Codex Laurentianus Mediceus

The individual manuscripts of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, which belonged to the historical basic holdings when the library was opened in 1571, are each referred to as Codex Laurentianus. The Codex Mediceus is a 5th century Virgil (70-19 BC) manuscript written in rustic capitals preserved in the Laurentian Library, which contains the Georgics, Aeneid, and part of the Eclogues. A note at the end of the Eclogues records that the manuscript was corrected at Rome by Turcius Rufius Apronianus Asterius, who was consul in 494. The manuscript was recorded in Bobbio in the Emilia-Romagna region in 1467. In 1471, the manuscript found its way into the hands of the Italian humanist Julius Pomponius Laetus (1428-98) who made corrections of his own in red ink. It was first preserved in the Vatican Library, and later purchased by Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-74), the Grand Duke of Tuscany, from the heirs of Cardinal Rodolpho Pio da Carpi (1500-64), a prominent humanist and patron of the arts in his own right.