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Manuscript Hamilton 254

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Manuscript Hamilton 254
Berlin State Library
The west façade of the Parthenon on folio 85r
Also known asCodex Hamilton 254
TypeHumanist miscellany (collectanea)
Datec. 1440
Place of originNorthern Italy
Language(s)Latin, with some Greek
Materialvellum
SizeII + 124 leaves (foliated 1–126)
ContentsA collection of various texts, ancient inscriptions and drawings from various sources

The Manuscript Hamilton 254 (also known as Codex Hamilton 254) is a 15th-century manuscript compiled by the Venetian Renaissance humanist and bishop Pietro Donato. It contains a collection of various texts, ancient inscriptions and drawings from various sources (collectanea).

The volume is best known for a portfolio on folios 81r–90v personally written by the Italian antiquarian and traveller Cyriacus of Ancona (1391–1452) which includes the oldest extant drawing of the Parthenon as well as other drawings of Athenian monuments.

The manuscript is one of the earliest examples of inscription collecting in the Renaissance.

Name and dimensions

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Name

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The manuscript's name relates to the Manuscripta Hamiltoniana (Ms. Ham.) collection of the Berlin State Library. Then the Royal Library, it purchased the collection of the Scottish politician Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton in 1882.[1]

Dimensions

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The quarto manuscript has II + 124 folios and measures 25 cm × 17 cm (9.8 in × 6.7 in) with 31 to 32 lines per page.[2] Its vellum is of high quality.[3]

History

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Origins

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The German classical scholar Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) dated the manuscript from internal evidence in an 1883 publication: The manuscript mentions a church disputation held in Florence in 1439. It contains lists of Holy Roman Emperors and popes which at first ended with Albert II (d. 1439) and Eugene IV (d. 1447), with entries for the elections of Frederick III and Nicholas V added later. Mommsen concluded that the majority of the volume was written in 1439.[4]

Helmut Boese [de], a German librarian, dates the volume to about 1440–1445 in the 1966 standard catalogue for the Latin manuscripts of the Manuscripta Hamiltoniana.[2] Debra Pincus, an independent scholar, dated it in 2017 to 1442–1443.[3]

Scribe

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Pietro Donato

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Mommsen has identified Pietro Donato, the bishop of Padua from 1428 to 1447, as the scribe of the volume. He linked it to Donato because its scribe records several inscriptions as standing in his garden or villa and the same stones are known to have stood in the garden of Donato.[5] Mommsen further located Donato's partially erased name on folio 81v[a] and on a note on folio 121r where the "P." for Pietro is still visible.[5] Mommsen concluded that at least the majority of the volume was handwritten by Donato himself.[5]

Boese disagrees and only identifies entries or annotations on folios 50v, 81–90, 111v, 112r, 117r, 121v, 122r and 124v as handwritten by Donato.[2] For the folios 81r to 90v, he identifies Cyriacus of Ancona, the 15th-century humanist, as their scribe. For the rest of the volume, he sees an unidentified person as the scribe, with the possibility of a second scribe for the folios 103r to 106v.[2]

Boese further notes that the volume does not appear in a 1959 catalogue of Donato's library.[2]

Cyriacus of Ancona

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The writing on folios 81r–90v and an entry on folio 121v are done by the humanist Cyriacus of Ancona, who visited Athens in 1436. It is, however, uncertain if the drawings on these folios were also done by him personally.[6][7] Adolf Michaelis, a German classical scholar, identified them in 1882 as done by Cyriacus personally.[8] Boese considers it "not very convincing" that the drawings were not done by him, while Bernard Ashmole, the British archaeologist, holds this opinion.[9] The art historians Beverly Louise Brown and Diana Kleiner noted in 1983 that scholarly opinion on this point is "now more or less divided" but consider Cyriacus's own hand to be more likely.[10] Lillian Datchev, a historian of premodern Europe, stated in 2023 that the drawing of the Parthenon was indeed done by Cyriacus.[11]

Later provenance

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A partly erased ownership inscription of the latter half of the 15th century on folio 126r reads "Iste liber est mei Sacristearii(?) de Ferrarinis".[2] In the first half of the 19th century the volume was rebound in England in red morocco by C. Meyer, with the spine title "EXCERPTA MSS", for the collection of the 10th Duke of Hamilton in whose library it bore the No. 102.[2] The Hamilton manuscripts were purchased for Berlin in 1882. On arrival at the Royal Museums the codex carried the provisional No. 458 under the designation "Excerpta".[4]

