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Harley MS 2692

Record Id:

040-002048523

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048523

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000386

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2692

Title:

Cicero, De Officiis

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a copy of De Officiis (On Duties), a treatise written in 44 BC by the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (b. 106, d. 43 BC).

Contents:

ff. 1r-155v: Cicero, De Officiis.

Decoration:

Full border in colours and gold with all'antica elements and historiated initial at the beginning of the first book (f. 1r). 2 faceted initials in colours at the beginning of the other books (ff. 65v, 104v). Titles in coloured epigraphic capitals at the beginning of each book (ff. 1, 65v, 104v). Similar capitals for the colophon (f. 155v). Numerous initials in blue. Rubrics and notes in red.

The decoration has been attributed to the manuscript's scribe Bartolomeo Sanvito (b. 1435, d. 1518).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048523", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2692: Cicero, De Officiis" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048523

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2692 : Cicero, De Officiis

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2693]/040-002048523

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:

1498

End Date:

1498

Date Range:

1498

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 140 x 90 mm (text space: 90 x 50 mm).

Foliation: ff. 157 + 12* + 103* (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 2 unfoliated purple parchment flyleaves at the beginning and + 4 parchment flyleaves at the end). ff 12* and 103* are parchment leaves.

Script: Humanistic cursive.

Binding: Pre-1600. Gold-tooled red leather, vestiges of metalwork clasps; gilt edges with decorative motifs on upper and lower edges.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, Central (Rome).

Provenance:

Written in 1498 by Bartolomeo Sanvito of Padua (b. 1435, d. 1518): colophon, 'Finit Romae die Martis xxiii Octobris MCCCCLXXXXVIII. B.S.' (f. 155v).

Conyers Middleton (b. 1683, d. 1750), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1706, head librarian of the University Library at Cambridge (1721-50); sold to Harley on 20 February 1724/5 (Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 239; Diary (1966), p. 336, n. 5).

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 februarij, A.D. 1724/5’ (f. [ii]); inscribed 'Oxford B.H.' (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. 2692.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 336 n. 5.

Jonathan J. G. Alexander and A. C. de la Mare, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J. R. Abbey (London: Faber and Faber, 1969), pp. 105, 109.

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. 239, 297.

Cyril E. Wright, 'Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition', in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 471).

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. 691.

Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt, ‘Lauro Padovano und Leonardo Bellini als Maler, Miniatoren und Zeichner’, Pantheon: InternationaleJahreszeitschrift für Kunst, 47 (1989), 49-82 (no. 69).

Beatrice Bentivoglio Ravasio, 'Sanvito (Sanvido, da San Vito), Bartolomeo' in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani: Secoli IX-XVI , ed. by Milvia Bollati (Milan: Sylvestre Bonnard, 2004), pp. 928-35 (p. 934).

Albinia C. de la Mare and Laura Nuvoloni, Bartolomeo Sanvito: The Life and Work of a Renaissance Scribe, ed. by Anthony R.A. Hobson and Christopher de Hamel, (Whitsbury: The Handwriting of Italian Humanists, 2009), no. 103 [with additional bibliography].

Exhibitions:

Writing: Making Your Mark, British Library, 26 April 2019 - 27 August 2019

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Middleton, Conyers, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and head librarian of the University Library, Cambridge, 1683-1750
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600

Places:

Rome, Italy