2015-11-24

Seneca the Stoic

Among the 213 manuscripts uploaded November 23 by Digita Vaticana is a copy of Seneca's Epistulae ad Lucilium. I read that Seneca manuscripts are not rare: there are about 400 of them in various states of incompleteness. This one, Vat.lat.366, is termed "v" in the stemma codicum and is consulted for variants.

Seneca's "we've all got to die sometime" stoicism is a good antidote to the current nervousness. Here is the bit of Letter 49 where he tells Lucilius: "You are mistaken if you think death is at a nearer remove while you're on a sea voyage ... It is always near at hand" (adapted from Gummere). Quite.
Full text of this passage at Perseus.

The uploads, which take the tally to 3,281 (one more item, Ott.gr.61, was added Nov 24), are to the greatest extent in Greek this time round. I will leave it to Greek experts to pick out what is of importance. There are also a great many Pal. lat. items where it is likely that these have already been online for some time at Heidelberg, so it is out of time to claim them as new.

The Vatican Library is always a great repository of doodles. Here's a bit of cruel Roman caricature which doubtless amused someone amid an otherwise wasted day in the papal bureaucracy:

The full list:
  1. Barb.gr.18,
  2. Barb.gr.36,
  3. Barb.gr.46,
  4. Barb.gr.56,
  5. Barb.gr.98,
  6. Barb.gr.99,
  7. Barb.gr.101,
  8. Barb.gr.104,
  9. Barb.gr.110,
  10. Barb.gr.112,
  11. Barb.gr.121,
  12. Barb.gr.122,
  13. Barb.gr.131,
  14. Barb.gr.132,
  15. Barb.gr.137,
  16. Barb.gr.146,
  17. Barb.gr.147,
  18. Barb.gr.166,
  19. Barb.gr.167,
  20. Barb.gr.169,
  21. Barb.gr.173,
  22. Barb.gr.174,
  23. Barb.gr.175,
  24. Barb.gr.183,
  25. Barb.gr.185,
  26. Barb.gr.186,
  27. Barb.gr.190,
  28. Barb.gr.196,
  29. Barb.gr.198,
  30. Barb.gr.202,
  31. Barb.gr.203,
  32. Barb.gr.207,
  33. Barb.gr.208,
  34. Barb.gr.209,
  35. Barb.gr.211,
  36. Barb.gr.213,
  37. Barb.gr.214,
  38. Barb.gr.216,
  39. Barb.gr.217,
  40. Barb.gr.221,
  41. Barb.gr.236,
  42. Barb.gr.242,
  43. Barb.gr.279,
  44. Chig.I.VII.252,
  45. Chig.P.VI.4, caricatures in a notebook (sample above), more than half of which is empty
  46. Ott.gr.3,
  47. Ott.gr.5.pt.1,
  48. Ott.gr.5.pt.2,
  49. Ott.gr.9,
  50. Ott.gr.18,
  51. Ott.gr.20,
  52. Ott.gr.22,
  53. Ott.gr.27,
  54. Ott.gr.30,
  55. Ott.gr.32,
  56. Ott.gr.33,
  57. Ott.gr.34,
  58. Ott.gr.37.pt.1,
  59. Ott.gr.37.pt.2,
  60. Ott.gr.43,
  61. Ott.gr.46,
  62. Ott.gr.47,
  63. Ott.gr.49,
  64. Ott.gr.50,
  65. Ott.gr.51,
  66. Ott.gr.54,
  67. Ott.gr.55,
  68. Ott.gr.56,
  69. Ott.gr.57,
  70. Ott.gr.60
  71. Ott.gr.61,
  72. Ott.gr.63,
  73. Ott.gr.72,
  74. Ott.gr.75,
  75. Ott.gr.77
  76. Ott.gr.78,
  77. Ott.gr.79,
  78. Ott.gr.80,
  79. Ott.gr.81,
  80. Ott.gr.82,
  81. Ott.gr.83,
  82. Ott.gr.86,
  83. Ott.gr.87,
  84. Ott.gr.96,
  85. Ott.gr.101,
  86. Ott.gr.103,
  87. Ott.gr.104,
  88. Ott.gr.113,
  89. Ott.gr.116,
  90. Ott.gr.117,
  91. Ott.gr.119,
  92. Ott.gr.120,
  93. Ott.gr.122,
  94. Ott.gr.126,
  95. Ott.gr.129,
  96. Ott.gr.130,
  97. Ott.gr.131,
  98. Ott.gr.132,
  99. Ott.gr.135,
  100. Ott.gr.136,
  101. Ott.gr.141,
  102. Ott.gr.144,
  103. Ott.gr.145,
  104. Ott.gr.151,
  105. Ott.gr.152,
  106. Ott.gr.155,
  107. Ott.gr.157.pt.A,
  108. Ott.gr.162,
  109. Ott.gr.168,
  110. Ott.gr.169,
  111. Ott.gr.171,
  112. Ott.gr.187,
  113. Ott.gr.190,
  114. Ott.gr.196,
  115. Ott.gr.202,
  116. Ott.gr.203,
  117. Ott.gr.204.pt.1,
  118. Ott.gr.204.pt.2,
