The Vatican possesses at least two scrolls containing one of the most famous medieval timelines of biblical history, that drawn up in about 1180 by a Paris university professor, Peter of Poitiers, (Latin name Petrus Pictaviensis Cancellarius).
In the past week, the first of these, Vat.lat.3782 of the late 13th century, was digitized and arrived online in the past week. The other, Vat.lat.3783, cannot be far behind.
Peter's chart for the schoolroom, now commonly known as the Compendium, was drawn as a roll four or more metres in length so it could be scrolled between an upper and a lower roller like a movie reel. Fancy penmanship (see Adam - Eva above) was part of the good example it offered. It was also available sectioned up into ten or so book pages, which must be why Alberic of Trois-Fontaines sixty years later spoke of it in the plural, calling it arbores historiarum, diagrams of history.
Most books about the history of trees and timelines (for example Rosenberg and Grafton's Cartographies of Time) introduce the Compendium, although it had a little-known predecessor nearly 800 years earlier, the Great Stemma, which did much the same on a left-to-right scroll. Peter may not have known a late antique forerunner existed, as his work seems entirely original and not modelled on the Great Stemma.
Peter placed Adam at the top end of the roll and Jesus at the bottom, connecting them by the ancestry given in Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew. He omitted the entire line given in the Gospel of Luke, while introducing additional parallel lines including high priests, Assyrian oppressers, Seleucid emperors and other figures important to Palestine, endeavouring to gather in the secular political context surrounding the biblical story. Everybody is named in roundels like this:
As might be expected with a classroom classic, the Compendium can be found all over Europe in public and private collections. There's a comprehensive overview of these, Peter's Stemma, on my website, and I have posted on the topic in the past on this blog. The Vatican possesses copies in sectional form (as alluded to above by Alberic) as well, three of which are already online:
The full list of 45 digitizations in the past week follows.
In the past week, the first of these, Vat.lat.3782 of the late 13th century, was digitized and arrived online in the past week. The other, Vat.lat.3783, cannot be far behind.
Peter's chart for the schoolroom, now commonly known as the Compendium, was drawn as a roll four or more metres in length so it could be scrolled between an upper and a lower roller like a movie reel. Fancy penmanship (see Adam - Eva above) was part of the good example it offered. It was also available sectioned up into ten or so book pages, which must be why Alberic of Trois-Fontaines sixty years later spoke of it in the plural, calling it arbores historiarum, diagrams of history.
Most books about the history of trees and timelines (for example Rosenberg and Grafton's Cartographies of Time) introduce the Compendium, although it had a little-known predecessor nearly 800 years earlier, the Great Stemma, which did much the same on a left-to-right scroll. Peter may not have known a late antique forerunner existed, as his work seems entirely original and not modelled on the Great Stemma.
Peter placed Adam at the top end of the roll and Jesus at the bottom, connecting them by the ancestry given in Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew. He omitted the entire line given in the Gospel of Luke, while introducing additional parallel lines including high priests, Assyrian oppressers, Seleucid emperors and other figures important to Palestine, endeavouring to gather in the secular political context surrounding the biblical story. Everybody is named in roundels like this:
As might be expected with a classroom classic, the Compendium can be found all over Europe in public and private collections. There's a comprehensive overview of these, Peter's Stemma, on my website, and I have posted on the topic in the past on this blog. The Vatican possesses copies in sectional form (as alluded to above by Alberic) as well, three of which are already online:
The full list of 45 digitizations in the past week follows.
- Ross.1,
- Ross.25,
- Vat.gr.505,
- Vat.lat.2119,
- Vat.lat.2336,
- Vat.lat.2340,
- Vat.lat.2436,
- Vat.lat.2670,
- Vat.lat.2686,
- Vat.lat.2705,
- Vat.lat.3087 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.lat.3479,
- Vat.lat.3553,
- Vat.lat.3581,
- Vat.lat.3645,
- Vat.lat.3712,
- Vat.lat.3743,
- Vat.lat.3750 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.lat.3751,
- Vat.lat.3752,
- Vat.lat.3762 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.lat.3765,
- Vat.lat.3782, Compendium of Petrus Pictaviensis (above)
- Vat.lat.3796,
- Vat.lat.3804,
- Vat.lat.3809,
- Vat.lat.3815, Calcidius' Latin translation of Plato's Timaeus in a 12th-c. copy, including some elaborate drawings, now available @DigitaVaticana. HT to @JBPiggin for including it in his weekly list.https://t.co/uEqPnLkn7G pic.twitter.com/qKRkwC8ZrS— Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) September 8, 2018
- Vat.lat.3820 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.lat.3825 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.lat.3826,
- Vat.lat.3830,
I hereby present you the "Gregorian reformer's handbook": follow the instructions if you ever need to confront simoniacs or married priests!
— GiorgiaV (@ParvaVox) September 10, 2018
Amazing canon law collection made in 11thC Central Italy among the latest uploads @DigitaVaticana HT @JBPiggin
➡️https://t.co/ksPSYfKvf4 pic.twitter.com/tXOhuJi9s2 - Vat.lat.3843,
- Vat.lat.3845, A harlequinesque king Rothari greets you from this 12thC Italian lawbook gathering Lombard & #Carolingian legislation. It's an early witness of the so-called Lombarda reordering content by legal theme rather than chronological order!— GiorgiaV (@ParvaVox) September 10, 2018
➡️https://t.co/CzuiidyaZc#MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/RTAib0Xwna - Vat.lat.3851,
- Vat.lat.3862 (Upgraded to HQ),
Beautiful 9thC copy of Victorinus's commentary on Cicero's De inventione just digitised @DigitaVaticana HT @JBPiggin!
— GiorgiaV (@ParvaVox) September 11, 2018
The #manuscript is connected to Lupus of Ferrières, the only #Carolingian scholar who had a thorough knowledge of Ciceronian rhetoric!
➡️https://t.co/JCJeolLltf pic.twitter.com/Z4SVTRfsyz - Vat.lat.3881.pt.1,
- Vat.lat.3881.pt.2,
- Vat.lat.3885,
- Vat.lat.3894,
- Vat.lat.3907,
- Vat.lat.3910,
- Vat.lat.3921,
- Vat.lat.3947 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.lat.3949 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.lat.3989,
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