Vergilius Augusteus
The epitaph of Virgil (70–19 B.C.), handed down by Suetonius, succinctly summarizes the subjects of his poetic life: "pastures, fields, and rulers." This refers to his pastoral poems, Eclogues, the verses on agriculture, Georgica, and above all the Roman national epic he wrote, the Aeneid. In all these genres he expressed himself in a total of almost 13,000 verses. In view of this, the 284 verses preserved in the manuscript of Vergilius Augusteus may at first seem few. Nevertheless, it is equally of interest for philologists, paleographers, and art historians. The reason is that this Late Antique manuscript from the 4th century is one of the closest in time to Virgil himself. While the script of the continuous text, the capitalis quadrata, represents only an interlude in the development of the Latin book script, the 15 decorative initials have become trendsetting for illumination.
Vergilius Augusteus
What makes the Vergilius Augusteus so famous? The philologist will answer that it is one of the oldest extant copies of Virgil’s work. However, at the same time he will have to admit that the modest number of verses – 284 out of originally nearly 13,000 – limits its importance as a textual witness considerably. In fact, had the fragments never appeared, it would have made little difference to the current critical edition of Virgil’s opera maiora.
The paleographer will uphold the Vergilius Augusteus as one of the few remains of a rare form of Late-Classical majuscule script, the Capitalis quadrata. However, being a somewhat artificial branch on the tree of Latin handwriting, this particular form of lettering was of short duration and did not notably influence the development that followed.
For the art historian the Vergilius Augusteus is a document of primary historical importance, since its fifteen decorated initials mark the beginning of the development that in due time would lead to the virtually numberless initials in thousands upon thousands of Medieval manuscripts. Thus, it may be said that the greatest importance of the Vergilius Augusteus resides in its decoration, for all the latter’s seeming modesty.
Codicology
- Alternative Titles
- Augustus Vergil
Codex Augustus - Size / Format
- 14 pages / 42.0 × 34.5 cm
- Origin
- Italy
- Date
- Second half of the 4th century
- Epochs
- Style
- Genre
- Language
- Illustrations
- 14 ornamental letters
- Content
- Fragments of Virgil's Georgica from Book I and Book III
- Previous Owners
- Claude Dupuy
Fulvio Orsini
Pierre Pithou
Georg Heinrich Pertz
#1 Vergilius Augusteus
Languages: English, German
C. Nordenfalk, Stockholm. 32 pp. text, 5 illustrations.
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