2018-04-02

Gore in Church

Book of hours were commercial products, where the illuminators aimed to attract buyers with miniatures of either beauty or excitement. An interesting aspect of these prayerbooks is that some contain the most gory images. This week's list of digitizations features Ott.lat.548, which is a book of hours in the Flemish style.

Savour its images which include a butcher about to catch and kill a pig and a scary scene where the king of England's thugs are about to kill Thomas Becket in the cathedral at Canterbury:

In all, we have 23 new items to enjoy:
  1. Ott.lat.548, a book of hours (above)
  2. Vat.lat.519.pt.2,
  3. Vat.lat.1951.pt.2, Plinii Naturalis Historiae in a Renaissance codex of high value. This part starts Liber XII. I. Animalium omnium
  4. Vat.lat.2233, 14th century, finely illuminated Apparatus in Sextum Bonifatii VIII of
    Iohannes Andreae, c.1270-1348
  5. Vat.lat.2333,
  6. Vat.lat.2760,
  7. Vat.lat.2842, Giovanni Pontano
  8. Vat.lat.2861,
  9. Vat.lat.2880 (Upgraded to HQ), a 15th-century mixture of Cicero, various Quaestiones on Aristotle and a text by John of Saxony, incipit "Istam propositionem scribit Ptolomeus in sapientiis Almagesti..." Here is an astrological diagram:
  10. Vat.lat.2890, 15th century Cicero, De officiis
  11. Vat.lat.2900, Rhetoricam ad Herennium, heavily glossed, 14th century
  12. Vat.lat.2910, Cicero and Leonardi Bruni translation of Plato
  13. Vat.lat.2912 (Upgraded to HQ), an album of classic writers in a peculiar high-oblong format
  14. Vat.lat.2916,
  15. Vat.lat.2918 (Upgraded to HQ), Giovanni Gatti of Messina
  16. Vat.lat.2921 (Upgraded to HQ),
  17. Vat.lat.2926 (Upgraded to HQ), George of Trebizond, translations of Plato, etc.
  18. Vat.lat.2929, Marsilio Ficino, commentary on Plato
  19. Vat.lat.2934.pt.1, Ficino and others, Plato etc.
  20. Vat.lat.2944,
  21. Vat.lat.2959, chronica, including list of French kings on last folio
  22. Vat.lat.3393, LQ
  23. Vat.lat.8171 (Upgraded to HQ), a catalog of the Reginensis collection by Vatican librarian Lucas Holstenius (1596-1661)
This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 156. Thanks to @gundormr for harvesting. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

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