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Detailed record for Harley 2692
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| Author |
Marcus Tullius Cicero |
| Title |
De officiis |
| Origin |
Italy, Central (Rome) |
| Date |
1498 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Humanistic cursive |
| Scribe |
Bartolomeo Sanvito |
| Artists |
Attributed to Bartolomeo Sanvito |
| Decoration |
Full border in colours and gold with all'antica elements and historiated initial at the beginning of the first book (f. 1). 2 faceted initials in colours at the beginning of the other books (ff. 65v, 104v). Titles in coloured epigraphic capitals at the beginning of each book ( ff. 1, 65v, 104v). Similar capitals for the colophon (f. 155v). Numerous initials in blue. Rubrics and notes in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
140 x 90 (90 x 50) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 157 + 103* (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 2 unfoliated purple parchment flyleaves at the beginning of the manuscript + 4 parchment leaves at the end). |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Pre-1600. Gold-tooled red leather, vestiges of metalwork clasps; gilt edges with decorative motifs on upper and lower edges. |
| Provenance |
Written in 1498 by Bartolomeo Sanvito of Padua (b. 1435, d. 1518): colophon, 'Finit Romae die Martis xxiii Octobris MCCCCLXXXXVIII. B.S.' (f. 155v).
Conyers Middleton (b. 1683, d. 1750), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1706, head librarian of the University Library at Cambridge (1721-50); sold to Harley on 20 February 1724/5 (Wright 1972; Diary 1966).
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 ‘20 die mensis februarij, A.D. 1724/5’ (f. [ii]); inscribed 'Oxford B.H.' (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 |
The cartouche and space for coat of arms has been left blank (f. 1). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2692.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernst. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 336 n. 5.
Jonathan 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), pp. 105, 109.
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. 239, 297.
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 Cecil H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 471).
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), no. 691.
Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt, ‘Lauro Padovano und Leonardo Bellini als Maler, Miniatoren und Zeichner’, Pantheon: Internationale Jahreszeitschrift für Kunst, 47 (1989), 49-82 (no. 69).
Beatrice Bentivoglio Ravasio, 'Sanvito (Sanvido, da San Vito), Bartolomeo' in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani: Secoli IX-XVI , ed. by Milvia Bollati (Milan: Sylvestre Bonnard, 2004), pp. 928-35 (p. 934).
Albinia C. de la Mare and Laura Nuvoloni, Bartolomeo Sanvito: The Life and Work of a Renaissance Scribe, ed. by Anthony R.A. Hobson and Christopher de Hamel, (Whitsbury: The Handwriting of Italian Humanists, 2009), no. 103 [with additional bibliography]. |
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f. 1
Historiated initial |
f. 40
Text page |
f. 40
Text |
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f. 65v
Faceted initial |
f. 155v
Colophon |
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