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Detailed record for Harley 2526
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| Author |
Petrarch ; Terence |
| Title |
Vita Terentii (ff. 1-3); Comoediae (ff. 5-130v) |
| Origin |
Italy, N. (Milan) |
| Date |
1456 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Humanistic |
| Scribe |
Paganus Raudensis |
| Decoration |
Partial border and large initial in colours and gold (f. 5v). Other large initials in colours and gold (ff. 26v, 49, 70v, 92v, 111). 2 smaller initials in gold on blue and red, or blue, green, and pink grounds (f. 5). Alternating red or blue initials. Rubrics, explicits and incipits in red. Abbreviations of protagonists names in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
235 x 160 (145 x 110) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 130 ( + 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end + 4 unfoliated blank ruled folios after f. 3) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers (spine repaired). |
| Provenance |
Written by Paganus Raudensis in 1456: colophon, 'Exscripsit Paganus Raudensis quarto Kal. Septembres. 1456' (f. 130v).
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 Cavendish, née 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 |
f. 4 is a ruled parchment leaf.
The same scribe wrote Florence, Laurenziana Ashburnham 1117 and Vatican, MS Urb. lat. 460.
Horizontal catchwords. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2526.
John W. Bradley, A Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, Calligraphers, and Copyists 3 vols (London: Quaritch, 1887-1889), III (1889), p. 125.
J. J. G. Alexander and A. C. de la Mare, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J. R. Abbey (London: Faber and Faber, 1969), p. 146.
Nicholas Mann, Petrarch Manuscripts in the British Isles, Censimento dei Codici Petrarcheschi, 6 (Padova: Editrice Antenore, 1975), no. 98.
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. 663. |
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