Marquard Gude (1635-1689) and his manuscripts. A history of the provenance, tradition of classical authors and collecting interests in the Codices Gudiani

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During his lifetime, Marquard Gude travelled throughout Europe and put together a monumental collection of Latin and Greek manuscripts from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which is thought to be the most important private manuscript collection from the 17th century to be found outside Italy. Fortunately, after Gude s death almost the whole set of manuscripts was acquired for the Ducal Library at Wolfenbüttel. The collection contains many rare and valuable items of the utmost importance for tracing the transmission of texts from classical antiquity and the medieval period. This research project aims not only to arrive at a better understanding of the origin and provenance of the Codices, but also to focus on the history of the transmission, reception and impact of selected texts, manuscripts and manuscript groups. During the first funding period of this project, three main objectives were achieved: first, a new methodological approach was developed which consisted of relating Gudes philological interests and his correspondence with a network of like-minded scholars to his travels and his acquisition of manuscripts; second, through new codicological and palaeographic analysis, substantial data about origin, provenance and previous ownership of selected manuscript groups has been attained; and third, new unedited sources written by Gude or concerning him (e.g. letters, catalogues, etc) have been discovered in various European libraries, which warrant further investigation.