Leiden Aratea

When Aratea manuscript in Leiden is a Carolingian illuminated manuscript, the astronomical treatise Phainomena of Aratus ( 310-245 BC) about the constellations in the Latin translation of Claudius Caesar Germanicus, which contains Aratea of Germanicus. The manuscript was after 825 in Lotharingia ( Aachen and Metz). Maybe the Emperor Louis the Pious was the principal.

Of prime importance are the 35 full-page miniatures. The framed deck color images take the highest quality full of great stylistic fidelity an ancient document is not obtained. Four representations of Illustration cycle are missing. The Codex contains 99 parchment leaves, its size is 225 × 200 mm.

The manuscript must have been held around 1000 in Northern France, possibly at the Abbey of Saint- Bertin, where two copies created. 1573 Jacob Susius acquired the manuscript of a painter in Ghent, later it was owned by Hugo Grotius, then of Queen Christina of Sweden and Isaac Vossius. With whose estate the manuscript was 1690 in the Leiden University Library, where they are still today under the signature Voss. Latin Q is 79.

Some miniatures

Ophiuchus, Serpens & Scorpius

Boötes

Auriga

Andromeda

Aries