{"id":8956,"date":"2020-04-03T08:14:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T07:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/?p=8956"},"modified":"2020-11-19T16:41:51","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T15:41:51","slug":"vergilius-vaticanus-rare-survival-dawn-literary-codex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/vergilius-vaticanus-rare-survival-dawn-literary-codex\/","title":{"rendered":"Vergilius Vaticanus: A Rare Survival From the Dawn of the Literary Codex"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Vergilius Vaticanus<\/strong> is one of the best manuscripts in the Greco-Roman tradition<\/strong>. Moreover, it is one of the oldest sources of Virgil’s Aeneid<\/strong>, the epic poem about the fall of Troy, and of the Georgics<\/strong>, one of the earliest bucolic poems. But it is also the oldest of only three manuscripts from the classical age (it was composed around 400 AD) containing illustrations of classical literature<\/strong>. The text is flanked by 50 vividly executed miniatures<\/a><\/strong>, whose buoyant color can be easily likened to Pompeian wall paintings<\/strong>, which in turn had derived from Greek models<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vergilius Vaticanus: a Unique Testimony to Late Roman Illustration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Though scholars have not been able to identify the scriptorium where the Vergilius Vaticanus<\/strong> was crafted, we are sure it hosted absolute experts in their field. The scribe first penned the text, in an extremely elegant Rustic Capital<\/strong>, a script that at the time was often used for de-luxe manuscripts.  Then he outlined the pictorial cycle<\/strong>, leaving space for numerous illustrations. The latter were subsequently crafted by three different artists<\/strong> who possibly took their inspiration from model books<\/strong>. The decorations were also completed with ornate golden frames<\/strong>, detailed landscapes and architectural details. The characters’ proportions still strike us nowadays: a typical feature of the classical style, <\/strong>it can be found in many examples, such as the paintings in Pompeii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Origin of Virgil’s poems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n