Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Research Articles

Inventorying the Manuscripts of Venice’s Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Before and) After Zanetti Notes on the Zanetti Draft, the Zanetti Appendices, and the ‘New’ and ‘Present’ Appendices to Zanetti

The present study traces the documented history of cataloguing the manuscript fonds of Venice’s Biblioteca Marciana, and in particular the Latin and Romance manuscript fonds, drawing from official sources (such as Anton Maria Zanetti’s published catalogues [1740‑41] and the Appendice a Zanetti), from published and unpublished pre-Zanetti sources, and from published and, most importantly, unpublished post-Zanetti sources. A particular inventory of early Marciana manuscripts not described in the Zanetti catalogues is brought to light and compared with entries in the later Appendice a Zanetti. Additional findings on cataloguing the French corpus are revealed.

Heavenly sonatas, heroic rivers and demonic dancing

The days of believing that 18th-century musical texts should be taken literally in performance are long over. Instead, there is widespread agreement that they should be understood as musical serving suggestions, including in choices of instrumentation. For example, in 1906 musicologist Edward Dent proposed that some of Domenico Scarlatti’s (1685–1757) sonatas were not written for a single keyboard instrument, but were in fact intended for the violin and keyboard. Dent was talking about sonatas k.73 (l.217), 77 (168), 78 (75), 81 (271), 89 (211), 90 (106) and 91 (176), all of which are transmitted in ‘Libro XIV’ of a Venetian manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, dated 1742. However, it was to take almost 40 years before Lionel Salter, Dent’s student, published them for this instrumentation—see his collection of Sonatas for violin and clavier (7 vols., London, 1940–50). Further examination of the Scarlatti source materials revealed that another 16 sonatas had similar characteristics to the seven identified by Dent. These characteristics include a four-movement structure (slow–fast–slow–fast), often with a figured bass, with the ‘right-hand’ and ‘left-hand’ voices separated throughout; the right hand contains wide chords that are unplayable with one hand, but can be performed on the violin; and dots and slurs in the upper part suggest articulation with a bowed string instrument. Due to the numerous violinistic passages, it is widely agreed today that several of the sonatas from the manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana were indeed designed to be performed by more than one instrument. There is no consensus on how many works meet these criteria, though, and this is reflected in their recording history. In 2008, for instance, Tedi Papavrami recorded his transcriptions of 12 keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti for solo violin (Aeon, aecd0644, issued 2008); in 2012, violinist Paolo Perrone, harpsichordist Alexandra Nigito and members of Capella Tiberina performed movements from Dent’s pick of continuo sonatas, experimenting with various scorings (Brilliant Classics, 94325, issued 2013); and in 2022, another reading of sonatas k.81 and 88–91 was published, this time on YouTube, with Debra Fast (violin) and Sandro Ivo Bartoli (organ) (see https://tinyurl.com/3w3uyvcc).

Cultural Encounter, Race, and a Humanist Ideology of Empire in the Art of Trecento Venice

Cultural Encounter, Race, and a Humanist Ideology of Empire in the Art of Trecento Venice

Through the Eyes of a Mapmaker: Maritime Shrines on Cyprus during the Late Middle Ages

Cyprus acquired special importance, especially from the thirteenth century onwards, on the Eastern Mediterranean’s pilgrimage network. Described by contemporary pilgrims as “Terra christianorum ultima”, the island was considered to be the last Christian land in the south-eastern Mediterranean on the pilgrims’ itinerary on their journey to the Holy Land. This study is concentrated on two maps of Cyprus dated to the fourteenth century and preserved in Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana, A95 sup. and Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, gr. XI.21. It aims to explore the physical and spiritual mobility and interconnectivity in Cyprus during the late Middle Ages and to consider how these contribute to the development of pilgrimage sites directly related with maritime routes, seamen and travellers. These unique nautical maps captured the sea voyage which had Cyprus as a stopover, bringing to light new insights into fourteenth century Cyprus. The maritime shrines discussed in this article, which are usually “mixed” sacred sites, are directly related with sailors’ needs. They integrate into a wide network of communication, removing them partially from their local dimension.

