Bernico
- Ancient name
- Berenice
- Modern name
- Benghazi
- Modern country
- Libya
- Coordinates
- 32.11, 20.09
Bernico is an Italianized version of Berenice, an ancient city at the eastern end of the Gulf of Sidra named after Berenice II of Ptolemaic Egypt and Cyrenaica (3c BCE). Under the Romans, Berenice was one of the five major cities of the Libyan Pentapolis. The city shrank to no more than a small town in the early medieval period, but Genoese merchants built it up in the 13th century to facilitate trade with Berber tribes inland. Now Benghazi, it is Libya's second-largest city. Campbell #1609.
The toponym Bernico appears in La Sfera in the following places:
Click on any citation to view it in context in the edition.
Map of the location P024
Variant spellings of Bernico in Sfera manuscripts
| Variant | Manuscripts |
|---|---|
| benic[...] | Pnc3 |
| berni / cho | Ricc1 |
| berniccho | Laur3 |
| bernicco | Marc2, Ricc12 |
| bernich | Laur5 |
| Bernicho | Cors2, Cs1, NYPL2, Pal5, Ricc17, Yale4 |
| bernicho | Bal, Cap1, He2, ME2, Magl2, Med3, Pal6, Pal8, Par1, Per2, Pnc5, Wie1 |
| Bernico | Con3, Luc2, Med1, Morg, Par3, Parm2, Pnc4 |
| bernico | Con1, Con4, He3, Marc1, NB, Ricc15, Ricc8 |
| bernigo | Pad1 |
| brinch | Tre |
| Gernico | Fn9 |
- Suggested citation
- Beneš, Carrie. “Bernico.” Gregorio Dati’s La sfera = The Globe: A Digital Edition, May 3, 2026. https://la-sfera-staging-a8db029690a6.herokuapp.com/toponyms/bernico/.