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Harley MS 2586

Record Id:

040-002048417

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048417

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00025c

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2586

Title:

Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Poetria nova; Francesco Piccinini, Poetry collection dedicated to Antonius Astensis; Guarino da Verona, Epistolae; Agostino Dati, Elegantiolae

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains the Poetria nova of Geoffrey de Vinsauf (fl. 1200) and a poetry collection by Francesco Piccinini (fl. 15th century), who identifies himself as a ducal scribe and dedicates the work to Antonius Astensis. The volume also includes a number of letters by the Italian humanist teacher Guarino da Verona (b. 1374, d. 1460) and Pseudo-Bernard of Clairvaux, as well as an imperfect copy of the Elegantiolae, a grammatical handbook by Agostino Dati (b. 1420, d. 1478).

Contents:

f. 1r-v: notes, added in the late-15th century.

ff. 2r-45v: Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Poetria nova.

ff. 46r-81r: Francesco Piccinini, Poetry collection dedicated to Antonius Astenis.

ff. 82r-87v: Guarino da Verona, Epistola ad Hieronymum filium hypothesia.

ff. 87v-92r: Guarino da Verona, Epistola ad Leonellum Estensum.

ff. 92r-98r: Guarino da Verona, Epistola de historiae conscribendae forma.

ff. 98v-101r: Pseudo-Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola de modo se et familiam regendi.

ff. 102r-119r: Agostino Dati, Elegantiolae, imperfect at the end.

ff. 120r-124r, 125v-126v: miscellaneous notes, some relating to the liturgy, added by a number of different hands in the late-15th century.

Decoration:

Puzzle initials, plain initials and rubrics in red. Small initials highlighted in red. Spaces left blank for larger initials.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048417", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2586: Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Poetria nova; Francesco Piccinini, Poetry collection dedicated to Antonius Astensis; Guarino da Verona,…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048417

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2586 : Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Poetria nova; Francesco Piccinini, Poetry collection dedicated to Antonius Astensis; Guarino da…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2587]/040-002048417

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:

1400

End Date:

1449

Date Range:

1st half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Paper.

Dimensions: 200 x 145 mm (written space: 140/145 x 80/90 mm).

Foliation: ff. 126 (+ 4 unfoliated modern flyleaves at the beginning + 4 original blank leaves after ff. 45, 81 and 101 + 4 unfoliated modern flyleaves at the end).

Script: Semi-humanistic and Gothic (ff. 82r-98r only).

Binding: British Museum / British Library in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy.

Provenance:

Partly written (ff. 46r-81r) by Francesco Piccinini (unidentified), a ducal scribe, according to the title, who could also be the author of the poems: his name both in the title and the colophon (ff. 46r, 81r).

Notes added by a number of late 15th-century hands (ff. 1r-v, 120r-124r, 125v-126v).

John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer: sold to Edward Harley on 23 April 1720 (Diary (1966), p. 197 n. 3; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 162).

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, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley, ‘23 die Aprilis, 1720’ (f. 2r). 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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), II (1808) , no. 2586.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 197 n. 3.

Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 162, 412.

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), p. 163.

Mariangela Regoliosi, 'Riflessioni umanistiche sullo 'scrivere storia', Rinascimento. Rivista dell'Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento, 31 (1991), 3-37 (p. 28).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Dati, Agostino, orator, historian and philosopher, 1420-1478,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000109010684
Geoffrey de Vinsauf, fl 1200
Gibson, John, book-dealer, fl 1720-1726
Guarino da Verona, Italian humanist and scholar, 1374-1460,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000123211124
Piccinini, Francesco, Italian scribe and poet, fl 15th century
Pseudo-Bernard of Clairvaux

Places:

Italy