A Greek Alchemical Epigram in its Middle Byzantine Context

This article examines the dedicatory epigram of the earliest and most important witness to the Greek alchemical corpus, the tenth-century manuscript donated by Cardinal Bessarion to the Republic of Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana MS gr. 299, as a window onto the cultural coordinates of the manuscript’s middle Byzantine readers. Scrutiny of the epigram’s meter, language, literary conventions, and the handwriting of the scribe who copied it into the manuscript point to a tenth-century date not only for the manuscript but also for the epigram itself and make it possible to situate the epigram, and with it the alchemical manuscript that contains it, within the mainstream of middle Byzantine elite culture.

Italian Knot-tack Sewing: A Reliable Hypothesis on a Late Medieval Technique

ABSTRACT The knot-tack is a technique for sewing books on double supports which features a prominent knot settled over the centre of split-strap sewing supports. This method can be found in archive and library bindings, on manuscripts or printed-books, with stiff or limp covers. Up until a few years ago, the knot-tack had only been observed in books from Austria and described by Eleonore Klee. Recent findings at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice (Italy), followed by new sightings in central Italy have opened the way to an expansion of Klee’s observations. Whilst the relationship between the Austrian and the Italian knot-tack sewing structures is not yet clear, this essay aims to describe, with the aid of pictures, the path of the thread in the making of the knot. It presents a number of possible applications for the book conservator, who can make effective use of the knot-tack sewing.

Angelo Poliziano and the graphetai Symbol in His Notes on Catullus

This paper focuses on a small group of variant readings written down by Angelo Poliziano in his copy of the editio princeps of Catullus, now Roma, Biblioteca Corsiniana, inc. 50.F.37. These notes are all introduced by a γραφeται symbol, which has not been taken into account by scholars so far and which, despite its ambiguity, could attest to manuscript collations. Many of these variant readings are similar to the ones recorded by Francesco Buzzacarini in his copy of Catullus, now Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, ms. lat. XII.153 (4053). This, along with the fact that Giorgio Merula mentions Buzzacarini as one of the scholars from whom Poliziano allegedly “stole” his emendations, is used as the basis for formulating new hypotheses concerning these variants.

La varia lectio en la transmisión del De medicina equorum: algunas hipótesis sobre el modelo de la versión gallega de Giordano Ruffo

AbstractThis article offers an approach to the De medicina equorum (post 1250–ante 1256) with the aim of analyzing some of the divergences between the manuscript that contains the Galician translation (Biblioteca Nacional de España, ms. 23076) and the Latin text, mainly known through Girolamo Molin’s edition (based on ms. Lat. Cl. VII 24 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana de Venezia). The analysis of the Latin and Romance tradition of Ruffo’s work as well as of other treatises written under its influence show that these divergences do not result from mistakes in the copy of the Galician translation but are rather related to the variations issuing from the process of transmission of this work. Thus, the essay contributes to the establishment of certain textual features of the source text of the Galician version, most likely a Latin manuscript similar to but different from the codex reproduced by Molin.

The sunk-panel book-binding of a Renaissance Venetian Commissione Dogale: the scientific examination of the decoration materials

The research aims to investigate the nature of the materials used in the decoration of the cover of a sunk-panel Commissione Dogale, a Venetian manuscript of 1582. The analysed volume Ms. It. VII, 1869 (= 8134) belongs to the collections of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice. The Commissioni were intended as official documents written on parchment and issued by the Doge of Venice. Their bindings were very rich in decoration, especially those produced in the late 16th century. This manuscript is a sumptuous example of the Venetian Renaissance artisanship influenced by Middle Eastern style: its cover was made of gilded leather, painted with arabesque branches and buds and lastly lacquered. The scientific examination of the lavishly illuminated cover was performed before the book-binding conservation treatment, as the characterisation of the decoration materials allowed to plan an appropriate conservation project. The research first step has been the non-invasive observation of the cover surface by digital microscope through UV–VIS radiations. Then, the study of the composition of these materials has been carried out with ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, XRF spectroscopy and spot-test analyses on samples. Pigments like minium, green earth, a lead-based yellow and smalt have been detected in the painted layer, while a precise identification of the resins and varnishes layered on top of the decoration was not possible because of the heterogeneity of samples. Furthermore, the materials used for this cover can be usefully compared with those detected by other recent analyses carried out on a variety of 16th century Venetian book illuminations.

