2018-09-16

By the Book

Long ago, the whole Vatican Library could be catalogued in one notebook.  Nowadays, with 82,000-plus manuscripts alone and huge numbers of printed books, it needs a database.

Among items digitized in the past week is Vat.lat.3955, an inventory of the library in 1518 by Zanobi Acciaiuoli.Though the books were sorted in those days by subject, there was no fancy numbering system. Here you can see how the inventory starts: "First bookcase on the left, in order ...."


The Rome Reborn catalog reminds us that all the books were chained to the banchi, or benches. Most of the users were supposedly virtuous Catholic clergy, but that was no guarantee of propriety.

Here is the full list of 23 items:
  1. Ross.10,
  2. Vat.gr.2064 (Upgraded to HQ), from Greek-speaking Calabria
  3. Vat.lat.3055,
  4. Vat.lat.3096, Latin translation of Ptolemy of Alexandria and other scientific authors. See the full contents listed on Jordanus. This also contains a work attributed to the mathematician Thābit ibn Qurra translated into Latin by Jordanus de Nemore
  5. Vat.lat.3106,
  6. Vat.lat.3131,
  7. Vat.lat.3174 (Upgraded to HQ),
  8. Vat.lat.3529, Decretum (Gratianum?)
  9. Vat.lat.3659,
  10. Vat.lat.3675,
  11. Vat.lat.3688,
  12. Vat.lat.3703,
  13. Vat.lat.3711,
  14. Vat.lat.3718,
  15. Vat.lat.3744,
  16. Vat.lat.3788 (Upgraded to HQ),
  17. Vat.lat.3813,
  18. Vat.lat.3832 (Upgraded to HQ), penitential canon law collection
  19. Vat.lat.3863,
  20. Vat.lat.3877,
  21. Vat.lat.3941,
  22. Vat.lat.3955 (Upgraded to HQ), Inventory of the Library (above)
  23. Vat.lat.3992,
This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 177. 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.
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