Last month I gave a paper at the Kartographiehistorisches Colloquium, and was surprised that more than 100 people were waiting in Friedenstein Palace in Gotha, Germany to listen. Geography and its paraphernalia fascinate a lot of people.
That feeling seems to have taken hold back in the 15th century, when Italian nobles began spending insane amounts of money to own their own Geographies of Ptolemy.
The Vatican Library has just digitized Vat.lat.3810, volume one of a two-volume luxury edition dating from about 1470. Anthony Grafton wrote when this was displayed in the United States:
About as interesting as tide tables or the phone book. The real reason that this gorgeous book was commissioned was for the maps by Nicholas Germanus, which are in the previously released Vat.lat.3811, and these would make any of my historical cartography friends drool with pleasure:
This week's digitizations are few in number, but perhaps there is a rush in store for us. Here is the list of 17:
That feeling seems to have taken hold back in the 15th century, when Italian nobles began spending insane amounts of money to own their own Geographies of Ptolemy.
The Vatican Library has just digitized Vat.lat.3810, volume one of a two-volume luxury edition dating from about 1470. Anthony Grafton wrote when this was displayed in the United States:
By the middle of the century increasingly opulent manuscripts of the Geography had become fashionable as conspicuous displays of wealth; and travellers and explorers as well as scholars read them.Now it has to said that Ptolemy is not light reading, for any of the above. Most of his book is a directory of places with latitudes and longitudes, like the coast of Puglia here:
About as interesting as tide tables or the phone book. The real reason that this gorgeous book was commissioned was for the maps by Nicholas Germanus, which are in the previously released Vat.lat.3811, and these would make any of my historical cartography friends drool with pleasure:
This week's digitizations are few in number, but perhaps there is a rush in store for us. Here is the list of 17:
- Ross.86.pt.1,
- Vat.lat.2339,
- Vat.lat.2358,
- Vat.lat.2869,
- Vat.lat.2979,
Intricate red penwork in and around this E. From another MS of Aristotle's logical works & Boethius' commentaries @DigitaVaticana, found in the latest list by @JBPiggin.https://t.co/WIwPbAg3HP pic.twitter.com/dxTh7aHnom
— Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) November 4, 2018 - Vat.lat.3035, Logic of Paulus Pergulensis, see Jordanus. With this fine Porphyrian Tree:
- Vat.lat.3737, Need some help with your rhetoric homework? Don't worry Vat. lat. 3737 is now among the #LatestDigitizedManuscript— Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) October 30, 2018
"La Retorica di Aristotele ridutta in Arbori" - https://t.co/Q8ZfyRC7zE pic.twitter.com/ooo63kZTX3 - Vat.lat.3810 (Upgraded to HQ), Geography of Ptolemy (above)
- Vat.lat.4018,
- Vat.lat.4157,
- Vat.lat.4159,
🔔Newly digitised early #medieval #manuscript🔔
— GiorgiaV (@ParvaVox) November 5, 2018
A pocket-size, tidy & reader-friendly lawbook feat. a widely popular collection of #Carolingian capitularies (Collectio Ansegisi). Copied in the 2nd half of the 9thC in Frankish territories.
HT @JBPiggin
🔗https://t.co/KPCSuIhboc pic.twitter.com/RcVUx1Hn2Q - Vat.lat.4161,
- Vat.lat.4163,
- Vat.lat.4166,
- Vat.lat.4190,
- Vat.lat.4226,
- Vat.lat.13362,
- Pal.lat.571,
- Pal.lat.572 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Pal.lat.603 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Pal.lat.606 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Pal.lat.609,
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