Partially thanks to a generous private donation to the Adopt A Treasure Project, the KNIR library was able to recently purchase the facsimile edition of the codex “Modo di fare navigable il fiume Tevere da Perugia a Roma (Mss. 34K16 Cors. 1227).
This 17th-century manuscript unites Cornelius Meijer’s studies concerning how to make the Tiber River navigable with the young Caspar van Wittel’s sketches of the Tiber River basin. Notes by Meijer are in both Dutch and Italian in parallel texts. This facsimile edition, published by Nova Charta in 2012 and limited to 199 copies, faithfully reproduces all of the codicological characteristics of the original.
This facsimile is accompanied by the booklet “Sul Biondo Tevere: il restauro del codice 34 K 16 della Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazinale dei Lincei e Corsiniana di Roma” which is edited by Marco Guardo and also published by Nova Charta. This booklet contains contributions by our former art historian, Arno Witte about the transcription of Meijer’s text.
This new addition to our rare books complements Meijer’s 1683 print edition already held at KNIR and entitled “L’Arte di restituire a Roma la tralasciata navigatione del suo Tevere”.