Egerton MS 3027

LATIN EROTIC POETRY, Viz.:-

1. Propertius. Headed: "Sexti Aurelii Propertii naute monobilos [sic] Ad Cinthiam Liber primus incipit feliciter " ; colophon at the end of bk. iv (f. 55) : " Finis Propertii Sexti Aurelii Propertii naute monobilos ad Cinthiam feliciter [altered from foel.] explicit per me Pacificum Maximum de Asculo in sapientia ueteri Perusie. Anno 1467. 6 die Februarii. Deo gratias et matri. K non. gaudeo K." Collation in A. Palmer's Sex. Propertii Elegiarum Libri IV (1880), pp. 139-160. f. 1.

2. Tibullus ; preceded by (i) " Vita et forma Tibulli "; the anonymous life printed, e.g., in J. P. Postgate's edition (Script. Class. Bibl. Oxon., 1914);— (ii) " Epitaphium Tibulli " ; the epigram of Domitius Marsus. There is no heading to the elegies ; colophon at the end of bk. iii (f. 81 b) : " Finis Tibulli per me Pacificvm Maximum Irinaeum Asculanvm. Laus deo et immaculate virgini Marie. Orara [sic] Pro me. K. AB." Used by Postgate, who refers to it as Cui(acianus). f. 55 b.

3. Catullus. Headed: " Q. Valerii Catulli poetae Veronensis Ad Cornelium Nepotem. Liber incipit Feliciter " ; colophon (f. 113 b) : "Finis. Finit Catullus laus trinitati unice. Pac[ificus] M[aximus] A[sculanus]." At the beginning is the epigram of Benvenuto de' Campesani on the re-discovery of Catullus (beg. " Ad patriam redeo longis a finibus exul ") printed, e.g., by R. Ellis, Cat. Veron. Liber (1878), p. 1, E. Baehrens, Cat. Veron. Liber (1893), p. viiii; and at the end the epigram Ad Theotimum (beg. " Effugit [sic] mi animus credo ut solet ad Theotinum " [sic]) from Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, xix. 9. 14. Poem xxiv is followed by xliv. 21 – lxii and those by xxv-xliv, after which the correct order is resumed with lxiii. Used by R. Ellis in the edition referred to (where it is called Cuiacianus) and in that in the Script. Class. Bibl. Oxon. (called p). f. 82.

4. Priapea. Headed : " Publii Uirgilii Maronis Carmia [sic] Priapi incipiunt Feliciter sunt qui Ouidii Putant esse opusculum et cetera " ; colophon (after lxxx): " Priapeia Finis qui [alt. from quis] fecit? non uideo. Per me Pacificvm M[aximum] M[agistrum?] A[sculanum ?] Irinaevm. Laus uirgini Marie"; then, omitting lxxxi, "De lentitudine Priapi " (lxxxii), followed by final colophon: " Finis. Laus deo et Marie immaculate Per me Pac[ificum]." f. 113 b. Vellum; ff. iv + 123. 7 1/2 in. x 4 1/4 in. Sec. fol. " Qualis thesea." A.D. 1467. Gatherings of 10 leaves, with catchwords. Initials of books illuminated in gold and colours ; those of poems written alternately in blue and red; headings in red. There are numerous marginal and interlinear notes in various contemporary hands, which include both scholia and variant readings. The MS. was used by J. J. Scaliger, to whom it was lent by Jacques Cujas of Valence (see A. Palmer and R. Ellis, "Scaliger's Liber Cujacianus of Propertius, Catullus, etc.," in Hermathena, ii, pp. 124-158, and the latter's 1878 edition of Catullus, pp. liv-lix). On f. 1 is a defaced name (16th cent.?) F . . . i Bonii (?) twice repeated, and on f. iv the unsigned note " Ce manuscrit m'a été donné par l'abbé Mathon en l'an 1808." At the beginning is the bookplate of Henry [Ellis] Allen, who " purchased it from a bookseller in London, about the year 1850 " (Hermathena, ii, p. 126), and the name of his son, Samuel Allen. Probably contemporary binding of blind-tooled leather on wooden boards ; front cover two panels divided by a floreated band, each containing a lozenge with border of similar pattern, a knotornament in the corners of the panels and the centre of each lozenge ; the back cover is divided into two panels by similar floreated bands. Remains of four brass clasps with green velvet thongs. Sotheby's sale-cat., 30 Jan. 1920, lot 16. From the Farnborough Fund.