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Burney MS 159

Record Id:

040-002237040

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x0000cf

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 159

Title:

Cicero, Orationes

Scope & Content:

Cicero, Orationes. Includes: Cicero, Pro Lege Manilia (ff. 1r-14r); Pro Plancio (ff. 14r-35r); Pro Milone (ff. 35r-54v); Pro Archia Poeta (ff. 54v-60v); Pro Cluentio (imperfect) (ff. 60v-95v); Pro Quinctio (ff. 95v-111v); Pro Flacco (ff. 111v-129v); Pro Reditum in Senatu (ff. 129v-137r); Pseudo-Cicero, Oratio ad Romanos (ff. 137r-142r); Cicero, Post Reditum ad Quirites (ff. 142v-147r); Pro Marcello (ff. 147v-152v); Pro Ligario (ff. 152v-158v); Pro Deiotaro (ff. 158v-166r); In Pisonem (ff. 166r-186r); De Lege Agraria I (ff. 186r-190v); De Lege Agraria II (ff. 190v-209v); De Lege Agraria III (ff. 209v-211v); Pro Caecina (ff. 212r-229v).

Decoration:

Decorated with a foliate border incorporating a quatrefoil enclosing the Gonzaga arms, in the form used after 1433, as in Burney MSS 153 and 154 (f. 1r, lower margin; reproduced by Meroni, 1966); one 13-line initial, on a blue ground framed in gold, with thin foliate decoration, the tail of the ‘Q’ composed of a dragon (f. 1r); seven-line initials in dull colours to the other orations, each initial in ochre, of openwork form, on a square field, enclosing thin foliate decoration unlike the usual types of white vine-stem ornament; A. C. de la Mare compared the initials to those of Cristoforo Cortese.

Capitals with a spot of red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-002237040

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 159 : Cicero, Orationes

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0154]/040-002237040

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1425

End Date:

1449

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 260 x 145 mm (text space 170 x 75 mm), in 32 lines. Vertical rulings in brown leadpoint, horizontals in pale grey ink.

Foliation: ff. iii + 231(ff. i-iii, 230-231 are paper and parchment flyleaves, f. 230 is an original flyleaf). Former foliation, 18th century(?), in minute arabic numerals.

Collation: i-xxii¹⁰ (ff. 1-220), xxiii^10-1+1 (last leaf missing, probably blank; last leaf inserted; ff. 221-230). Catchwords. Traces of leaf signatures (e.g. f. 96).

Script: Humanistic cursive, written 'below top line'. By a scribe who also wrote Padua, Bibl. Antoniana, MS 86, and San Francisco State University, J. Paul Leonard Library, De Bellis Collection, MS La. 1, according to unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library.

Binding: Post-1600. Typical Askew binding of diced calf, with the usual 'palmette and fleur-de-lys' gilt roll, marbled endpapers and parchment flyleaves; edges gilt; rebacked 1962.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, N.E. (Venice?).

Provenance:

A member of the Gonzaga family, after 1433: with the family's arms (f. 1r; cf. Burney MS 154; see Chambers and Martineau 1981, pp. 110-11, with pl., and Meroni 1966, pp. 37, 52, and pl. 93 (incorrectly described as Burney MS 154)).

Sporadic corrections and annotations, some in pale red ink, by at least three humanistic hands.

Foliated, and with a note of the number of written leaves, ‘scrite 229’ (f. 230r, top right; cf. Burney MS 154, also with the Gonzaga arms).

Owned by Anthony Askew (b. 1722, d. 1772); his sale, Leigh and Sotheby, 7 March 1785, lot 450, bought by Burrell for £2.5s.

Sir William Burrell (b. 1732, d. 1796) 2nd baronet, antiquary: his sale, 2 May 1796, lot 439, sold for £1 8s.

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.E. (Venice?).

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=1446&CollID=18&NStart=159].

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. 52.

Alessandro Palma di Cesnola, Catalogo di manoscritti italiani esistenti nel Museo Britannico di Londra (Turin: Roux, 1890), no. 276.

Mostra dei codici gonzagheschi: La biblioteca dei Gonzaga da Luigi I ad Isabella. Biblioteca comunale 18 Settembre - 10 Ottobre, ed. by Ubaldo Meroni (Mantua: [Cuneo], 1966), pp. 37, 52, and pl. 93 (erroneously described as Burney MS 154).

Splendours of the Gonzaga, ed. by David Chambers and Jane Martineau (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1981), no. 18, pp. 110-111, with pl. [Exhibition catalogue].

Michael D. Reeve, 'The Familia Cusana of Cicero's Speeches', in The Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Proceedings of the first European Science Founndation Workshop of 'The Reception of Classical Texts' (Florence, Certosa del Galluzzo, 26-27 June 1992), ed. by Claudio Leonardi and Birger Munk Olsen, Società internazionale per lo studio del medioevo latino, 15 (Spoleto: Centro Italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 1995), pp. 57-74 (p. 67).

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
Burrell, William, 2nd Baronet, antiquary, 1732-1796
Gonzaga, Family, 1328-1708
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600