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Harley MS 4796
- Record Id:
- 040-002050639
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050639
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x00013a
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165169374.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4796
- Title:
-
Cicero, Selected Works, in a Castilian translation by Alonso de Cartagena
- Scope & Content:
-
A selection of Cicero's philosophical and rhetorical works in a Castilian translation by the bishop, diplomat and historian Alonso de Cartagena (b. 1384, d. 1456).
Contents:
f. 1r-v: Numerous pen trials and inscriptions in different hands, including 'hic Liber est / Maiocenchari', probably added in the 16th century.
ff. 2r-6v: Preface of Alonso de Cartagena, addressed to Johan. Alfon. de Zamora cavall(er)o del ... Rey (John II of Castile), beginning, 'Muy bien por cierto se ovo con nos la naturante natura...'.
ff. 7r-94r: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis, written in Castilian with extensive glosses and notes in both Latin and Castilian by various hands; f. 17r includes replacement text in a Gothic script.
ff. 96r-99r: Preface of the translator.
ff. 99r-118r: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Senectute, written in Castilian.
ff. 120r-126v: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Marcello, written in Castilian.
ff. 126v-127r: Numerous late medieval and early modern marginal annotations, in Spanish and Latin, and added texts and poems.
ff. 94v-95v, 118v-119v, and 127v are blank.
Decoration:
7 historiated initials and partial bar borders with foliate extensions, in colours and gold, at major textual divisions (ff. 2r, 7r, 44r, 66r, 96r, 99r, 120r). Large initials in blue with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing, or in red with purple penwork decoration and pen-flourishing. Large initials alternately in blue or red, with pen-flourishing in red or purple, in one case red with blue (f. 16v). Paraphs in red. Many Nota Bene hands in brown ink in the margins.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050639", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4796: Cicero, Selected Works, in a Castilian translation by Alonso de Cartagena" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050639 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4796 : Cicero, Selected Works, in a Castilian translation by Alonso de Cartagena - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4795]/040-002050639
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165169374.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Spanish
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1449
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 280 x 200 mm (text space 185 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 127 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Red leather, tooled in gold, with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Northern Spain.
Provenance:
Numerous late medieval and early modern marginal annotations, in Castilian and Latin, and added texts and poems (ff. 126v-127r).
Inscription, probably from the 16th century: 'hic Liber est / Maiocenchari' (f.1r).
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=8166&CollID=8&NStart=4796.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 4796.
Pascual de Gayangos, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Spanish Language in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1875-1893), I, 10.
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. 180.
Alonso de Cartagena, Libros de Tulio: De senetute, De los ofiçios, ed. by María Morrás (Madrid: Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, 1996), pp. 106-08 ('MS H').
Charles B. Faulhaber and others, Bibliografía Española de Textos Antiguos [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/PhiloBiblon/phhmbe.html], no. 2656, accessed 08.09.2021.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)