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Arundel MS 317
- Record Id:
- 040-002039600
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002039280
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000395.0x0003ad
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100174687442.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Arundel MS 317
- Title:
- Filippo Alberici, Tabula Cebetis, and De mortis effectibus
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-23v: Tabula Cebetis; rubric to the prologue: 'Ad excelsum potentissimumque Henricum septimum Angliae regem: Fratris Philippi Alberici Mantuani carmen in Tabulum Cebetis carminibus ac picturis intextam'; incipit to the prologue: 'Maxime terrarum' (f. 1r); rubric to the poem: 'Tabula Cebetis qua sub picturis totus humanae vitae decursus declarat'; incipit to the poem: 'Forte sacras' (f. 3r).
ff. 24r-24v: 'Ad Henricum regem de honore per eum allato studiosis Cantabriae', a poem celebrating Henry VII's visit to Cambridge in late April 1506.
f. 24v: A dedication to Joachim Bretoner, seneschal of King's Hall (see Provenance).
ff. 25v-28v: De mortis effectibus; rubric: 'F. Phil. Alber. Man de mortis effectibus ex hyeme et nocte descriptis carmen' (f. 25v); incipit: 'Surgebat crudelis hyems'.
f. 29v: Inscriptions of Elizabeth Stuart and George Carew (see Provenance).
Decoration:
Illuminations are attributed to Jean Coene IV, except the miniature on f. 25r which was added by an artist probably working in Cambridge (see Drimmer in McKendrick and others, 2011).
7 full-page miniatures in colours, gold and silver (ff. 2v, 6v, 10v, 13v, 18v, 20v, 25r).
2 large foliate initials, accompanied by full borders, in colours, gold and silver (ff. 1r, 3r).
5 large foliate initials, in colours, gold and silver (ff. 7r, 11r, 14r, 19r, f. 25v).
1 smaller initial in gold on a red ground (f. 21r).
1 small initial in gold on a blue ground (f. 24r).
Capital letters at the beginning of a line written alternately in red or blue.
The subjects of miniatures are:
f. 2v: In the Temple of Saturn, an old man interprets the tablet to Cebes and his companions.
f. 6v: First circle of Cebes's Tablet. Genius, represented as an old man, guards the gate to the first circle. The figures of children stand outside the wall and one drinks from the cup of Ignorance and Error, held by the female personification of Deceit. Within the stone circular enclosure are more personifications, including Virtues, Fortune, Lust and Instability.
f. 10v: Second circle of Cebes's Tablet. Outside of the circular stone enclosure, a group of figures representing pleasure stands beside the personification of Gluttony. Within the circle are allegories of those failed by Fortune, as well as the 'hovel of unhappiness' in which they live. The figure of Penitence stands beside a church in the background left.
f. 13v: Third circle of Cebes's Tablet. The circle of False Education, within which is represented Circe grasping an ape, Night and Poverty beating a man, a lying astrologer, and a solipsistic fool. A unicorn sits at the top of the path to Virtue.
f. 18v: Allegory of the path to Virtue. The man on the path encounters the figures of Promise, Hope, Pleasure, and Skill. The large stone in the centre of the scene contains the entrance to the circle of Virtues. Atop this stone is the personification of Constance. Behind the rock is a man who has passed through, guided by the nude personification of Truth.
f. 20v: The Seat of Virtue, with a personification of Virtue enthroned in a garden flanked by Eternity and Glory. The figures of Study and Mars sit on either side of the gate to the garden of Virtue.
f. 25r: An allegorical landscape of death. In the centre of a dead, or barren, landscape is depicted a stone memorial, labelled 'invincibili fato'. In the lower right is a ruined structure, and hanging from a rope from the top of the miniature is a bird perched upon an oil lamp.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Arundel Manuscripts
Royal Manuscripts Digitisation Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002039280
040-002039600 - Is part of:
- Arundel MS 1-550 : Arundel Manuscripts
Arundel MS 317 : Filippo Alberici, Tabula Cebetis, and De mortis effectibus - Hierarchy:
- 032-002039280[0318]/040-002039600
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Arundel MS 1-550
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
30 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100174687442.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1507
- End Date:
- 1512
- Date Range:
- 1507-c 1507
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 205 x 140 mm (text space: 130 x 95 mm).
Foliation: ff. 30 (+ 4 unfoliated flyleaves: 1 modern paper leaf at the beginning, 1 original parchment leaf before f. 1, 1 parchment leaf after f. 29, and 1 modern paper leaf at the end; ff. 29 and 30 are original parchment flyleaves).
Script: Humanistic cursive. Written by Filippo Alberici.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding. Rebound in 1963.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ff. 1r-24v: France (Paris); ff. 24v-28v: England (Cambridge?).
Provenance:
Henry VII (b. 1457, d. 1509), king of England and Lord of Ireland, dedicated to him (ff. 1r, 3r, 24r); includes a poem 'Ad Henricum regem de honore per eum allato studiosis Cantabriae' (f. 24r), celebrating Henry VII's visit to Cambridge in late April 1506; probably intended in 1507 as a New Year's gift to Henry VII by Filippo Alberici (see Carlson 1993, pp. 20, 22), but perhaps never presented to the king (see Rundle 2005).
Joachim Bretoner, seneschal of King's Hall, probably presented to him: added dedication to him (f. 24v).
Elizabeth Stuart (b. 1596, d. 1662), daughter of King James VI of Scotland and I of England: signed 'Elizabeth' (f. 29v).
George Carew, earl of Totnes (b. 1555, d. 1629), soldier and administrator: inscribed 'This booke was geven me George L. Carew of Clopton by / the Ladie Elizabeth, daughter unto the most highe and / puissant monarch James, of England, Scotland, France and / Ireland, etc. Kinge, and with her owne fayre hand she / superscribed her name: mens. Octob. 1608' (f. 29v).
? 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. 1v).
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 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- 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, p. 92.
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries, 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), 131.
Sandra Sider, ‘Interwoven with Poems and Picture: A Protoemblematic Translation of the Tabula Cebetis’, The European Emblem: Selected Papers from the Glasgow Conference, 11-14 August 1987, ed. by B.F. Scholz, M. Bath and D. Weston (Leiden: Brill, 1990), pp. 1-17.
David R. Carlson, English Humanist Books: Writers and Patrons, Manuscript and Print, 1475-1525 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993), pp. 20, 22-36, 167-68, 171-74, 187 n. 1, figs 1-2, 6-11.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II: Catalogue and Indexes, p. 366.
Corpus librorum emblematum: Bibliography of Emblematic Manuscripts, ed. by Sandra Sider and Barbara Obrist (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), p. 43, no. 147.
David Rundle, 'Filippo Alberici, Henry VII and Richard Fox: The English Fortunes of a Little-Known Italian Humanist', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 68 (2005), 137-55 (pp. 139-46; 151).
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 110 [exhibition catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)