The Vatican Vergil


Book Description

Made in Rome around A.D. 400, the Vatican Vergil is the most famous and the most attractive illustrated book surviving from classical antiquity. David H. Wright introduces this masterpiece of late antique art and shows why it is such an impressive example of the new form of book, the codex, that replaced the traditional papyrus roll and permitted more elaborate illustrations. Here are thirty-two of the most interesting illustrations from the Vatican Vergil, reprinted in full color from the 1980 facsimile published in Graz, Austria, in collaboration with the Vatican Library. Facing each reproduction is the appropriate text from Vergil, in Latin and in English, together with explanatory comments. Wright discusses how the manuscript was made, describing the style of the capital script and of the illustrations as well as their sources in older classical traditions. He examines the Vatican Vergil as an example of the revival of classical culture in pagan circles in Rome at a time when Christian authority was systematically suppressing pagan religion. Finally, he surveys the "afterlife" of the codex, tracing how the work was studied and copied first in the Carolingian era and then in the Italian Renaissance. All the illustrations not reproduced in color are given at full size in black and white in a concluding list of the illustrations that have survived in this unique masterpiece. Made in Rome around A.D. 400, the Vatican Vergil is the most famous and the most attractive illustrated book surviving from classical antiquity. David H. Wright introduces this masterpiece of late antique art and shows why it is such an impressive example of the new form of book, the codex, that replaced the traditional papyrus roll and permitted more elaborate illustrations. Here are thirty-two of the most interesting illustrations from the Vatican Vergil, reprinted in full color from the 1980 facsimile published in Graz, Austria, in collaboration with the Vatican Library. Facing each reproduction is the appropriate text from Vergil, in Latin and in English, together with explanatory comments. Wright discusses how the manuscript was made, describing the style of the capital script and of the illustrations as well as their sources in older classical traditions. He examines the Vatican Vergil as an example of the revival of classical culture in pagan circles in Rome at a time when Christian authority was systematically suppressing pagan religion. Finally, he surveys the "afterlife" of the codex, tracing how the work was studied and copied first in the Carolingian era and then in the Italian Renaissance. All the illustrations not reproduced in color are given at full size in black and white in a concluding list of the illustrations that have survived in this unique masterpiece.




The Roman Vergil and the Origins of Medieval Book Design


Book Description

The 5th century AD Roman Vergil is one of the most precious manuscripts in the Vatican Library. Wright presents a wide-ranging discussion of the influence of the manuscript on the history and development of medieval manuscript art and of book design.




Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne


Book Description

Bernhard Bischoff (1906-1991) was one of the most renowned scholars of medieval palaeography of the twentieth century. His most outstanding contribution to learning was in the field of Carolingian studies, where his work is based on the catalogue of all extant ninth-century manuscripts and fragments. In this book, Michael Gorman has selected and translated seven of his classic essays on aspects of eighth- and ninth-century culture. They include an investigation of the manuscript evidence and the role of books in the transmission of culture from the sixth to the ninth century, and studies of the court libraries of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. Bischoff also explores centres of learning outside the court in terms of the writing centres and the libraries associated with major monastic and cathedral schools respectively. This rich collection provides a full, coherent study of Carolingian culture from a number of different yet interdependent aspects, providing insights for scholars and students alike.




American Philosophy


Book Description

The epic wisdom contained in a lost library helps the author turn his life around John Kaag is a dispirited young philosopher at sea in his marriage and his career when he stumbles upon West Wind, a ruin of an estate in the hinterlands of New Hampshire that belonged to the eminent Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking. Hocking was one of the last true giants of American philosophy and a direct intellectual descendent of William James, the father of American philosophy and psychology, with whom Kaag feels a deep kinship. It is James’s question “Is life worth living?” that guides this remarkable book. The books Kaag discovers in the Hocking library are crawling with insects and full of mold. But he resolves to restore them, as he immediately recognizes their importance. Not only does the library at West Wind contain handwritten notes from Whitman and inscriptions from Frost, but there are startlingly rare first editions of Hobbes, Descartes, and Kant. As Kaag begins to catalog and read through these priceless volumes, he embarks on a thrilling journey that leads him to the life-affirming tenets of American philosophy—self-reliance, pragmatism, and transcendence—and to a brilliant young Kantian who joins him in the restoration of the Hocking books. Part intellectual history, part memoir, American Philosophy is ultimately about love, freedom, and the role that wisdom can play in turning one’s life around.




Virgil in Medieval England


Book Description

Examines the impact of an ancient and prestigious text on medieval culture.




Virgil, Aeneid 8


Book Description

This volume provides the first full-scale commentary on the eighth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, the book in which the poet presents the unforgettable tour of the site of the future Rome that the Arcadian Evander provides for his Trojan guest Aeneas, as well as the glorious apparition and bestowal of the mystical, magical shield of Vulcan on which the great events of the future Roman history are presented – culminating in the Battle of Actium and the victory of Octavian over the forces of Antony and Cleopatra. A critical text based on a fresh examination of the manuscript tradition is accompanied by a prose translation.







The Cambridge Companion to Virgil


Book Description

Virgil became a school author in his own lifetime and the centre of the Western canon for the next 1800 years, exerting a major influence on European literature, art, and politics. This Companion is designed as an indispensable guide for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of an author critical to so many disciplines. It consists of essays by seventeen scholars from Britain, the USA, Ireland and Italy which offer a range of different perspectives both traditional and innovative on Virgil's works, and a renewed sense of why Virgil matters today. The Companion is divided into four main sections, focussing on reception, genre, context, and form. This ground-breaking book not only provides a wealth of material for an informed reading but also offers sophisticated insights which point to the shape of Virgilian scholarship and criticism to come.




Eclogues and Georgics


Book Description




Virgil's Fourth Eclogue in the Italian Renaissance


Book Description

This pioneering study reveals the central place held by Virgil's 'messianic' Eclogue in the art and literature of Renaissance Italy.




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