2019-03-02

Got Birds?

An Italian, Teseo Pini, wrote between 1484 and 1486 a book claiming to expose the tricks practised by organized beggars of various types. From what we know, there was fierce competition on the streets of Renaissance Europe for the attention of charity givers. Among the players were not just panhandlers and scammers, but also Franciscan friars and unemployed university graduates.

Pini's book, De Ceretanorum Origine Eorumque Fallaciis, became something of a best-seller and the Vatican Library has just digitized a late copy, Urb.lat.1217. It describes about about 40 types of alleged "cerretani" (charlatans, impostors) and their Italian jargon (instead of the Mafia term capo, they said imperatore for the boss of a gang, fol. 64r).

From Roberto Rusconi I read that one group, the Acconi, carried round images painted on wood of a boy, Simon of Trent, allegedly murdered by Jews. They sang anti-Jewish songs and hymns to the Virgin Mary. When the punters fell for this (usually when coming out of church) and the take in donations was good, the Acconi's Italian phrase for success translated as: "We seized our birds."

In the past week, 18 manuscripts were digitized and put online. The full list:
  1. Ott.lat.2836,
  2. Ross.90, book of  hours? 
  3. Ross.105,
  4. Urb.lat.613,
  5. Urb.lat.977,
  6. Urb.lat.1112 (Upgraded to HQ), dated 1648
  7. Urb.lat.1118,
  8. Urb.lat.1217, above
  9. Urb.lat.1231 (Upgraded to HQ), on fencing, sadly no illustrations.
  10. Urb.lat.1274,
  11. Urb.lat.1441,
  12. Urb.lat.1452,
  13. Vat.lat.4058,
  14. Vat.lat.4146,
  15. Vat.lat.4605 (Upgraded to HQ),
  16. Vat.lat.4640,
  17. Vat.lat.4708,
  18. Vat.lat.4713,
This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 198. 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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