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Harley MS 2662

Record Id:

040-002048493

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048493

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000368

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2662

Title:

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Institutio Oratorio

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains the Institutio Oratorio (Institutes of Oratory), a twelve-volume textbook on the theory and practice of rhetoric by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (b. c. 35, d. c. 100), also known as Quintilian. The text features marginal annotations, many written in Greek.

Contents:

ff. 1r-250r: Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Institutio Oratorio (Institutes of Oratory).

[f. 250v is blank].

Decoration:

1 full white vine border inhabited by putti, with a white vine initial in colours and gold and, in the lower margin, a circlet of vines in gold, framing a coat of arms that has been effaced (f. 1r). Large white vine initials in colours and gold marking the beginning of each book (ff. 24v, 44v, 63v, 80r, 103r, 119v, 138r, 158r, 186r, 189v, 206r, 216v, 229v). Numerous plain initials in red and blue. Rubrics in red. Epigraphic capitals in red ink (f. 250r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048493", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2662: Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Institutio Oratorio" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048493

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2662 : Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Institutio Oratorio

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2663]/040-002048493

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Greek, Modern
Latin

Scripts:

Greek
Latin

Start Date:

1434

End Date:

1434

Date Range:

1434

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 320 x 215 mm (text space: 225 x 120 mm).

Foliation: ff. 250 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).

Script: Humanistic.

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

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, N. E. (Ferrara)

Provenance:

Written by Gaspar Cyrri in 1434: colophon, 'Sub anno domini millesimo quadrigentesimo trecesimo quarto die vigesimo quinto mensis Ianuarii finitus est egregius liber...per manus Gasparis Cyrri filius quondam Iohannis Cyrri pie memoriae nationis Iusatiae diocesis...ensis districtus bonhemie scriptoris. Ego...[3 lines effaced] Deo gracias' (f. 250r).

An unidentified owner, 15th century: effaced arms (f. 1r).

Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie; sold to Harley on 20 January 1721/2 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 254).

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 ‘20 die mensis Januarij A.D. 1721/22’ (f. 1r). 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: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2662.

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. 138 n. 7.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 254.

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. 688.

Michael Winterbottom, 'Quintilian: Institutio oratoria' in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by L. D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 332-34 (p. 334).

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. 165.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Noel, Nathaniel, bookseller, fl 1681, d c 1753
Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius, Roman educator and rhetorician, c 35-100,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121271967

Places:

Ferrara, Italy