Midget Minstrels

Maximilian I, the German emperor, is famous for adopting print as a means to increase his propaganda reach. His Ehrenpforte, a monumental printed frieze to be glued together, figures as a proto family tree in my book Mind's Eye. He wrote a chivalric novel Weisskunig (about "me" of course) with his secretary between 1505 and 1516 and commissioned illustrations.

The sketchbook, Vat.lat.8570, has just been digitized by the Vatican Library and is a feast of silliness to be enjoyed page by page: here are some midget minstrels at fol. 107r:

The drawings, which served the engravers who made the wooden plates under the supervision of Konrad Peutinger in Augsburg, were later pasted into the scrapbook which ended up in the Vatican.

In all, 29 digitizations went online in the past week. My unofficial list:

1. Ross.106, book of hours
2. Urb.lat.148,
3. Urb.lat.183,
4. Urb.lat.615,
5. Urb.lat.733,
6. Urb.lat.760,
7. Urb.lat.765,
8. Urb.lat.776,
9. Urb.lat.811,
10. Urb.lat.846,
11. Urb.lat.853.pt.1,
12. Urb.lat.1088.pt.2,
13. Urb.lat.1088.pt.3,
14. Vat.lat.2473, commentaries on Avicenna
15. Vat.lat.2477,
16. Vat.lat.2481, date 1385, by the Italian surgeon Gentile da Foligno 
17. Vat.lat.4555,

    New @DigitaVaticana: Vat. lat. 4555 contains the first book of Simplicius' commentary on Aristotle's De caelo in Moerbeke's translation.
    H/T @JBPiggin
    Copied from Vat. lat. 2067, in which I like the initial better. #rubberstamphttps://t.co/Nh6bpWDzEbhttps://t.co/PUtHv2Ak0m pic.twitter.com/i3wWugRjFD

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) February 2, 2019

18. Vat.lat.4575 (Upgraded to HQ), humanist historian Flavio Biondo (1392 - 1463): De verbis Romanae locutionis [ad Leonardum Brunum]
19. Vat.lat.4576 (Upgraded to HQ),
20. Vat.lat.4577,
21. Vat.lat.4580,
22. Vat.lat.4581,
23. Vat.lat.4588,
24. Vat.lat.4607,
25. Vat.lat.4612 (Upgraded to HQ),
26. Vat.lat.4615,
27. Vat.lat.4628,
28. Vat.lat.8570 (Upgraded to HQ),

    Adventures, hunting, jousts, battles and love: #drawings for the autobiographical poem composed by Emperor Maximilian I.
    Vat. lat. 8570 (c. 1512) - "Disegni dell'antico poema tedesco il Theuerdank" among the #LatestDigitizedManuscripts 🏰⚔🛡 🐎 https://t.co/1FJGjObTFu pic.twitter.com/4y3r3M3Xuq

    — Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) January 31, 2019

29. Vat.turc.314, flyleaf note in German dates this to 985, author Isqi Munsaat

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 194. 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.