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Burney MS 160

Record Id:

040-002237041

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x0000d0

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 160

Title:

Cicero, De Oratore

Scope & Content:

Cicero, De Oratore (ff. 1r-166v).

Decoration:

Decorated with six- and seven-line vine-stem initials pen-drawn in plain ink (ff. 50r, 122r); the first page with the arms of Maffei of Volterra within a wreath, added in the lower margin, as in Burney MS 161, and a foliate initial contemporary with the arms enclosing foliate ornament in dull shades of blue and green on a dull red ground, the whole on a tarnished silver? square field (f. 1r).

Heading to Book 1 in bright red, spaces left for headings to Books 2 and 3.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-002237041

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 160 : Cicero, De Oratore

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0155]/040-002237041

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1421

End Date:

1421

Date Range:

c 1425, after 1421

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 310 x 210 mm (text space 215 x 115 mm), in 27 lines. Ruled in blind.

Foliation: ff. iii + 171 (ff. i-iii and 169-171 are paper and parchment flyleaves; ff. 167-168 are an original flyleaf and pastedown). Burney pagination 1-332.

Collation: i-xvi¹⁰ (ff. 1-160), xvii⁸ (ff. 161-168).

Script: Humanistic, written 'above top line', in an early Poggio-type script; probably by Bartolomeo di Piero Nerucci of San Gimignano (see de la Mare, 1977), as a copy of the text discovered by Gherardo Landriani in 1421, and therefore no earlier than that date.

Binding: Post-1600. Typical Askew binding of diced polished brown leather, with the usual ‘palmette and fleur-de-lis’ gilt roll, marbled endpapers, and flyleaves; edges gilt; fore-edge inscribed 'Marci. Tul. Cice' in capitals; rebacked.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, Central? (Florence?)

Provenance:

Owned by Mario Maffei (b. 1463, d. 1537), with his arms (f. 1r); inscribed ‘Marius Maffeus Volaterranus [sic]’ in capitals, and ‘Vir Preclarissimus doctissimusque’ (added?) below (f.167v); with the usual erased ‘De figli …’ inscription (f. 1r, top margin; cf. Burney MS 214; see Ruysschaert 1958, p. 322 no. 21, and Ullman 1955, p. 373 no. 4);

On f. 168r a cryptogram in five lines, each of up to eight elegant capitals, followed by an elegiac couplet written in the style of Bartolomeo Sanvito: ‘Fortuna inuisa est. Spes est frustata Inuentam / Mors cuncta eripuit Dira Qui es hominu(m) / Bnf. Bona / 1512. 2 Junij Hora / Noctis Una et semis’.

Inscribed ‘No. 316’ (f. 1r, top left corner; cf. Burney MSS 144, 154, both Maffei MSS).

Anthony Askew (bap. 1722, d. 1774), physician and book collector: bound for him; his sale, Leigh and Sotheby, 7 March 1785, lot 452, bought by Marsh for £2 15s.

Charles Marsh (b. 1735, d. 1812), F.S.A.: his sale, Christie's, 1 February 1816, lot 978.

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, Central? (Florence?)

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=1377&CollID=18&NStart=160].

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. 53.

B. L. Ullman, 'Codices Maffeiani', in Studies in the Italian Renaissance (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1955), pp. 373-82 (p. 373 no. 4).

José Ruysschaert, 'Recherche des deux bibliothèques romaines Maffei des XVe et XVIe siècles', La Bibliofilia, 60 (1958), 306-33 (p. 322 no. 21).

A. C. de la Mare, 'Humanistic Script: The First Ten Years', in Das Verhältnis der Humanisten zum Buch, ed. by Fritz Krafft and Dieter Wuttke, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Kommission für Humanismusforschung, 4 (Boppard: Boldt, 1977), pp. 89-108 (pp. 98-99 n. 35).

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
Nerucci, Bartolomeo, of San Gimignano; scribe, Mid 15th century
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600