Priscianus, Institutiones grammaticae Priscianus, Institutiones grammaticae

Priscianus came from Northern Africa and acted as an instructor of grammar in Constantinople around the year 500 AD. This manuscript is one of the most important and oldest textual witnesses for his main work, which gives an overview on Latin grammar in 18 books. In the Middle Ages, the text enjoyed wide distribution, as attested by the more than 1000 manuscripts which survive world-wide.

The manuscript shown here contains only books 1–16, but lacks the last two books of the ‚Institutiones‘, which cover the Latin syntax. About 60 pen-work initials decorate the text, many of them embellished with braided patterns and other ornaments.

The right-hand page contains the end of book XI on participles. Book XII, which deals with pronouns, follows immediately.