Depictions of Virtues and Vices as Mnemonic Devices

Abstract

Manuscript Burm.Q.3, has 181 folios written in one column. It measures 24,4 cm x 15 cm and it contains different works dated between the 9 th and the 10 th century. It begins with a grammar treatise (Tractatus ad grammaticam) ff. 1v-8v., which according to Stettiner was added later. 4 The rest of the manuscript is comprised by a 9 th century compilation of Prudentius' works. (f. 9) Preface, (ff. 10r-29r, 83v-88r) Cathemerinon, (ff. 29v-83v) Peristephanon, (ff. 88v-105r) Apotheosis, (ff. 105r-119v) Hamartigenia, (ff. 120r-149v) Psychomachia, (ff. 150r-178r) Contra Symmachum, (ff. 178v-181v) Dittochaeum. The entire Psychomachia poem is illuminated; it has 80 miniatures in two colors which were arranged within the columns, following the text and a tituli describing the image. This is one of the oldest manuscripts, dated at the end of the 9 th century. Tracing its provenance is quite difficult. According to Stettiner it is from the Egmond Abbey, Helen Woodruff ties it to the School of Reims, Adolf Katzenellenbogen to the North of France, from the Abbey of Saint Amand. Recent information states that the manuscript was created in the second quarter of the 9 th century in Saint Denis and later on it was taken to the Egmond Abbey. 5 It is quite probable that the codex was made in Saint Denis due the fact that it was not until the 10 th century that the Egmond Abbey was founded. Its style resembles that of the Utrecht Psalter. 6