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Harley MS 4927
- Record Id:
- 040-002050771
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050771
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0001be
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059466150.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4927
- Title:
-
Cicero, various speeches, De amicitia and Paradoxa Stoicorum; Pseudo-Sallust, Invectiva in Ciceronem
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript preserves several of Marcus Tullius Cicero (b. 106 BC, d. 43 BC)’s orations, his treatises on friendship (De amicitia) and on the paradoxes of the Stoics (Paradoxa stoicorum) as well as a work spuriously attributed to Sallust and known as Sallust's oration against Cicero (Invectiva in Ciceronem). The manuscript has been annotated by the Italian poet Petrarch (b.1304, d. 1374) and represents an important witness to Cicero’s speech Pro Caelio. The volume contained at least one other work, Cicero's treatise On old age (De senectute), but that part is now lacking (f. 120v preserves the rubric 'Incipit liber Tulii de senectute' as well as the catchword 'o tite', the opening words of that work).
Contents:
ff. 1r-18r: Cicero, Orationes in Catilinam, beginning: ‘Quosque tandem abutere Catilina patientia nostra’.
ff. 18r-20v: Cicero, Invectiva in Sallustium, beginning: ‘Ea demum magna voluptas est Crispe Salusti equalem’.
ff. 20v-21r: Pseudo-Sallust, Invectiva Salustii in Ciceronem, beginning: ‘Graviter et iniquo animo maledicta tua paterer Marce Tulii’.
ff. 21r-24v: Cicero, Oratio ad Romanos pridie quam iret in exilium: beginning: ‘Si quando inimicorum impetum propulsare ac propelle’.
ff. 24v-29v: Cicero, Oratio Post reditum ad senatum, beginning: ‘Si patres conscripti pro vestris immortalibus in me fratremque meum’.
ff. 29v-31v: Cicero, Oratio Post reditum ad populum, beginning: ‘Quirites etsi nichil est homini magis’ (lacking the opening section ‘Quod precatus...maxime laetor’).
ff. 31v-50r: Cicero, Oratio De domo, beginning: ‘Cum multa divinitus pontifices a maioribus’.
ff. 50r-55v: Cicero, Paradoxa Stoicorum, beginning: ‘Animadverti Brute sepe Catonem avunculum’.
ff. 55v-58v: Cicero, Oratio In Vatinium, beginning: ‘Si tantum modo Vatini quid indignitas postularet’.
ff. 58v-67r: Cicero, Oratio Pro Caelio, beginning: ‘Si quis iudices forte nunc assit ignarus’.
ff. 67r-74v: Cicero, Oratio Pro Balbo, beginning: ‘Si auctoritates patronorum in iudiciis valent’.
ff. 75r-83v: Cicero, Oratio De haruspicum responso, beginning: ‘Hesterno die patres conscripti cum me et vestra dignitas’.
ff. 83v-89v: Cicero, Oratio De provinciis consularibus, beginning: ‘Si quis vestrum patres conscripti expedat’.
ff. 89v-99v: Cicero, Oratio Pro Sestio, beginning: ‘Si quis antea iudices mirabatur’.
ff. 99v-110v: Cicero, Orationes Caesarianae, beginning: ‘Diuturni silentii patres conscripti quo eram his tempori’.
ff. 110v-120v: Cicero, De amicitia, beginning: ‘Quintus Mucius augur Scevola multa de C Laelio socero suo’.
ff. 120v: Cicero, De senectute, beginning: ‘O Tite’ (lacking the entire body of text).
Decoration:
Numerous large initials sometimes decorated with reserved designs, in blue, green, red or yellow ink (enclosing a human face on f. 29v). Rubrics in red and blue.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050771", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4927: Cicero, various speeches, De amicitia and Paradoxa Stoicorum; Pseudo-Sallust, Invectiva in Ciceronem" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050771 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4927 : Cicero, various speeches, De amicitia and Paradoxa Stoicorum; Pseudo-Sallust, Invectiva in Ciceronem - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4927]/040-002050771
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100059466150.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1199
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 320 x 240 mm (written space: 245 x 170 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 120 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + at the end); 3 stubs between f. 16 and f. 17; f. 32 and f. 33; f. 48 and f. 49; f. 96 and f. 97; 5 stubs between f. 80 and f. 81; f. 112 and f. 113.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France.
