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 manifold account of a thousand-year-old manuscript (Budapest, National Szchnyi Library, Cod. Lat. 4), the oldest known illustrated 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 adventure story is not only the most important evidence for the illustrated 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 uncoloured 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 insight 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 interpretation in the facsimile.

A richly illustrated commentary volume encourages the adventure 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 practices between illustrator and scribe in the joint transmission of depictions and text, and a full account of its glosses. The appendix 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