Three manuscripts of the "De raptu cerberi" by Jakov Bunić (1469-1534)

Abstract

De raptu Cerberi, a short epic poem by Jakov Bunić (Jacobus Bonus) from Dubrovnik, first printed in Rome, in 1490, exists also in three manuscripts, one in Milan (Biblioteca Ambrosiana), two in Vienna (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek). The Milan manuscript seems to consist actually of a short note about the poem made by Pietro Mazzucchelli (1762-1829), the librarian of the Ambrosiana; this manuscript is here just noted, not described. The first manuscript from Vienna (Cod. Ser. n. 12881) is a relatively luxurious copy, containing exclusively the poem De raptu Cerberi. It was perhaps a gift to an important, though unnamed recipient. Textual variants suggest that this is an intermediate version, made after the first edition of Bunić’s poem (Rome, 1490), but before its second edition  (Rome, 1526). The other Viennese manuscript (Cod. 3111) contains the poem De raptu Cerberi on f. 74r-90r, among works by Ovid, Paulus Marsus, Pseudo-Hyginus, and Petrus Popo. This manuscript was compiled by the German humanist Johannes Cuspinianus  (Johann Spiessheimer, 1473-1529), during his days as a teacher’s apprentice in Würzburg, Germany, from the spring of 1491 to March 1492. Cuspinianus obviously got hold of Bunić’s book quite soon after it was published - and the German humanist, a poet in the making, appreciated the poem enough to copy it whole.