A "Tree" of Genealogy

The quest for the first "family tree" has been one of my scholarly interests for years. Readers of this blog will know by now that stemmata, ramifying diagrams with ancestors at the top, were invented in antiquity (provedly before 427 CE). The inversion of those diagrams into family trees with ancestors as the roots and their descendants as boughs and leaves was a slow transformation that took well over a thousand years.

One of the most interesting way-stations in that process is the invention of the term "family tree," where "tree" in its medieval sense simply meant a diagram that could be scaled up at will (just as a tree or a crystal grows) without specifically denoting that the diagram must visually resemble a natural tree.

Christine Klapisch-Zuber in her major work, L'Ombre des Ancêtres, fixes the first fusion of "genealogical" and "tree" in Latin in 1312 by Bernard Gui, a Dominican inquisitor and bishop in the south of France, who wrote a history of the French kings.That means that in the latest wave of Vatican digitizations, special interest attaches to a 1369 translation of this work into French by Jean Golein.

This forms the second part of the codex Reg.lat.697, which can now be consulted online. La Généalogie des Roys de France commences at folio CXIIr. Note the flowers and tendrils which indicate that the idea of arbre is already playing on the minds of the artists. As one sees in the example below, the main line of kings is at centre-page, descending page by page through the book, and little roundel-link stemmata of each king's non-monarchical relatives are set off to one side.

This is not Golein's autograph of course. That, according to Delisle, is in the parliamentary library in Paris. The first part of the Vatican codex contains Golein's French rendering of the Flores chronicorum, also by Bernard Gui, which is a history since the time of Jesus of the popes and Roman emperors. Reg.lat.697 is wonderfully illuminated and offers us this notable conclave of cardinals:

The full list of digitizations this week (lacking 25 extra items that slipped online on Friday morning as I was finishing) follows:

1. Borg.copt.67,
2. Borg.sir.16,
3. Chig.C.VIII.230, with fine initials and miniatures including this Annunciation (though I could have sworn this angel has a horn!)
   
4. Ott.lat.1302,
5. Reg.lat.652,
6. Reg.lat.653,
7. Reg.lat.654,
8. Reg.lat.659,
9. Reg.lat.660,
10. Reg.lat.664,
11. Reg.lat.676,
12. Reg.lat.678,
13. Reg.lat.691,
14. Reg.lat.697, translation into French by Jean Golein of the Flores chronicorum of Bernard Gui (above)
15. Reg.lat.707,
16. Reg.lat.709,
17. Reg.lat.725,
18. Reg.lat.731,
19. Reg.lat.735,
20. Reg.lat.737,
21. Reg.lat.740,
22. Reg.lat.746,
23. Reg.lat.759,
24. Reg.lat.761,
25. Reg.lat.766,
26. Reg.lat.770,
27. Reg.lat.803,
28. Reg.lat.864,
29. Reg.lat.880,
30. Reg.lat.882,
31. Reg.lat.888,
32. Reg.lat.891,
33. Reg.lat.913,
34. Reg.lat.935, Reuilion
35. Sbath.251,
36. Urb.lat.843.pt.1,
37. Urb.lat.843.pt.2,
38. Vat.gr.1312.pt.1,
39. Vat.gr.1312.pt.2,
40. Vat.lat.1299, Expositio in Iohannem, anon.
41. Vat.lat.1302,
42. Vat.lat.1310,
43. Vat.lat.1317,
44. Vat.lat.1325,
45. Vat.lat.1382, Bottoni, Glossa Ordinaria, with some fine arbor juris diagrams, one of which has this interesting detail in the bottom panel:  
    
