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Esta contribución expone la descripción, origen y desarrollo del proyecto de investigación financiado Biblioteca Digital Ovidiana, que se encuentra en la quinta fase de implementación. El proyecto, cuya investigación se desarrolla dentro de las bibliotecas con fondo antiguo que poseen ejemplares de las ediciones ilustradas de la obra del poeta romano Publio Ovidio Nasón, ha producido un sitio web especializado en la obra ovidiana a través del que se difunde la investigación y se ofrece una herramienta digital para el estudio del libro, de la tradición de la ilustración de las obras ovidianas y de la iconografía del mito entre los siglos XV y XIX.

The aim of this article is to present an unknown Baroque cabinet from the collection of the Casa de Velazquez Museum in the city of Santiago de Cuba, probably made in Antwerp in the 17th century, with a figurative inlaid decoration inspired by contemporary illustrations of the Metamorphoses. Given the scarcity of documentation on this particular piece, and on this type of decorated furniture in general, this article aims to decipher the decorative program and its possible meaning. Methodologically, the research follows an iconographic and philological approach, carrying out a search for models and parallels in order, on the one hand, to determine the source of the figurative scenes that decorate the cabinet and, on the other hand, to hypothesize on the interpretation and function of the complex but irregular decoration.

This article investigates the origins and significance of images of griffins and sphinxes—hybrid creatures of Greco-Roman tradition—in the marginal decorations of the so-called “Neapolitan Ovid” (BNN ms. IV F 3), the first illuminated manuscript of the Metamorphoses, probably from the late 11th century. Their form and style suggest specific iconographic origins and links with the decorative motifs from Antiquity that circulated in artistic objects around Bari, the manuscript’s place of origin. Among the many figures that provide a pictorial response to the poem’s content, the presence of these griffins and sphinxes offers compelling evidence of the survival of ancient imagery; they also invite us to explore the relationship between image and text in the illuminated book. From this analysis, we can better understand the complex role of these hybrid figures in the manuscript. Their existence is testimony to the continuity of marginal decorative systems derived from Antiquity that are present in objects and were articulated through the Islamic and Byzantine formal vocabularies accessible in Puglia at the time.