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Detailed record for Harley 5427
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| Author |
Giovanni Boccaccio |
| Title |
Elegia della Madonna Fiammeta, imperfect at the beginning (missing the first folio with the prologue and part of the first paragraph) |
| Origin |
Italy |
| Date |
Last quarter of the 15th century or 1st quarter of the 16th century |
| Language |
Italian |
| Script |
Humanistic |
| Decoration |
Large gold initials on coloured grounds, one at the beginning of each paragraph. Rubrics in red. Offprint of a missing miniature (f. [73]). |
| Dimensions in mm |
230 x 135 (160 x 80) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 72 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 unfoliated parchment and 3 paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1966. |
| Provenance |
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 |
Vertical catchwords
f. 1 is a parchment flyleaf
3 unfoliated ruled parchment leaves after f. 1. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5427.
Giovanni Boccaccio: Catalogue of an Exhibition held in the Reference Division of the British Library 3 October to 31 December 1975 (London: British Museum Publications, 1975), no. 6 [exhibition catalogue]. |
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f. 19v
Illuminated initials |
ff. 19v-20
Illuminated initials |
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