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Detailed record for Harley 2626
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| Author |
Marcus Tullius Cicero |
| Title |
Disputationes tusculanae |
| Origin |
Italy, Central (Florence) |
| Date |
c. 1440-c. 1450 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Humanistic |
| Decoration |
A large white vine initial in gold and colours at the beginning of each book (ff. 1, 3, 28v, 43v, 63v, 85). Space for a smaller initial left blank (f. 65v). |
| Dimensions in mm |
205 x 130 (140 x 75) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 112 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end) |
| Collation |
Mostly in quires of 10. |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
Crossed-out ?ownership inscription (f. 1).
A monastic library founded or endowed by the Guicciardini of Florence (see Wright 1972).
John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer: sold to Edward Harley on 13th February 1723/4 (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 as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘13 die Februarij, A.D. 1723/24’ (f. 1).
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 |
Leaf signatures. 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. 2626.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 217 n. 21.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 162, 163. |
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