The Piran code

The Piran Code by Pietro Coppo De summa totius orbis consists of two parts, both as regards its contents and material form, specifically a manuscript text and woodcut maps. The two parts differ from each other regarding their contents, type of record, paper, form, binding method and the degree of damage. The first part, i.e. the text, is difficult to read and badly damaged in several places. In the second part, i.e. the print, rips in particular are perceivable in the folding middle part and, in some places, weathered browning paper.

The Piran Code was restored for the first time as an exhibit of the old Piran Biblioteche civiche in the Vatican Library in Rome at the end of 1920, on the initiative or with the aid of Prof. Mario Stento, Director of the Museo di Storia Naturale in Trieste at that time. At about the same time, Attilio Degrassi was preparing his own study. In the Piran Library, its Director Prof. Domenico Vatta made it possible for him to analyse the Code several times and to make a scientific study of it. Furthermore, Prof. Vatta took the Code to the Museo di Storia ed Arte in Trieste, where the maps were photographed. This can be perceived from Degrassi's acknowledgement expressed to the Director of the Museum, Prof. Pier Sticotti, and the photographer Opiglio, the Museum employee. It can be assumed that the Code was photographed for the first time then, when a photo of the map of Istria was also published for the first time in Degrassi's article.

In spite of its relatively good condition, the Code was restored for the second time in 1983 at the Archives of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia in Ljubljana (now the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia) under the direction of Nada Majcen. Prior to it, the Code was microfilmed at the Historical Archives Ljubljana by Darinka Mladenović. 

From the original binding, only the parchment cover and the intertwinement of both tailbands on the cover have been partially preserved. Despite its double restoration, permanent damages remain on it. The text is difficult to read due to the corrosive iron tannin ink and is fairly badly damaged in several places. The final degree of damages caused by the corrosive action of iron tannin ink is evident in a complete disintegration of the paper and thus in the loss of the text. In some places, the texture of silk fabric is well visible, with which the Code’s text was consolidated. During the first conservation procedure, the sheets of the textual part were reinforced over the entire surface with a thin translucent silk fabric, the threads of which extend freely over the sheets’ edges. Damages caused to the cartographic part of the Code are less pronounced than those caused to its textual part. Damaged places are particularly visible on the backs of the maps.

References: 

Petrus Coppus fecit: De summa totius orbis, razstava in publikacija, Piran, 2001.
Petrus Coppus fecit: De summa totius orbis, publikacija, Piran, 2006.
Terčon Nadja, Bonin Flavio, Čerče Peter: Petrus Coppus fecit : Pietro Coppo - življenje in delo : predstavitev piranskega kodeksa De sum[m]a totius orbis = Pietro Coppo - la vita e l'opera : presentazione del codice piranese De summa totius orbis, Piran, 2001, 7-22.

Vodopivec Jedert: Materialna podoba Piranskega kodeksa Pietra Coppa De sum[m]a totius orbis = Il materiale e la struttura del Codeice Piranese di Pietro Coppo De sum[m]a totius orbis, Pirano, 2001, 23-35.

Nadja Terčon