Lab Rediscovering the Lost Text of the Metrum Leonis by Leo of Vercelli (998-1026)

The Metrum Leonis is a key text for the history of the empire of Otto III (996–1002). Its author, Leo of Vercelli, was one of the most important intellectuals of Europe at the turn of the first millennium and among the designers of the project of renovatio imperii Romanorum. Through the Metrum, he offered a fierce satire of contemporary politics in the form of an animal fable, intended to prophetically expose the distortions of power structures that hindered the full realization of the young emperor’s project.

Despite its historical and literary importance, this source has not yet been fully exploited by scholarship: the only extant manuscript witness is severely damaged, which has so far prevented a complete reading of the text and its full understanding.

The multispectral imaging campaign of the manuscript promoted by the joint project of the two Departments of Excellence of the Universities of Bologna and Pisa aims to combine transdisciplinary research and teaching with a dual objective.

The analysis of the multispectral reproductions will in fact make it possible, for the first time, to read portions of text hitherto unknown, which are crucial for a renewed interpretation of the work. The processing and study of the digital images will be carried out with the active involvement of students through laboratory and seminar activities, in order to demonstrate the methodologies and potential of MSI techniques, which are applicable in other chronological contexts and in other disciplinary fields.

Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere dell’Università di Pisa

Fondazione Museo del Tesoro del Duomo e Archivio Capitolare di Vercelli