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Kings MS 24
- Record Id:
- 040-002016940
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002016915
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001207.0x0002e2
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165170629.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Kings MS 24
- Title:
- P. Vergilius Maro, Opera (‘the King’s Virgil’)
- Scope & Content:
-
ff. 1r-16v: P. Vergilius Maro, Bucolica;
ff. 17r-58: P. Vergilius Maro, Georgica, by P. Ovidius Naso [pseudo-], verse, 'In primaum librum Georgicon Virgilii' (f. 16v);
ff. 58v-244v: P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, preceded by P. Ovidius Naso [pseudo-], verses, 'quae contineant duodecim Aeneidos libri' (f. 58v).
Decoration:
The script and design of the decorative programme are attributed to the Paduan scribe Bartolomeo Sanvito (b. 1433, d. 1511) (see de la Mare and Nuvoloni, Bartolomeo Sanvito (2009), n. 74. p. 266).
17 miniatures in colours and gold at the beginning of texts or books: shepherds talking in a rural landscape, surrounded by sheep and a dog (f. 1r); ploughing and other agricultural activities (f. 17r); gathering fruit (f. 26v); tending livestock (f. 37r); bee-keeping (f. 47v); the meeting of Aeneas and Dido (f. 59r); the Trojan Horse and the sack of Troy (f. 73v); a ship weighing anchor, sacrifices and wrestling (f. 88r); Dido’s suicide, and in the background Aeneas and Dido riding into cave, hunting scenes, and Aeneas’ ship leaving (f. 101v); the funeral games of Anchises, and in the background the Trojan women burning the fleet (f. 115r); Aeneas and the Cumaean Sybil visit the underworld and Elysium (f. 131v); the fury Alecto causes Aeneas to wound a revered deer (f. 148v); Venus presents armour and a shield to Aeneas, and Aeneas meets Evander (f. 164r); Turnus attacks the Trojan camp (f. 178r); the council of the gods and the battle between the Trojans and the Rutuli (f. 193v); the funeral of Pallas (f. 210v); Aeneas kills Turnus (f. 227v).
1 historiated initial in colours and gold, accompanied by a display script of square capitals used in a four-colour sequence: Aeneas escapes from Troy, carrying Anchises and leading Ascanius (f. 73v).
16 large decorated initials in colours and gold with all'antica elements including putti, swags, satyrs, sheep, acanthus leaves, cornucopiae and masks, accompanied by a display script of square capitals used in a four-colour sequence (ff. 1r, 17r, 27r, 37r, 47v, 59r, 88r, 101v, 115r, 131v, 148v, 164r, 178r, 193v, 210v, 227v).
Small decorated initials, with foliate, animal, and all'antica decoration, in colours and gold.
Borders of all'antica elements in colours and gold (ff. 1r, 17r, 27r, 37r, 47v, 59r, 73v, 88r, 101v, 115r, 131v, 148v, 164r, 178r, 193v, 210v, 227v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- King's Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002016915
040-002016940 - Is part of:
- Kings MS 1-446 : King's Manuscripts
Kings MS 24 : P. Vergilius Maro, Opera (‘the King’s Virgil’) - Hierarchy:
- 032-002016915[0023]/040-002016940
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Kings MS 1-446
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165170629.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1483
- End Date:
- 1485
- Date Range:
- 1483-1485
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 285 x 180 mm (written space: 190 x 105 mm).
Foliation: ff. 245 (f. 245 is a paper flyleaf; + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 1 the end).
Script: Humanistic minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600. 'Consul' Smith binding of Venetian sprinkled calf, with added gilt-stamped insignia of George III on the covers; marbled endpapers and gilt edges to the pages.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Rome, Italy.
Ludovico Agnelli, apostolic protonotary and bishop of Cosenza (incumbent 1497-1499): his arms in the borders (ff. 1r, 17r, 59r), quarterly, 1 and 4 azure, a lamb salient argent, 2 and 3 tierced in fesse, or, gules and argent, on the second three estoiles or, the shield surmounted by the black hat of an apostolic protonotary.
? Zaccaria Sagredo (b. 1653, d. Venice, 1729), Venetian collector of paintings, prints and drawings: an 18th-century inscription in Italian, perhaps written by a dealer, states that one Sagredo purchased the manuscript for 2,200 lire (f. 245v).
Joseph Smith (b. 1673/4?, d. 1770), book collector and patron of the arts: inscribed 'Smith' (2nd flyleaf [f. ii]); his binding; listed in his catalogue (see Bibliotheca Smithiana seu catalogus librorum Josephi Smithii Angli per cognomina authorum dispositus (Venice: Pasquali, 1755), p. D); sold to King George III, along with the bulk of Smith's library and art collection, in 1762.
King George III (b. 1738, d. 1820).
