Sub-project: Greek Sources in Swiss Libraries
January 2010 - August 2010
Status: Completed
Financed by: Stavros Niarchos Foundation (www.snf.org)
Description: The project “Greek Sources in Swiss Libraries” included digitizing 40 manuscripts and the additional work necessary to publish the manuscripts on the e-codices Web site. The selection includes manuscripts from various Swiss libraries, including the Abbey Library of Saint Gall, the Abbey Library of Einsiedeln, the Library of Geneva, the Fondation Martin Bodmer in Cologny (Geneva) and the Burgerbibliothek Bern. The project focuses on three types of materials: manuscripts containing texts from Greek antiquity in the Greek language, manuscripts containing medieval and early modern translations of Greek classics, and manuscripts containing medieval commentaries on key works of Greek antiquity.
All Libraries and Collections
This volume is a collection of letters, made in 1467 and 1468 in Naples for Roberto da Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, contains letters by Diogenes of Sinope, Brutus and Hippocrates, who were regarded during the middle ages as the true authors of these letters. They were translated into Latin by Francesco Griffolini Aretino and Ranuccio of Arezzo. This book was presented for sale several times during the 20th century and passed through the hands of prestigious collectors.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
A catalog of the Greek manuscripts in the library of Jean Hurant de Boistaillé (†1572), which he collected between 1561 and 1564, while serving in Venice as the ambassador of the King of France. For the purpose of assembling and cataloging this collection, Jean Hurault employed the services of Zacharias Scordylios (second half of the 16th century), a Greek theologian, priest, book printer and publisher, who lived in Venice. Although this catalog has been published several times, reference back to the original is necessary in the case of certain entries.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
Sometime during the last 20 years of the 15th century, this manuscript was copied and annotated by the humanist and well-known professor of Aristotelian philosophy in Padua, Nicolaus Leonicus Thomaeus (1456-1531). (He should not be confused with his contemporary Leoniceno Niccolò [1428-1524], a physician, philosopher and professor in Ferrara.) This manuscript has a key role in cultural history, as the texts by Theoprastus and most of the Aristotelian texts it contains served as the basis for the Aldine edition of 1497. Similarly, it served as the basis for the translation of Aristotle's Mechanica published by the manuscript's owner in 1525 in Venice. In the margin of the manuscript one can see the efforts of Nicolaus Thomaeus to devise figures to illustrate the translation.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
A manuscript consisting of three production units. The first dates back to the second half of the 16th century and was made by Jakobus Diassorinos (†1563), a Greek copyist from Rhodes who was then working in the library of Fontainebleau. The second was copied, probably in 1552, in Padua by the young Parisian humanist Henri Estienne (ca. 1531-1598), whose signature in Greek is found at the bottom of fol. 47r. The third part still has not revealed the secret of the circumstances of its production.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
A manuscript containing the Byzantine chronicle in modern Greek, generally known as the Anonymum Byzantinum chronicon, still unedited. At the end of the 19th century Karl Praechter (1858-1933), an instructor and later, from 1889 to 1907, a professor at the University of Berne, used this manuscript to retrieve the Chronicle from its previously shadowy existence.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
The prolific poet Aeschylus dominates the history of Greek tragedy. His artistry reaches its high-point in the writing of Persae (5th century BC). This piece, which has served to pass on its author's name for posterity, is his oldest known surviving work.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
The Historiae de preliis Alexandri Magni forms a part of the vast body of Latin literature devoted to Alexander the Great during the middle ages in the occident. This manuscript, written on parchment during the 14th or 15th century (perhaps around 1400), is most likely of English origin, judging by its extremely rounded Gothic script. The titles are rubricated, and contemporaneous glosses and corrections have been added in the margins.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
Multiple treatises by Archimedes are brought together in Codex Bodmer 8, notably On the Sphere and Cylinder and The quadrature of the Parabola. This manuscript, which was written in about 1541 on paper, also includes commentaries on the work of the celebrated mathematician by the geometer Eutocius, followed by a treatise on instruments of measurement by Heron of Alexandria.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
