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Harley MS 4144

Record Id:

040-002049981

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049981

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0002a2

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4144

Title:

Lorenzo Valla, Select works

Scope & Content:

A copy of Lorenzo Valla's (1407-1457) three orations possibly from 15th-century Naples, written by Giovanmarco Cinico.

Contents:

ff. 1r-38r: Lorenzo Valla, Apology to Pope Eugen IV, begins 'Aequius erat summe pontifex....'.

f. 38v: blank.

ff. 39r-57r: Lorenzo Valla, Aliud Siculum aliud Neapolitanum esse regnum, begins 'Non sum nescius summe rex...', ends “…hac una demum nota.”

ff. 57r-83v: Lorenzo Valla, Treatise on the Two Tarquinii, begins 'Cum Titum Livium quotidie, Romanorum historicum eloquentissumm, aut audias aut legas...'; ends '...Neapoli pridie nonarum decembrium MCCCCXLIIII.'

ff. 84r-103v: Lorenzo Valla, Epistle to Giovanni Serra, begins 'Scribis ad me incidere te sepenumero in homines...'.

Decoration:

Full white vine border in colours and gold inhabited by putti, birds, and flowers, with a large white vine initial in colours and gold, and a coat of arms in the lower margin (f. 1r). 3 large white vine initials in colours and gold (ff. 39r, 57r, 84r). Display script in alternating lines of purple, red, and sometimes yellow (ff. 1r, 39r, 57r, 84r). Text written in purple.

The white vine border is in the style of Cola Rapicano (who was active in Naples in the second half of the 15th century), and the text was possibly written by the Neapolitan scribe, Giovanmarco Cinico, according to unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049981", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4144: Lorenzo Valla, Select works" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049981

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4144 : Lorenzo Valla, Select works

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4137]/040-002049981

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:

1465

End Date:

1475

Date Range:

c. 1470

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 185 x 120 mm (text space 120 x 60 mm).

Foliation: ff. 103 (+ 2 unfoliated paper alyleaves at the beginning and at the end 6 unfoliated ruled parchment leaves after f. 103 followed by 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves).

Script: Humanistic, possibly written by the Giovanmarco Cinico. Vertical catchwords.

Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers; gilt and gauffered edges inscribed on foredge.

Custodial History:

Origin: Southern Italy, Naples.

Provenance:

A member of the Petrucci family: its arms (f. 1r).

The Servite convent of Santissima Annunziata, Florence: its bookstamps (ff. 1v, 2r).

Charles Spencer (b. 1674, d. 1722), 3rd earl of Sunderland from 1702, bibliophile, developed the library at Althorp, one of Edward Harley's keenest rivals in the acquisition of early printed books and manuscripts: inscribed 'SUND' in Humfrey Wanley's hand (librarian to Robert and, later, Edward Harley), indicating perhaps acquisition from Sunderland's library (inside upper cover, top left).

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.

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=4534&CollID=8&NStart=4144

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III (1808) , no. 4144.

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. 154, 310.

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. 477).

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. 179

Francesco Lo Monaco, Laurentius Valla Ad Alfonsum regem epistola de duobus Tarquiniis. Confutationes in Benedictum Morandum (Firenze, Polistampa 2009), pp. 135-36.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Spencer, Charles, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, 1674-1722
Valla, Lorenzo, Italian humanist, c 1407-1457