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TheCodex Aesinas (Codex Aesinas Latinus 8) is a 15th-century compositemanuscript. It was discovered by chance in 1902 at the former private estate of the Count Baldeschi Balleani family located inJesi, in theprovince of Ancona,Italy. The manuscript is considered especially valuable because it contains theOpera Minora (shorter works) of the Roman historianTacitus, including theAgricola and theGermania. Due to the inclusion of eightfolia written inCarolingian minuscule script within theAgricola, the Tacitus portion of the Codex is generally regarded as a direct copy of the missingCodex Hersfeldensis (H), a 9th-century manuscript that contained a copy of the originalOpera Minora by Tacitus. The Carolingian folia are thought to be originals taken from the lost codex. In 1994, the Baldeschi Balleani family sold the codex to theBiblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma where it is now known as theCodex Vittorio Emanuele 1631.
In 1902, Count Aurelio Guglielmi Balleani commissioned Cesare Annibaldi, a local philologist and professor, to examine some manuscripts collected in the count's private library.
The manuscripts dated to the second half of the 15th century, and had belonged to the library of thehumanistStefano Guarnieri (1425-1493), a chancellor and diplomat inPerugia, which he had built with his brother Francesco. The Guarnieris were born inOsimo, only 15 km from Jesi, and came from an educated family of landowners that had been members of the nobility since the 12th century. This library was inherited by the Balleani family through the marriage of Gaetano Balleani to Sperandia Guarnieri, a descendant of Francesco, in 1793. It remained in the family's possession until 1994.
Annibaldi discovered the works of Tacitus in one of Guarnieri's manuscripts, and in the Agricolaquaternion found eightfolia consisting of sixteen pages written inCarolingian minuscule script from the early 9th century (f. 56 - 63). The manuscript also contained a Latin version of theDictys Cretensis, which according to theincipit, came from an L. Septimius, also written almost entirely in Carolingian minuscule from the 9th century. Since the lettering of the quaternion matched exactlyPier Candido Decembrio's description of theAgricola in theHersfeldensis from the year 1455,[1] Annibaldi concluded that this was a fragment of the lost original document. Guarnieri must have acquired theAgricola section from theHersfeldensis and copied the missing parts as well as theGermania fromH. As a result, he published his findings: in 1907, a facsimile of theAgricola withcollations of theDictys and theGermania, and in 1910 a facsimile of theGermania with a diplomatically edited text.
In 1929 the family tried to auction the codex through Sotheby's in London without success and it was taken off the market. In the 1930s the codex drew attention fromNazi ideologues who regarded the includedGermania as a foundational document of "germanic-German" history and ethnicity. In 1936, duringMussolini's state visit to Berlin,Hitler personally requested that the codex be given over to theGerman Reich, a request that Mussolini initially approved. He later changed his mind, however, due to widespread opposition among Italians, who considered the document to be an important part of their own national heritage. Through diplomatic mediation andHimmler's influence, the Italian government permittedRudolf Till andPaul Lehmann of the Research Association of GermanAhnenerbe to examine the codex in 1939. In 1943 the results of this examination were released along with photographic illustrations of theAgricola andGermania folia produced by the Istituto di Patologia del Libro inRome. After the war, in 1947, a set of the photographs was transferred to theWidener Library atHarvard University through the U.S. Embassy in Italy.
Following theAllied invasion of Italy and thecoup of June 1943 against Mussolini, Himmler ordered anSS command to Jesi in the autumn of that year to seize the codex. The commandraided all three of the count'spalazzi, but the search was unsuccessful. Theanti-fascist family had been previously warned and had gone into hiding. TheAesinas had been concealed in a chest, which the SS command had overlooked. In the post-war period, the owners secured the manuscript in their ownFlorentine bank, where it suffered water damage from theflood of the Arno in 1966. In the following years, it was restored by a specialized laboratory inGrottaferrata, where it was alsore-bound.
TheHerzog August Library approached the Baldeschi Balleani family in 1987 to acquire the codex, but ultimately abandoned the purchase due to the damage. In 1993 the ItalianMinistry of Culture expressed interest in purchasing the manuscript from the family's private library. As part of this effort, an official examined theAesinas and two other manuscripts containing works byCicero. The Italian government made an offer for all three, and the purchase was completed in June 1994. The three manuscripts were added to the collection of theBiblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, where theAesinas is catalogued asVittorio Emanuele 1631.
As part of the 2000th anniversary of theBattle of the Teutoburg Forest in 2009, theAesinas was presented to a wide audience for the first time in the three-part exhibition: "Imperium, Conflict, Myth" at theLippisches Landesmuseum inDetmold,North Rhine-Westphalia.
TheAesinas includes 76parchmentfolia inquarto format (27.3 × 22.0 cm; after restoration and rebinding 26.4 × 21.1 cm) with text in two columns of thirty lines each, their heights and widths varying slightly between 20.3 and 6.2 cm.
The parts from the 9th century have the introductory words written in all capital letters—prominent in the folia of the incipit—which are executed in alternating rows of red, gold and green. Theincipit is red and gold, written inuncial script. In folio 40v a tree is drawn in red ink at the end of the text. Furthermore, the lettering of the Carolingian parts showrubrications throughout.
The parts that Stefano Guarnieri added in the 15th century deliberately reflect the appearance of the older 9th century manuscript. They have rubricated titles and alternating red and black rubricated capital lettering in the introductory text. Annibaldi was able to determine that Guarnieri was the author of the 15th-century sections by comparing them with his other surviving writings. Guarnieri had probably compiled the codex in the 1460s[2] and had most likely copied the Tacitus parts either directly or indirectly from theHersfeldensis. When copying he tried to match his writing to the Carolingian minuscule script of the original.
The codex is structured as follows:
There are alsopalimpsest folia which Guarnieri initially copied, but then shaved in order to rewrite. They include the Carolingian folia, among others, traces of which remain recognizable. The palimpsests are in the following sections: