Description
At the beginning of Ovid's “Metamorphoses†and in the lower margin, the interlinking of the cosmos is presented in visual terms: with an image of the Macrobius’s Golden Chain in a circular pattern with a centre label stating “Aurea cathena macrobiiâ€, and intersecting semi-circles marked “ignisâ€, “calidusâ€, “aerâ€, “humidusâ€, “aquaâ€, “frigidusâ€, “terraâ€, and “siccusâ€. The diagram shows the unbroken chain of the universe, a chain formed with intertwined links. According to Macrobius’s doctrine, elements were bound together with an unbreakable chain, which he calls “goldenâ€.
Bibliography
Franco Munari, Catalogue of the MSS of Ovid's Metamorphoses , Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Stuides of the University of London, Supplementary Papers, 4 (London: University of London, 1957), no. 161.