During the entire middle ages in the occident, the texts of Aristotle and Boethius were well circulated and inspired a large number of thinkers. These two great philosophers are brought together in this volume, written in a variety of different hands. The first portion, which can be dated sometime in the 11th or 12th century, contains the works of Aristotle. It also includes an extremely interesting schema (fol. 27) and initials accented in green and decorated with scrollwork. The text of Boethius, which is dated somewhat later, was copied during the 12th century. In this text one also finds some contemporaneous corrections as well as glosses from the 14th century.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This manuscript from the 14th century unites four disquisitions on medicine. The rounded Gothic script is the product of several different hands and the principal incipits are set off with Gothic capitals elaborately decorated with penwork filigree. At the end of the manuscript is an assortment of formulas for medical preparations.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
Following Aeschylus (Seven Against Thebes) and Sophocles (Oedipus the King, Euripides sought to treat the Theban myth in a new way in his writing. The first pages of this manuscript, copied around the end of the 15th century on paper, lay out the plot summary of the work, call to mind the prophecy about Oedipus and the riddle of the Sphinx, and then present the list of characters. The page following the transcription of the work also presents a summary of Sophocles's Oedipus the King and thus alludes to the relationship between these two masterpieces of the ancient theater.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
The Ilias Latina, copied on paper during the 14th century, is a Latin adaptation of the great epic by Homer, one of the foundational texts of ancient Greece. It was written in Gothic quasi-cursive script by a single scribe in the region of Naples in Italy. One should take note of some of the decorated initials, some of which incorporate figures, especially that of a muse, clad in a dress covered with stars and holding a sword in her hand.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
The Ilias latina was frequently copied during the entire occidental middle ages, which enjoyed access to material about the Trojans via Latin adaptations. Today these manuscripts number about one hundred. The date and location of Codex Bodmer 87 can be ascertained with the help of the inscription: "Aretii die 15 Iuli 1469" (Arezzo, July 15, 1469, fol. 22). The humanistic script, a somewhat angular cursive, is the hand of a single scribe.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This Greek manuscript was copied on paper and, thanks to an inscription, can be dated from 1561. It unites three treatises on war. Two Byzantine treatises, the Strategikon generally ascribed to King Maurus (6th century), and De velitatione bellica ascribed to the Emperor Nikephoros II. (19th century), precede the Apparatus bellicus ascribed to Sextus Julius Africanus (born in Nicopolis).
Online Since: 06/02/2010
In this work from Plato's most productive period, Phaedo tells of the death of Socrates from a witness's point of view and relates the last words of the great philosopher in the form of a last dialogue with Cebes and Simmias. This manuscript, which contains a number of attractive decorative initials, was written during the 15th century on parchment. The round humanistic script is that of a single scribe, who identifies himself in red thus, "Marcus Speegnimbergensis scripsit" (fol. 76)
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This manuscript, which was written during the 15th century in Florence, retains its original binding. The humanistic script is the work of a single scribe, with large golden initials and "bianchi girari" (white vine) decorations at the beginning of each book. There are some marginal glosses written in violet ink as well as other, newer additions which were probably made during the 16th century. After Herodotus and Thucydides, Polybius is the third-greatest Greek historian. He concentrated on accounts of the Roman conquest, as characterized in the many conflicts that took place in a variety of different locations.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
In his De bello Peloponensium, Thucydides fully achieves the work of a historian, as he shows the origins of the Peloponnesian War and then relates its events year by year with great exactitude. This parchment manuscript is extraordinarily beautiful in its illustrations, especially the two "putti" and the human figure in the center of one initial, wearing a blue suit of armor and holding a sword. The humanistic script, a slightly angular cursive, is the work of a single scribe.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
The first part of this manuscript presents the edition of Aristotle's Peri Hermeneias made by Boethius. The second part presents ten saints' lives, which were probably intended for recitation by a choir.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
The work of Bartholomew de Glanville forms only the first part of this manuscript of collected works, which also includes the following: Albertus Magnus (De compositione hominum et de natura animalium), De Romana Curia, De consecratione Romanorum Imperatorum, Forma iuramenti, Privilegium Constantini, a list of cardinals and their titular churches, De arboribus.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
This codex contains Peri hermeneias Aristotelis Libri V as written by Boethius. However, the beginning and end of the work are missing (and have been since the 14th century). The volume displays the work of numerous hands and marginalia added by Heinrich von Ligerz.
Online Since: 08/12/2010