2017-06-19

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.

No comments :

Post a Comment