Virgil's Aeneid, Book VII, 139-198, Italy, c, . 1350, MS 12, James Hayes Collection
Special Collections, CU Boulder Libraries
Writing c. 19 BCE during the rule of Caesar Augustus (27 BCE-CE 14), Virgil draws a parallel between Aeneas, the Trojan founder of Rome, and Augustus, founder of a new Rome and heir to Aeneas and the goddess Venus. The story recounts the flight of Aeneas and fellow Trojans from their destroyed city to Rome.
Special Collections' leaf of Book VII (c. 1350), shown above, displays the annotations and doodles characteristic of a heavily used manuscript.
Virgil's Aeneid, Book XII, Italy, late 15th Century, MS 112, James Hayes Collection
Special Collections, CU Boulder Libraries
In this late fifteenth-century edition Book XII of Virgil's Aeneid, annotations and glosses are now printed.
Special Collections' etchings of the Aeneid, several of which are included below, are part of a bound volume of Virgil's Aeneid, that offers of pictorial view with a previous owner's hand-written descriptions of Aeneas' encounters from Troy, Carthage, and Italy. Although there is no signature, the etchings appear to be those of Pietro Santi Bartoli, who worked in the late seventeenth century. A later owner - probably late seventeenth or early eighteenth century - has added handwritten quotations from the chapters and verses of the Aeneid.
For a full text English translation of Virgil's Aeneid, see the Internet Classics Archive, MIT.
Virgil's Aeneid. Engravings by Pietro Santi Bartoli (?), late seventeenth century.
Special Collections, Rare and Distinctive Collections
