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Detailed record for Harley 3332
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| Author |
Giovane Buonaccorso da Montemagno |
| Title |
De vera nobilitate |
| Origin |
Italy, Central (Rome) |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Humanistic |
| Scribe |
Antonio Tophio (attributed to) |
| Decoration |
Simple border in shaded mauve with a large initial in silver on a red ground with an oak leaf motif, capitals in alternating lines of gold and blue, and, below, a trompe l'oeil seal of an oak tree on a grey ground, from which 3 golden acorns are suspended (f. 1). |
| Dimensions in mm |
170 x 115 (95 x 60) |
| Official foliation |
1* + 40 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of brown leather with gold tooling; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
A member of the Della Rovere family: its arms (f. 1).
John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer; given to Harley on 5 October 1722 (see Diary 1966; Wright 1972).
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 by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley, 'Donum D. Joannis Gibsoni Scoto Britanni, 5 die Octobris A.D. 1722' (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 |
Bound together with Harley 2708. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3332.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 163 n. 3.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 162.
J. Ruysschaert, ‘Il copista Bartolomeo San Vito miniature padovano a Roma dal 1469 al 1501’, Archivio della Società di storia patria, 109 (1986), 37-47 (p. 43).
Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt, ‘Lauro Padovano und Leonardo Bellini als Maler, Miniatoren und Zeichner’, Pantheon: Internationale Jahreszeitschrift für Kunst, 47 (1989), 49-82 (no. 12).
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; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), p. 169. |
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f. 1
Illuminated initial and arms of the Della Rovere family |
f. 2
Text page |
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