VERGIL BUCOLICON AND GEORGICON

MS 5283
MS Short Title VERGIL BUCOLICON AND GEORGICON
Text 1.VERGIL: BUCOLICON 2.VERGIL: GEORGICON 3.GIUSEPPE DELLA SANTA: INTRODUCTION AND VERSE IN PRAISE OF LEOPOLD I GRAND DUKE OF TOSCANA
Description MS in Latin on vellum, Firenze, 1771, 59 ff., 22x15 cm, single column, (17x12 cm), 29 lines in rustic capitals and Italic script (text 1) by Giuseppe della Santa, as facsimile of Codex Mediceus of 5th c., dedication copy to Leopold I Grand duke of Toscana.
Binding Firenze, late 19th c., paper wrappers in 4 volumes, stitched. Cloth fall-down-back box, gilt-lettered red morocco spine strip.
Context The whereabouts of the Aenid which originally followed this MS, is unknown. For other mss of Georgics see MS 61 of 11th c. and MS 1395 of 12th c.
Provenance 1. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Firenze (1771); 3. Grand duke Leopold I, Toscana (1771-); 3. Bernard Breslauer, New York (-2005); 4. Christie's New York 27.6.2005: 1170.
Commentary Vergil's (70-19 BC) works survive in hundreds of MSS, headed by the 3 famous codices, Codex Mediceus, Laur. 39.1 of the 5th c., Codex Platinus, Vatican Pal.lat. 1631, written ca. 500, and Codex Romanus, Vatican lat.3867 also written ca. 500. All three written in rustic capitals. Bucolicon (Latin Bucolica or Eclogae) are ten unconnected pastoral poems written in imitation of Theocritus. Georgicon or Georgica (husbandry) is written in hexameter in imitation of Hesiod's Works and Days (see MSS 593 and 5068), but is far more than a practical guide to farming. It ends with the episode of Aristaeus together with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Aristaeus, son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, was a god of various kinds of husbandry including bee-keeping and hunting. Orpheus, a pre-Homeric poet, son of a Muse, married the nymph Eurydice, who died while being pursued by Aristaeus. Orpheus went down to the Underworld to recover her from Persephone or Proserpina, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, snatched away to be queen of the Underworld by Hades, but Orpheus failed. The famous story is also told by Ovid and Claudian, and was given a more hopeful ending in Gluck's opera. For another, and the oldest account of a descent to the Underworld, see MS 3281 from about 1800 BC. Giuseppe della Santa, scribe of Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Duke Leopold I of Toscana (1747-1792), Grand duke of Toscana (1765-1790), Holy Roman Emperor, and King of Bohemia and Hungary, Leopold II (1790-92).
See also See also MS 1720/1, Curse: To the god Mercury Arverius. England, ca. 150-300
Place of origin Firenze, Italy
Dates 1771