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Harley MS 3261

Record Id:

040-002049092

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049092

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000281

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3261

Title:

Plato, De Legibus, in George of Trebizond's Latin translation

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains George of Trebizond's Latin translation of Plato's De Legibus (Law) made between 1450-1451. The manuscript was produced for Jean Jouffroy, bishop of Arras from 1453, and was later acquired through exchange by Nicholas of Cues (b. 1401, d. 1464).

Contents:

ff. 2r-164v: Plato, De Legibus,in George of Trebizond's Latin translation.

Decoration:

White vine initial combined with a partial border (f. 2r). The heraldic arms of Jean Jouffroy, bishop of Arras from 1453, enclosed in a wreath with the name 'IOFRE', in the lower margin (f. 2r). White vine initials in colours and gold (ff. 14v, 24v, 37v, 47v, 58v, 74v, 91r, 101r, 115r, 128v, 141v, 155r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049092", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3261: Plato, De Legibus, in George of Trebizond's Latin translation" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049092

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3261 : Plato, De Legibus, in George of Trebizond's Latin translation

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3262]/040-002049092

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:

1448

End Date:

1458

Date Range:

c 1453

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 285 x 215 mm (written space: 190 x 110 mm).

Foliation: ff. 164 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 unfoliated parchment leaves and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); ff. 1 and [166] are former pastedowns.

Script: Humanistic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600.

Custodial History:

Origin:

N.E. Italy.

Provenance:

Jean Jouffroy (b. c. 1400, d. 1473), bishop of Arras in 1453, of Albi in 1462, and cardinal in 1461, abbot of St Denis in 1464: his arms, without mitre (barry of 6 or and sable, 2 crosslets gules on second), combined with the name 'IOFRE' (f. 2r), given by him as bishop (dominus) of Arras to Nicholas of Cusa in exchange for Ps-Quintilian, Declamationes: signed memorandum by Nicholas of Cues recording the exchange of this manuscript for a Quintillian by 'dominus Attrebatensis' (i.e., bishop of Arras) (on a piece of parchment pasted onto f. 1r).

Nicholas of Cues (b. 1401, d. 1464), bishop of St Brixen in Tyrol in 1450, cardinal in 1449, founder of the hospital of St Nicholas at Cues on the Mosel: obtained from Jean Jouffroy by exchange sometime before 1462 (see inscription in his hand mentioned above; f. 1r). He left his entire library to the hospital in his last will dated 6 August 1464.

The Hospital of St Nicholas, Cues, on the Moselle (Germany): inscribed with its note of ownership in a ?16th-century hand, 'liber hospital[is] s[an]cti Nicolai p[ro]pe Cusa[m] treveren[sis] dioce...' (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: probably sold to the Harleys together with other Cues manuscripts in 1717/18.

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), III (1808), p. 13.

De la Mare, Albinia, 'New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence', in Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento, 1440-1525: un primo censimento, ed. by Annarosa Garzelli, 2 vols, ([Florence]: Giunta regionale toscana, 1985), I, pp. 395-574 (p. 525).

Hallauer, Hermann J., 'Habent sua fata libelli. Von der Mosel zur Themse: Handschriften des St. Nikolaus-Hospitals in der Bibliotheca Harleiana', Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellshaft, 17 (1986), 21-56.

Kristeller, Paul Oskar, 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. 167.

Lehmann, Paul, Mitteilungen aus Handschriften, 2, Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Abteilung, 2 (Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,1930), pp. 3-55 (p. 24).

Sabbadini, Remigio, ‘Niccolò da Cusa e I conciliari di Basilea alla scoperta dei codici’, Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 20 (1911), 3-40 (pp. 39-40, n. 2).

Wright, Cyril Ernest, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 120-21, 207, 253-54.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

George of Trebizond, philosopher and humanist, 1395-1484
Plato, 427 BC-347 BC