An illustrated Italian (Tuscan) bestiary.

Formerly M.VI.137 in the Biblioteca Chigiana in Rome, this manuscript was donated to the Vatican in 1923 by Mussolini.

This manuscript is designated "Ch1" by McKenzie.

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[From McKenzie, page 399] <.p>

The contents of this manuscript correspond to chapters in each of the three parts of Bibliothèque Nationale de France, ital. 450 [Par]. They are as follows: part of the proemio; De la natura de la Scimia; De la grande fede che lo leone moströ a uno Cavaliere che lo liberö; Sichome lo Rei di Francia si meravilliava del sto Leone; Uno pescatore; De la compagnia de li quattro tori, Uno arbore. Thus we have a chapter from the bestiary; two of the chapters in the last part; and the first three of the fables. Moreover, a comparison of the printed text with the text of Par shows such close relationship that it would not be difficult to assume that the one text was copied from the other; especially since Ch1 contains at least two of the chapters which are found elsewhere only in Par. ... the order of the first twenty-five chapters in Ch1 corresponds exactly to the order in Par.

Additional Descriptions

Additional description 1
Additional description 2 (page 398-399)

Editions and Facsimiles

Digital facsimiles

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (very low quality monochrome images)