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Burney MS 144

Record Id:

040-002237025

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x0000c0

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 144

Title:

Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, and other texts

Scope & Content:

Includes added anonymous wedding speech, 15th century, inc. Nuptias pretores magni et cives peregrigii et vos ceteri dominique qui in hoc cœtu ornatissimo (ff. 1r-2r); Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Oration to the Doge of Venice, added after 1455, inc. Cum ab illustrissimis parentibus meis iussus fuerim serenissime princeps (cf. Kristeller 1989, pp. 587, 601); Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares (ff. 3r-124r); letters excerpted from the preceding, the first is 12.23, inc. Rerum urbanarum acta tibi, the last is 14.4, inc. Ego minus saepe (ff. 124r-126v); added anonymous dialogue between Dorias, Philonus, and Ilarius on the merits of town and country life, 15th century, inc. Dorias Civis Atticus iter faciens (cf. Royal MS 10 B.ix, f. 144v) (f. 126v).

Decoration:

Decorated with a large painted initial containing red and green flames(?) on a blue ground, on an indented square gold field, with foliate extensions (f. 3r); medium initials alternately plain red or blue at the start of books; similar small initials.

Headings in red or pale pink in humanistic script.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-002237025

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 144 : Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, and other texts

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0139]/040-002237025

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1430

End Date:

1470

Date Range:

Mid 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 285 x 210 mm (text space 215 x 140 mm), in 39 lines. Ruled in blind.

Foliation: ff. iii + 129 (ff. i-iii and 127-129 are flyleaves). Burney pagination 1-252.

Collation: i² (ff. 1-2), ii-xiii¹⁰ (ff. 3-122), xiv⁴ (ff. 123-126). Centred catchwords. At least two series of leaf signatures.

Script: Written 'above top line' in semi-humanistic script; spaces left for Greek words; the added texts in cursive humanistic script.

Binding: Post-1600. 18th-century Askew binding of diced polished calf, the covers with a panel framed by the typical 'palmette and fleur-de-li' gilt roll.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, N? or N. E.?

Provenance:

Inscribed in Italian, 16th century(?), ‘Qui male desel(.)r de fransia deus maledict(?..) / ea(..) sup(er) o(mn)ia framssisc(us) xps p(er)fectus Allema[n]ij(?) / facti(?) italiani(?) medy expo[…]li michi’ (f. 1r, and similarly on f. 2v).

Mario Maffei (b. 1463, d. 1537), with the usual inscription ‘De [figli …] Mario […]’ (f. 3r, upper margin, erased; cf. Burney MS 214; cf. Ruysschaert 1958, fig. 3; present manuscript not noticed; also not noticed by Ullman 1955).

Unidentified owner, 18th century: inscribed 'No. 331' (f. 3r, top left corner); cf. Burney MSS 154 and 160, both also ex-Maffei.

Anthony Askew (bap. 1722, d. 1774), physician and book collector: bound for him; his sale, Leigh and Sotheby, 7 March 1785, lot 451; bought by Marsh for £1.3s.

Charles Marsh (b. 1735, d. 1812), F.S.A.: his sale, 1 February 1816, lot 977.

Charles Burney (b. 1757, d. 1817), D.D., classical scholar.

Acquired by the British Museum as part of Burney’s library from his son Charles Parr Burney in 1818.

Administrative Context:

Italy, N? or N. E.?

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=1416&CollID=18&NStart=144].

Publications:

Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part II: The Burney Manuscripts (1840), p. 51.

B. L. Ullman, 'Codices Maffeiani', in Studies in the Italian Renaissance (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1955).

J. Ruysschaert, ‘Recherche des deux bibliothèques romaines Maffei des XVe et XVIe siècles’, La bibliofilia, 60 (1958), fig. 3.

Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum. A finding list of uncatalogued or incompletely catalogued humanistic manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other libraries, 7 vols (London: The Warburg Institute, 1963; repr. 1977-1997) II: Italy (1977), pp. 587, 601; IV (Alia Itinera II): Great Britain to Spain (1989), p. 133.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Askew, Anthony, physician and book collector, 1722-1774,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000061332085,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/60017882
Maffei, Mario, of Volterra; Bishop of Aquino; Bishop of Cavaillon, 1463-1537
Marsh, Charles, FSA, 1735-1812
Sforza, Galeazzo Maria, 5th Duke of Milan, 1444-1476
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600