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Detailed record for Harley 2569
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| Author |
Plutarch, translated by Francesco Filelfo and by Guarino da Verona , Caius Julius Solinus |
| Title |
Apophtegmata ad Traianum Cesarem (ff. 1-47), Apophtegmata laconica (ff. 48-75), De differentia veri amici et adulatoris (ff. 76-91v), Collectanea rerum memorabilium (ff. 92-180v) |
| Origin |
Switzerland or Austria |
| Date |
2nd half of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Decoration |
Large initials painted in watercolour with acanthus and foliate motifs (f. 1) extending along the text (ff. 3, 48, 49v). Coloured initials in red. Capitals marked in red. Some extended ascenders and descenders with penwork. Spaces for initials left blank. |
| Dimensions in mm |
205 x 145 (140 x 90) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 180 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning, 1 unfoliated blank leaf after f. 47, 20 after f. 75 + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Form |
Paper codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Binding of brown mottled calf with gold fillets and blind tooling. |
| Provenance |
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.
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 |
The first text is introduced by a letter of Francesco Filelfo (b. 1398, d. 1481), to Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan (r. 1412, d. 1447).
Catchwords written horizontally. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2569. |
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