Romantic Love

One might argue that western ideas of romantic love have their roots in certain ideas of the Renaissance, when the Roman poet Ovid was re-interpreted through a Christian lens and seen as a harbinger of courtly and noble love. In fact, Ovid was probably just a Boris Johnson of ancient Rome, a public school cad with a gift for words, and not a person particularly worth following.

The Vatican Library has just digitized an Epistulae of Ovid drawn ca. 1430-1440, possibly in northern Italy, which depicts in its margins ten pairs of lovers framing the start of each letter (see article by Rabel).

Leaf through Ross.893 to see them. Here for example is Leander of Abydos clutching the M of "Mittit Abydenus ..." like a shield as he writes in Heroides Letter 18 of his desire to swim long distance to see his girlfriend:

You can also admire him wearing a most extraordinary Italian Renaissance high hat as letter 19 arrives by return of post from lovely Hero:

Here is the full list of 32 digitizations uploaded on July 5, 2016:

1. Borg.copt.109.cass.IX.fasc.29 - Details
2. Borg.copt.109.cass.XIX.fasc.71 - Details
3. Borg.copt.109.cass.XIX.fasc.74 - Details
4. Borg.copt.109.cass.XVII.fasc.62 - Details
5. Borg.copt.109.cass.XVII.fasc.63 - biblical fragments including a page of Luke's Gospel - Details
6. Borg.copt.109.cass.XVIII.fasc.65.1 - Details
7. Borg.copt.109.cass.XVIII.fasc.66 - Details
8. Borg.copt.109.cass.XVIII.fasc.67 - Details
9. Borg.copt.109.cass.XVIII.fasc.68 - Details
10. Chig.H.VII.229 - Horace - Details
11. Ott.lat.3382 -historical? Armenia and Persia - Details
12. Ross.893 - Ovid, Epistulae (above) - Details
13. Urb.lat.679 - Rambaldi's commentary on Dante's Divine Comedy Details
14. Vat.lat.101 - glossed bible, later books Details
15. Vat.lat.293 - Ambrose, Details
16. Vat.lat.309 - John of Damascus, attrib. Details
17. Vat.lat.310 - John of Damascus, Chrysostom, Anselm - Details
18. Vat.lat.331 - Jerome on prophets, Details
19. Vat.lat.351 - Collection of Epistulae, Details
20. Vat.lat.652 - Johannes Scotus Eriugena and his famed exposition on the heavenly hierarchy, from which derives our modern use of "hierarchy" as a key abstraction - Details
21. Vat.lat.669 - Bernard of Clairvaux, Details
22. Vat.lat.687 - Augustine plus bits and bobs including this nifty circular calendar for 1401 onwards,
    
    
23. Vat.lat.690 - Peter Lombard, Sententiae Details
24. Vat.lat.699 - Psalms commentary attributed to Innocent III - Details
25. Vat.lat.708 - Albertus Magnus, bishop Regensburg, Summae theologiae, Details
26. Vat.lat.753 - Details
27. Vat.lat.794 - 14th century copy of Thomas Aquinas commentary on gospels. It seems from notes in it that Bermond de Montferrier, a Montpellier law professor was involved in transferring the codex to a convent in that city. With fine initial (below) showing the angelic doctor - Details
    
28. Vat.lat.812 - Franciscan sermons Details
29. Vat.lat.828 - works of Aegidius Romanus Details
30. Vat.lat.856 - Henry of Ghent, 15th century, first exemplar? Details
31. Vat.lat.12504 - letters of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, humanist, diplomat and pope, Details
32. Vat.lat.14741 - Giorgio Grippari's 1694 handwritten list of the printed books in the Biblioteca Vaticana. This is only initial letters A-B. Details

This is Piggin's Unofficial List 58. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to Digita Vaticana.