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Detailed record for King's 29
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| Author |
Juvenal ; Aulus Persius Flaccus |
| Title |
Satires (ff. 1-69v; ff. 70v-83) |
| Origin |
Italy |
| Date |
Third quarter of the 15th century (possibly 1463-64) |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Humanistic cursive |
| Decoration |
1 large faceted initial with foliate decoration, in colours, heraldic decoration, and square capitals used as display script with alternating lines in gold, blue, purple, and olive green (f. 1). 1 large unfinished initial, and square capitals used as display script with alternating words in gold, blue, red, olive green, and purple, and alternating lines in blue and red (f. 70v). Large initials in plain blue placed in the margins. |
| Dimensions in mm |
205 x 120 (135 x 70) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 83 (+ 3 paper and 1 original flyleaf at the beginning, and 2 original and 3 paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Collation |
i-vi10 (ff. 1-60), vii10-1 (ff. 61-69; 10th leaf missing, probably blank), viii 10-1 (ff. 70-78; 1st leaf missing, probably blank), ix10-3 (ff. 79-85; the last three leaves missing, probably blank). |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Consul' Smith binding of Venetian sprinkled calf; the covers with added gilt-stamped insignia of George III; marbled endpapers; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
? Unidentified owner: with two shields of arms, argent, a tower gules, and azure, two lilies in saltire proper(?) (f. 1).
Joseph Smith (b. 1673/4?, d. 1770), book collector and patron of the arts: his binding; listed in his catalogue (see Bibliotheca Smithiana seu catalogus librorum Josephi Smithii Angli per cognomina authorum dispositus, Addenda, & Corrigenda in superiori Catalogo (Venice: Pasquali, 1755), p. 37, col. 1; sold to King George III, along with the bulk of Smith's library and art collection, in 1762.
King George III (b. 1738, d. 1820).
Given to the British Museum by King George IV in 1823 as part of the library of King George III. |
| Notes |
One of the shields was identified by Warner and Gilson as perhaps being of the della Torre family, but several other Italian families also bore the same arms. |
| Select bibliography |
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), III: Description of the King’s Manuscripts and Indexes to both Collections, p. 10.
Alfred Fairbank, ‘More of San Vito’, Journal of the Society for Italic Handwriting, 42 (1965), 7-12 (pp. 7, 12, pl. 3).
Frances Vivian, The Consul Smith Collection: Masterpieces of Italian Drawing from the Royal Library, Windsor, Raphael to Canaletto (Munich: Hirmer, 1989), p. 43 n. 96.
Jonathan Alexander, 'Initials in Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts: the Problem of the So-called "litera Mantiniana"' in Alexander, Studies in Italian Manuscript Illumination (London: Pindar Press, 2002), pp. 169-99 (pp. 190-91). |
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f. 1
Decorated initial and heraldry |
f. 1
Detail |
f. 1
Detail |
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f. 70v
Decorated initial |
f. 70v
Detail |
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