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Burney MS 148

Record Id:

040-002237029

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x0000c4

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 148

Title:

Cicero, De Natura Deorum, De Legibus; followed by anonymous verses and extracts from Virgil, Valerius Maximus, and Lucan

Scope & Content:

Cicero, De Natura Deorum (ff. 3r-57r) (cf. Baglio et al. 1997, pp. 187-189 and Tav. 1); De Legibus (ff. 58r-84r) (cf. Schmidt 1974, p. 41 and Taf. 1); followed by anonymous verses, Istum librum non comodabis, si comodabis non habebis, si habebis non tam cito, si tam cito non tam bonum, si tam bonum perdes amicum (for a very similar one, cf. Colophons, 1982, p. 361, no. 22 131), Virgil, Aeneid, 1.198-201 (O socii ... saxa), Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, 1.1.3 (Lento enim ... compensat), and Lucan, De Bello Civili, 4.373-374 (O prodiga ... paratu), Anonymous, inc. O dives dives non omni tempore vives, ending with Aeneid, 4.174 (Fama malum quod non velocius ullum [sic]) (f. 85r).

Published opinions on the manuscript's date range from the early to the late 13th century, but Prof. A. C. de la Mare (unpublished notes at the Bodleian Library, Oxford) and Michael Gullick date it to the 12th century.

The text of two North Italian manuscripts, 14th century, appear to derive from the present manuscript: Wolfenbüttel, Gud. lat. 2, and Troyes, MS 552.

Decoration:

Decorated with three-line red initials, usually with blue ornament, often with a yellowish wash (ff. 3r, 20r, 44r, 58r, 60r, 66v, 77v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-002237029

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 148 : Cicero, De Natura Deorum, De Legibus; followed by anonymous verses and extracts from Virgil, Valerius Maximus, and Lucan

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0143]/040-002237029

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1200

End Date:

1249

Date Range:

1st half of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 185 x 125 mm (text space 135 x 90 mm), usually in 31 lines. Ruled in leadpoint.

Foliation: ff. ii + 89 + 1*, 57*, 84* (ff. i-ii, 88-89 are flyleaves). Burney pagination 1-163.

Collation: three parchment flyleaves (ff. 1, 1*, 2; f. 2 was formerly a pastedown, facing f. 1), followed by i-x⁸ (ff. 3-81), xi^8-1 (last leaf missing, probably blank; ff. 82-87).

Script: Written ‘above top line’ in gothic script, each text probably written by a different scribe.

Binding: Post-1600. 18th-century French? binding of bright red straight-grained morocco, the covers and turn-ins with an outer foliate gilt roll, the spine with foliate designs incorporating central quatrefoil inlays of black leather, the edges of the leaves gilt; patterns of rust-stains in the first and last leaves indicate the nails used to secure the bands of a previous binding.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, S. or France?

Provenance:

The script and decoration are French in style, but the text is most closely related to an earlier manuscript written at Montecassino, so the present manuscript may therefore have been written in Norman-ruled Southern Italy.

Unidentified Italian owner, 14th century: inscribed with a list of contents, cancelleresca script, 14th- or 15th century (f. 2v).

Unidentified Italian owner, 15th century: annotated in purple ink in a very neat humanistic hand (e.g., ff. 27r-29v).

Unidentified Italian ecclesiastic, 15th century: with a sketched heraldic shield surmounted by cardinal's(?) hat (f. 3r).

? shelfmark, 16th century or 17th century: inscribed 'No. 473' (f. 1r).

Unidentified French owner, 18th century: inscribed 'Ciceron de natura deorum &c(?)' (f. 1r).

Price-code in ink ‘fmmo’ (f. 86r, top right corner). Perhaps Christie’s, Catalogue of … M.S.S. … lately collected by a gentleman from the Continent, 20 May 1815, lot 46, bought by Burney for £3.15s.

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, S. or France?

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=1431&CollID=18&NStart=148].

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.

M. Tulli Ciceronis de natura deorum, ed. by Arthur Stanley Pease, 2 vols (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955), I, 68 (this manuscript as 'G').

Peter Lebrecht Schmidt, Die Überlieferung von Ciceros Schrift 'De legibus' in Mittelalter und Renaissance, Studia et Testimonia Antiqua, 10 (Munich: Fink, 1974), p. 41 and passim, this manuscript as 'L' , pl. 1, reproduces f. 58r.

Bénédictins du Bouveret, Colophons de manuscrits occidentaux des origines au XVIe siècle, 6 vols (Fribourg: Éditions universitaires, 1965-1982), VI, p. 361, no. 22 131.

R. H. Rouse, 'Cicero: Philosophical Works', in Texts and Transmission : A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by L. D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon, 1983), pp. 124-28 (p. 127) (this manuscript as 'L').

Marco Baglio, Mirella Ferrari, and Marco Petoletti, 'Montecassino e gli umanisti', in Libro, scrittura, documento della civilità monastica e conventuale nel basso medioevo (secoli XIII-XV): Atti del Convegno di studio, Fermo (17-19 settembre 1997), ed. by G. Avarucci, R. M. Borraccini Verducci, and G. Borri (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 1997), pp. 183-239 and pls 1-2 (pp. 187-189 and pl. 1, reproduces f. 3r).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Annaeus Lucanus, Marcus, Roman poet, 39-65
Maximus, Valerius, fl 14-37
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600
Vergilius Maro, Publius, 70 BC-19 BC,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000430695667