Overview and reception

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The contents of Donato's collectanea were described by Mommsen in 1883 and Boese in 1966.[12] Mommsen has described the content of the manuscript in 1883 as an assortment of various texts – mostly of minor importance. It does, however, contain the epigraphic work of Cyriacus of Ancona and this work is considered valuable by Mommsen for the beginning of epigraphy, the study of inscriptions:[13]

I know of no other [...] manuscript that has brought the beginnings of classical epigraphy [...] into such clear and striking view as these Collectanea by Pietro Donato, which were virtually unknown until a few weeks ago. No other major centre of modern civilisation has been the starting point for as many expeditions to collect inscriptions as Berlin; and if it is here [...] that the study of ancient epigraphy has found its centre, then perhaps we have earned the right [...] to rejoice that, alongside Rome, Berlin is now the only place where the autograph collections of the earliest epigraphic traveller, Cyriacus of Ancona, are preserved; [...].

— Theodor Mommsen[14]

Writing in 2017, Pincus has praised the manuscript. She sees it as an "intriguing compendium" noting its inscriptions, the drawings of monuments and the letter forms:

[The manuscript] is one of the earliest pieces of evidence for inscription collecting in the Renaissance and [...] a model for later epigraphic collections. The volume has acquired a certain fame for its inclusion of a drawing of the Parthenon [...], but the manuscript needs to be celebrated as much – or even more – for its attention to letters, the letters of inscriptions and individual studies of antique Greek and Latin letters done freely in pen.

— Debra Pincus[3]

Content

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Excerpts I (folios 3r–49v)

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The volume begins with the following excerpts:

Inscriptions I (folios 49v–80v)

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The inscription collection on folios 49v–80v is named Epigramata litteris maiusculis scripta Latina et Greca et ut plurimum Romana in the manuscript's own table of contents.[9] Theodor Mommsen checked them in 1883 against the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL)[18] and Giovanni Battista de Rossi used them for his Inscriptiones Christianae urbis Romae.[9] Notable inscriptions include:

  • Tu qui secura procedis mente parumper (CIL VI 12652) (folios 64v/65r).[9]
  • The inscription on the so-called Tomb of Antenor (folio 76v).[9]

Cyriacus's section (folios 81r–90v)

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Writings and inscriptions

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The folios 81r–90v contain, inter alia, Greek and Latin inscriptions collected by Cyriacus of Ancona during his first travels through Athens in April 1436.[19][20] According to Michaelis they originally formed a stand-alone booklet consisting of five double-page spreads (Quinio).[20] The writings contain, for example:

  • The inscription on the Arch of Trajan in Ancona (CIL IX 5894) (folio 81r).[19]
  • A letter to Donato (folio 81v).[19]
  • Parts of the Palatine Anthology, a collection of Greek poems.[19]
  • Excerpts from Plutarch (Apophthegmata regum et imperatorum and De Alexandri fortuna).[19]
  • The names and signs of planets (folio 89v).[19]
  • Greek and Latin alphabets (folio 90v).[19] These are praised by Pincus as "[an] honor [to] antique letter forms, making them available as models".[3]

Drawings

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Notably, the volume also contains some drawings of buildings or sculptures in Athens:

  • The west façade of the Parthenon (folio 85r).[19] This is the oldest extant drawing of the Parthenon.[21][14][22] According to Mommsen it was a copy of Cyriacus's original drawing of the Parthenon of 6 April 1436, which was later lost.[14] The drawing shows eight fluted Doric columns without bases.[23] Brown and Kleiner point out that "the measurements of the intercolumniations and the proportions are hopelessly inaccurate", that the "triglyphs and metopes have been omitted" and that "the narrative of the pedimental sculpture" has been "transformed".[24] They further note that "Poseidon is not shown and the remaining figures have been recast as winged genii".[24] Samantha L. Martin-McAuliffe, an architect, and John K. Papadopoulos, an archeologist, remarked positively in 2012 on the drawing arguing that while it "contains many inaccuracies, it nevertheless stands as a document of tremendous significance".[22] In 2025, Ioannis Mitsios, a Greek archeology scholar, commented less positively on its quality noting that it "differ[s] from reality and should be seen as [an] imaginary and amateurish depictio[n] of the west pediment, rather than [a] realistic attestatio[n]".[25]
  • The Arch of Hadrian (folio 85v).[19]
  • The Tower of the Winds (folio 87r).[19] Next to the drawing is an excerpt of Vitruvius's De architectura (I.6.) on the winds as a marginal note.[26]
  • The Temple of Olympian Zeus (folio 87v).[19]
  • A giant (folio 88v).[19] Specifically, the drawing shows a giant in front of the Odeon of Agrippa in the Ancient Agora of Athens, which Cyriacus misidentified as a female sea creature.[27]
  • The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (folio 88v).[19]
  • A figure of Homer (folio 90r).[19]