Spectroscopic characterization of historical building materials: The case study of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Venice, Italy)

AbstractThe building designed by Sansovino in 1532 as the new Mint of Venice underwent a change in its intended use, becoming in 1900 the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. A spectroscopic study concerning the surface stone materials of the current reading room (previously a courtyard) was attempted since the transformation lead to heavy micro‐ and macroclimatic variations.Many alterations were observed, such as blackening, cracking, incrustations, and mortars powdering. The employed techniques, such as Raman and Fourier Transform InfraRed‐Attenuated Total Reflectance spectroscopy, allowed identifying the substrate main components and their alteration phases, mainly sulfates and nitrates.These data represent important information when approaching such a famous building because every further intervention must be based on accurate scientific results.

A Map of Cyprus in Two Fourteenth-Century Byzantine Manuscripts

ABSTRACTA schematic map of Cyprus, unique in the Byzantine world, is found in two Greek manuscripts of the mid-fourteenth century (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS A 95 sup.) and its copy (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS gr. XI.21 (coll. 453)). The article examines the context of its creation, possibly by the physician who collected the medical texts copied in the manuscripts. The map testifies to the perception of a man who is able to sketch the shape of the littoral freehand. He exaggerates the bays and headlands, and notes almost exclusively localities on the coast; inland, only Nicosia, the capital of the island, is shown. In particular, two religious monuments, considered the oldest and most visited on the island (the Basilica of St Epiphanius in Salamis and the Monastery of the Holy Cross–Stavrovouni) are marked, indicating that the author also wanted to celebrate the Christian antiquity of Cyprus and its relics.

A NEW MANUSCRIPT OF CONSENTIUS’ DE BARBARISMIS ET METAPLASMIS

Modern knowledge of the grammarian Consentius’ De barbarismis et metaplasmis, a work valuable for the study of the Latin language, dates back to a relatively recent past: it was only in 1817 that its editio princeps was published by Ph.C. Buttmann, just a few years after the legal scholar A.W. Cramer came across a mention of the then unknown treatise in a ninth-century MS in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek of Munich, numbered Clm 14666. Based on this solitary manuscript, H. Keil published the short treatise in the fifth volume of his Grammatici Latini. With no little enthusiasm did W.M. Lindsay announce his unearthing of what, in his own words, had ‘long been a “desideratum”, a second authority’ for this text, in the MS F 15 III d at the Universitätsbibliothek Basel; this was followed by E.O. Winstedt's complete collation and M. Niedermann's critical edition. After about a century now there comes to light a third authority, surprisingly enough in a codex which has enjoyed such fame in the past decades that one might wonder how Consentius could have gone unnoticed in it for so long: this is the eleventh-century MS of Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Lat. Z. 497 (= 1811), in which the De barbarismis et metaplasmis is contained on fols. 84vb 39 - 90va 39; moreover, a so-far-unnoticed quotation from it (32.9-14), together with one from Consentius’ De nomine et uerbo (Consent. gramm. V 353.6-7), is found on fol. 41vb 16–21 of the same manuscript in a famous grammatical florilegium. The codex, written in Romanesque minuscule and probably originating in Rome, is regarded as a handbook of liberal arts designed by Lawrence Archbishop of Amalfi, formerly a monk at Montecassino, thereafter a teacher in Florence and Rome, where he died in about 1049. Based on palaeographical evidence, F.L. Newton rightfully assumed as an exemplar for this codex a MS in Beneventan script, as some features can be detected that betray the scribal imitation of that typical South Italian script, namely the use of the distinctive abbreviation for eius as ‘ei in ligature with stroke through the descender of the i’, the Beneventan ti ligature for the assibilated sound, and the 2-shaped Beneventan interrogation sign, to which I would add the typical abbreviation for in as a long i cut by a horizontal stroke and the confusion of a and t. Interestingly enough, none of these features is found on fols. 66–95, those containing the new Consentius: from a codicological point of view, this is an autonomous section, written by a different scribe from the rest of the MS and preserving some grammatical texts generally attributed to insular authors, such as Smaragdus’ Liber in partibus Donati (fols. 66–81vb) and part of the compilation entitled Pauca de barbarismo (fols. 81vb - 84vb), which precedes the De barbarismis et metaplasmis; not surprisingly, the new text of Consentius displays numerous features of the Insular script, such as the symbols for enim, autem, eius, est, nihil and et. On this basis it is most likely that this whole section was never included in the Beneventan exemplar, but was added at the time and place of copying of our MS in order to enrich the grammatical content.

