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Harley MS 3448
- Record Id:
- 040-002049279
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049279
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0003ac
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161504316.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3448
- Title:
-
Fiore de virtù e de costumi
- Scope & Content:
- This manuscript contains the Fiore de virtù e de costumi (Flower of Virtue and of Manners), an Italian work on virtues and vices that was composed in the early 14th century. It consists of 36 chapters, each of which discusses a particular virtue or vice by drawing a comparison with an animal, citing Classical, late Antique and medieval authors for moral explanations, and providing an exemplum (or story) that illustrates the chapter’s moral point. This copy of the text is imperfect at the end. The text is briefly continued in a later, 15th-century hand (on f. 49r).
Another illustrated copy of the work housed at the British Library is Add MS 14816.
Contents:
ff. 1r-49r: Fiore de virtù e de costumi (imperfect).
[f. 49v is blank].
Decoration:
79 tinted drawings in colours of people and animals, including many bestiary subjects (ff. 1v, 2v, 6r, 6v, 7r (x 2), 7v (x 2), 8r, 9r, 9v, 10r, 10v, 11v (x 2), 12v (x 2), 13r, 13v, 15r, 15v, 16r, 16v, 17r, 17v, 18r, 18v, 19v, 20r, 20v, 21r (x 2), 22r, 22v (x 2), 24r, 24v (x 2), 25r, 26r, 27r (x 2), 27v, 28v, 29r, 29v, 30r (x 2), 30v, 31r (x 2), 31v, 32r, 32v (x 2), 33r, 33v (x 2), 34r, 34v (x 2), 35r, 36r, 36v, 37r, 37v, 38r, 39r, 39v (x 2), 40r, 40v, 41r (x 2), 42r, 42v, 43v, 44r (x 2)). An effaced coat of arms (f. 1r). Blue initials with red pen-flourishing and red initials with purple pen-flourishing. Rubrics, paraphs, and roman numerals in red.
The subjects of the drawings are as follows:
f. 1v: Love: a caladrius bird turning away from a sick man's bed.
f. 2v: Love: a husband and wife sitting at a dinner table, pulling a tablecloth between them.
f. 6r: True Absolution: King Solomon worshipping false idols.
f. 6v: True Absolution: Damon and Pythias, before King Dionysius I of Syracuse.
f. 7r: Envy: a kite feeding its chicks (upper).
f. 7v: Envy: a man killing another with an axe (lower).
f. 7v: Joy: a rooster (upper).
f. 7v: Joy: Macarius kissing the tomb of Christ (lower).
f. 8r: Sadness: a raven or crow leaving its chicks in a nest.
f. 9r: Sadness: a king on his deathbed, overcome by melancholy.
f. 9v: Peacefulness: a beaver attempting to escape a hunter.
f. 10r: Peacefulness: Ipolito and Lostigo.
f. 10v: Anger: a bear trying to steal honey from a beehive.
f. 11v: Anger: King David sending a letter commanding that Uriah the Hittite is abandoned by his army in battle (upper).
f. 11v: Mercy: a stork caring for its parents in a nest (lower).
f. 12v: Mercy: Alexander the Great and a thief (upper).
f. 12v: Cruelty: a basilisk (lower).
f. 13r: Cruelty: Medea decapitating one of her own children.
f. 13v: Generosity: an eagle.
f. 15r: Generosity: a hermit kneeling before a king, either Alexander the Great or Antigonus.
f. 15v: Greed: a toad (defaced).
f. 16r: Greed: Gemino giving his accumulated wealth to his three sons.
f. 16v: Correction: a wolf biting its own paw.
f. 17r: Correction: Moses and the drowning of the Egyptian army.
f. 17v: Flattery: a Siren luring sailors to their deaths.
f. 18r: Flattery: the fox and the crow.
f. 18v: Prudence: ants.
f. 19v: Prudence: Emperor Zeno meeting a philosopher in a wood.
f. 20r: Prudence: a barber arriving at the Emperor Zeno's palace.
f. 20v: Madness: a wild ox chasing a hunter dressed in red.
f. 21r: Madness: Alexander the Great and Aristotle meeting a madman in the road (upper).
f. 21r: Justice: bees (lower).
f. 22r: Justice: an angel taking a cup from a house, with a hermit watching.
f. 22v: Justice: the angel setting alight a building attached to an abbey, with the hermit watching (upper).
f. 22v: Justice: the angel killing a child, with the hermit watching (lower).
f. 24r: Injustice: demons roasting a man on a spit.
