The ''Liber Memorialis'' is an ancient book in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

featuring an extremely concise summary—a kind of index—of

universal history A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...

from earliest times to the reign of

Trajan Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...

. It was written by

Lucius Ampelius The ''Liber Memorialis'' is an ancient book in Latin featuring an extremely concise summary—a kind of index—of universal history from earliest times to the reign of Trajan. It was written by Lucius Ampelius, who was possibly a tutor or ...

, who was possibly a tutor or schoolmaster.

Description

The book is dedicated to a Macrinus, who may have been the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

who reigned 217–218, but that name was not uncommon, and it seems more likely he was simply a young man with a thirst for universal knowledge, which the book was compiled to satisfy. The book's object and scope are indicated in its dedication: The ''Liber Memorialis'' seems to have been intended as a

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

to be learned by heart. This little work, in fifty chapters, gives a sketch of

cosmography The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-sca ...

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

(Chapters I-X), and history (Chapters X to end). The historical portion, dealing mainly with the

republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

period, is untrustworthy and the text in many places corrupt; the earlier chapters are more valuable, and contain some interesting information. Chapter VIII (''Miracula Mundi'') contains the following, the only reference by an ancient writer to the famous sculptures of the

Pergamon Altar The Pergamon Altar () was a monumental construction built during the reign of the Ancient Greek King Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis of Pergamon in Asia Minor. The structure was 35.64 ...

, which were discovered in 1871, excavated in 1878, and are now in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Date

Nothing is known of the date at which the work was written; the times of Trajan, Hadrian,

Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius ( Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatori ...

, the beginning of the 3rd century have all been suggested. However, in Chapter V De Orbe Terrarum (The World), Ampelius refers to the "Tigris and Euphrates in Parthia," which suggests that Ampelius wrote before the

Sassanians The Sasanian dynasty was the house that founded the Sasanian Empire, ruling this empire from 224 to 651 AD in Persia (modern-day Iran). It began with Ardashir I, who named the dynasty as ''Sasanian'' in honour of his grandfather (or father), Sa ...

overthrew the Parthians in 224.

Editions

The first edition of the ''Liber Memorialis'' was published in 1638 by

Claudius Salmasius Claude Saumaise (15 April 1588 – 3 September 1653), also known by the Latin name Claudius Salmasius, was a French classical scholar. Life Salmasius was born at Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy. His father, a counsellor of the parlement of Dijon, se ...

(Saumaise) from the Dijon manuscript, now lost, together with the ''Epitome'' of Florus. An 1873 edition by Wölfflin was based on Salmasius's copy of the lost codex. The more recent editions are * Erwin Assmann's

Teubner The Bibliotheca Teubneriana, or ''Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana'', also known as Teubner editions of Greek and Latin texts, comprise one of the most thorough modern collection published of ancient (and some medieval) ...

edition of 1935 * Nicola Terzaghi's edition, published by Chiantore in Turin ca. 1947 (preface dated 1943) * Marie-Pierre Arnaud-Lidet's 1993 edition for the

Collection Budé The ''Collection Budé'', or the ''Collection des Universités de France'', is an editorial collection comprising the Greek and Latin classics up to the middle of the 6th century (before Emperor Justinian). It is published by Les Belles Lettres, ...

(includes French translation)

Notes

References

*Glaser, ''Rheinisches Museum,'' ii. (1843) *Wölfflin, ''De L. Ampelii Libro Memoriali'' (1854) *Zink, ''Eos,'' ii (1866) *

External links

''Liber Memorialis''
(Wölfflin's Latin text) at

LacusCurtius LacusCurtius is a website specializing in ancient Rome, currently hosted on a server at the University of Chicago. It went online on August 26, 1997; in July 2021 it had "3707 webpages, 765 photos, 772 drawings & engravings, 120 plans, 139 maps." T ...

''Liber memoralis''
(

Erwin Assmann Erwin may refer to: People Given name * Erwin Chargaff (1905–2002), Austrian biochemist * Erwin Dold (1919–2012), German concentration camp commandant in World War 2 * Erwin Hauer (1926–2017), Austrian-born American sculptor * Egon Erwin Kisc ...

's BT-edition) at Bibliotheca Augustana {{Authority control Latin histories