Egerton MS 2909

TERENCE: the recension of the grammarian Calliopius with the usual didascaliae and arguments, except that the argument of Eunuchus is the prose one beg. 'Meretrix adolescentem' as in C of Umpfenbach's ed., 1870, p. 89. The volume opens (f. 1b) with prose summaries of the plays beg. 'Prime comedie que Andria dicitur hec est materia,' but of these only the first three have been written. The plays are immediately preceded by (a) Life of Terence, beg. 'Terentius Afer genere extitit,' f. 5; — (b) Prose argument of Andria, beg. 'Orto bello Athenis' (cf. F. Schlee, Scholia Terentiana, 1893, p. 172), f. 5b; — (c) Epitaph on Terence, beg. 'Natus in excelse tectis Kartaginis altis,' f. 6. The order of the plays is: — (a) Andria, f. 6; — (b) Eunuchus, with the line 'Eunuchus mentis dulcores tollit habunde' introduced in the rubric immediately after the prologue, f. 24b; — (c) Heautotimorumenos, f. 43b; — (d) Adelphoe, f. 61; (e) Phormio, f. 78; — (f) Hecyra, f. 96b. Followed (f. 112) by 'Francisci Petrarcę Laureati sententa de uita Terentii Comici,' beg. 'De Terentii uita in antiquis libris,' and (f. 114) by extracts on comedy from Papias, the Catholicon, and other sources. Glosses in several hands are profuse throughout Andria and in parts of Eunuchus and Adelphoe. Of the later sources those most frequently cited by name are Jacobinus Mantuanus and above all the Catholicon of Johannes Balbus de Janua. A marginal note to Petrarch on f. 113 relates: 'Hoc dixit Petrarcha propter seipsum, qui comedias scripsit. Verum postea suas uidens, illasque comediis Terentii conferens et uilissimas suas esse respectu Terentianarum considerans, laceratas in ignem cremari dedit, ut narrauit Petrus de Parma, qui admodum familiaris Petrarche fuit et se ab eodem audiuisse asseuerauit.' On f. 114b are two sets of verses on the plays: — (a) Six elegiac couplets, beg. 'Andria quid portet iuuenes que sponte sequantur'; — (b) Couplet 'Andria et Eunuchus, Euton, Adelphys, Hechyra, Phormio succedens fabula sexta datur.'

Vellum, with paper fly-leaves; ff. ii + 115. 11⅞ in. x 8⅜ in. A.D. 1419. Colophon on f. 111b: 'Terentii Afri explicit Hechyra, vi^a uidelicet et ultima comedia, per me Odoardum natum Jacobi Bergognini civis Astensis die nono Septembris. M CCCCXVIIII. In Viconovo dyocesis Ferrariensis Deo gratias Amen.' On f. 24 is the Greek colophon-Тελος του Τερεντιου και της ανδριας. Θεω χαριτες. Gatherings (beg. f. 5) of 10 leaves. Sec. fol. 'Natus.' The body of the text has 31 lines to a page. Illuminated initials head the various sections, two on f. 6 enclosing miniatures (female and male heads). Binding of red morocco, tooled (17th-18th cent.). A partly effaced inscription on f. 1 ends ' … scripsit uigilia s. Luce 17 Octobr. 1436.' On f. 1b is an old number N. 55; and on f. i 'H. viii 23.' On f. 1b, in pencil, '10 luigi osia 44 scudi in Roma 31 Marzo 1826.' Belonged to Charles Butler of Warren Wood (sale-cat. 1914, lot 4992), who apparently bought it of J. and J. L[eighton], 25 Nov. 1896, for £25 (pencil note on f. i).