Add MS 54244

MILLAR BEQUEST. Vol. XVIII. Cicero, 'De Oratore', a single leaf from an Italian manuscript of this work (chs. 26-33, Book I), copied and corrected by a leading Florentine scribe, Gherardo del Ciriagio; 1453. Latin. See Turner, op. cit., BMQ, xxxiii, pp. 34-35. For other examples of Ciriagio's hand, see Harley 2593 and Add. 16422. The remainder of the present volume is dated 1453 and was, in 1969, in the possession of B. S. Cron. The complete MS. (already lacking three leaves) was purchased by Sir S. C. Cockerell at the Samuel Allen of Lisconnan, co. Antrim, sale at Sotheby's, 30 Jan. 1920, lot 42. It had formerly appeared in Quaritch Cat. 369, Sept. 1866, item 35747, and in Sotheby's sale cat., 18 June 1866, lot 1238. Cockerell had the MS. rebound, and excised 13 damaged leaves as gifts to friends, including one leaf to Graily Hewitt which subsequently passed to Alfred Fairbank. Another leaf was presented to the library of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators by Madelyn Walker. The present leaf was given to C. H. St John Hornby, a director of W. H. Smith and Son, and was probably given by him to Millar.

Vellum; single leaf. 242 x 168mm. Folio 5 of the first of the 14 original gatherings of the volume. Pricked and ruled (double bounding lines) in hard-point for single columns of 26 lines. Written space 167 x 110mm. Script is a humanistic book script with corrections in a humanistic cursive.

Palaeography: Calligraphy: Marcus Tullius Cicero: Gherardo del Ciriagio, scribe: Leaf from Cicero's 'De Oratore', copied in Florence by G. del Ciriagio: 1453: Lat.

includes:

• f. 87 Sir John Cam Hobhouse, 2nd Baronet; Baron Broughton: Letter to A. Panizzi: 1857.