Theodosius or Justinian? A Renaissance Drawing of a Byzantine Rider

* It is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness and to express my gratitude to the many individuals quoted in the following notes who have so generously given me a variety of information, advice, and assistance in the preparation of this article. Foremost among them have been the Prefect of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Most Reverend Anselmo M. Albareda, the Director and Vice-Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale di San Marco, Drs. Tullia Gasparrini Leporace and Giorgio E. Ferrari, Dr. W. Gebhardt of the Westdeutsche Bibliothek in Marburg and Dr. H. Boese of the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, who have repeatedly answered my queries about the Buondelmonti manuscripts in their collections and supplied me with photographs for study and publication. My special indebtedness to Professor Franz Babinger will be apparent to every reader of this article. It is impossible to thank him adequately for deciphering the hitherto unread text above the Budapest drawing, for providing me with the new photographs of it reproduced in Figs, 1 and 7, and for his kindness in reading my manuscript. I am, as always, no less indebted to my husband, Karl Lehmann, for his constant and invaluable interest and advice.

Abstract

AMONG the manuscripts presented to the Budapest University Library in 1877 by Sultan Abd ul-Hamid II was a fifteenth century codex containing excerpts from miscellaneous classical authors.¹ On the next to the last folio, 144.V, it has been embellished with a full-page sketch of an equestrian figure drawn in sepia ink, its heavily shaded contours and inscriptions executed with a pen, its broader areas washed in with a brush (Fig. 1).² An imperial rider sits astride a quaint steed, his right hand raised in a gesture of greeting or admonition, his left supporting an orb topped by a cross. He wears a cuirass and a military cloak over his short chiton, half-boots, and a mighty crown of feathers rising from his diadem. His eager horse has neither harness nor cloth but bears traces of a now reinless bridle.