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Detailed record for Harley 6349
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| Author |
Pseudo-Cicero |
| Title |
Rhetorica ad Herennium |
| Origin |
Italy, N. E. |
| Date |
1st half of the 14th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
1 historiated initial in colours with a foliate extension, and a coat of arms in the lower margin (f. 2). 3 large initials in colours with foliate motifs (ff. 8v, 11v, 22v). Initials in red with brown penwork decoration or in blue with red penwork decoration, some large, some small. Paraphs in red or blue. Rubrics in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
340 x 230 (200 x 130) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 43 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Mottled brown leather. |
| Provenance |
Unidentified arms of a red shield bisected by a gold band, with two golden vessels in the upper half and one in the lower, supported by angels (f. 2).
Inscribed in the 16th (?) century: 'Hic liber est meus e in... Joannes baptista aptus terre leonisse' (f. 41v).
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 |
Horizontal catchwords in simple penwork frames.
f. 1 is a former parchment pastedown inscribed on the verso with 'versus monastici, barbari, qui appellantur "versus colorum propriorum, dictatorum per prosam a Tullio in quarto Rhetoricum"' (see Harley Catalogue).
f. 43 is inscribed on the verso with the 'collectio Epitaphiorum pro Cicerone' (in two columns). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 6349.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 63. |
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f. 2
Cicero writing |
f. 2
Cicero writing |
f. 8v
Decorated initial |
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