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.
Written in Italy in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, this manuscript contains works by Pseudo-Aurelius Victor (?), Cornelius Nepos, and Plutarch. The first text, De Viris Illustribus, concerns the history of the Roman Empire and dates to the fourth century CE. It gives short, concise biographies of important men from Rome's long history. It is one of many such texts that fall within the genre of Roman exemplary literature, the most famous of which is Suetonius' early second-century CE work "De Vita Caesarum" or “The Lives of the Caesars.” In the manuscript tradition, the author of De Viris Illustribus has been given as both Pliny Secundus Veronesis, otherwise known as Pliny the Younger, who was writing in the late first century CE, or as Aurelius Victor, a fourth-century CE historian. The Walters text adopts the former, naming the author as "Pliny Veronesis." Most scholars have dismissed both Pliny and Aurelius Victor as potential authors and instead prefer to say he was a late antique scholarly commentator working in the fourth or early fifth century CE. The second text, De excellentibus ducibus exterarum gentium, is written by the first-century BCE Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos. He was a prolific author, as attested by contemporary authors such as Cicero and Catullus. We now only have preserved parts of his book De Viris Illustribus, from which De excellentibus comes. The text was composed of biographies grouped into pairs, the first of which was usually reserved for those of Greek or foreign origin, and the second for Romans. It has been determined that categories such as generals, historians, kings, and poets organized a number of the pairs. The only extant pairing is that of great commanders and generals, which is preserved in the Walters manuscript. The biographies of Atticus, a prominent first-century BCE Roman statesman, and Cato the Elder, a late third- to early second-century BCE Roman senator and historian, are also preserved, but not in the Walters manuscript. For centuries it was believed that Aemilius Probus, a late fourth- to early fifth-century CE grammarian, was the author of Nepos' text because of an epigram that names Probus and appears in a number of versions of the text (including that of the Walters). This error was corrected beginning in the sixteenth century. The third text is the Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata of Plutarch, a first-century CE Greek writer. It is one part of a much larger group of dialogues, essays, and recorded speeches collectively known as the Moralia. The Regum text is organized into two parts with the sayings of Greek and foreign kings and commanders coming first followed by those of Roman origin. Francesco Filelfo first translated the Greek text into Latin sometime during the life of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan (1392-1447), to whom the translation is dedicated.
Unclear if the rubric is original or added later, but the handwriting suggests it is roughly contemporary
Principal cataloger: Berlin, Nicole
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Vinson, Aubrey
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Polidori, Elisabetta
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Nepos, Cornelius and John Carew Rolfe. On great generals; On historians. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929.
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. 838, no. 471.
Sherwin Jr., Walter K. "De Viris Illustribus: Two Unexamined MSS in the Walters Art Gallery." Classical World 65, no. 5 (1972): 145-146.
Marshall, Peter K. The manuscript tradition of Cornelius Nepos. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1977, p.65.
Sage, Michael M. "The 'De Viris Illustribus' Authorship and Date." Hermes 108 (1980): 83-100.
Titchener, Frances. “Cornelius Nepos and the Biographical Tradition.” Greece & Rome 50, no. 1 (2003): 85–99.
Pryzwansky, Molly M. “Cornelius Nepos: Key Issues and Critical Approaches.” Classical Journal 105 (2009): 97–108.
Meer, Tineke ter. Apophthegmatum. Libri I-IV Libri I-IV. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
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.
Italy
Second quarter of 15th century CE
book
Original Binding
Original fifteenth century Italian binding in brown sheep(?) leather; the gatherings in paper with parchment bifolio between each; blind tooled rectangular design, the central panel with four-petaled flowers and the external frame with interlocking half circles; the original flyleaves palimpsests from a re-used Carolingian(?) manuscript; two strap clasps now mostly missing, only scarlet stubs remain; impressions of now-missing rosette-shaped catch plates preserved; re-backed ca.1900-1930(?) when the boards were interchanged and machine-made paper inserted at the beginning and end of the text; the manuscript title on the fore edge in caps
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Created in Italy in the fifteenth century CE
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Leo S. Olschki
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Italy
Second quarter of 15th century CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Created in Italy in the fifteenth century CE
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Leo S. Olschki
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Written in Italy in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, this manuscript contains works by Pseudo-Aurelius Victor (?), Cornelius Nepos, and Plutarch. The first text, De Viris Illustribus, concerns the history of the Roman Empire and dates to the fourth century CE. It gives short, concise biographies of important men from Rome's long history. It is one of many such texts that fall within the genre of Roman exemplary literature, the most famous of which is Suetonius' early second-century CE work "De Vita Caesarum" or “The Lives of the Caesars.” In the manuscript tradition, the author of De Viris Illustribus has been given as both Pliny Secundus Veronesis, otherwise known as Pliny the Younger, who was writing in the late first century CE, or as Aurelius Victor, a fourth-century CE historian. The Walters text adopts the former, naming the author as "Pliny Veronesis." Most scholars have dismissed both Pliny and Aurelius Victor as potential authors and instead prefer to say he was a late antique scholarly commentator working in the fourth or early fifth century CE. The second text, De excellentibus ducibus exterarum gentium, is written by the first-century BCE Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos. He was a prolific author, as attested by contemporary authors such as Cicero and Catullus. We now only have preserved parts of his book De Viris Illustribus, from which De excellentibus comes. The text was composed of biographies grouped into pairs, the first of which was usually reserved for those of Greek or foreign origin, and the second for Romans. It has been determined that categories such as generals, historians, kings, and poets organized a number of the pairs. The only extant pairing is that of great commanders and generals, which is preserved in the Walters manuscript. The biographies of Atticus, a prominent first-century BCE Roman statesman, and Cato the Elder, a late third- to early second-century BCE Roman senator and historian, are also preserved, but not in the Walters manuscript. For centuries it was believed that Aemilius Probus, a late fourth- to early fifth-century CE grammarian, was the author of Nepos' text because of an epigram that names Probus and appears in a number of versions of the text (including that of the Walters). This error was corrected beginning in the sixteenth century. The third text is the Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata of Plutarch, a first-century CE Greek writer. It is one part of a much larger group of dialogues, essays, and recorded speeches collectively known as the Moralia. The Regum text is organized into two parts with the sayings of Greek and foreign kings and commanders coming first followed by those of Roman origin. Francesco Filelfo first translated the Greek text into Latin sometime during the life of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan (1392-1447), to whom the translation is dedicated.
Unclear if the rubric is original or added later, but the handwriting suggests it is roughly contemporary
Principal cataloger: Berlin, Nicole
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Vinson, Aubrey
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Polidori, Elisabetta
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Nepos, Cornelius and John Carew Rolfe. On great generals; On historians. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929.
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. 838, no. 471.
Sherwin Jr., Walter K. "De Viris Illustribus: Two Unexamined MSS in the Walters Art Gallery." Classical World 65, no. 5 (1972): 145-146.
Marshall, Peter K. The manuscript tradition of Cornelius Nepos. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1977, p.65.
Sage, Michael M. "The 'De Viris Illustribus' Authorship and Date." Hermes 108 (1980): 83-100.
Titchener, Frances. “Cornelius Nepos and the Biographical Tradition.” Greece & Rome 50, no. 1 (2003): 85–99.
Pryzwansky, Molly M. “Cornelius Nepos: Key Issues and Critical Approaches.” Classical Journal 105 (2009): 97–108.
Meer, Tineke ter. Apophthegmatum. Libri I-IV Libri I-IV. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
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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