46. Vat.lat.1384,
47. Vat.lat.1389,
48. Vat.lat.1430,
49. Vat.lat.1436,
50. Vat.lat.1445,
51. Vat.lat.1451,
52. Vat.lat.1453,
53. Vat.lat.1455,
54. Vat.lat.1481, Priscian
55. Vat.lat.1483, Priscian
56. Vat.lat.1543, Macrobius
57. Vat.lat.1547, Macrobius, commentary on Dream of Scipio
58. Vat.lat.1567, Homer, Iliad, in Lorenzo Valla translation to Latin
59. Vat.lat.1587, Horace, works, 12th century
60. Vat.lat.1591, Horace, poetry
61. Vat.lat.1599, Ovid
62. Vat.lat.1604, Ovid, Fasti, 12th century
63. Vat.lat.1605, Ovid, 15C
64. Vat.lat.1618, Statius, Achilleidis
65. Vat.lat.1623, Lucan, Civil Wars
66. Vat.lat.1642, Seneca, tragedies
67. Vat.lat.1643, Seneca, tragedies
68. Vat.lat.1654,
69. Vat.lat.1681, Boninius Mombrizio
70. Vat.lat.1687, Cicero, letters
71. Vat.lat.1690, Cicero, letters, dated 1462
72. Vat.lat.1692, Cicero, letters, 15C
73. Vat.lat.1693, Cicero, rhetorical works
74. Vat.lat.1702, Cicero, rhetorical works
75. Vat.lat.1712, Cicero, rhetorical works
76. Vat.lat.1714, Ad Herennium
77. Vat.lat.1718, Ad Herennium
78. Vat.lat.1724, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
79. Vat.lat.1726, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
80. Vat.lat.1727, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
81. Vat.lat.1728, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations
82. Vat.lat.1733, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations
83. Vat.lat.1734, Cicero, De Officiis
84. Vat.lat.1739, Cicero, philosophy
85. Vat.lat.1740, Cicero, philosophy
86. Vat.lat.1741, Cicero, Scipio's Dream, plus anonymous works bound in back
87. Vat.lat.1744, Cicero, speeches
88. Vat.lat.1745, Cicero, speeches
89. Vat.lat.1748, Cicero, speeches
90. Vat.lat.1751, Cicero, speeches, dated 1452
91. Vat.lat.1753, Cicero, speeches
92. Vat.lat.1755, Cicero, speeches
93. Vat.lat.1756, Cicero, speeches
94. Vat.lat.1758, Cicero, philosophical works, 15C
95. Vat.lat.1759, Cicero, philosophical works, 15C
96. Vat.lat.1760, Cicero On Laws, Plutarch Lives in Brutus translation
97. Vat.lat.1761, Quintilian
98. Vat.lat.1763, Quintilian
99. Vat.lat.1764, Quintilian
100. Vat.lat.1765, Quintilian
101. Vat.lat.1768, Quintilian
102. Vat.lat.1771, Quintilian speeches, dated 1459
103. Vat.lat.1774, Quintilian speeches, dated 1455
104. Vat.lat.1776, Latin panegyrics
105. Vat.lat.1777, Pliny the Younger, Letters, 15C
106. Vat.lat.1779, Josephus in Rufinus Latin translation
107. Vat.lat.1782, Phalaridis et Bruti epistulae
108. Vat.lat.1784, Poggio Braccolini: De varietate fortunae (On the Vicissitudes of Fortune, 1447)
109. Vat.lat.1786, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II), many key writings
110. Vat.lat.1789, Epistulae 1-119 of Marsilio Ficino, as later published - Rome Reborn
111. Vat.lat.1799, Thucydides, Peloponnesian Wars, Lorenz Valla's Latin translation; dated 1452
112. Vat.lat.1800, ditto
113. Vat.lat.1810, Polybius, 15C
114. Vat.lat.1826,
115. Vat.lat.1829, Aulus Hirtius, Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, 15C
116. Vat.lat.6719,
117. Vat.lat.13619,
118. Vat.lat.14749,

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 119. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Delisle, L. "Notice sur les manuscrits de Bernard Gui," in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale et autres bibliothèques, XXVII, 2 (1879), 169-455. https://archive.org/

Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. L’ombre des ancêtres. Paris: Fayard, 2000.

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.

Comix

A kind of 11th-century comic book, with cartoon-style drawings showing successive scenes in the history of the church, such as the Ascension and the first six Councils, is a highlight of the newest batch of digitizations by the Vatican Library. 

Page through these outline drawings, which are economically colored by simple ink washes. The depictions of the councils place the Roman emperor and his retinue at the top, groups of clerics at center, and images of fallen heretics below, like this:

This codex contains the canon-law Collection in Five Books and other materials. At fol 303r is a remarkable arbor juris in the form of a rota:

The latest round of digitizations brings the online total to 14,128 items. Here are some of the novelties.

