Gore in Church

Book of hours were commercial products, where the illuminators aimed to attract buyers with miniatures of either beauty or excitement. An interesting aspect of these prayerbooks is that some contain the most gory images. This week's list of digitizations features Ott.lat.548, which is a book of hours in the Flemish style.

Savour its images which include a butcher about to catch and kill a pig and a scary scene where the king of England's thugs are about to kill Thomas Becket in the cathedral at Canterbury:

According to Morello, that BoH is Use of Sarum and Calendar of Lincoln, though made in Flanders

— AaronM (@gundormr) April 3, 2018

Book of Hours (end of 15th C.) illuminated in Flanders for the English trade. The illustration of the Calendar includes the signs of the zodiac arranged in medallions, and agricultural scenes depicting the activities of the individual months. #April 🌷🌼🌸 https://t.co/CKsvXLXbx1 pic.twitter.com/MDQZCGnQa2

— Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) April 4, 2018

@DigitaVaticana https://t.co/W2BGudBDck.165 is the newest BoH added, Use of Sarum but calendar for Lincoln. Messy calendar, versos of July and Sept. are wrong by a day. In Aug. Vigil but no feast for Assumption. July also missing 27th (f.10v)#medievaltwitter (h/t @JBPiggin ) pic.twitter.com/p8yoy7q2fN

— CoKL Database (@cokldb) April 4, 2018

In all, we have 23 new items to enjoy:

1. Ott.lat.548, a book of hours (above)
2. Vat.lat.519.pt.2,
3. Vat.lat.1951.pt.2, Plinii Naturalis Historiae in a Renaissance codex of high value. This part starts Liber XII. I. Animalium omnium
4. Vat.lat.2233, 14th century, finely illuminated Apparatus in Sextum Bonifatii VIII of
   Iohannes Andreae, c.1270-1348
   
5. Vat.lat.2333,
6. Vat.lat.2760,
7. Vat.lat.2842, Giovanni Pontano
8. Vat.lat.2861,
9. Vat.lat.2880 (Upgraded to HQ), a 15th-century mixture of Cicero, various Quaestiones on Aristotle and a text by John of Saxony, incipit "Istam propositionem scribit Ptolomeus in sapientiis Almagesti..." Here is an astrological diagram:
   
   

   Also in @JBPiggin's list of freshly digitized MSS @DigitaVaticana, this collection of commentaries on Aristotle's Parva Naturalia (here the opening of the section on the Physiognomia).https://t.co/7pqh0yk0hB pic.twitter.com/6N21sZfpN8

   — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) April 3, 2018

10. Vat.lat.2890, 15th century Cicero, De officiis
11. Vat.lat.2900, Rhetoricam ad Herennium, heavily glossed, 14th century
12. Vat.lat.2910, Cicero and Leonardi Bruni translation of Plato
13. Vat.lat.2912 (Upgraded to HQ), an album of classic writers in a peculiar high-oblong format
14. Vat.lat.2916,
15. Vat.lat.2918 (Upgraded to HQ), Giovanni Gatti of Messina
16. Vat.lat.2921 (Upgraded to HQ),
17. Vat.lat.2926 (Upgraded to HQ), George of Trebizond, translations of Plato, etc.

    Autograph copy of a letter by humanist scholar & translator Georges of Trebizond to Guarino Veronese. HT @JBPiggin https://t.co/z1QmRib9HV pic.twitter.com/sSdWRJc3ww

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) April 3, 2018

18. Vat.lat.2929, Marsilio Ficino, commentary on Plato
19. Vat.lat.2934.pt.1, Ficino and others, Plato etc.
20. Vat.lat.2944,
21. Vat.lat.2959, chronica, including list of French kings on last folio
22. Vat.lat.3393, LQ
23. Vat.lat.8171 (Upgraded to HQ), a catalog of the Reginensis collection by Vatican librarian Lucas Holstenius (1596-1661)

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 156. Thanks to @gundormr for harvesting. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.