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Burney MS 227

Record Id:

040-002237108

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x000113

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 227

Title:

Plautus, Comedies; with prologues and arguments

Scope & Content:

Plautus, Comedies; with prologues, arguments and a short life.

Contents:

f. 2r: Publius Nigidius, as quoted in Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 15.14, followed by the epitaph from Plautus’s tombstone, as quoted in Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 1.24.

ff. 3r-20v: Plautus, Amphitruo, preceded (f. 2v) by two arguments.

ff. 21v-36r: Plautus, Asinaria, preceded (f. 21) by a prologue and an acrostic argument.

ff. 37r-50r: Plautus, Aulularia, preceded (f. 36v) by a prologue and an acrostic argument.

ff. 52r-66v: Plautus, Captivi, preceded (ff. 51-52) by an acrostic argument and a prologue.

ff. 67r-79r: Plautus, Circulio, preceded (f. 67), by an acrostic argument.

ff. 80v-91v: Plautus, Casina, preceded (ff. 79-80v) by a prologue and an acrostic argument.

ff. 92r-99r: Cistellaria, preceded by an acrostic argument.

ff. 99r-108v: Epidicus, preceded by an acrostic argument and Plautus’s epitaph (cf. f. 2).

Decoration:

Decorated with a historiated initial depicting a half-length bearded figure wearing a wreath about his head, accompanied by a partial border and a bas-de-page scene of a man, woman, and child, to each side of a roundel with the arms azure, an eight-pointed star or (f. 2r); large humanistic initials incorporating dragons, human hybrid figures, foliage etc. (ff. 21v, 30v, 37r, 67r, 80v); gold initials on grounds of pink, purple, green, and blue; ff. 99v-108v undecorated, with spaces for initials.

Headings in pale red.

Decorations attributed to Christoforo Cortese (fl. Venice, c. 1399–before 1445) in unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-002237108

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 227 : Plautus, Comedies; with prologues and arguments

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0222]/040-002237108

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

One volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1435

End Date:

1445

Date Range:

c 1440

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 290 x 205 mm (text space 185 x 115 mm), in 32 lines. Ruled in ink, with leadpoint vertical bounding lines.

Foliation: ff. iii + 111 + 1*, 50* (ff. i-iii, 109-111 are flyleaves). 18th-century ink foliation 1-108, and former 19th-century foliation in pencil 1-107.

Collation: i^10-1+1 (1st leaf, probably blank, missing and replaced; ff. 1*-10), ii-v¹⁰ (ff. 11-50), vi^10-1+1 (1st leaf missing and replaced, blank; ff. 50*-59), vii-x¹⁰ (ff. 60-99), xi^10-1 (last leaf missing, probably blank; ff. 100-108). Catchwords. Leaf signatures.

Script: Humanistic cursive, written mostly 'below top line'; changes to 'above top line' from f. 100v. Written by two scribes, the second of whom (ff. 87v-100r) also wrote the second part of Bodleian, MS. Canon. Misc. 554 (cf. Pächt and Alexander, Illuminated manuscripts (1970), II, no. 598), (partly written at Padua in 1435), according to unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library.

Binding: Post-1600. Burney binding of diced polished calf; the fore-edge inscribed 'PLAV [gap for strap] TVS'; rebacked 1962.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, N. E. (Padua or Venice).

Provenance:

? A member of the Stella family of Verona: the family's arms: azure, an eight-pointed star or (f. 3r).

Pietro Podalyrius Antici, 18th century: inscribed 'Ex. Lib. Petri Podalyrii Antici', (f. 2r, lower margin), presumably a member of the Antici family of Recanati.

Unidentified Italian owner, 18th century: with a long note describing the volume and attributing the arms to the Vulpinna family of Piceno near Recanati (Marche), and tracing its descent to Petrus Podalyrius; but it has not been possible to verify this: '… et in primo folio stemmata familiae Vulpinnae nobilis in Piceno apud Recinatenses, quod iam defectura est in Iacobo, atque heredem habitura Petrum Podalirium Anticium virum nobilem Fanensem ...' (f. 1r).

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.

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=1465&CollID=18&NStart=227].

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. 61.

Alessandro Palma di Cesnola, Catalogo di manoscritti italiani esistenti nel Museo Britannico di Londra (Turin: Roux, 1890), no. 288.

Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966-73), II: Italian School (1970), no. 598.

G. M. Fachechi, 'Plauto illustrato fra Medioevo e Umanesimo', Rendiconti dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, s. 9, 13 (2002), 177-242 (pp. 187-88).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Cortese, Cristoforo, illuminator; from Venice, c 1390-c 1445
Plautus, Titus Maccius, Roman playwright, c 254-184 BC
Podalyrius Antici, Pietro, presumably of the Antici family of Recanati, 18th century
Stella, Family
Vulpinna, Family