#434 In autumn of 1943 Heinrich Himmler* launched a secret operation to optain the Codex Aesinas Lat. 8 in Jesi (Italy).
It's a medieval handwritten text of Tacitus' "Germania".
A military SS unit searched a palazzo, belonging to the count of Jesi, at the centre of town, but failed to retrieve it (it was in fact hidden in another palazzo).
In 1936, when Hitler met Mussolini, he personally asked for the manuscript to be brought to Germany. Il Duce, at first not knowing it, accepted, but later declined.
*Himmler was an amateur archaeologist and fascinated with everything "Germanic" (and founder of the Ahnenerbe).
- https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2015/04/22/some-notes-on-the-modern-history-of-the-codex-aesinas-of-tacitus-germania-c/
- https://books.google.dk/books?id=AYnEqnyFOTMC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=codex+aesinas+lat+8&source=bl&ots=I9hUBQ9gQ6&sig=ACfU3U2CYBgs9ZkMnWkn1Ev8J__V4p0V-Q&hl=da&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjx4Inmz9PlAhVPYlAKHYIcBycQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=codex%20aesinas%20lat%208&f=false
- Lund, Allan A (2016), Tacitus Germania (A book in Danish I'm reading).