Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Marciana

frontispiece and title page from eighteenth-century catalogue of Greek codices

frontispiece and title page from eighteenth-century catalogue of Latin codices

The catalogues of the library, compiled by Antonio Maria Zanetti and Antonio Bongiovanni and published in 1740 and 1741

The collection of the Marciana Library contains 4,639 manuscripts and 13,117 manuscript volumes. Its historical nucleus is the private collection of Cardinal Bessarion, which was donated to the Republic of Venice in 1468.

Manuscripts

Some significant manuscripts in the collection include:

Greek

Gr. Z. 196 (=743): commentary by Olympiodorus on Plato's Gorgias and Alcibiades (ninth century) on-line
Gr. Z. 228 (=406): includes Books I and II of Peri Psychēs by Aristotle with commentary by Simplicius of Cilicia and Sophonias and paraphrases by Themistius together with commentary by Pseudo-Diadochus on Plato's Timaeus, commentary by Simplicius of Cilicia on Aristotle's Peri Ouranoû, commentary by Ammonius Hermiae’s on Plato’s Phaedrus, and commentary by Proclus on Plato’s Parmenides. (fourteenth century) on-line
Gr. Z. 313 (=690): Mathematiké sýntaxis by Ptolemy (tenth century)
Gr. Z. 388 (=333): Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis by Ptolemy with 27 map projections, commissioned by Bessarion and attributed to John Rhosos (fifteenth century)
Gr. Z. 395 (=921): Romaiki istoria by Cassius Dio, the oldest manuscript containing Books XLIV, 35, 4–LX, 28, 3 (ninth century)
Gr. Z. 447 (=820): Deipnosophistaí by Athenaeus of Naucratis, the oldest surviving and most complete extant text (tenth century) on-line
Gr. Z. 453 (=821): "Homerus Venetus B" (eleventh century) on-line
Gr. Z. 454 (=822): "Homerus Venetus A", text of Homer's Iliás epic with annotations, glosses, and commentaries (tenth century) on-line
Gr. Z. 460 (=330): commentary on Homer's Odýsseia by Eustathius of Thessalonica, autograph copy (twelfth century)
Gr. Z. 479 (=881): Cynegetica by Oppian of Apamea and Vita Oppiani by Constantine Manasses, the oldest illustrated version with 150 miniatures (eleventh century)
Gr. Z. 481 (=863): Anthologia Planudea, autograph copy of Greek epigrams by Maximus Planudes (1299–1301) on-line

Italian

It. VIII, 2 (=2796): De architectura by Antonio Averulino, commissioned for Matthias Corvinus and illustrated with 152 designs (fifteenth century) on-line
It. IX, 276 (=6902): Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri, illuminated with 170 miniatures (fourteenth century) on-line

Latin

Lat. Z. 549 (=1597): "Codex Cumanicus", handbook of the Cuman language for missionaries with glossaries and a collection of religious texts, linguistic data, and folkloric materials (fourteenth century) on-line
Lat. I, 99 (=2138): "Breviarium Grimani", Breviary illuminated by the Flemish miniaturists Gerard Horenbout and Alexander and Simon Bening, once belonging to Cardinal Domenico Grimani (c. 1515–1520) on-line
Lat. I, 103 (=11925): "Evangelistarium Grimani", Gospel illuminated by Benedetto Bordone and Giulio Clovio for Cardinal Marino Grimani (1528) on-line
Lat. VI, 86 (=2593): De remediis by Francesco Petrarch and Cato Maior de senectute by Cicero (fourteenth century)
Lat. VI, 254 (=2976): Historia naturalis by Pliny the Elder, illuminated copy commissioned by Pico della Mirandola (1481)
Lat. XII, 68 (=4519): De bello punico by Silius Italicus, illuminated by Zanobi Strozzi and Francesco Pesellino (fifteenth century) on-line
Lat. XIV, 35 (=4054): De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii by Martianus Capella, illuminated by Attavante degli Attavanti for Matthias Corvinus (fifteenth century) on-line

Oriental languages

Or. 90 (= 57): İskendernâme by Taceddin İbrahim bin Hizir Ahmedî, illuminated Ottoman version of the Alexander Romance (fifteenth century)

