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Arundel MS 98
- Record Id:
- 040-002039379
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002039280
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000395.0x000261
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058423199.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Arundel MS 98
- Title:
- Excerpt on Pliny the Elder from Suetonius Tranquillus, De viris illustribus; Prefatory epistle to the Historia Naturalis, Pliny the Elder, Epistula ad Vespasianum; Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis (books 1-18)
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript consists of books 1-18 of Pliny the Elder (b. 23, d. 79)'s Historia naturalis (Natural History), preceded by an excerpt on Pliny the Elder from Suetonius Tranquillus (b. 69, d. 140), De viris illustribus (Concerning illustrious men). The manuscript was probably the first volume of a two volume-set containing the entire text of the Historia naturalis (see Reynolds, Text and Transmission (1983)).
This copy of the Historia naturalis agrees closely with the version in 9th-century manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 6795 since both copies omit the same sections (see Reynolds, Text and Transmission (1983)).
Contents:
f. 1r: An excerpt on Pliny the Elder from Suetonius Tranquillus, De viris illustribus, beginning: 'Vita Plini Secundi ex catalogo illustrium tranquilli. Plini (sic) secundus Novem menses (sic) equestribus militiis industrie functus'.
ff. 1r-2r: Prefatory epistle to the Historia Naturalis, Pliny the Elder, Epistula ad Vespasianum (Epistle to Vespasian), beginning: 'Plinius Secundus Vespasiano suo salutem. Libros Naturalis Historiae, novicium Camenis Quiritium tuorum opus'.
ff. 2r-160r: Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis, books 1-18. Book 1 (ff. 2r-14r), beginning: 'An finitus sit mundus et an unus'. The beginning of book 2 is imperfect due to a damaged leaf (f. 14), beginning: '[...] cuius circumflexu degunt cum cuncta, numen esse' (ff. 14r-26v); Book 3 (ff. 26v-32r); Book 4 (ff. 32r-38r); Book 5 (ff. 38r-45v); Book 6 (ff. 45v-56r); Book 7 (ff. 56r-66r); Book 8 (ff. 66r-76v); the beginning of Book 9 is imperfect due to a damaged leaf (f. 77) (ff. 77r-85v); Book 10 (ff. 85v-94v); Book 11 (ff. 94v-107r); Book 12 (ff. 107r-112v); Book 13 (ff. 103r-118v); Book 14 (ff. 118v-124v); Book 15 (ff. 124v-130v); Book 16 (ff. 130v-141v); Book 17, imperfect ending due to missing leaves: 'et pabulo boum suumque magnificat neque' (ff. 141v-143v); Book 18, imperfect beginning due to missing leaves, beginning: 'id erat e pabulis, segere viridi defecte (sic)' (ff. 144r-160r), ending: 'sudorem repositoriis relinquentia, diras tempestates prenunciant'.
Decoration:
Seventeen large foliate initials in colours, many with heads, masks, dragons, hybrids, and/or animals, including a bird and a dog, most with gold (ff. 1r, 2r, 22v, 26v, 32r, 38r, 45v, 56r, 66r, 85v, 94v, 107r, 113r, 118v, 124v, 130v, 141v).
In several instances it is apparent that the original design has been altered (e.g., ff. 113r, 130v). Large initials in yellow, blue, red, or green, some with penwork decoration in another colour. Two initials apparently excised (ff. 14r, 77r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Arundel Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002039280
040-002039379 - Is part of:
- Arundel MS 1-550 : Arundel Manuscripts
Arundel MS 98 : Excerpt on Pliny the Elder from Suetonius Tranquillus, De viris illustribus; Prefatory epistle to the Historia Naturalis, Pliny… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002039280[0099]/040-002039379
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Arundel MS 1-550
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058423199.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1125
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 430 x 310 mm (text space 325 x 210 mm, in two columns).
Foliation: ff. 160 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); f. 92* is a paper leaf from a printed book which comes from the 1532 Parisian printed edition of the Elementa Geometrica of Albrecht Dürer 'Apud C. Wechelum, 1532'.
Collation: i-xi8 (ff. 1-88); afterwards uncertain, lacking perhaps two gatherings between ff. 143-144.
Script: Protogothic (written by a single scribe, except for f. 160, according to unpublished notes of Michael Gullick).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Southern England.
Provenance:
An unknown English monastery: the mark of a chain (ff. 156-160) indicates that it was probably chained in a monastic library; perhaps also added the 15th-century pen trials on f. 160r.
An unknown 16th-century owner: excerpt from a 1532 printed edition of Albrecht Dürer's Geometry (f. 92*); perhaps also added 16th-century marginal annotations throughout.
? Thomas Howard (b. 1585, d. 1646), 2nd earl of Arundel, 4th earl of Surrey, and 1st earl of Norfolk, art collector and politician.
Henry Howard (b. 1628, d. 1684), 6th duke of Norfolk, presented to the Royal Society in 1667.
The Royal Society, London: its ink stamp: 'Soc. Reg. Lond / ex dono HENR. HOWARD / Norfolciensis.' (f. 1r); its book-plate with the pencil inscription: 'XV. 1.4' (inside upper cover).
Purchased by the British Museum from the Royal Society together with 549 other Arundel manuscripts in 1831.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part I: The Arundel Manuscripts, pp. 26-27.
Schools of Illumination: Reproductions from Manuscripts in the British Museum, 6 vols (London: British Museum, 1914-1930), II: English 12th and 13th Centuries (1915), pl. 5(f).
Dorothea Waley Singer, Annie Anderson, and Robina Addis, Catalogue of Latin and Vernacular Alchemical Manuscripts in Great Britain and Ireland Dating from before the XVI Century, 3 vols (Brussels: Lamertin, 1928-1931), III, 1035.
Hanns Swarzenski, The Berthold Missal and the Scriptorium of Weingarten Abbey (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1943), p. 44, fig. 55.
Niklas Holzberg, Willibald Pirckheimer: Griechischer Humanismus in Deutschland, Humanistische Bibliothek, ed. by Ernesto Grassi, series I: Abhandlungen, vol 41 (Munich, Fink, 1981), p. 40.
L. D. Reynolds, ‘The Elder Pliny', in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by L. D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 307-16 (pp. 313-14).
L. D. Reynolds, ‘Introduction’, in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by L. D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. xiii-xliii (p. xxxvii n. 188).
B. Munk Olsen, L’Étude des auteurs classiques latins aux XIe et XIIe siècles, 2 vols (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1982-1985), II, 256, no. C. 29.
Michael Reeve, 'The editing of Pliny's Natural History', Revue d'Histoire des Textes, 2 (2007), 107-79 [on the text].
Michael Reeve, 'The Vita Pliny', in Pliny the Elder: Themes and Contexts, ed. by Roy Gibson and Ruth Morello (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 207-22 (p. 211).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.