Apollonius pictus. An illustrated late antique romance around 1000.

Egy illusztrlt ks antik regny 1000 krl.

Edited by Anna Boreczky and Andrs Nmeth. OSZK, Budapest, 2011.
ISBN 978-963-200-600-0. 184 pages, 104 illustrations + facsimile (8 pages)

This volume gives the reader side by side a facsimile and a man-
ifold account of a thousand-year-old manuscript (Budapest, Na-
tional Szchnyi Library, Cod. Lat. 4), the oldest known illustrat-
ed copy of the late antique Latin adventure romance History of
Apollonius, King of Tyre (Historia Apollonii). The vicissitudes of
king Apollonius, his daughter Tarsia, and her mother Lucina
across the Mediterranean have enjoyed exceptional popularity
since the early Middle Ages: among others, this story inspired
Shakespeares Pericles. The narrative cycle depicting the adven-
ture story is not only the most important evidence for the illus-
trated late antique romances, an almost entirely lost genre, but
also a unique example of the narrative book illustrations at the
turn of the first millennium. In addition to the thirty-eight uncol-
oured pen-and-ink drawings depicting the adventures of the plot
in a cartoon-like cinematic narration, the fragmentary Budapest
manuscript comprises half of a very early and valuable redaction
of the text. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the drawings
were glossed mostly in Old Saxonian, which gives a unique in-
sight into the early reception of the romance in Germany and
the peculiar sense of monastic humour. The reader has a
chance to explore all these details and discover new layers of in-
terpretation in the facsimile.
A richly illustrated commentary volume encourages the adven-
ture of exploration with studies in English, German, and French.
An international group of experts, Xavier Barral i Altet, Anna
Boreczky, Herbert L. Kessler, Andrs Nmeth, Andreas Nievergelt
and Beatrice Radden Keefe investigate the tortuous history of
the manuscript up to the present, its unique blend of late antique
and Ottonian visual language, the successively alternating prac-
tices between illustrator and scribe in the joint transmission of
depictions and text, and a full account of its glosses. The appen-
dix invites the reader to continue unfolding multiple layers of the
manuscript and includes the first full critical transcription of its
Latin text.

Orders should be addressed to kiadvanytar@oszk.hu

Costs: 30 Euro + postage
 Publisher
National Szchnyi Library