Plutarch, Ēthika
Gr. Z. 248 (=328), fol. 5r.
Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum)
Gr. Z. 263 (=1025), fol. 42r.
Ptolemy, Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis
Gr. Z. 388 (=333), fol. 6v.
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistaí
Gr. Z. 447 (=820), fol. 1r.
"Homerus Venetus A"
Gr. Z. 454 (=822), fol. 24r.
Hero of Alexandria, Pneumatica
Gr. Z. 516 (=904), fol. 172v.
Proclus, Theologia Platonica
Gr. Z. 547 (=411), fol. 1r.
Dante, Divina Commedia
It. IX, 276 (=6902), fol. 53v.
Pseudo-Aristotle, Liber de causis
Lat. Z. 288 (=913), fol. 2r.
Breviarum Grimani
Lat. I, 99 (=2138), fol. 286v.
Asclepius (Corpus Hermeticum)
Lat. VI, 81 (= 3036), fol. 131v.
Silius Italicus, De bello punico
Lat. XII, 68 (=4519), fol. 3r.

Biblical manuscripts

Old Testament

Gr. Z. 1 (=320): Old Testament (beginning with the Book of Job), companion to the Vatican codice Vat. Gr. 2106 (eighth century) on-line
Gr. Z. 17 (=421): "Psalmi cum catena", the 150 Psalms with commentary and illustrations, (tenth-early eleventh century) on-line
Gr. Z. 538 (=540): "Catena in Job", text of the Book of Job with catena and 30 miniatures (905)

New Testament

Cartography

Fra Mauro map
It. Z. 76 (=4783): "Bianco world map", nautical atlas by Andrea Bianco with eight portolan charts and two world maps (1436) on-line
It. VI, 213 (=5982): "Corbitis Atlas" (early fifteenth century) on-line

Music manuscripts

There are some important music manuscripts. The composers represented include:

Francesco Cavalli operas (from the collection of mostly Venetian opera manuscripts amassed by Marco Contarini, which was donated to the Biblioteca Marciana in 1843). Works include La Calisto (1651) and Erismena (1655, 1670).
Domenico Scarlatti keyboard sonatas (volumes acquired from the singer Farinelli).

Notes

Patrimonio librario. Biblioteca. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 122. For a description of the codex, see the exhibition catalog Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2013), pp. 17–19, ISBN 0642278091.
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 62
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 64
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 82
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 148
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 115
For a discussion, see The Codex Cumanicus in Peter B. Golden, ed.,Studies on the peoples and cultures of the Eurasian steppes (Bucharest: Academiei Române, 2011), pp. 333–366, ISBN 9732721529.
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 192
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 196
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 102
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 144
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 162
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 166
Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia, p. 180
Rosand, Ellen (2008). "'Cavalli a le stelle' Cavalli and the staging of Venetian opera". Gresham College.
"L'Erismena". baerenreiter.com.
White, Robert (July 2007). "The mercurial maestro of Madrid".

References

Labowsky, Lotte, Bessarion's Library and the Biblioteca Marciana, Six Early Inventories (Rome: Storia e Letteratura, 1979) ISBN 9788884985699
Raines, Dorit, 'Book Museum or Scholarly Library? The ‘Libreria di San Marco’ in a Republican Context', Ateneo veneto, CXCVII, terza serie, 9/II (2010), 31–50 (ISSN 0004-6558)
Rapp, Claudia, 'Bessarion of Nicaea', in Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis, ed., The Classical Tradition (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 125–126 ISBN 0674072278
Zanetti, Antonio Maria, ed., Græca D. Marci Bibliotheca codicum manu scriptorum per titulos digesta (Venetiis: Casparis Ghirardi & Simonem Occhi, 1740)
Zanetti, Antonio Maria, ed., Latina et italica D. Marci Bibliotheca codicum manu scriptorum per titulos digesta (Venetiis: Casparis Ghirardi & Simonem Occhi, 1741)
Zorzi, Marino, Biblioteca Marciana Venezia (Firenze: Nardini, 1988) ISBN 8840410031

External links

Official website (in Italian)
Catalogue of Greek codices (in Latin)
Catalogue of Latin codices (includes French and Italian codices) (in Latin)

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