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Detailed record for Harley 2755
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| Author |
Virgil |
| Title |
Aeneis (ff. 1-180); Bucolica (ff. 181-195v); Georgica (ff. 196-234) |
| Origin |
Italy, N. (Parma) |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Humanistic |
| Scribe |
Augustinus de Tervisio |
| Decoration |
1 large initial in gold on a panel with white vine scrolls extending into the margins, and a partial decorated border with white vine scrolls and besants, with 2 winged putti holding a blank shield in the lower margin (f. 1). 17 large initials in gold with white vine decoration (ff. 15, 29, 42, 55, 70v, 71, 87, 102, 115, 130, 147, 163, 181, 196, 205v, 214, 225). 11 smaller initials in red or blue with red pen-flourishing (ff. 14v, 29, 42, 55, 87, 115, 130, 146v, 163, 205, 224v). Initials not painted in (ff. 101v, 200). A few passages stressed with a small amount of penwork decoration in the margins (see, e.g., ff. 138v, 233v). A few paraphs in red or blue ink. |
| Dimensions in mm |
260 x 175 (165 x 100) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 234 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf ruled but left unwritten after f. 195) |
| Collation |
In quires of 12. |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
Written by Augustinus de Tervisio in Parma: colophon 'VIRGILII MARONIS ENEIDOS LIBER XII EXPLICIT MANU MEI AUGUSTINI DE TERVISIO LAUS ET GLORIA SOLI DEO N[OST]RO ALTISSIMO PARME' (f. 180).
Added annotations and corrections throughout: 16th-century hand.
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. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2755.
R. D. Williams, T. S. Pattie, Virgil: His Poetry through the Ages (London: British Library, 1982), p. 134.
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries, 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1963-1997), 4 (1989), p. 166. |
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