1. Barb.lat.2182
2. Ott.lat.2531 , HT to ParvaVox who notices this is another #Carolingian codex: the Annales Necrologici of Fulda kept and updated from 779 to 1065.
3. Reg.lat.28
4. Reg.lat.39
5. Reg.lat.40
6. Reg.lat.57
7. Reg.lat.58
8. Reg.lat.60
9. Reg.lat.62
10. Reg.lat.65
11. Reg.lat.97
12. Reg.lat.115
13. Reg.lat.119
14. Reg.lat.121
15. Reg.lat.208, an 11th-century book for school use, with the Fabulae of Avian, popular for elementary Latin lessons and for classes in grammar as part of liberal arts courses. eTK lists the section beginning: "Electuarium ad omnia vitia stomachi quo utebatur Karolus rex."
16. Reg.lat.228
17. Reg.lat.231
18. Reg.lat.240 , HT to @ParvaVox who notes the content of this #Carolingian treasure: the treatise by Florus of Lyons in which he attacked vs John Scotus Eriugena. @chaprot (Pierre Chambert-Protat, the expert on Florus) notes: Reg.lat.240 is a special one though because although we don't know where it comes from, it contains a letter of transmittal: 240 is the one and only witness of this letter, but it has lost the rubrica. We don't know to whom Florus wrote it! Thanks to @DigitaVaticana, every relevant witness of this work is now digitized and fully accessible on the internet.
19. Reg.lat.242
20. Reg.lat.249
21. Reg.lat.259
22. Reg.lat.262
23. Reg.lat.264, 14th century. eTK lists section beginning, "A febribus Beneventanis que aut citissime." Fols 169r-186r contain Augustine, De opere monachorum
24. Reg.lat.265
25. Reg.lat.270
26. Reg.lat.275
27. Reg.lat.298
28. Reg.lat.305
29. Reg.lat.313
30. Reg.lat.322
31. Reg.lat.340
32. Reg.lat.345
33. Reg.lat.347
34. Reg.lat.350
35. Reg.lat.351
36. Reg.lat.355
37. Reg.lat.356 . HT to @ParvaVox on Twitter who recognized this is as beautiful 9th-10th-century glossed copy of Walahfrid Strabo's Visio Wettini from St Gall. HT @JBPiggin pic.twitter.com/1h2yNP0fkj
38. Reg.lat.361
39. Reg.lat.365
40. Reg.lat.367
41. Reg.lat.370
42. Reg.lat.383
43. Reg.lat.389
44. Reg.lat.391
45. Reg.lat.392, binding of several 15th century copies of philosophical works, the main one of which is Duns Scotus writing on John Sharpe, Quaestiones quodlibetales, probably in Advent 1306 or Lent 1307. eTK lists a section beginning, "Aliqui dicunt quod natura materialis se ipsa individuatur."
46. Reg.lat.397, eTK lists a section beginning, "Cum animadverterem quamplurimos medicorum non solum iuniores."
47. Reg.lat.401
48. Reg.lat.403
49. Reg.lat.409
50. Reg.lat.414.pt.1
51. Reg.lat.414.pt.2
52. Reg.lat.415
53. Reg.lat.420
54. Reg.lat.428
55. Reg.lat.429
56. Reg.lat.437
57. Reg.lat.431, 15th century, a mixed codex with penitentials, an order of the mass, some Augustine and other materials. eTK lists a section beginning, "Post naturam corpoream et incorpoream." Also: De animali
58. Reg.lat.440
59. Reg.lat.441
60. Reg.lat.444
61. Reg.lat.447
62. Reg.lat.449
63. Reg.lat.450
64. Reg.lat.451
65. Reg.lat.452
66. Reg.lat.459
67. Reg.lat.487
68. Reg.lat.575
69. Reg.lat.583
70. Reg.lat.584
71. Reg.lat.591
72. Reg.lat.602
73. Reg.lat.623
74. Reg.lat.651
75. Reg.lat.677
76. Reg.lat.683
77. Reg.lat.690
78. Reg.lat.710
79. Reg.lat.728
80. Reg.lat.733
81. Reg.lat.793
82. Urb.lat.1007
83. Urb.lat.1296
84. Urb.lat.1302
85. Urb.lat.1482
86. Urb.lat.1679
87. Urb.lat.1738
88. Urb.lat.1752
89. Urb.lat.1756
90. Vat.lat.1301
91. Vat.lat.1312
92. Vat.lat.1319
93. Vat.lat.1339, a rich 11th-century collectio canonum (see above)
94. Vat.lat.1434
95. Vat.lat.1441
96. Vat.lat.1450
97. Vat.lat.1555
98. Vat.lat.1582
99. Vat.lat.1584
100. Vat.lat.1585
101. Vat.lat.1601
102. Vat.lat.1602
103. Vat.lat.1603
104. Vat.lat.1606
105. Vat.lat.1607
106. Vat.lat.1614
107. Vat.lat.1616
108. Vat.lat.1620
109. Vat.lat.1624
110. Vat.lat.1625
111. Vat.lat.1629
112. Vat.lat.1630
113. Vat.lat.1633
114. Vat.lat.1634
115. Vat.lat.1635
116. Vat.lat.1636
117. Vat.lat.1638
118. Vat.lat.1646
119. Vat.lat.1648
120. Vat.lat.1649
121. Vat.lat.1652
122. Vat.lat.1655
123. Vat.lat.1656
124. Vat.lat.1657
125. Vat.lat.1684
126. Vat.lat.1699
127. Vat.lat.1700: HT to @gundormr who notes: 1700 is a nice 12th century copy (of Cicero) with some glosses. It looks as if the 1700 series below is mostly Cicero.
128. Vat.lat.1708
129. Vat.lat.1710
130. Vat.lat.1711
131. Vat.lat.1713
132. Vat.lat.1719
133. Vat.lat.1731
134. Vat.lat.1736
135. Vat.lat.1752
136. Vat.lat.1754
137. Vat.lat.13102

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 117. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.