Kings MS 23

M. TULLIUS CICERO, Epistolae ad Familiares: the sixteen books, with colophon 'M. T. Ciceronis epistolarum ad Tironem liber ultimus explicit'. Two epistles to Caelius and two to Cornificius are repeated, occurring both in their proper places (ii. 11, 14, XII. 21, 23) and again after viii. 8, xiii. 49, and xiii. 77 (the same is the case in the Medicean MS. and, so far as it contains them, in Harley MS. 2682). A displacement of text is found in libb. viii, ix, a long passage from viii. 2, § 1, 'Non me Hercules', to viii. 9, § 3, 'si ullam (MS. sin illam) spem', being omitted after the words 'Ride (MS. Vide) modo, inquis' on f 81, l. 12, and inserted ff. 92 b-97 b) at the end of ix. 15, the last seven words of which, 'aut in tecto uicii cetera mihi proba[bu]ntur', are repeated at the end of the insertion (in Harley MS. 2749 the same passage is omitted altogether). At the end of lib. xvi (f. 190 b), but before the colophon, is a letter (found also in Harley 2749, after the colophon) purporting to be from C. Fabricius [Luscinus] and [Q.] Aemilius [Papus], consuls [B. C. 278] to Pyrrhus on the subject of Nicias' offer to assassinate that king, beg. .Nos pro tuis.iniuriis'. Vellum; ff. 190. 10 ¹/₄ in. x 7 ¹/₂ in. Written in Italy. Early XV cent. Gatherings of 10 leaves, with catchwords. Sec. fol. '-bus inuitis'. Initials flourished in blue and red or red and violet. F. 1 has all illuminated initial and border (gold bars enclosing blue spaces spangled with gold, foliage, &c.) including (within a wreath) he arms az., a dragon crowned or. Bound in white vellum, with arms of George I or II and initials G.R. III stamped on the covers.