Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 2628

Record Id:

040-002048459

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048459

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0002c6

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2628

Title:

Cicero, De officiis, and other minor works

Scope & Content:

A humanist copy of Cicero's selected works from mid-15th-century Italy.

Contents:

ff. 1r-87r: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De officiis (books 1-3), copied by Blasius Axeretinus in 1433.

ff. 87r-89r: List of contents and colophon of De officiis.

ff. 90r-106v: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De senectute.

ff. 107r-125v: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De amicitia.

ff. 126r-135r: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Paradoxa stoicorum.

ff. 135r-139r: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Somnium Scipionis.

Decoration:

Large white vine initials in colours at the beginning of each book (ff. 1r, 38v, 61r). Historiated initial with the head of a bearded man, with acanthus leaves extending into the margins (f. 90r). Coloured initials in alternating red or blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048459", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2628: Cicero, De officiis, and other minor works" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048459

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2628 : Cicero, De officiis, and other minor works

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2629]/040-002048459

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:

1499

Date Range:

middle of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 200 x 135 mm (text space 140 x 90 mm for ff. 1-89r and 135 x 90 mm for ff 90-139r).

Foliation: ff. 139 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end + 1 unfoliated ruled folio after f. 89).

Script: Humanistic. ff. 1r-89r copied by Blasius Axeretius in Milan 1433.

Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather (restored); marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Northern Italy.

Provenance: Blasius Axeretinus, chancellor of Genoa: ff. 1r-89r written by him in Milan in 1433: inscribed 'M. Tulij ciceronis liber [...] incipit [...] manu blasij axeretini Mediolani' (f. 1), and colophon '[...] liber feliciter explicit Mediolani manu mei blasij de axereto ducalis familiaris et partium latus armarum commissarii ac inclite urbis janue cancellarii. Sed felicius quod hac die xxviiia aprilis 1433 novum sancte pacis concluse cum venetis et florentinis ad gloriosum principem est delatum. deo Laudes.' (ff. 1, 87).

John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer; sold on 9 November 1721 (Wright, Diary (1966); Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

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 'Oxford B.H.' (f. 1).

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://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=3807&CollID=8&NStart=2628

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2628.

Colophons de manuscrits occidentaux des origines au XVIe siècle, Spicilegii Friburgensis subsidia 2–7 , 6 vols. (Fribourg : Éditions universitaires, 1965-1982), 1 (1965), p. 282. no. 2250.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 138 n. 8.

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

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. 681.

Michele V. Rommick, 'Manuscripts and Commentaries of the "Paradoxa Stoicorum"', Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale , 32 (1990), 119-37 (p. 122. no. 15).

Michele V. Rommick, Cicero's "Paradoxa Stoicorum": A Commentary, an Interpretation, and a Study of Its Influence, (Bern: P. Lang, 1991), p. 154. no. 15

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. 164.

Medieval and Renaissance manuscript books in the Library of Congress: a descriptive catalog, vols. 1-2 (Washington : The Library, 1989-1999), II. (1999), pp. 59-60.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Axeretinus, Blasius, chancellor in Genoa, first half of the 15th century
Gibbons, John, first half of the 18th century
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600