only a single musical volume from Chigiani digitized, that source group seems to have dried...

Due to it being Holy Week, only nineteen manuscripts were digitized by the Vatican this week. The top two contributors were Pal.lat with nine and Ott.lat with seven. The remaining manuscripts were single items from Chigiani, Pal.gr, and Vat.gr. This is the first time that a significant number of the missing Pal.lat volumes have been added in many weeks...

A new pattern seems to be emerging, another slow week brings twenty-nine new manuscripts to the repositories. As with last week, Ott.lat brings in the most, with eleven, followed by seven Barb.lat, and six Chigiani musical volumes. Three Capp.sist volumes, and one each Barb.grand Vat.gr complete the weeks work. Manuscripts of the work of Raymund Llull o...

Another slow week, with a total of twenty-seven manuscripts digitized into the Vatican archives. The largest segment came from Ott.lat, which contributed fifteen. The Chigiani collection continues to add 17th C musical volumes, with six digitized this week. The Barg.gr collection added four, and then the week wraps up with a single volume each from Barb...

The Vatican continues progress, if a bit more slowly, with thirty-four manuscripts digitized in the past week. As seems to becoming a new pattern, the largest number of these were musical volumes from the Chigiani collection, with fifteen of those added this week. Other collections that contributed were Ott.lat with six, Vat.lat with five, Barb.gr with f...

Another rather quiet week, with a total forty-one manuscripts digitized. In what is starting to be a trend, the largest contributor was the Chigiani collection, specifically 17th and 18th C musical books, which added nine volumes. Close behind was Vat.lat with eight, the Capp.Giulia and Vat.gr with five each, Barb.gr with four and Barb.lat with three. Tw...

A total of fifty-five manuscripts were digitized by the Vatican this week. In a complete departure from recent weeks, the largest single grouping of these were the seventeen 17th C musical volumes from the Chigiani collection. This was followed by nine from Ott.lat, seven each from Vat.gr and Vat.lat, and six from Barb.gr. The week wraps up with four fr...

This week the library only added forty-seven manuscripts, perhaps due to Ash Wednesday interrupting work. The recent pattern was disrupted slightly, Ott.lat at fifteen outpaced Vat.lat with only twelve. The other collections which contributed were Barb.lat with eight, Barg.gr with six, and then some rare ones, with Chigiani giving three, and Vat.gr two. ...

This week the Vatican was back up to speed with seventy manuscripts digitized. As with last week, the largest contributor, with thirty-one was Vat.lat, followed by Barb.lat with eighteen and Ott.lat with nine. Smaller contributions came from Barb.gr with four and a lone manuscript of 17th C music from Chigiani. The final fond represented this week is a co...

A total of fifty-three manuscripts were digitized in the last week. The majority, thirty-four, came from the Vat.lat fond, most from the range of 10000-11000, but also a number from the 6000s. Also contributing were Barb.lat with ten and Ott.lat with six. The remaining manuscripts came in small numbers, two from Barb.gr and on from Patetta. To the ri...

This weeks was somewhere in the middle of the spectrum for manuscript digitization, with fifty-six coming online. In what is shaping up to be a pattern, although Vat.lat contributed the most with twenty-three, both Barb.lat, fifteen, and Ott.lat, fourteen, contributed significant numbers. Of particular note is that the bulk of the Barb.lat volumes are be...

It was an extremely quiet week at the Vatican, only sixteen manuscripts were digitized. Of those five came from Ott.lat, four each from Barb.lat and Vat.lat, and one each from P.I.O., Patetta and Pal.gr. To the right is a page from Vat.lat.6772, a 14th C collection of papal bulls, issued by the pope in Avignon. The Bull starting here, starting on f.XXr ...

Only thirty-five manuscripts were digitized this week, a quiet one for the Vatican. The majority were from Vat.lat, contributing twenty-three, distantly followed by Barb.lat with seven. The week wrapped up with three from Ott.lat and two from P.I.O. At the right is the opening containing f.19v and f.20r from Vat.lat.10700. This is a 17th or 18th C manu...

The year starts with thirty-one new manuscripts digitized. Both Barb.lat and Vat.lat contributed eleven, Ott.lat four and P.I.O. two. The week was completed with a single manuscript from each of Pal.gr, Patetta and Vat.gr One of the more unusual manuscripts digitized this week was Vat.lat.6462, listed in the Vatican catalogue and Baroffio's Iter Liturg...