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Detailed record for Harley 2683
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| Author |
Caius Julius Caesar |
| Title |
De bello gallico |
| Origin |
Italy, N. E. (Padua, Mantua, or Ferrara?) |
| Date |
2nd quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Humanistic |
| Scribe |
Attributed to Michael de Salvaticis (De La Mare 1985) |
| Artists |
Attributed to the workshop of Antonio Pisano (Syson and Gordon 2001) |
| Decoration |
1 historiated intial in colours and gold of the Triumph of Caesar with a coat of arms in the lower margin (f. 1). 14 interlace initials in colours and gold (ff. 11v, 17, 22, 28v, 39, 47, 64, 64v, 74, 90, 99v, 120v, 136, 154v). |
| Dimensions in mm |
350 x 260 (240 x 150) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 163 (+ 1 unfoliated paper and 2 parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 1 blank, ruled parchment leaf and 1 paper flyleaf 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 |
Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (b. 1405, d. 1464), cardinal in 1456, later Pope Pius II in 1458: his arms of argent on a cross azure 5 crescents or, surmounted by a papal tiara, added after his accession to the papacy in 1458 (f. 1).
Cristoforus Canchi of Venice: inscribed, 16th century, 'Christofori canchi quondam' (f. [ii verso]).
Nicolaus: inscribed, 16th century, 'domini Nicolaj patricius Venetorum' (f. [ii verso]).
Placidi: inscribed, 17th century,
John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer; sold to Edward Harley on 13 February 1723/4 (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 as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘13 die Februarij, A.D. 1723/4’ (f. [ii]).
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 |
Vertical catchwords (ff. 10v, 20v, 30v, 40v, 50v, 60v, 70v, 80v, 90v, 100v, 110v, 120v, 130v, 140v, 150v). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2683.
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. 272 n. 10.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 94, 162, 252, 276.
Cyril Ernest Wright, 'Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition', in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 480, n. 19).
Alessandro Conti, 'Una miniatura ed altre considerazioni sul Pisanello', Itinerari, 1 (1979), pp. 67-76.
Virginia Brown, 'Portraits of Julius Caesar in Latin Manuscripts of the Commentaries', Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1981 (12), p. 335, fig. 1b.
Claudio Griggio and Albinia C. De La Mare, 'Il copista Michele Salvatico collaboratore di Francesco Barbaro e Guarniero D'Artegna', Lettere italiane, 37 (1985), p. 352.
The Painted Page. Italian Renaissance Book Illumination: 1450-1550, ed. by J.J.G. Alexander (London: Prestel, 1994), p. 23.
Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon, Pisanello: Painter ot the Renaissance Court (London: National Gallery, 2001), pp. 215-18 [exhibition catalogue].
Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani: Secoli IX-XVI , ed. by Milvia Bollati (Milan: Sylvestre Bonnard, 2004), p. 41.
Paulini Nolani Carmina, ed. by Franz Dolveck, CCSL 21 (Turnhout: Brepols 2015), pp. 40-42. |
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f. 1
Historiated initial |
f. 1
Detail |
f. 17
Interlace initial |
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f. 28v
Interlace initial |
f. 47
Interlace initial |
f. 64
Interlace initial |
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f. 90
Interlace initial |
f. 120v
Interlace initial |
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