Considerazioni sopra due manoscritti della Biblioteca Marciana di Venezia (Homerus Venetus А е Marc. gr. 539), alla luce della politica artistica nella Palermo normanna

Twelfth-century Palermo was а city animated bу different languages, cultures and religions, as is well described bу the famous miniature in the the Liber ad honorem Augusti, which depicts the city in mourning after the death of William II. The Hauteville rulers, especially King Roger II, promoted а cultural program reflecting this Mediterranean koine. The rhetorical choice of using Arabic artists to create the image of а luxurious and cosmopolitan court, while Byzantine art emphasized Roger's role as pius rex christianus, sustained and legitimated his political aspirations and power. Starting with the mosaic panel in the Church of St. Mary of the Admiral, in which the sovereign is shown being crowned by Christ with the Byzantinc loros, and then analysing two manuscripts conserved in the Venice's Biblioteca nazionale marciana - the Homerus Venetus А (Marc. gr. 454) and the Greek-Arabic Gospel (Marc. gr. 539) - this article investigates the political use of art made during the reign of Roger II and the ideo...

The last will and testament of Simone Luzzatto (1583?‐1663) and the only known manuscript of the Discorso (1638) Newly discovered manuscripts from the state archive of Venice and the Marciana library, Venice

AbstractThe State Archive of Venice and the Marciana Library (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana) are a veritable treasure house for documenting Jewish life in Venice in past centuries. As result of a recent research visit by Gianfranco Miletto to the former state of the Serenissima, the last will and testament of the famous Rabbi and philosopher Simone Luzzatto came to light.1 In addition to this, Guido Bartolucci discovered the perhaps only extant manuscript of the Discorso in the Biblioteca Marciana. It sheds new light on the question of the composition and use of this apologetic piece of writing by the Rabbi of Venice.This research note publishes only the documents, enumerating at first the exceptional data contained in both of them, contributing to a better understanding of the biography of Simone Luzzatto. A later publication,2 English translation and future studies of all the extant documents on Luzzatto’s family will evaluate these texts in a broader biographical context.

The Role of Metal Ions in the Study of Ancient Paper by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance

Samples from covers and endleaves of sixteenth to eighteenth century books in good conservation state from the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice have been investigated by means of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and optical microscopy to characterize the embedded paramagnetic species and to test differences and similarities of the materials in the two types of book components. We detected the Mn(II), Fe(III), and Cu(II) paramagnetic ions, and analyzed their EPR signals by comparing them with previous results in literature of EPR studies on paper. Interestingly, the Mn(II) EPR spectrum profile appears as a fingerprint for samples coming from the same book, either from cover or endleaf, and it looks different for samples extracted from different books. We discuss the role of EPR as a spectroscopic tool for characterizing the interaction of the ions with the paper components and as possible agents of degradation.

The Venetian Community--Between Civitas and Imperium . A Project of the Capital's Transfer from Venice to Constantinople, According to the Chronicle of Daniele Barbaro

Beginning with the eleventh century, Venetian historiography was the witness of the development of a new literary genre, meaning the chronicles. Only at Venice's Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana , their number exceeds 300. They are not contemporary sources for High Medieval Venice, but an instrument to reconstruct the image that the Venetians created regarding the surrounding political realities. They are supposed to represent the present paper's 'raw material'. Our proposal intends to emphasise a particular idea: possible Venetian claims for the Roman imperial tradition, more exactly the ideological evolution of this community from civitas to imperium . Although the imperial tendency is not immediately visible in the chronicles, it could be detected on a deeper investigation. It was possible, especially after the fourth crusade, when the fall of Constantinople ('the second Rome') in 1204 represented the proper opportunity for the Venetian community to consider itself as the legitimate heir of the imperial idea. The new title achieved by the Venetian Doge, that was Dominus quartae partis et dimidiae totius Imperii Romaniae ; the title of Dominator or of Podesta ¤ conffered to the Venetian representative at Constantinople during the Latin domination; the intention of the Doge Pietro Ziani (1205-29) to transfer the Venetian state structures to Constantinople. The paper especially emphasises this latter episode, relying upon the chronicle of Daniele Barbaro. Our intention is to accentuate all these features, relying upon the chronicles. They represented the Serenissima's option as a political identity. It supposes to pass from a local representation towards an international one, both of them seen through the eyes of the Venetian community.

