Veronika Von Buren

The formerly opening page of MS Paris, BNF, lat. 7641, now bound in MS Vatican Library, Vat. Reg. lat. 566, f. 50, contains a drawing in the tradition of the carmina figurata. The carmen is a Titulus sancti Marcelli. This page has been considered as a sort of book-plate. However the poem is a dedication of the MS to Vulfinus, the author of the Vita sancti Marcelli. Theodulf of Orleans, who appears to be connected with the text tradition of the works collected in the volume, could be the author of the dedication poem too. Vulfinus could be a friend of him, who came with him from Northern Italy to France and who, after Theodulf fell out of favour with the Court, ended his life as a grammaticus at Orle´ans and in touch with Florus of Lyon. The Paris MS, which was in the library of Reims by the mid 9th century, was read by Sedulius Scottus, who made use of it for Publilius Syrus, Sentences, and was annotated in German tongue, with excerpts from the German traslation of Tatian and the Pariser Gesprache.