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Detailed record for Harley 3293
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| Author |
Polybius, translated by Niccolo Perotti |
| Title |
Historiae |
| Origin |
Italy, N. (Mantua or Ferrara?) |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Semi-humanistic |
| Decoration |
Large white vine initial in gold and colours combined with a full white vine border with medallions enclosing heads of men in profile (including Pope Nicholas V who commissioned this translation, and a copy of Pisanello's medallion of Emperor John VIII Palaeologus), mythological all'antica scenes, and an unidentified coat of arms (f. 2). 2 large panel initials in gold and colours with foliate decoration (f. 4), or knotwork (f. 109v). 3 large white vine initials (ff. 42, 68v, 139v), 1 including animal heads (f. 68v). Smaller initial in gold on a blue and dark red panel (f. 1). Some ascenders and descenders decorated with pen-flourishing and cadels (e. g. ff. 31v, 53v-54). Spaces for initials left blank. |
| Dimensions in mm |
285 x 210 (215 x 125) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 175 (+ 6 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Brown leather with gold fillets tooling. |
| Provenance |
Niccolo Perotti (b. 1429, d. 1480), translated this work c. 1454 for pope Nicholas V (papacy from 1447-1455).
Unidentified arms of the original owner (f. 2).
John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer; sold on 12 February 1719/20 (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 '12 Februarij 1719/20' (f. [iv]), and ‘12 Febr. 1719/20’ (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 |
Catchwords written horizontally and vertically. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3293.
W. R. Tymms and M. D. Wyatt, The Art of Illuminating as Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times (London: Day and Sons, 1860; repr. Studio Editions, 1987), pl. XV.8.
Roberto Weiss, Pisanello's Medallion of the Emperor John VIII Palaeologus (London: British Museum, 1966), p. 26.
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. 195 n. 3.
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. 162.
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. 7).
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), p. 168. |
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f. 2
White vine initial and border |
f. 2
White vine initial |
f. 2
Arms |
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f. 4
Detail |
f. 109v
Illuminated initial |
f. 139v
Initial |
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