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Harley MS 7507
- Record Id:
- 040-002053362
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002053362
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000984.0x00015d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 7507
- Title:
-
Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (Bk. III), in an anonymous English translation
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains an anonymous English translation of the third book of Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on the First Ten of Titus Livy) by the Italian writer and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli (b. 1469, d. 1527). The work is a commentary on the first ten books of Ab urbe condita libri (Books from the Founding of the City), a history of Rome by Titus Livius (b. 64/59 BC, d. 12/17).
Other manuscript translations of the Discorsi housed at the British Library include Add MSS 4212 and 41162.
Contents:
ff. 1r-20v: Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Bk. III, Chapters 1-25, in an anonymous English translation.
Decoration:
Larger initials (some with pen-flourishing) at the beginning of each chapter.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002053362", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 7507: Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (Bk. III), in an anonymous English translation" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002053362 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 7507 : Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (Bk. III), in an anonymous English translation - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[7518]/040-002053362
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1500
- End Date:
- 1599
- Date Range:
- 16th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Paper.
Condition: Some water damage to the initial folios.
Dimensions: 355 x 235 mm (written space: 300 x 190 mm).
Foliation: ff. 20 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + numerous unfoliated blank paper leaves after f. 20 + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end).
f. 20v contains a fragment of a red wax seal in the lower margin.
Script: 16th-century secretary hand.
Binding: Post-1600. Upper and lower covers faced with marbled paper.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
John Anstis the Elder (b. 1669, d. 1744), herald and antiquary, gifted the manuscript to the Harley Library in 1719 together with others from his collection (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 50-51): inscribed in the hand of Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), 'Mr Anstis, A.D. 1719 (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. - Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 7507.
Gian Napoleone Giordano Orsini, Studii sul rinascimento italiano in Inghilterra con alcuni testi inglesi inediti (Florence: G. C. Sansoni, 1937), pp 33-34.
Émile S. Gasquet, 'Machiavelli’s "Discourses": A Forgotten English Translation', Notes & Queries, 5 (1958), 144-45.
Clifford Chalmers Huffman, Coriolanus in Context (Lewisburg: Bycknell University Press, 1972), p. 112.
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. 50-51.
Émile S. Gasquet, Le Courant machiavélien dans la pensée et la littérature anglaises du XVIe siècle (Paris: Didier, 1974), p. 429.
Silvia Fiore, Niccolò Machiavelli: An Annotated Bibliography of Modern Criticism and Scholarship (London: Greenwood Press, 1990), p. 139.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Anstis, John, the elder, herald and antiquary, 1669-1774
Machiavelli, Niccolò, Italian writer and political theorist, 1469-1527 - Places:
- England