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Add MS 27429
- Record Id:
- 032-002030868
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002030868
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000045.0x0002d8
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161504878.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 27429
- Title:
-
Le Sette Savi di Roma (The Seven Sages of Rome)
- Scope & Content:
-
Le Sette Savi di Roma (The Seven Sages of Rome), consisting of a frame tale, introducing and providing the background to 14 short moral tales told to the 'Emperor of Rome' by the Seven Sages and the Empress, arranged as follows:
f. 1r: Blank paper flyleaf with a paste-down containing a description of the manuscript in Italian in a modern cursive hand.
ff. 2r-v: A fragment of the frame tale of the Emperor, his son, and the young Empress, begins, 'Et quando leomperadore la vide'.
The tales are:
f. 3r-v: Tale 1, 'Arbor' (the Pine Tree and its sucker), imperfect, begins, '...colo pinello'.
ff. 4r-v: Tale 2, 'Canis' (the Dog), imperfect, begins, eri anche prese la serpe'.
ff. 4v-5v: Tale 3, 'Aper' (here the Boar (Sanglier) becomes a lord (Sengniore), begins 'Messere in quest contrada'.
ff. 6r-7v: Tale 4, 'Medicus' (the Physician), begins, 'Ipocras fue lo piu savio medico'.
ff. 7v-9v: Tale 5, 'Gaza', imperfect, begins, 'In Roma fue una volta uno imperadore'.
ff. 9v-10v: Tale 6, 'Mercator' (the Merchant), begins, 'Messere in Toscana ae une terra'.
ff. 10v-11v: Tale 7, 'Senescalus' (the Steward), begins, 'In Puglia si avea uno Re'.
ff. 11v-14v: Tale 8, 'Tentamina', begins, 'Messere in questa terra fue un savio et ricco huomo'.
ff. 14v-17v: Tale 9, 'Virgilius' (Virgil), begins, 'In Roma si ebbe uno savio huomo'.
ff. 17v-18v: Tale 10, 'Avis' (the Bird), begins, 'In questa terra fue uno riccho borghese'.
ff, 18v, column 2, lines 15-19: Tale 11, 'Sapientes' (Sages, or Wise men); the tale is lacking; only the Empress's introduction, beginning, 'e la donna disse ben lo vi diro' remains.
ff. 19r-20v: Tale 12, 'Vidua' (the Widow), preceded by the sixth Sage's introduction, imperfect, beginning, '...comincio a dire com est cio messere lomperadore'; the tale begins, 'Messere in Roma si ebbe un visconte'.
ff. 20v-21v: Tale 13, 'Roma' (Rome), begins 'Una stagione fue che roma avea guerra co saracini' (imperfect where part of the lower page is lacking.
ff. 21v-22v 'Tale 14, 'Inclusa' (the Imprisoned woman), begins, 'Messere in Francia si una terra cha nome parigi', ends (column 2, line 18), 'et non trovo sua donna'.
ff. 22v-23r: The Prince's tale is omitted and the frame tale concludes with the Empress's confession and execution, 'Et allora fue iudicata che fosse arsa et cosi fue fatto adesso', followed by a colophon, 'Finito libro referamus gra[tia]s [Christ]o amen.
ff. 24r-26v: Added pasted leaves with a copy of the last two pages of the text (ff. 22v-23r) in a later cursive hand than the one used on f. 1r.
The text is an incomplete translation from the French versions, Les Sept Sages de Rome (groups A and L), classified as prose version D see Brun, 'Versions Italiennes anonymes' (2021). See Ward, Catalogue (1893), for detailed contents.
Decoration:
14 ink drawings with colour wash (ff. 2v, 3v, 4v, 5v, 8r, 10r, 12r, 13v,15v, 16v, 18v, 19r, 21r, 23r). Initials in red.
The subjects of the images are:
f. 2v: One of the Sages and the Emperor's son ride out of Rome; the Sage is on a blue and white spotted horse.
f. 3v: A man watches as his gardener chops off part of a pine tree, illustrating tale 1.
f. 4v: A dog kills a snake that is attacking a sleeping infant in a cradle, illustrating tale 2.
f. 5v: A peasant stabs a nobleman sleeping in a rocky landscape, illustrating the tale 3.
f. 8r: A physician holds a sword over his nephew who is gathering a medicinal plant, tale 4.
f. 10r: A headless body of a man with blood flowing from the neck lies on the ground, the man's son rides away on a horse, illustrating tale 5.
f. 12r: A steward forces his wife to lie in bed beside his master, the King, illustrating tale 7.
f. 13v: A young wife cuts down her husband's tree while a gardener watches, illustrating tale 8.
f. 15v A husband watches as a doctor shows blood spurting from his wife's arm into a bowl, illustrating tale 8.
f. 16v: Two spies from the king of Hungary stand before the emperor of Rome.
f. 18v: The emperor indicates a cauldron boiling over a fire; the Emperor lies with his hands and feet bound, and a man pours molten gold from a ladle into his mouth, illustrating tale 9.
f. 19r: A king of Rome and a young man indicate seven boiling cauldrons, illustrating tale 11.
f. 21r: A rich knight rides up to a lady who is imprisoned by her husband, illustrating tale 14.
f. 23r: The emperor watches as his wicked wife is burned at the stake, while a bearded figure stokes the flames.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002030868", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 27429: Le Sette Savi di Roma (The Seven Sages of Rome)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002030868
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002030868
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100161504878.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Italian - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1300
- End Date:
- 1324
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 14th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 230 x 175 mm (text space: 170 x 120 mm) written in two columns.
Foliation: ff. 26 (f. 1 is a modern paper flyleaf and ff. 24-26 are added papers leaves + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather with marbled endleaves.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Italy.
Provenance:
Dr Henry Wellesley (b. 1794, d. 1866), principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford and Italian scholar.
Count Alessandro Mortara (d. 1855), lent to him by Wellesley for his preparation of a catalogue of the Italian Canonici manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, published posthumously in 1864; copied by Mortara and included in an edition by Alessandro d'Ancona, Sette Savi (Pisa 1864) (see Ward, Catalogue, p. 211).
Wellesley's sale, Sotheby's 3 August, 1866, lot 133; bought by the British Museum.
- Information About Copies:
-
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), II (1983), H. L. D. Ward, pp. 210-15.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1854-1875 (London: British Museum, 1877), p. 319.
Hermann Varnhagen, 'Die handschriftlichen Erwerbungen des British Museum auf dem Gebiete des Altromanischen in den Jahren von 1865 bis Mitte 1877', Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 1, 1877, pp. 541-55.
Hermann Varnhagen, Eine italienische Prosaversion der Sieben Weisen, nach einer Londoner Handschrift (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1881) [an edition of this manuscript].
Killis Campbell, The Seven Sages of Rome: edited from the manuscripts with introduction, notes and glossary (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1907), p. xxxiii.
'Libro dei sette savi di Roma, Versions Italliennes Anonymes', online at Arlima, archives de litterature du Moyen Age, ed. by Laurent Brun (updated 5 May 2021), https://arlima.net/no/411 [accessed 28.9.21].
Chantry Westwell, Dragons, Heroes, Myths and Magic (London: British Library, 2021), pp. 194-95.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)