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Burney MS 161

Record Id:

040-002237042

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x0000d1

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 161

Title:

Cicero, De Inventione; Rhetorica ad Herennium

Scope & Content:

Cicero, De Inventione (ff. 3r-53v); Rhetorica ad Herennium (ff. 53v-98r). Preceded by a letter signed ‘J Davies’, and dated ‘Q[ueen’s]. C[ollege]. C[ambridge]. March 11th / 1722’ thanking Dr [Richard] Mead for the loan of a manuscript of De Natura Deorum and De Divinatione (f. 1r).

Decoration:

Decorated with seven- to ten-line strapwork and zoomorphic initials on a ground of red, blue, or yellow (ff. 3r, 5r, 27r, 29r, 53v, 59v, 70v, 79r, 83v, 91r); two-line initials in red; from f. 54v initials are often written horizontally, between the lines of writing; the lower margin of the first page with an added, 15th century, wreath surrounded by foliate ornament and enclosing a scalloped escutcheon bearing the Maffei of Volterra arms: azure, the forequarters of a stag or (f. 3r).

Headings and marginal headings in red stroked with yellow wash; capitals and paraphs stroked with yellow wash, and sometimes red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-002237042

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 161 : Cicero, De Inventione; Rhetorica ad Herennium

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0156]/040-002237042

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1175

End Date:

1199

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 12th 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 80 mm), in 37 lines. Ruled in blind.

Foliation: ff. i + 101 + 2* (ff. i, 2, 2*, 99-101 are flyleaves; f. 1 is an inserted letter). Burney pagination 1-191.

A rectangle approximately 35 x 55 mm has been cut from the lower outer corner of f. 100.

Collation: i-xii⁸ (ff. 3-98). Catchwords.

Script: Protogothic, written ‘above top line’.

Binding: Post-1600. Typical Askew binding of diced brown leather, with the usual 'palmette and fleur-de-lis' gilt roll and stamps, marbled endpapers, and parchment flyleaves (cf. Burney MSS 144, 154, etc.).

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy.

Provenance:

Erased ownership(?) inscription (f. 98r).

Annotated by at least three early hands, at least one of them humanistic.

Mario Maffei (b. 1463, d. 1537), with his arms (f. 3r), and the usual erased inscription ‘De figli …’ (f. 1r, top margin, cf. Burney MS 214; see Ullman 1955, pp. 373-4 no. 5, and Ruysschaert 1958, pp. 322-3 no. 22).

Anthony Askew (b. 1722, d. 1772); his sale, Leigh and Sotheby, 7 March 1785, lot 440, bought by Lewes for £1 11s. 6d.

Sold with other Askew-Lewes MSS by Leigh and Sotheby, 12 Feb. 1787, lot 1499; bought by d'Éon for £1 12s.

Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée, Chevalier D'Éon de Beaumont in the French nobility (b. 1728, d. 1810), diplomatist and transvestite: inscribed ‘De la Bibliotheque de la Chevalière D'Éon.’ (f. 2r) and ‘£25 st:’ in red (f. 2v); d'Éon sale, part 4, 5 May 1791, lot 16 and d'Éon sale, 12 Feb. 1813, lot 10.

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.

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=1576&CollID=18&NStart=161].

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 (pp. 373-74 no. 5).

José Ruysschaert, 'Recherche des deux bibliothèques romaines Maffei des XVe et XVIe siècles', La Bibliofilia, 60 (1958), 306-33 (pp. 322-23 no. 22).

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
Beaumont, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée, Chevalier, diplomat and spy, 1728-1810
Maffei, Mario, of Volterra; Bishop of Aquino; Bishop of Cavaillon, 1463-1537
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600