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Harley MS 3481

Record Id:

040-002049312

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049312

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0003cd

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3481

Title:

Plato, Select works in the Latin translation by Marsilio Ficino

Scope & Content:

A deluxe copy of Marsilio Ficino's Latin translation of Plato's select dialogues< copied for Ferdinand I of Aragon, king of Naples.

Contents:

f. 1: A parchment flyleaf.

f. 2r: Naldus, Naldius (b. 1439, d. 1513), Epigram on Plato, begins 'Cum Deus aethereis hunc mittere vellet...'.

ff. 2v-3v: (title in medallion): 'Prohemium Marsilii Ficini Florentini in libros Platonis ad Laurentium Medicem ... quos ... Ferdinandi Aragonii mandato Petrus Hippol(ytus) Lun(ensis) exemplaris depravationes castigans magna omnes diligentia transcripsit.'

ff. 4v-8v: Marsilio Ficino, Vita Platonis, begins 'Plato Atheniensis Aristonis et Perictiones sive Potonae filius a Neptuno genus utrinque ducit...'.

f. 9r: Tabula librorum Platonis.

f. 9v: 'Ad lectorem'.

f. 10: Plato, Dialogues, including: Hipparchus, De philosophia, Theages, Menon, Alcibiades I and II, Minos, Euthyphron, Parmenides, Philebus, Hippias major, Lysis, Theaetetus, Ion, Sophista, Civilis, Protagoras, Eythydemus, Hippias minor, Charmides, Laches, Clitophon, Cratylus, Gorgias, Convivium, Phaedrus, all translated by Marsilio Ficino, and each preceded by Ficino's argumentum, except for the Convivium which is preceded by Ficino's Commentarium in Convivium Platonis de amore (f. 269r). The manuscript was probably copied from the first or second printed edition by the scribe Petrus Hippolytus Lunensis.

Decoration:

Roundel with inscription in gold and colours naming the author and translator of the text, and the scribe and patron of the manuscript (f. 2v). Full foliate border in colours and gold with 4 portraits of philosophers in roundels, putti, and coat of arms; large historiated initial with a portrait of Plato (f. 3r). 10 large initials with bar extensions in gold on panels ornamented with white vine and colours; some inhabited by putti, animals, insects and birds (ff. 10r, 12v, 15r, 18v, 27v, 36v, 41r, 44r, 269r, 303r). Numerous small initials in gold on panels ornamented with white vine and colours. Numerous smaller initials in the same style. Other small initials in gold on blue and red panels. Capitals in red identify the speakers in the dialogues (e.g. Socrates and Alcibiades). Rubrics, headings, and marginal notes in red and blue. Decorated by Matteo Felice (documented in Naples from 1467 to 1493).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049312", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3481: Plato, Select works in the Latin translation by Marsilio Ficino" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049312

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3481 : Plato, Select works in the Latin translation by Marsilio Ficino

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3482]/040-002049312

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:

1491

End Date:

1493

Date Range:

between 1491-1493

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 420 x 275 mm (285 x 165 mm).

Foliation: ff. 335 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and at the end + unfoliated paper leaves after ff. 3, 4, 9, and 10 + 3 unfoliated parchment leaves). f. 1 is a parchment flyleaf.

Script: Humanistic, copied by Petrus Hippolytus Lunensis.

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

Custodial History:

Origin:

Naples, Italy.

Provenance:

Ferdinand I of Aragon, king of Naples (b. 1423, d. 1494): inscribed, 'Fernandi Aragonii mandato Petrus Hippolytus Lunensis...transcripsit' (f. 2v); his arms (f. 3r).

The manuscript was probably copied from the first or second printed edition by the scribe Petrus Hippolytus Lunensis[DK1] . Decorated by Matteo Felice (documented in Naples from 1467 to 1493).

Rome S. Andrea [? della Valle, Rome, the mother church of the Theatines, founded in 1524?]: late-16th century book stamp (almost entirely erased): 'BIBLIOTECAE S. ANDREAE ROMAE' (f. 2)r.

John Wright, librarian to George Henry Hay, 7th Earl of Kinnoull and husband of Abigail, youngest daughter of Robert Harley: sold by him to Harley on 24 June 1723 (see Wright, Diary (1966)).

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 ‘24 die Junij, A.D. 1723’ (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://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=7202&CollID=8&NStart=3481.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3481.

W. R. Tymms and M. D. Wyatt, The Art of Illuminating as Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times (London: Day and Sons, 1860; repr. Studio Editions, 1987), pl. XV.18.

Giuseppe Mazzatinti, La biblioteca dei Re d'Aragona in Napoli (Rocca S. Casciano: Licinio Cappelli, 1897), no. 563.

Tammaro De Marinis, La biblioteca napoletana dei re d’Aragona 4 vols. (Milan, 1947-1952) II, pp. 128, 303.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 150, 289, 363.

Antonella Putaturo Murano, Miniature Napoletane del Rinascimento (Naples: Libreria Scientifica Editrice, 1973), p. 39.

Paul Oskar Kristeller, 'Marsilio Ficino and His Work after Five Hundred Years', in Marsilio Ficino e il ritorno di Platone, 2 vols (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1986), pp.106, 433.

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. 172.

Sebastiano Gentile, Marsilio Ficino: Lettere: Epistolarum familiarium liber I, (Florence: Olschki, 1990), p. cxxxvii.Maude Vanhaelen, 'Marsilio Ficino's Translation of Plato's Euthyphro', Scriptorium, (2002), p. 35, n. 33.

Cyril Ernest 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. 472).

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. 758.

Mechthild Haffner, 'Ein antiker Sternbilderzklus und seine Tradierung in Handschriften vom Frühen Mittelalter bis zim Humanismus, Untersichung en zu den Illustrationen der 'Aratea' des Germanicus', Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, 114 (1997), p. 175.

P. Megna, Lo lone platonico nella Firenze medicea (Messina, 1999), pp. 83-84, 147-48, 156-57, 165.

Platone, Liside, ed. by F. Trabattoni and S. Martinelli Tempesta, 2 vols (Milan: LED, 2003), 1, p. 88.The Cambridge Illuminations. Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London-Turnhout: Harvey Miller, 2005), p. 344 [exhibition catalogue].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Ficino, Marsilio, humanist and philosopher, 1433-1499
Naldis, Naldus, Humanist poet and scribe, 1436-1513
Plato, 427 BC-347 BC
Trastamara, Ferdinand I, King of Naples, 1423-1494
Wright, John, librarian to George Henry Hay, 8th Earl of Kinnoull, 18th century