The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This late fifteenth-century Italian manuscript, written in Greek, contains Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE). Thucydides (ca. 460-400 BCE) was an Athenian general and historian who, while in exile, wrote about the war between Athens and Sparta. The war stemmed from Athens' growing power among the Greek city states and, by the end, Athens was in ruins and Sparta had established itself as the most powerful city in Greece. Thucydides' "History" covers the first twenty-one years of the war (through 411/410 BCE) before the text abruptly ends. We know very little about the author except for what he tells us in the "History," including his father's name (Olorus) and that he lived through the entire Peloponnesian War, writing as an eyewitness. The Walters manuscript is evidence of the humanist interest in ancient Greek texts and authors like Thucydides, especially in Florence and Venice, where the scribe of W.354 originated. David Murphy (see bibliography) attributes W.354 to Damiano Guidotto (active ca. 1500), an Italian scholar and scribe who was fluent in Greek and is responsible for at least ten different manuscripts now housed in various collections in Europe and the USA. Eight of the ten known manuscripts copied by Guidotto were housed in the library of San Francesco della Vigna outside of Venice and were purchased by English collectors in the twentieth century. Thanks to a note in MS Additional 39614 (BL) we know that three of these eight belonged to Lord Robert Curzon (all now in the BL) as of 1834. The five others (W.354, Walters Art Museum; Plimpton 3 and 16, Columbia University; MS Gr. 30, Perkins Library at Duke University; the fifth now missing) were purchased by Rev. Walters Sneyd (1809-1888) and later sold at auction in 1903. Murphy has shown that W.354 is written on the same paper as Plimpton 3 and 16 (Columbia University), which solidifies his attribution of the manuscript to Guidotto, whose name appears in both of the Columbia University texts. The Walters' copy of Thucydides, therefore, belonged to a group of Greek humanist texts (including works by Homer, Aristotle, Xenophon and Plutarch among others) copied by Guidotto for the monastery of San Francesco della Vigna that then made their way to England and finally to the USA in a remarkable journey over its five hundred year life.
Italo-Greek cursive script attributed to Damiano Guidotto
Principal cataloger: Berlin, Nicole
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Herbold, Rebekah
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 760, no. 17.
Murphy, David J. "Greek epigrams and manuscripts of Damiano Guidotto of Venice." Vol. 12, no. 4. Renaissance Studies (1998), p. 488, fig. 2.
Parpulov, Georgi R. "A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum." Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004): 75-76.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
San Francesco della Vigna, Venice, Italy
Late 15th century CE
book
Non-original Binding
Bound in England, ca. second half of nineteenth century in reddish-brown Russia leather by C. Lewis (bookbinder, London, 1786-1836); title tooled in gold on binding; written on fifteenth century Italian paper (Venice); modern woven paper at either end (forming the two pastedowns and four flyleaves); edges in nineteenth-century full gilt
The primary language in this manuscript is Greek, Ancient (to 1453). The secondary language of this manuscript is Latin.
Created in Italy, late-fifteenth century, by the scribe Damiano Guidotto for the Monastery of San Francesco della Vigna
Purchased by Rev. Walter Sneyd
Sold in Sneyd's manuscript auction, December 16, 1903, at Sotheby's London
Maggs Bros., London,
Leo S. Olschki, Florence,
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Leo S. Olschki
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
San Francesco della Vigna, Venice, Italy
Late 15th century CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Greek, Ancient (to 1453). The secondary language of this manuscript is Latin.
Created in Italy, late-fifteenth century, by the scribe Damiano Guidotto for the Monastery of San Francesco della Vigna
Purchased by Rev. Walter Sneyd
Sold in Sneyd's manuscript auction, December 16, 1903, at Sotheby's London
Maggs Bros., London,
Leo S. Olschki, Florence,
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Leo S. Olschki
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
This late fifteenth-century Italian manuscript, written in Greek, contains Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE). Thucydides (ca. 460-400 BCE) was an Athenian general and historian who, while in exile, wrote about the war between Athens and Sparta. The war stemmed from Athens' growing power among the Greek city states and, by the end, Athens was in ruins and Sparta had established itself as the most powerful city in Greece. Thucydides' "History" covers the first twenty-one years of the war (through 411/410 BCE) before the text abruptly ends. We know very little about the author except for what he tells us in the "History," including his father's name (Olorus) and that he lived through the entire Peloponnesian War, writing as an eyewitness. The Walters manuscript is evidence of the humanist interest in ancient Greek texts and authors like Thucydides, especially in Florence and Venice, where the scribe of W.354 originated. David Murphy (see bibliography) attributes W.354 to Damiano Guidotto (active ca. 1500), an Italian scholar and scribe who was fluent in Greek and is responsible for at least ten different manuscripts now housed in various collections in Europe and the USA. Eight of the ten known manuscripts copied by Guidotto were housed in the library of San Francesco della Vigna outside of Venice and were purchased by English collectors in the twentieth century. Thanks to a note in MS Additional 39614 (BL) we know that three of these eight belonged to Lord Robert Curzon (all now in the BL) as of 1834. The five others (W.354, Walters Art Museum; Plimpton 3 and 16, Columbia University; MS Gr. 30, Perkins Library at Duke University; the fifth now missing) were purchased by Rev. Walters Sneyd (1809-1888) and later sold at auction in 1903. Murphy has shown that W.354 is written on the same paper as Plimpton 3 and 16 (Columbia University), which solidifies his attribution of the manuscript to Guidotto, whose name appears in both of the Columbia University texts. The Walters' copy of Thucydides, therefore, belonged to a group of Greek humanist texts (including works by Homer, Aristotle, Xenophon and Plutarch among others) copied by Guidotto for the monastery of San Francesco della Vigna that then made their way to England and finally to the USA in a remarkable journey over its five hundred year life.
Italo-Greek cursive script attributed to Damiano Guidotto
Principal cataloger: Berlin, Nicole
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Herbold, Rebekah
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 760, no. 17.
Murphy, David J. "Greek epigrams and manuscripts of Damiano Guidotto of Venice." Vol. 12, no. 4. Renaissance Studies (1998), p. 488, fig. 2.
Parpulov, Georgi R. "A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum." Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004): 75-76.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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