Commemorators of Irene di Spilimbergo

ollowing a suggestion from Paul Oskar Kristeller, the editors of Renaissance Quarterly have asked me to provide a list of contributors to the memorial volume edited by Dionigi Atanagi, Rime di diversi nobilissimi et eccellentissimi autori in morte della signora delle signore di Spilimbergo, discussed in my recent article, Irene di Spilimbergo: The Image of a Creative Woman in Late Renaissance Italy, Renaissance Quarterly 44 (1991): 42-61. The most efficient and attractive way of complying with this request is to reproduce from my own copy of the book the accurate tables of contents found at the end of the Italian and Latin sections. (As explained in my article, most-probably all-of the poems attributed to incerti were written by Irene's friend Giorgio Gradenigo, who commissioned Atanagi to solicit contributions to the volume and see it through the press.) I have also included the title pages of the two parts and the colophon. The book is held by the following libraries (not an exhaustive list): Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale; Lawrence, Kansas, University of Kansas Library; London, British Library; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek; Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale; Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Library; Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana.

The Polyphonic Laude of Innocentius Dammonis

I n the early decades of the sixteenth century, Venice was acknowledged as one of the most important cultural centers of Europe. Giovanni Bellini was considered by many to be the greatest painter of the day, and the circle of scholars around Aldo Manutio established the Republic as a focus of humanistic studies. Musically, Venice has seemed to us less distinguished during these years owing to the absence of renowned composers before the arrival of Adrian Willaert in 1527. There were, however, many active musical establishments, including the Ducal Chapel of San Marco and the singers and instrumentalists of the great religious confraternities, the 19 Scuole Grandi.l Venice was also, until 1509, the workplace of the great music printer Ottaviano Petrucci. Despite these considerable musical activities, very little Venetian music of this period survives. Only two manuscripts of these years can be linked to Venice; both are secular, and neither is connected with any institutional musical establishment. One (Biblioteca nazionale marciana, Ms. Ital. IV, 1795-1798) is a set of four part-books of secular music, transitional between frottola and madrigal, datable around 1520 (recently published by the Fondazione Ugo Levi in Venice),2 and the other (Biblioteca nazionale marciana, Ms. Ital. IV, 1227) is a small book of dances for keyboard, dating from just a few years earlier (published many years ago by Jeppesen).3 No manu-

The Scientific Examination of the Vinland Map at the Research Laboratory of the British Museum

of the islands in the west, the compiler has employed a modern outline of Green? land ; he has done the same in the east, for two of the islands bear a plausible resemblance to Australia and New Guinea?a resemblance pointed out by Mr. Painter, who, however, considers it to be a meaningless coincidence. Having obtained the outline in this fashion the compiler has fabricated two simple names, 'Northern Islands' and 'Furthest Islands', names which do not occur in the Tartar Relation, and which display no knowledge of local nomenclature. The outline of Africa he derived from the Bianco world map. As I pointed out, the southern coastline simply follows the conspicuous fold in the original in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice. The whole con? figuration he then transferred from its circular frame to an ellipse. If this line of argument is accepted, it follows that the Vin? land Map was fabricated at a relatively recent date, as evidenced by the use of Bjornbo's diagram and the modern outline of Green? land; that is, after 1912, a date which fits in with the technological evidence. The compiler's aim may have been to produce a world map of interest to collectors of Americana, purporting to be authenticated by its association with the Tartar Relation. Contrary to what has been claimed, he would not have had to possess an extraordinary knowledge of medieval cosmography and cartography. To produce the fabricated map all that was required was a reproduction of the Bianco world map, Bjornbo's diagram and a modern atlas. As Dr. Wallis has mentioned, Professor Eva Taylor pointed out as long ago as 1965 that the ellipse within which the Vinland Map falls corresponds to a diagram in a work on projections published in 1921. Putting aside the technological evidence for the moment, all these resemblances cannot be mere coincidences. I conclude therefore that the Vinland Map was fabricated some years after 1912. Fig. 2