  119. Ott.gr.220,
  120. Ott.gr.222,
  121. Ott.gr.224,
  122. Ott.gr.226,
  123. Ott.gr.227,
  124. Ott.gr.229,
  125. Ott.gr.230,
  126. Ott.gr.234,
  127. Ott.gr.235,
  128. Ott.gr.236,
  129. Ott.gr.238,
  130. Ott.gr.240
  131. Ott.gr.241,
  132. Ott.gr.253,
  133. Ott.gr.254,
  134. Ott.gr.263,
  135. Ott.gr.264,
  136. Ott.gr.265,
  137. Ott.gr.290,
  138. Ott.gr.294,
  139. Ott.gr.297,
  140. Ott.gr.298,
  141. Ott.gr.309,
  142. Ott.gr.310,
  143. Ott.gr.312,
  144. Ott.gr.313,
  145. Ott.gr.316,
  146. Ott.gr.321,
  147. Ott.gr.322,
  148. Ott.gr.323,
  149. Ott.gr.324,
  150. Ott.gr.326,
  151. Ott.gr.336,
  152. Ott.gr.340,
  153. Ott.gr.356,
  154. Ott.gr.359,
  155. Ott.gr.362,
  156. Ott.gr.363,
  157. Ott.gr.370,
  158. Ott.gr.371,
  159. Ott.gr.372,
  160. Ott.gr.374,
  161. Ott.gr.375,
  162. Ott.gr.377,
  163. Ott.gr.378,
  164. Ott.gr.381,
  165. Ott.gr.382,
  166. Ott.lat.2988,
  167. Pal.lat.270,
  168. Pal.lat.274,
  169. Pal.lat.282,
  170. Pal.lat.289,
  171. Pal.lat.309,
  172. Pal.lat.311,
  173. Pal.lat.323,
  174. Pal.lat.324,
  175. Pal.lat.330,
  176. Pal.lat.361,
  177. Pal.lat.362,
  178. Pal.lat.411, a richly decorated textbook of law completed 1417 by Winandus de Stega at Heidelberg University dealing with four arbores. Here are a couple of furiously fighting heirs (fol 7v) under an arbor hereditatis (discussed by Hermann Schadt at page 309-313 of Arbores: see the previous post).
  179. Pal.lat.412,
  180. Pal.lat.413,
  181. Pal.lat.502, the Palatine Lectionary, also online at Heidelberg.
  182. Pal.lat.597,
  183. Pal.lat.598,
  184. Pal.lat.610,
  185. Pal.lat.617,
  186. Pal.lat.622, a 13th-century Decretum Gratiani text, with the sculptural figure below (fol. 240v) at the head of a Schadt Type 5A Roman-style arbor consanguinitatis. There has always been some disagreement about who the wise old figure holding the tray of prohibited marriages represents, because there are no contemporary explanations. Is he a personification of tradition? Or God the Father as judge? Or someone too old to marry? The most general position is that he is a jurist, the wise guardian of the law, and thus Gratian himself (as I noted in a blog post two weeks ago). The version by Nicolò features an old man in rich robes of authority. We know effectively nothing about Gratian, barring his evident status as a law professor of 12th-century Bologna, so even a century afterwards, artists could make of him what they liked.
  187. Pal.lat.659,
  188. Pal.lat.709,
  189. Pal.lat.710,
  190. Pal.lat.739,
  191. Pal.lat.742,
  192. Pal.lat.773,
  193. Pal.lat.792,
  194. Pal.lat.816,
  195. Pal.lat.862,
  196. Pal.lat.871,
  197. Pal.lat.891,
  198. Pal.lat.1620,
  199. Urb.lat.680, Rambaldi commentary on Dante, Divine Comedy
  200. Urb.lat.687, Dante poems
  201. Vat.ebr.66,
  202. Vat.ebr.201,
  203. Vat.ebr.205,
  204. Vat.estr.or.43,
  205. Vat.gr.2627,
  206. Vat.lat.253,
  207. Vat.lat.281, Ambrose of Milan, various
  208. Vat.lat.349,
  209. Vat.lat.366, Seneca, Epistulae ad Lucilium
  210. Vat.lat.400, John Chrysostom
  211. Vat.lat.405, John Chrysostom
  212. Vat.lat.491, Augustine of Hippo
  213. Vat.lat.782, 13th century theological commentary
  214. Vat.lat.2001, with Emperor Frederick smiling a crooked smirk (below)

Use the comments box below to add details of anything you recognize. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for more news. [This is Piggin's Unofficial List 31.]

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