Page from the Florence Virgil (colour litho)

Choice examples of paleography, facsimiles from rare and curious manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Page from the Florence Virgil; Latin manuscript, written about 270 AD. The page reproduced here is the commencement of the fourth book of the AEnid of Virgil. It is hardly possible to estimate the value of this superb manuscript, not only from the purity of its text, but on account of its remarkable history and its extreme antiquity. It has been reproduced in Italy in type cast to represent the original script, and its punctuation and peculiarities have been faithfully preserved. In the manuscript, the Eclogues are missing, but the Georgics and AEnid are complete. Published in The World's Great Classics, Library Comittee; published by The Colonial Press, New York & London, 1899.