Hieroglyphics before Champollion

Before  Jean-François Champollion deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics, a certain amount of very confused traditional knowledge about their meaning did exist. I only discovered this today when looking up a peculiar book, the Hieroglyphica of Horapollo, just digitized at the Vatican Libary. It is copied into the start of Vat.lat.3898 with the following fanciful creature:

Hieroglyphica professes to be a translation from an Egyptian original into Greek by a certain Philippus, and became immensely popular among humanists. Wikipedia states that modern Egyptology regards at least the first part as based on genuine late-antique knowledge of hieroglyphs, although confused, and with baroque symbolism and theological speculation.

This week, @DigiVatLib has been especially busy, posting two of the most beautiful manuscripts on Twitter before I could even get to this blog post. Here is the full list of 21 new items:

1. Ross.13,
2. Vat.lat.2344,
3. Vat.lat.2363, a 15th century compendium of three specialist legal dictionaries, or repertoria in alphabetical order. Fols 65ra-107vb contain Baldus, Margarita [on the Commentaria of Innocent IV]
4. Vat.lat.2364,
5. Vat.lat.3054,
6. Vat.lat.3073,
7. Vat.lat.3180, appears to contain an Aristotle commentary listed by Lohr.  Also a three page tract on physiognomy for which eTK gives the incipit (Inter ceteras est illa quam te ...) but cannot identify the author:
   
   
   
   Also with a fine stemma of Christ and the disciples:
   
8. Vat.lat.3533,

   Pliny's fatal visit to the vicinity of Mount Vesuvius during the eruption of A.D. 79. Illumination from Vat. lat. 3533 (late 15th Cent.) #LatestDigitizedManuscript
   
   Naturalis Historia by Plinius Maior 🌋 https://t.co/C75J6tGxkp pic.twitter.com/xUkMSU4Q92

   — Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) September 20, 2018

9. Vat.lat.3541,
10. Vat.lat.3564,
11. Vat.lat.3674,
12. Vat.lat.3681,
13. Vat.lat.3698 (Upgraded to HQ),
14. Vat.lat.3720,

    Vat. lat. 3720: Messa per Clemente VII (1523-1534) - https://t.co/fxJSFJATOR#LatestDigitizedManuscripts pic.twitter.com/M5c7EvpfMj

    — Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) September 18, 2018

15. Vat.lat.3722,
16. Vat.lat.3734,
17. Vat.lat.3787 (Upgraded to HQ),
18. Vat.lat.3898 (Upgraded to HQ), a 15th-century manuscript thought to come from the library of Angelo Colocci. The first text is the Hieroglyphica of Horapollo, incipit: Quomodo seculum significant seculum significare volentes solem ... (above)
19. Vat.lat.3901 (Upgraded to HQ),
20. Vat.lat.3923 (Upgraded to HQ),
21. Vat.lat.3952 (Upgraded to HQ),

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 178. 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.