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New Light on the History of the Codex Arcerianus and the Fate of Varro’s De geometria and De arithmetica

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Richard MarshallORCiD

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Abstract

A reinvestigation of the history of the Codex Arcerianus in the early sixteenth century demonstrates that one of our earliest surviving illustrated manuscripts and most important witnesses to the collected works of the Roman land surveyors was once in the possession of Galeazzo Visconti (son of Gaspar Ambrogio Visconti), was loaned by Visconti to Andrea Alciato, stolen from Alciato by the printed Francesco Calvo, and gifted by Calvo to Erasmus in 1518. These discoveries improve our understanding of the earliest foliation and apographs of the Arcerianus (one of which can now be identified as the Coloccianus), and potentially shed light on the origins of the De asse minutisque eius portiunculis of Pseudo Balbus. They also provide additional confirmation that the Arcerianus never passed through Bobbio but once belonged to Petrarch. Francesco Calvo is also accused of a second crime : the removal of Varro’s De geometria from the Arcerianus. Such a work survived until the 1560s, and was seen by M. V. Maure, Auger Ferrier, and Pierre du Faur de Saint-Jor(r)y.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Marshall RMA

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Revue d’Histoire des Textes

Year: 2024

Volume: 19

Issue: 1

Pages: 187-232

Online publication date: 01/01/2024

Acceptance date: 04/12/2022

Date deposited: 12/09/2024

ISSN (print): 0373-6075

ISSN (electronic): 2507-0185

Publisher: Brepols

URL: https://doi.org/10.1484/J.RHT.5.137113

DOI: 10.1484/J.RHT.5.137113

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/me22-cx63

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