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Detailed record for Harley 2468
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| Author |
Marcus Tullius Cicero |
| Title |
Tusculanae Quaestiones (ff. 1-78); Paradoxa stoicorum (ff. 78-85) |
| Origin |
Italy, N. (Modena) |
| Date |
1422 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Semi-humanistic |
| Scribe |
Andrea da Firenze (Ser Johannis de Petrinis) |
| Decoration |
Large white vine initials in gold or silver and colours at the beginning of the texts (ff. 1, 78). Smaller white vine initials in gold or silver and colours at the beginning of books (ff. 21, 32, 46). Large initials in silver, gold, green, blue or red (ff. 2, 23v, 33, 47v, 80, 80v, 81v, 82v, 83v). Smaller initials in blue or red (ff. 4, 78v). Capitals in red or blue identify the speakers in the dialogues. Rubrics in red. Space for initial left blank at the beginning of the 5th book of the Tusculanae Quaestiones (f. 60). |
| Dimensions in mm |
280 x 200 (170 x 110) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 85 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 unfoliated parchment leaves (could be part of the last gathering) and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers. BM inscription on spine. |
| Provenance |
Written in Modena in 1422 by Andrea (Ser Johannis de Petrinis) da Firenze: colophon, 'Deo gratias. Scriptus fuit in castro mutine et expletum Anno domini Milleximo ccccoxxij de mense sectembris die xv per me Andream Ser Johannis de petrinis de florentia' (f. 85).
Silvestro de Lando/Landis, 15th century: inscribed 'Silvestri de Landis' (f. [88]); similar inscriptions occur in Burney 130 and Vatican, BAV, Reg. lat. 1708.
Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie (see Wright 1972): sold to Harley on 20 January 1721/22.
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘20 die mensis Januarij, A.D. 1721/22’ (f. 1); inscribed 'Oxford B.H.' (f. 1).
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library. |
| Notes |
Horizontal catchwords.
Two and a half lines have been erased after the colophon (f. 85). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2468.
John W. Bradley, A Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, Calligraphers and Copyists, 3 vols (London: Quaritch, 1887-1889), III (1889), p. 61.
Paolo d'Ancona, La miniatura fiorentina: Secoli XI-XVI, 2 vols (Florence: Olschki, 1914), I, p. 52, II, no. 733.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 138 n. 7.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 254.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, no. 650. |
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f. 1
White vine initial |
f. 1
White vine initial |
f. 46
White vine initial |
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f. 78
White vine initial |
f. 78
White vine initial |
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