De vita et moribus philosophorum (The Life and Death of Philosophers)
13.8 x 20.6 cm bound to 14.4 x 21.3 cm
ca 1450–1500 CE, attributed to the Burgundian or Hapsburg Netherlands (present-day Belgium or The Netherlands)
Manuscript: 68 parchment leaves, bound in nineteenth-century English leather
The Life and Death of Philosophers is a biographical dictionary of 130 ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and poets. This fifteenth-century CE Latin edition1 of De vita et moribus philosophorum reveals something of the bookmaking process in early modern times. Ruled lines drawn for the scribe are still visible, especially on the final pages that do not include text. Folio 1r includes a five-lined illuminated initial “D” with accent colors of ultramarine and red that may be made with pigments lapis lazuli, red lake, and vermillion. In some places, there are small organic holes in the parchment. The shape and placement of some of these holes reflects the condition of the animal’s skin; deviations within the skin (a belly button, perhaps) may have been further accentuated as the parchment was stretched during the preparation process. Another set of much smaller holes may have been caused by insects.
Robin Morris