Given to the British Museum by King George IV in 1823 as part of the library of King George III.
- Publications:
-
Alessandro Palma di Cesnola, Catalogo di manoscritti italiani esistenti nel Museo Britannico di Londra (Turin: Roux, 1890), no. 304.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), III: Description of the King’s Manuscripts and Indexes to both Collections, p. 9, pl. 123.
Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters, ed. by Harry Bober, 4 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1916-1966), III: Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken (1953), pp. 142-44.
James Wardrop, The Script of Humanism: Some Aspects of Humanistic Script 1460-1560 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), pp. 32, 51, pl. 34.
José Ruysschaert, ‘Miniaturistes «romaines» sous Pie II’, in Enea Silvio Piccolomini Papa Pio II: Atti del convegno per il quinto centenario della morte e altri scritti raccolti da Domenico Maffei (Siena: Accademia senese degli intronati, 1968), pp. 245-82 (279-80 n. 219).
Jonathan J. G. Alexander and Albinia C. de la Mare, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J. R. Abbey (London: Faber and Faber, 1969), pp. 106 n. 2, 107, 109.
Frances Vivian, Il Console Smith: mercante e collezionista, Saggi e studi di storia dell'arte, 14 (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1971), pp. 84 n. 9, 92, pls 94-97.
Jonathan J. G. Alexander, The Decorated Letter (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), p. 114, pl. 38.
Robert D. Williams and Thomas S. Pattie, Virgil and his Poetry through the Ages (London: British Library, 1982), p. 137, no. 78, first and last colour plates [Exhibition catalogue].
Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1983), p. 104, pl. 13e.
Pierre and Jean Courcelle, ‘Le Manuscrit de Londres: B.M., King's 24’, in Lecteurs païens et lecteurs chrétiens de L'Énéide: 2. Les manuscrits illustrés de L'Énéide du Xe au XVe siècle (Paris, 1984), pp. 255-61.
Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt, ‘Lauro Padovano und Leonardo Bellini als Maler, Miniatoren und Zeichner’, Pantheon: Internationale Jahreszeitschrift für Kunst, 47 (1989), 49-82 (no. 63, pl. 18).
Frances Vivian, The Consul Smith Collection: Masterpieces of Italian Drawing from the Royal Library, Windsor, Raphael to Canaletto (Munich: Hirmer, 1989), pp. 24, 43 n. 96.
Michael Gullick, Calligraphy (London: Studio Editions, 1990), pl. 22.
E. C. Erdreich, ‘Qui hos cultus… pinxerit’: Illumination associated with Bartolomeo Sanvito (c.1435-c.1512)' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1993), p. 390.
Christopher de Hamel, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, 2nd edn (London: Phaidon, 1994), pp. 254, 256, pl. 239.
The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination 1450-1550, ed. by Jonathan J. G. Alexander (London: Prestel, 1994), pp. 13, 15, no. 43.
Antonie Wlosok, ‘Textkritische marginalien und allegorisierende Illustrationen im Vergilcodex 837 der Universitätsbibliothek in Valencia’, in The Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Proceedings of the first European Science Foundation Workshop on “The Reception of Classical Texts” (Florence, Certosa del Galluzzo, 26-27 June 1992), ed. by Claudio Leonardi and Birger Munk Olsen, Biblioteca de “Medioevo latino”: collana della “ Societa internazionale per lo studio del medioevo latino”, 15 (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo, 1995), pp. 75-109 (pp. 95-96, fig. 2).
Michelle P. Brown and Patricia Lovett, The Historical Source Book for Scribes (London: British Library, 1999), pp. 26, 112, 114, 117.
Matteo Venier, Per una storia del testo di Virgilio nellaprima eta del libro a stampa (1469-1519) (Udine: Forum, 2001), pp. 4, 23.
Albinia C. de la Mare, ‘Marginalia and Glosses in the Manuscripts of Bartolomeo Sanvito of Padua’ in Talking to the Text: Marginalia from Papyri to Print, ed. by V. Fera, G. Ferraù, and S. Rizzo (2002), pp. 459-555, esp. 488, 506 n. 3.
Beatrice Bentivoglio-Ravasio, 'Sanvito (Sanvido, da San Vito), Bartolomeo' in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori Italiani: Secoli IX-XVI, ed. by Milvia Bollati (Milan: Bonnard, 2004), pp. 928-35 (p. 933).
Albinia C. de la Mare and Laura Nuvoloni, Bartolomeo Sanvito: The Life and Work of a Renaissance Scribe, ed. by Anthony R.A. Hobson and Christopher de Hamel, (Whitsbury: The Handwriting of Italian Humanists, 2009), pp. 266-67, no. 74 [with additional bibliography].
- Exhibitions:
- Troy, British Museum, London, 21 November 2019 - 8 March 2020
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)