Provenance:
Francesco Petrarca (b. 1304, d. 1374), Italian poet and humanist: annotated the manuscript (see Petrucci, La scrittura di Francesco Petrarca (1967), p.119).
? Pierre Amielh de Brenac (b. 1309, d. 1389), archbishop of Vienne and Naples: see Texts and Transmission, ed. by Reynolds (1983), p. 93, no. 218; Schmidt, Die Überlieferung (1974), pp. 432-33; de Pommerol and Monfrin, La bibliothèque pontificale (1991), II, p. 676, no. Pc 350.
? Galeotto Tarlati da Pietramala (b. 1356, d. 1398), cardinal: see Texts and Transmission, ed. by Reynolds (1983), p. 93, no. 218; Schmidt, Die Überlieferung (1974), pp. 432-33; de Pommerol and Monfrin, La bibliothèque pontificale (1991), II, p. 676, no. Pc 350.
? Niccolò Brancaccio (b. c. 1335, d. 1412), Bishop of Bari and Cosenza: see Texts and Transmission, ed. by Reynolds (1983), p. 93, no. 218; Schmidt, Die Überlieferung (1974), pp. 432-33; de Pommerol and Monfrin, La bibliothèque pontificale (1991), II, p. 676, no. Pc 350.
? Peñíscola papal library: may be identified with a manuscript recorded in 1411 (or shortly thereafter): see Texts and Transmission, ed. by Reynolds (1983), p. 93, no. 218; Schmidt, Die Überlieferung (1974), pp. 432-33; de Pommerol and Monfrin, La bibliothèque pontificale (1991), II, p. 676, no. Pc 350.
? Johannes Munionis: see Texts and Transmission, ed. by Reynolds (1983), p. 93, no. 218; Schmidt, Die Überlieferung (1974), pp. 432-33; de Pommerol and Monfrin, La bibliothèque pontificale (1991), II, p. 676, no. Pc 350.
The Jesuit College in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne, France), maintained by the Jesuits from 1591 to 1762: its 17th-century ownership inscription 'Collegii Aginen. Soc. Jesu. Cat. Ins.' (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:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), pp. 221-22, no. 4927.
Aemilius Baehrens, ‘Ad Ciceronis Caelianam’, Revue de Philologie, 8 (1884), pp. 33-54.
Maurice Faucon, La librairie des papes: Sa formation, sa composition, ses catalogues (1316-1420), 2 vols (Paris: Thorin, 1886-87), II, p. 132 no. 829.
Elisabeth Pellegrin, Giuseppe Billanovich, 'Un manuscrit de Cicéron annoté par Pétrarque au British Museum', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits, 8 (1954), 115-17.
Armando Petrucci, La scrittura di Francesco Petrarca (Rome: Città del Vaticano, 1967), p. 119.
Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 47, 274.
Peter L. Schmidt, Die Überlieferung von Ciceros Schrift 'De legibus' in Mittelalter und Renaissance (Munich: Fink, 1974), pp. 432-33.
Cyril E. 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 Cecil H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (pp. 468, 478).
Birger Munk Olsen, L’Étude des auteurs classiques latins aux XIe et XIIe siècles, 3 vols (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1982-1989), I (1982), pp. 215-16, no. C. 251; II (1985), p. 330, no. C60.
Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by Leighton D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 59-60, 64, 66-67, 93-94, 105, 124.
Oratio pro P. Sestio, ed. by Tadeusz Maslowski (Leipzig: Teubner, 1986), p. xv.
Marie-Henriette Jullien de Pommerol and Jacques Monfrin, La bibliothèque pontificale à Avignon et à Peñiscola pendant le grand schisme d’Occident et sa dispersion, 2 vols (Rome: École française de Rome, 1991), II, p. 676, (no. Pc 350).
Ezio Ornato, 'Les humanistes français et la rédécouverte des classiques' in Préludes à la Renaissance: aspects de la vie intellectuelle en France au XVe siècle, ed. by Carla Bozzolo and Ezio Ornato, (Paris: CNRS, 1992), pp. 1-45 (pp. 25-30).
Maurizio Fiorilla, Marginalia figurati nei codici di Petrarca, Biblioteca di Lettere Italiane: Studi e Testi, 65 (Florence: Olschki, 2005), pp. 22, 28-31, pl. 17-21.
Karlyn Griffith, The Codicological Histories of Two Metz Compilations (MSS Douce 308 and Harley 4972 and the implications of Owner Manipulations' Pecia, 17 (2016), 93-127.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.