Lists and excerpts II (folios 91r–111r)

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The volume continues from folios 91r to 111r with lists and further excerpts:

Inscriptions II (folios 111v–118r)

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On folios 111v–118r the inscription collection continues.[29] Within this section the following poem is written:

  • The poem Septem sapientum sententiae of pseudo-Ausonius (folios 117r–117v).[9]

Excerpts III and inscriptions III (folios 118v–125r)

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The volume continues with further excerpts and inscriptions:

References

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Mommsen reads "R D PETRO EPO [PA]T" in the beginning of the very first line of folio 81v.[5]
  2. ↑ Book 26, Title 5, Paragraphs 21 and 22 (Modestinus)
  3. ↑ See Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum 9869 for the Greek original.[9]
  4. ↑ The manuscript dates the election to 3 February 1440, while it actually took place on 2 February 1440.

Citations

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  1. ↑ "Digitalisierung der mittelalterlichen lateinisch- und französischsprachigen Handschriften aus der Signaturengruppe 'Manuscripta Hamiltoniana' (Ms. Ham.) der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin". Handschriftenportal (in German). Retrieved 7 June 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Boese 1966, p. 125.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Pincus 2017, p. 44.
  4. 1 2 Mommsen 1883, p. 73.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Mommsen 1883, p. 74.
  6. ↑ Boese 1966, pp. 125, 127, 129.
  7. ↑ Bordignon 2009, p. 96.
  8. ↑ Michaelis 1882, pp. 369–370.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Boese 1966, p. 127.
  10. ↑ Brown & Kleiner 1983, p. 326 (note 31).
  11. ↑ Datchev 2023, p. 447.
  12. ↑ Boese 1966, pp. 125–130.
  13. ↑ Mommsen 1883, pp. 74, 78.
  14. 1 2 3 Mommsen 1883, p. 78.
  15. ↑ Boese 1966, pp. 125–126.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Boese 1966, p. 126.
  17. 1 2 Boese 1966, pp. 126–127.
  18. ↑ Mommsen 1883, pp. 86–89.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Boese 1966, pp. 127–128.
  20. 1 2 Michaelis 1882, p. 370.
  21. ↑ Lyons et al. 2005, p. 112.
  22. 1 2 Martin-McAuliffe & Papadopoulos 2012, p. 335.
  23. ↑ Le Roy 2004, pp. 26–27.
  24. 1 2 Brown & Kleiner 1983, pp. 326–327.
  25. ↑ Mitsios 2025, p. 5.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 Boese 1966, p. 129.
  27. ↑ Chatzidakis 2013, p. 14.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Boese 1966, p. 128.
  29. ↑ Boese 1966, pp. 127, 128.
  30. ↑ Boese 1966, pp. 128–129.

Sources

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Further reading

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  • Ashmole, Bernard (1959). "Cyriac of Ancona". Proceedings of the British Academy. 45: 25–41.
  • Bodnar, Edward W. (1960). Cyriacus of Ancona and Athens. Collection Latomus. Vol. 43. Brussels: Latomus. OCLC 1284459.
  • Brown, Patricia Fortini (1996). Venice and Antiquity: The Venetian Sense of the Past. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06700-3.
  • Chatzidakis, Michail (2017). Ciriaco d'Ancona und die Wiederentdeckung Griechenlands im 15. Jahrhundert (in German). Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag. ISBN 9783731904908.
  • Degenhart, Bernhard; Schmitt, Annegrit (1990). "Jacopo Bellini und die Antike". Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen, 1300–1450, Teil II. Venedig, Jacopo Bellini (in German). Vol. 5. Berlin: Gebr. Mann. pp. 192–233.
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