Full Notitia Dignitatum on line

[Caballo]

Some wonderful people have put the Bavarian version of the Notitia Dignitatum (ie not the Bodleian Oxford or Walsingham version) on line- in full, and magnifiable. The closest thing to having it in front of you....

http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db ... =5&seite=1


http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db ... &seite=191

[markusaurelius]

Is this a later version that the other ones? The shield images on pages 91 and 93 for instance look different than the images from the other books.

Great link though. Something very intriguing to be able to "page" through this old book.

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

WOW !!

M.VIB.M.

[markusaurelius]

Its downloadable as well! 113MB

The version seems to be from 1550, so I'm assuming the previous version are older. The illustrations of the armor look very 16t Century However the helmet are gold colored, perhaps copying the earlier images of the gold plated Ridge helmets of the period. Also some of the later images of the belt buckles look very much like 4th or 5th Century buckles.

[Caballo]

The original was found in the Cathedral library at Speyer- the Codex Spirensis.
Four main copies survive:-
-1436 owned first by Donato, the best known version, now in the Bodleian Oxford
- 1443 owned first by Decembrio, now at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris
- 1484 for the Cardinal of Trento, no illustrations, now in Trento
-1542, for Prince Otto Heinrich of the Palatinate, the one shown here online , now in the Staatsbibliothek in Munich

They all were copied, it is believed from the original in Speyer. Only one page of the original survives , used in a binding of a 1602 record book, and appears to be itself a copy made in the ninth/tenth century. There are other copies, but most appear to be copies of the main four or be "so careless or so defective as to be of little value" (EA Thompson- A Roman Reformer and Inventor- De Rebus Bellicis)

[Robert Vermaat]

This very nice online publication also has a very interesting version of the Notitia Galliarum and of course the illustrated de Rebus Bellicis.

[Eleatic Guest]

Great link. The Sammelhandschrift apparently also inlcudes the De Rebus Bellicis with a lot of illustrations of ancient war machines (carroballistae, ox-driven paddle wheel ship, etc.).

[Crispvs]

Fascinating! I note that a different copy of the Notitia has been added onto the end of the first. The content appears to be exactly the same, but in a different hand and the illustrations are more or less the same but by a different artist. I only realised this because I spent the evening viewing every page of the first version and then found myself looking at text and illustrations I had seen before but in a different hand.

Crispvs

[Caballo]

Frater Crispus

Just this page http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db ... &seite=195 with the shield of the Quarto Decimani -pn it- the heirs to Legio XIIII GMV?

Cheers

Caballo

[Crispvs]

Well spotted! I notice too that the Constantini Seniores (at the opposite end of the same row) are shown with the same blazon and that both of units mentioned between them have the word 'gemina' in their names. Interesting find! :o

Crispvs

[Ron Andrea]

Well done. Thank you. :!:

[Robert Vermaat]

Interesting find! :o

Repeated warning:

They all were copied, it is believed from the original in Speyer. Only one page of the original survives , used in a binding of a 1602 record book, and appears to be itself a copy made in the ninth/tenth century. There are other copies, but most appear to be copies of the main four or be "so careless or so defective as to be of little value" (EA Thompson- A Roman Reformer and Inventor- De Rebus Bellicis)