Vatican Digitizes a 1,600-Year-Old Illuminated Manuscript of the ‘Aeneid’

• by Carey Dunne

From the Vatican Virgil (c. 400) (all images courtesy the Vatican Library)

In Rome, around the year 400, a scribe and three painters created an illuminated manuscript of Virgil’s Aeneid, illustrating the ancient hero Aeneas’ journey from Troy to Italy. 1,600 years later, the Vatican has digitized the surviving fragments of this manuscript. Known as the Vergilius Vaticanus, it’s one of the world’s oldest versions of the Latin epic poem, and you can browse it for free online.