#vatican library

[victusinveritas]

[lionofchaeronea]

Map of Hell, Sandro Botticelli, 1480s

[thepastisalreadywritten]

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[miscellaneous-art]

Menologium of Basil II (958-1025) / Menologium Basilii II, 10th century, illumination of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Manuscript - Vat.gr.1613 https://shorturl.at/MPST3

«As the story goes, during the rule of the Roman emperor Decius, seven young men of Ephesus were accused of being Christians. Being that a time of harsh persecution towards Christianity, they were asked to recant their faith upon pain of their life; the seven, however, decided to retire to a mountain cave where they fell asleep while praying. When they were found out, the cave was sealed and the young men trapped forever. After 200 (or 300) years, however, the sealed mouth of the cave was reopened by the landowner; to his surprise, the seven men were still there, still sleeping. As they woke up from their long slumber, they were astounded to find that so many years had passed, since they thought they had slept but one day; what surprised them the most, however, was that Christianity was now not only accepted - but it was the very official religion of the Empire. The local bishop was called to investigate and, being told their story, acknowledge the miracle. The Seven Sleepers finally died on the very same day of their awakening, once again praising God. (...)»

In 'folia magazine' https://shorturl.at/jwFO8

[illustratus]

Vatican Library, c. 1860.

[dererumgestarum]

THE VATICAN VERGIL

The manuscript known as the Vatican Vergil (MS Vat. lat. 3225) is a fragmentary copy of the complete works of Virgil (70-19 BC), produced around AD 400. Its 76 pages, written by a single scribe in rustic capitals with no punctuation, comprise parts of the Aeneid and less of the Georgics. The manuscript was illustrated with large, framed illuminations, 50 of which survive. In its complete state, the manuscript probably had over 450 folios and 280 images. Redacted 400 years after the works were first published, the Vatican Virgil is the one of the oldest surviving manuscripts of the poet’s works and one of the oldest illustrated copies of a classical text.

Given that Theodosius had recently ended state support for the pagan cults and closed the temples, the commission of the copy of the works permeated with the traditional Roman religion might suggest a noble patron nostalgic for the rapidly disappearing pagan culture. However, a volume including the national foundation epic, focused on the originary heroic Roman leader, by the poet most associated with the Augustan golden age, might have been commissioned by, or for, an emperor wishing to assert continuity with the glorious past. Honorius (AD 395-423), the heir to the western empire, may have been given the book at the time of his coronation, to serve as a symbol of the history and legitimacy of the west compared with his brother Arcadius’s recently-minted eastern empire. The manuscript would therefore either have been copied in Rome, prior to the sack of 410, or by a scribe and artists working at the court of Honorius in Milan or Ravenna.

Honorius’ hostility towards paganism would not have been directed at Virgil. As the author of the “messianic” 4th Eclogue, Virgil was considered a prophet of the Christian dispensation and therefore acceptable to Christian readers. Furthermore, the cost an illuminated manuscript of the size of the Vatican Vergil could have been afforded only by a small number of people at the highest level of society, namely the imperial family. This attrbution is, of course, admittedly conjectural and dependent on a dating the manuscript to the first decades of the 5th century.

Manuscripts, unlike wall paitings, are imminently portable. Late antique illuminated codices, such as the Vatican Vergil, sent with missionaries to the monasteries of the north provided book illuminators in Northumbria and Frankish Gaul with their only experience of classical art. The Vatican Virgil left Italy in the 7th century and was in the monastic library of St Martin in Tours in the 9th century. The illuminations of the famous Tours Bibles clearly imitate late antique book painting. The manuscript was in France until c. 1400. It was consulted by Raphael around 1519. Later in the 16th century, the book was in the collections of Cardinal Pietro Bembo and Fulvio Orsini. The latter donated the it to the Vatican Library in 1600.

In 2016, the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana announced a digitization initiative that will result in the entirety of its holdings being available online around 2030. The Vatican Vergil is available online here.

[echiromani]

A portrait of Guglielmo Cardinal Sirleto, Cardinal Librarian of the Holy Roman Church from 1570 until his death in 1585.

[divusborgia]

The greatest impulse to humanistic culture came from Pope Niccolò V, this clever and enthusiastic patron of the Renaissance who, wanting to make Rome a new Athens, turned all his cures to spread Greek and Latin culture by providing Rome with the richest collection of Ancient manuscripts. The revival of classical studies had new, fiery patrons in Pius II and in Sixtus IV, the latter being called the second creator of the Vatican Library. In fact, he gave her new and wide rooms. The Vatican Library was open to the public and registries are still kept nowadays with readers' receipts. Thus, for example, (in Latin): "I, Pomponio, received the book of the story of Gaspare Veronese; Pope Paul II's gesture, October 7, 1475.” When the book was returned, the librarian sketched the receipt with pen strokes, writing the word "Restituit" in a corner.