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Detailed record for Harley 5599
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| Author |
Aristotle, Porphyrius |
| Title |
Works, including 'Categoriae' (ff. 11-25v), 'Analytica priora' (ff. 35-92), 'Analytica posteriora' (ff. 92-126), 'Topica' (ff. 126-191), and Porphyrius's Commentary on Aristotle's 'Categoriae' (ff. 1-10) |
| Origin |
Italy, N. E. |
| Date |
2nd half of the 15th century |
| Language |
Greek |
| Script |
Greek minuscule |
| Scribe |
Alphonsos Doursos |
| Decoration |
Headpiece and initial with foliate decoration, and title in light brown (f. 1). Titles in display capitals and decorated initials in light red at beginning of texts. Initials and rubrics in light red. Colophon in light red (f. 209). |
| Dimensions in mm |
335 x 230 (225 x 135) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 218 (+ one unfoliated original blank leaf at the end, and single modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and the end). |
| Collation |
Gatherings of 10, with leaf signatures in the lower right corner of the first 5 rectos of gatherings, and quire signature and vertical catchword in the lower margin of the last verso of gatherings. |
| Form |
Paper codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1966. |
| Provenance |
Written (ff. 1-209) by the Dominican Alphonsos Doursos: his colophon (f. 209; see Gamillscheg and Harlfinger 1981).
ff. 211-218 added by a late 15th-century hand.
? Agostino Valerio (b. 1530, d. 1606), bishop of Verona in 1565, cardinal in 1585: possibly owned, inscription (f. 210v; see Summary Catalogue 1999).
The Jesuit College in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne, France), maintained by the Jesuits from 1591 to 1762: inscribed, 17th century 'Coll. Agen. Societ. Jesu Catal. Inscript.' (f. 1; see 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.
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 |
Watermarks: arrows similar to Gerhard Piccard, Wasserzeichen Werkzeug und Waffen, Die Wasserzeichenkartei Piccard im Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, Findbuch 9, 2 vols (Stuttgart: Kotilhammer, 1980), I, nos. 922, 929, 932, 936, 940 (1449-1507, Padua, Urbino, Ravenna and Friuli)) ; hills similar to C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes: Dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600, A Facsimile of the 1907 edition with supplementary material, ed. by Allan Stevenson, 4 vols (Amsterdam: Paper Publications Society, 1968), no. 11747 (Padua, 1490). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5599.
E. Maunde Thompson, ‘Catalogue of Classical Manuscripts’, Classical Review, 3 (1889), 149-55, 440-45 (p. 441 no. 119).
Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 47, 459.
Paul Moraux, Aristoteles graecus: Die griechischen Manuskripte des Aristoteles, Peripatoi, 8 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1976), I: Alexandrien-London, pp. 425-27.
Repertorium der griechischen Kopisten 800-1600, ed. by Ernst Gamillscheg and Dieter Harlfinger, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik, 3-1, ed. by Herbert Hunger (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981- ), I: Handschriften aus Bibliotheken Grossbritanniens, 3 vols, no. 9.
Summary Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1999- ), I, pp. 125-26 [with further bibliography]. |
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f. 1
Decorated headpiece and initial |
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