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Harley MS 2548

Record Id:

040-002048379

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048379

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000170

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2548

Title:

Pseudo-Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium; Marcus Tullius Cicero, Synonyma ad Lucium Veturium; epitaph of St Bernardino

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-76r: Pseudo-Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium.

ff. 77r-93r: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Synonyma ad Lucium Veturium.

f. 93v: Epitaph of St Bernardino.

The manuscript contains a few additions:

f. 94v: An excerpt from Quintilian, beginning: 'Nempe enim in hoc plurimum laboris exhausimus'; added in the 15th century.

f. 95r: Definition of a machine, beginning: 'machina dicitur ubi non tam materiae ratio'; added in the 15th century.

f. 95r: Excerpt from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, beginning: 'Apud Hypanim fluvium qui ab Europae parte in Pontum influit'; added in the 15th century.

f. 95v: A note on Roman warehouses, beginning: 'Tria horrea Romanorum erant: Unum in aegypto, alium in scicilia, tertium in libia'; added in the 15th century.

f. 95v: A note: 'Tergen[u]s honoribus .S. magistratu, Praetura et consulate aut geminatis plausibus in theatro'; added in the 15th century.

f. 96r: Faded inscriptions in Latin.

Decoration:

Large white vine initial in gold and colours with the head of a (?) bird, and a wreath enclosing an unidentified coat of arms in the lower margin (f. 1r). Smaller coloured initials in alternating red and blue. The white vine initial has been defaced with red ink added at a later period (f. 1r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048379", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2548: Pseudo-Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium; Marcus Tullius Cicero, Synonyma ad Lucium Veturium; epitaph of St Bernardino" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048379

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2548 : Pseudo-Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium; Marcus Tullius Cicero, Synonyma ad Lucium Veturium; epitaph of St Bernardino

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2549]/040-002048379

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1470

End Date:

1470

Date Range:

1470

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 215 x 150 mm (text space: 155 x 95 mm).

Foliation: ff. 96 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); f. [96] is a parchment flyleaf); the paper features a watermark with a bull's head (visible on f. 94); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [98]verso (note of examination).

Script: Humanistic cursive (ff. 77-93v are in the same hand as ff. 1-76).

Binding: British Museum in-house; red half leather binding with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the outside covers; re-bound in 1977.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Italy, North-East (? Venice).

Provenance:

Written by Bitinus, son of Bertolus, in 1470: inscribed his name with this year in a colophon on f. 76r: 'Ego bitinus fius d. B[er]toli de goffis calcem imposui marcho tulio ciceroni die domenicho mensis septembris 1470' (see Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts (1979), no. 666).

An unknown owner: their erased (?) ownership inscription on f. 96r.

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 699.

Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 666.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Pseudo-Cicero, 1st century BC,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/305360068
Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius, Roman educator and rhetorician, c 35-100,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121271967
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600

Places:

Northeastern Italy
Venice, Italy