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Add MS 16613
- Record Id:
- 032-002094394
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002094394
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000044.0x0000ce
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 16613
- Title:
-
Vida del Tamorlán, Life of Timur
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-125v: Vida del Tamorlán (Life of Timur), an anonymous account in Spanish of a journey from Cadiz to Timur's court in Samarkand between 1403 and 1406 led by the Dominican friarAlonso Páez de Santa María and the nobleman, Ruy González deClavijo, ambassadors of King Henry III of Castile. Begins, 'El Gran Senhor Tamurbeque aviendo muerto al emperador de Smarcante'.
The journal has traditionally been attributed to Clavijo, but the author was more likely to have been a member of the party who was commissioned to keep a record of the journey (see Rubies, 'Late Medieval Ambassadors', 2009, p. 38, n. 4). The lands and cities along the route are described and an account of the events and customs at Timur's court is given. This is the most complete manuscript of the text, with the scribal colophon, Anthonius de Leon at the end (f. 125v). It is in the Aragonese dialect, probably translated from Castilian Spanish during the reign of Alfonso V (r. 1416-1458) (see Francisco López Estrada, 'Manuscrito aragonés' (1987), p. 377).
One other 15th-century manuscript of this work survives: Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, ms. 9218. The text was published in the 16th century by Gonzalo Argote de Molina, as Historia del Gran Tamorlán (Seville: Andrea Pescioni, 1582) and translated into English by Guy Le Strange as Embassy to Tamerlane 1403–1406 (London: Routledge & Sons, 1928).
Corrections and additions in the margin in the same hand as the text; notes in the margin in a less formal hand indicating notable places visited (examples of both types are found on f. 10v).
ff. 126v-128r: Boccaccio, Decameron, V.9 (imperfect), in Italian.
Decoration: Initials in alternating red or blue. Cadels on the top lines.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002094394", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 16613: Vida del Tamorlán, Life of Timur" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002094394
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002094394
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Italian
Spanish - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
- Material: Paper.
Dimensions: 275 x 190 mm (text space: 200 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 128 (+ 6 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 5 at the end). Page numbering in roman numerals on the upper right of each recto folio.
Script: Humanistic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown calf with blind tooling in a chequered pattern and marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
- Origin: ?Aragon, Spain.
Provenance:
Bought by the British Museum from William Boone, London bookseller, 13 March 1847.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1846-1847 (London: British Museum, 1864), p. 293.
Pascual de Gayangos, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Spanish Language in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1875-1893, repr. 1976), II, p. 290.
Francisco López Estrada, 'Sobre el manuscrito de la Embajada a Tamorlán del British Museum', Archiva de filologia Aragonesa, 8-9 (1956-57), 121-26.
Francisco López Estrada, 'Notas almanuscrito aragonés de la Embajada a Tamorlán', Anuario de estudios medievales, 17 (1987), 371-78.
Francisco López Estrada 'Un nuevo manuscrito de la 'Embajada a Tamorlán' (Real Biblioteca del Palacio II/2527)' in 'Noticias de la Real Biblioteca, III.9 (1997), online at https://avisos.realbiblioteca.es/index.php/Avisos/issue/archive/4 (accessed 30.5.2023).
Ruy González de Clavijo, Embajada a Tamorlán, ed. by Francisco López Estrada (Madrid: Castalia, 1999), p. LXXIX.
Joan-Pau Rubiés, 'Late medieval ambassadors and the practice of cross-cultural encounters, 1250-1450', in The 'Book' of Travels: Genre, Ethnology, and Pilgrimage, 1250-1700, ed. by Palmira Brummett, Studies in medieval and reformation traditions, 140 (Leiden:. Brill Academic Publishers, 2009) pp. 37-112 (p. 37, n. 1).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Clavigo, Ruy, biographer, fl 15th century
Leon, Antonio, Scribe, fl. 15th century - Related Material:
- From the printed Catalogue of Additions (1864): 'Vida y hazanas del Gran Tamorlan, con la descripcion de las tierras de su imperio y senorio; escripta por Ruy Gonçalez (González) de Clavijo, Camarero del muy alto e poderoso Señor Dom Enrique, Tercero desde nombre, Rey de Castilla y de Leon; con un Itinerario de lo sucedido en la Embaxada que por el dicho Señor Rey hizo al dicho Principe, llamado por otro nombre el Tamurbec, Año del nascimiento de mil e quatrocientos y tres." The present copy is without title, and the above is extracted from the edition printed at Seville, in 1582. The name of Antonius de Leon occurs at the end, as the scribe; after which is added, by another hand, a portion of the ninth tale of the fifth day of Boccaccio's Decameron. On paper, xvth cent. Quarto.'