Notitia Dignitatum

[lukeuedasarson]

It is a but much to skim over it. Does he agree with berger that M2 / W is closest to the original in general? =)
Thank you for the link!

In general, yes.  Certainly he uses it as the basis of his numbering system for the pictures, because it undoutably preserves the spatial arrangements the best.

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I take the point but, if the Count Palatine Otteinrich was concerned about accuracy, it would appear perverse if his artist went to the trouble of tracing the original and then copied the tracing inaccurately. As to matters of detail, my post here may have some relevance:
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/thread-...#pid287527

Well, the problem is the tracings and the subsequent transferral into the manuscript were probably done by different people. And I would suggest Ottheinrich was likely not so happy with the result; he did after all later obtain the original itself... 

But whether or not both the initial tracings and subsequent drawings into W were done by the same person, it is certain that the inkings over the top of the drawings produced by the copying of the paper tracings onto the vellum was done by a different person; this inker was a very sloppy worker indeed!

As an example, take a look at the pattern of the Tertia Diocletiana Thebaeorum. The two figures of the imago were drawn well enough onto the vellum, but the subsequent inking has turned them into two vertical lines, looking rather like the numeral "II" instead of the two figures clearly shown in all the other MS copies (and leading to whoever reconstructed the pattern for Wikipedia Commons to assume it was a miss-enumerated "III" for Tertia!).

(Moderator - perhaps the thread would be better named "Notitia Dignitatum images"?)