f. 24v: Injustice: the Devil and personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins (upper).
f. 24v: Loyalty: cranes (lower).
f. 25r: Loyalty: Marcus Regulus and the Roman Senate.
f. 26r: Deceit: a fox tricking birds by playing dead.
f. 27r: Deceit: Lot and his daughters (upper, effaced).
f. 27r: Truthfulness: partridges (lower).
f. 27v: Truthfulness: a monk selling donkeys at a market.
f. 28v: Falsehood: a mole.
f. 29r: Falsehood: Gloria and Amon before the Emperor Anastasius.
f. 29v: Courage: a lion and a hunter.
f. 30r: Courage: Delilah cutting Samson's hair (upper).
f. 30r: Courage: the blind Samson breaking the pillar supporting the temple of the Philistines (lower).
f. 30v: Fear: a hare.
f. 31r: Fear: Dionysius II of Syracuse and the courtier Damocles sitting on a throne, with a sword suspended above his head (upper).
f. 31r: Magnanimity: a gyrfalcon feasting on a large duck (lower).
f. 31v: Magnanimity: Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and his doctor Nicias.
f. 32r: Vainglory: a peacock.
f. 32v: Vainglory: an angel and a hermit encountering a dead horse on the road (upper).
f. 32v: Vainglory: the angel and hermit encountering a woman in a garden (lower).
f. 33r: Constancy: a phoenix.
f. 33v: Constancy: a Greek king convincing his people to observe the law (upper).
f. 33v: Constancy: the king's body burned on a pyre after his death (lower).
f. 34r: Inconstancy: swallows.
f. 34v: Inconstancy: a thief killed while kneeling before the Cross and his soul taken to Heaven by an angel, observed by a hermit (upper).
f. 34v: Inconstancy: the Devil tripping the hermit and carrying his soul to Hell (lower).
f. 35r: Temperance: camels.
f. 36r: Temperance: King Priam and one of his philosophers, Coarda,
f. 36v: Intemperance: a hunter attempting to catch a unicorn asleep in the arms of a lady.
f. 37r: Intemperance: a man observing a woman hanged from a gallows.
f. 37v: Humility: a lamb and a shepherd.
f. 38r: Humility: a victorious Roman general in a chariot drawn by four horses, with a man whispering in his ear.
f. 39r: Pride: a falcon.
f. 39v: Pride: St Michael casting Lucifer out of Heaven (upper).
f. 39v: Abstinence: an ass (lower).
f. 40r: Abstinence: Alexander the Great and his army in the deserts of Babylon.
f. 40v: Gluttony: a vulture feeding on carrion.
f. 41r: Gluttony: Adam and Eve, the Serpent, and the Tree of Good and Evil (upper).
f. 41r: Chastity: turtledoves (lower).
f. 42r: Chastity: St Lucy presenting her eyes to a suitor.
f. 42v: Luxuria: bats.
f. 43v: Luxuria: Emperor Theodosius and his son calling women 'devils'.
f. 44r: Moderation: a helmsman guiding a ship (upper).
f. 44r: Moderation: a stoat or ermine hiding from a hunter (lower).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049279", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3448: Fiore de virtù e de costumi" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049279 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3448 : Fiore de virtù e de costumi - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3449]/040-002049279
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_3448 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Italian
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1425
- End Date:
- 1449
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 250 x 175 mm (text space: 175 x 115 mm).
Foliation: ff. i + 49 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end); f. 49 is a paper leaf.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Library in-house; rebound in 1981. Red half-leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate, gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Italy, N. (Padua)
Provenance:
An unidentified Italian owner: his arms incorporating a brown eagle (partly effaced) (f. 1r).
John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer; sold to Harley on 23 April 1720 (see Diary (1966), I, p. 197 n. 1; 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 A.D. 1720' (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), III (1808), no. 3448.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 10.
Otto Pächt, 'Early Italian Nature Studies and the Early Calendar Landscape', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 13(1950), 13-47 (p. 24 n. 2).
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. 1.
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. 162.
Sabrina Corbellini, Italiaanse deugden en ondeugden: Dirc Potters Blome der doechden en de Italiaanse Fiore di virtù (Amsterdan: Prometheus, 2000), pp. 191, 236 n. 4, 242.
Elizabeth Morrison, Beasts: Factual & Fantastic (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007), p. 16.
Federio Botana, Learning through Images in the Italian Renaissance: Illustrated Manuscripts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 148, 150, 248, 269, 270.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)