no ground line and items are spread evenly over the field. Care is taken so that items do not overlap each other. The effect is remarkably similar to some Roman floor mosaics, which may have served as inspiration (see folios 44 verso and 45 recto. The second artist was a fine artist. However, his interests were in patterns and lines rather than in the naturalistic portrayal of space and the human form. The manuscript contains three author portraits (Folios 3v, 9r, and 14 r). These portraits show a reliance on the early papyrus scroll tradition of manuscript portraits. They are inserted into the text column within a frame. The portraits show Vergil sitting on a chair between a lectern and a locked chest. The portrait on folio 3v has the lectern on Vergil's right on the chest on his left, which is reversed in the other two portraits. Provenance The Vergilius Romanus was produced in an undetermined province. Based on the style of some aspects of the illumination Martin Henig has suggested that it was produced in Britain. If this is true it would make it the oldest surviving British codex. It was at the Abbey of St Denis until the 15th century but it is not known how it came to be at St Denis or in the Vatican. The Vergilius Romanus is not to be confused with the Vergilius Vaticanus (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica, Cod. Vat. lat. 3225) or the Vergilius Augusteus, other ancient Vergilian manuscripts in the Biblioteca Apostolica. Gallery References Further reading Rosenthal, Erwin. The Illuminations of the Vergilius Romanus (Cod. Vat. Lat. 3867). A Stylistic and Iconographic Analysis. Zürich 1972 Walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf. Codices Illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, 400 to 1600. Köln, Taschen, 2005. Weitzmann, Kurt. Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination. New York: George Braziller, 1977. p. 11 and pgs. 52-59. Weitzmann, Kurt, ed., Age of spirituality: late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century, no. 204 & 225, 1979, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ; full text available online from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries Wright, David H. The Roman Vergil and the Origins of Medieval Book Design. Toronto, University of Toronto Press 2001, part-online via google books Treasure 3 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, displayed via The European Library External links Vatican, Bibliotheca Apostolica, MS Vat. lat. 3867 (Complete Reproduction) More information at