Here are three items that might be of interest. I had intended to blog about these, but they have sat in my inbox for more than six months, so clearly I never will. So I thought I’d post a quick note about them.
Firstly, how many people know that there is an 1885 volumes, China and the Roman Orient, published in Shanghai, with text and English translation of a Chinese account of embassies to Antioch and Constantinople? It was edited by F. Hirth, and can be found at Archive.org here.
Next, a dossier of documents relating to Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt (1798-1809) is online at the Bibliotheque Nationale Francais here. I’m not certain what these are, but they look as if they might be the original drawings used to produce the Description de l’Egypte. If so, it would be great to get behind the printed version.
Finally, among the manuscript digitisations at the Vatican library, is Barberini latini 2154 part B. This is a manuscript containing the pictures from the Chronography of 354. The Chronography was a lavishly illustrated volume of calendrical and other lists, produced by a known artist for a Roman nobleman in that year, complete with portraits of Constantius II and his nephew, the soon-to-be-disgraced Gallus. The volume is lost, but copies of it, with or without the pictures, have reached us. Long ago I found a printed version of the images and scanned it in; and I have enjoyed seeing those drift, unacknowledged, around the web. But here are the originals.
We are fortunate to have such things online, aren’t we!
Indeed! Many thanks for all three (unknown to me)!
And wishes for a joyful Easter and return to health!
Happy Easter!
I used the Hirth volume during my research for this 2015 magazine article: https://www.academia.edu/11983515/Rome_and_China_Did_the_Romans_have_links_with_the_Far_East
Very interesting.
Nice!