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Egerton MS 654
- Record Id:
- 032-001983706
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001983706
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000053.0x000314
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056032879.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Egerton MS 654
- Title:
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Epistulae; Pseudo-Seneca, Epistolae Senecae ad Paulum et Pauli ad Senecam; Epitaphium Senecae
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the Epistolae (Epistles) of the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca (b. 4 BC, d. 65). It also includes the apocryphal Epistolae Senecae ad Paulum et Pauli ad Senecam (Seneca's Epistles to St Paul and the Epistles of St Paul to Seneca), ttributed to Seneca, as well as the anonymous verses known as Epitaphium Senecae (Seneca's Epitaph).
Contents:
ff. 1r-153r: Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Epistulae (1-88), beginning: ‘Quanta verborum nobis paupertas’.
ff. 154r-156v: Pseudo-Seneca, Epistolae Senecae ad Paulum et Pauli ad Senecam, beginning: ‘Cordubensis Fotini stoici discipulus’.
f. 156v: Epitaphium Senecae, beginning: ‘Cura labor meritum sumpti pro munere’.
[ff. 153v, 157r are blank].
Decoration:
1 large initial in blue with red penwork decoration (f. 1r). Numerous large plain initials in red, blue or green, several with pen-work decoration in one other colour (e.g. ff. 16v, 22v, 26r, 55v, 59r, 60r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Egerton Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001983706", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 654: Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Epistulae; Pseudo-Seneca, Epistolae Senecae ad Paulum et Pauli ad Senecam; Epitaphium Senecae" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001983706
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001983706
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056032879.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1100
- End Date:
- 1124
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 235 x 155 mm (text space: 165 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 157 ( + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); f. 1* is an early modern paper flyleaf at the beginning.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown speckled leather; painted fore-edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: St Albans, Eastern England.
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of St Alban, St Albans, founded in 793: inscribed with its ownership mark and book curse in a 13th-century hand: 'Hic est liber sancti Albani quem qui ei abstulerit aut titulum deleverit anathema sit. Amen' (f. 1r).
An unknown 16th-century owner: inscribed with a record of indenture from the 37th year of King Henry VIII’s reign (April 1545-April 1546) (f.156v) and with a reference to ‘Robertus Stokere’ (f. 157v).
An unknown ?18th-century owner: inscribed with the press-mark 'G.2.20' in an ?18th-century hand (f.1*r).
Adam Clarke (b. 1762, d. 1832), Wesleyan Methodist minister and scholar: inscribed with his note 'No. CXIV of Dr. Adam Clarke' Collection of MSS' (f. 1*r); his sale, 1838, lot 109; printed excerpt from the catalogue of Baynes and Son, 1836, lot 152 (f. 1*r).
Purchased by the British Museum, using the Bridgewater fund (£12,000 bequeathed in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see
Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
List of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1836-1840 (London: British Museum, 1843), p. 26.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 166.
Leighton D. Reynolds, The Medieval Tradition of Seneca's Letters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965), p. 74.
Rodney M. Thomson, Manuscripts from St Albans Abbey 1066-1235, 2 vols (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1982), I, p. 92 (no. 20).
Birger Munk Olsen, L’Étude des Auteurs Classiques Latins aux XIe et XIIe Siècles, 3 vols (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1982-1989), II (1985), p. 413 (no. C 97).
Jonathan Powell, 'Cicero: Philosophical Works,' in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by Leighton D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 120.
Richard Gameson, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066-1130) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) p. 105 (no. 424).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.