Their Only Plato

A beautiful 10th-century Italian manuscript containing the Latin commentary by Calcidius on the Timaeus of Plato is a star of this week's crop of digitizations at the Vatican Library.

This manuscript has 62 leaves and fine artwork (see above). Folios 21v-22r were exhibited in the Rome Reborn exhibition in the United States, where Anthony Grafton commented: "Calcidius's version of Plato's cosmology was an influential source for medieval ideas about the natural world."

Calcidius translated Part One only of Plato's Timaeus from Greek into Latin around 321 and provided an extensive commentary, hence the title to this manuscript, In Platonis Timaeum commentarius. It is said this translation was the only extensive text of Plato known to scholars in the Latin West for approximately 800 years.

The full list of items found follows. As always, please click through them and post on Twitter (shout out to me as @JBPiggin) about any remarkable finds that you see.

1. Ott.lat.1149, a 15th-century manuscript of Boethius on the Isagoge of Porphyry with an unusual arbor porphyriana with a monkey in the crown, and animals in and around the branches.
   
   Hermann Schadt (Die Darstellungen der Arbores, p. 82) says the older arbor porphyriana drawings are simple line diagrams and this is one of the first to be made tree like. My readers know that just because something is called an arbor, it need not look like a tree. The association is simply that arbor is a medieval word for a recursive diagram (perhaps because trees preserve shape during growth). Also, as Schadt notes on page 81, this may be a pun in the Visigothic language, where arbi meant inheritance, hence the word-play arbor juris for an inheritance diagram.
2. Ott.lat.2844
3. Reg.lat.1133
4. Reg.lat.1165
5. Reg.lat.1231
6. Reg.lat.1254
7. Reg.lat.1255
8. Reg.lat.1279
9. Reg.lat.1286
10. Reg.lat.1308, above
11. Reg.lat.1311

    Diagram of the winds from Aristotle's Meteorology in @JBPiggin's new list of MSS @DigitaVaticana (Reg. lat. 1311)https://t.co/PrBEc7bYhK pic.twitter.com/jhRATT2Vil

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) October 11, 2017

12. Reg.lat.1317
13. Reg.lat.1322
14. Reg.lat.1323
15. Reg.lat.1327
16. Reg.lat.1333
17. Reg.lat.1336
18. Reg.lat.1372
19. Reg.lat.1386
20. Reg.lat.1414
21. Reg.lat.1441
22. Reg.lat.1443

    Thanks @JBPiggin for latest from @DigitaVaticana. This week's medical treasure is 11thC collection of pharmaceutical texts, Reg. lat. 1443. pic.twitter.com/NEyKd0jcL2

    — Monica H Green (@monicaMedHist) October 11, 2017

23. Sbath.586
24. Vat.lat.1796
25. Vat.lat.1886
26. Vat.lat.1963
27. Vat.lat.2025
28. Vat.lat.2033
29. Vat.lat.2036
30. Vat.lat.2037
31. Vat.lat.2039
32. Vat.lat.2082

    And the same diagram in the same work, from yet another MS in @JBPiggin's latest list.https://t.co/hbYUlOivBZ pic.twitter.com/UM8YRbTZmG

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) October 11, 2017

33. Vat.lat.2096

    Vat. lat. 2096 is a 15th c collection of Aristotle's practical philosophy: Eth. Nic. & Eud., Magna Moralia, Pol., Rhet. & Ec. HT @JBPiggin pic.twitter.com/cIcchoFCkN

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) October 11, 2017

34. Vat.lat.2102
35. Vat.lat.2105
36. Vat.lat.2107
37. Vat.lat.2108
38. Vat.lat.2109
39. Vat.lat.2111

    Dedication copy for pope Nicholas V of Theodore Gaza's translation of pseudo-Aristotelian "Problemata". HT @JBPigginhttps://t.co/lhWracpnH3 pic.twitter.com/0oEz1sLsci

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) October 11, 2017

40. Vat.lat.2117
41. Vat.lat.2142

    Glorious opening page of the preface of Barbaro's translation of Themistius' commentary on the Posterior Analytics.https://t.co/b3mL7i3BYO pic.twitter.com/jyhkaV4kOV

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) October 11, 2017

42. Vat.lat.2165

    John Buridan, Quaestiones super X libros Ethicorum Aristotelis. From latest list of MSS @DigitaVaticana by @JBPigginhttps://t.co/amPHb4HFFY pic.twitter.com/UTHP4mG9e5

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) October 12, 2017

43. Vat.lat.2176
44. Vat.lat.2177

    School scene (Porphyry's Isagoge).
    Wealth of Aristotelian texts in list @JBPiggin proves influence on ME education.https://t.co/nsUJysrslR pic.twitter.com/PLDDDQA8A3

    — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) October 11, 2017

45. Vat.lat.2192.pt.1
46. Vat.lat.2192.pt.2
47. Vat.lat.2192.pt.3
48. Vat.lat.14926

Come back Friday for a list of the recent digitizations of Bibliotheca Palatina manuscripts at the Vatican.

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 129. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.