Codices Vossiani Latini

Get access

Please turn on javascript to view the Document Entry.

Title: Summarized description in English
Language: Latin
Date range: Second half 12th c.
Author(s): Suetonius (c. 69-post 122) (1ra)
Pliny the Elder (23-79) (2ra-282r)
Description: VLF 1 is a 12th-c. parchment codex, its leaves measuring 465 x 333 mm. Written space is divided into two columns of 49 lines in hard point ruling and measures 345-355 x 220 mm. The codex is constructed of 22 quires of 4 bifolia, followed by 16 quires of irregular composition, totalling 282 leaves (564 pages). The text is written in Littera prae-gothica textualis. Quire signatures are occasionally still visible, as well as catchwords, in several 15th-c. hands. The different books of Pliny's text are distinguished by 15th-c. numerals located top middle of the rectos. Additionally, a 17th-c. hand placed Arabic numerals above each column (1-1124), while also adding Roman numbering to the left top corner of the versos (from f. 13v onwards), again to denote the different books. A quire is missing between f. 219v and f. 220r, and there are important lacunae mentioned by de Meyier, some of which are denoted in the margins of the text by a 15th-c. hand, while others are not. Initials starting a new book are decorated and painted in red, blue and green, while initials for different chapters are of simpler decoration, in either red, blue or green. Most inscriptions and subscriptions are rubricated. The codex has a 19th-c. cardboard cover with dark leather protection, which replaces the binding from Thévenot's time. Four flyleaves at the front, and one at the back, are the only remains of this old binding.
Classification: Antiquity - Biography (1ra)
Antiquity - Encyclopedia - Sciences (2ra-282r)
Other Resources: ==> Library Catalogue Universiteit Leiden
==> Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections database
DOI: 10.1163/9789004264243_F_001
Journal: VLF 001 - Plinius Secundus Maior

Export Citation