L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano The Codex Purpureus: the first Illustrated book comes from Italy W e all love – or should love – books. They keep the essence of culture and help passing it on to the next generations. They tell stories: invented, when they're novels, of how events took place and why, when about history, of discoveries and how the world works, when related to science. E a c h a n d e v e r y b o o k , though, also tells another type o f s t o r y t o t h o s e a t t e n t i v e enough and with a trained eye: they keep, within and on their pages, the secret of how they came to be. This is especially true for ancient manuscripts, where the type of script, the ink, and the characteristics of the vellum used can tell us where the text was written, when and even show signs of corrections. Analyzing different manuscripts of the same text can bring a paleographer to understand and compile the original version of the text itself, thus enhancing our knowledge of its content and the reasons behind its com- position. T h e C o d e x P u r p u r e u s Rossanensis is one of the many beautiful manuscripts Italy has been holding within the dark shelves of its historical libraries for centuries, yet it has some- thing different from the others: it's one of the earliest complete v e r s i o n s o f t h e G o s p e l o f Matthew and Mark extant (only a handful of verses of the latter are missing), it was written on a peculiar type of parchment with a distinctive reddish hue (hence the name "purpureus") and, last but not least, it comes with an amazingly intricate series of drawings, which makes it one of the most amazing examples of illuminated work of the Late Antique period. It's this last characteristic that makes it more interesting: if it's true that a large amount of L a t e A n t i q u e a n d M e d i e v a l manuscripts are illuminated, the Codex Purpureus Rossanensis' wealth of illustrations makes it more of a fully illustrated text, rather than simply miniated. O r i g i n a l l y f o r m e d b y 4 0 0 sheets, only 188 survive today, containing 15 large illumina- tions illustrating the events of the Gospels. Entirely written in G r e e k , t h e C o d e x P u r p u r e u s Rossanensis has been, very like- ly, composed around the 6th century AD and it's probably Byzantine in origin. Through careful comparisons made with other artefacts of the same peri- ods, experts feel it may have been produced in Syria, possibly i n A n t i o c h , a n d m a y h a v e reached Rossano, in Calabria, a r o u n d t h e 7 t h c e n t u r y A D , when a large wave of migrating Eastern Greek monks hailed to t h e W e s t a f t e r t h e f i r s t Iconoclasm. Discovered in 1846, but fully s t u d i e d o n l y i n 1 8 7 9 b y a G e r m a n t e a m , t h e b e a u t i f u l m a n u s c r i p t h a s c o m e t o t h e attention of the wider public during the Summer, when it was returned to Rossano after a four year long restoration. In 2012, the local archbishop, monsignor Giuseppe Satriano, entrusted it to an equipe of experts who, t h r o u g h a d e l i c a t e , l o n g a n d complex work, restored damages to the parchment and strength- ened its binding. Thanks to their work, something more about the history itself of the manuscript resurfaced: confirmed were its a g e a n d o r i g i n , a n d f u r t h e r analysis proved the codex had been damaged several times, dismembered and very likely survived a fire. Detrimental has been also a 1917 restoration w o r k c a r r i e d o u t b y N e s t o r e L e o n i w h o , t h e h e a d o f t h e Icrcpal Restoration Laboratory Lucilla Nuccettelli says, "carried it out well, but was betrayed by the restoration techniques of those years, which have long proven highly damaging." With its fifteen centuries of life and the beauty and complex- ity of its illustrations, its restor- ers say, the Codex Purpureus Rossanensis should be consid- ered the first illustrated text of our history. I n s p i t e o f t h e e x t e n s i v e w o r k s m a d e , t h e P u r p u r e u s R o s s a n e n s i s r e m a i n s a n extremely fragile artefact: it needs to be maintained constant- ly at a temperature between 18 a n d 2 0 d e g r e e s C e l s i u s a n d a w a y f r o m d u s t , i n s e c t s a n d human hands. When open, it has to lay on two wedges and its pages can be turned only once per year. Today, this beautiful example o f a r t c a n b e s e e n i n t h e Diocesan Museum of Rossano, where it's kept in a specially designed display cabinet. On t h e 9 t h o f O c t o b e r 2 0 1 5 , t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l U N E S C O Committee inscribed it in its "Memory of the World" list, stating that the manuscript "is known worldwide for the pecu- liar reddish color of its pages, written in silver and gold inks and has a series of 15 illumina- tions, illustrating the life and teaching of Christ. The superb miniatures make it one of the oldest illuminated manuscripts of the New Testament." LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE FRANCESCA BEZZONE The Codex Purpureus Rossanensis is one of the earliest complete versions of the Gospel of Matthew and Mark and it comes with an amazingly intricate series of drawings

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