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.