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Burney MS 235

Record Id:

040-002237116

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x00011b

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 235

Title:

Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae,

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains the works on Latin grammar by Priscian (fl. 500), in two parts sometimes called the Priscianus Major (Greater Priscian) and the Priscianus Minor (Lesser Priscian). The latter part is also sometimes, as in this copy, referred to as De constructione (On Construction). The Priscianus Major contains books 1-16 of the Institutiones grammaticae (Institutes of Grammar), while the Priscianus Minor contains books 17-18 of the Institutiones grammaticae as well as the three books to Symmachus. In this manuscript, the main part of the Institutiones grammaticae was written by Johannes de Drizona in 1434, according to the colophon, while the Priscianus Minor was added slightly later in a humanistic hand.

Content:

ff. 2r-3r: Table of capitula.

ff. 4r-158v: Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae (books 1-16). The opening lines have been rubbed off. Book 6 begins: ‘Quattuordecim sunt littere’ (f. 57r).

ff. 159r-204r: Priscian, so-called Priscianus minor, beginning: ‘Cuoniam [sic] in ante expositis libris de partibus’.

[ff. 3v, 3*r-v, 3**r-v, and f. 204v are blank].

Decoration:

1 large historiated initial in red on a dark ink ground, with partial border, in colours (f. 4): a layman (probably Priscian) in profile holding a book and teaching or orating.

Large and small initials alternately in red or blue, with red penwork decoration throughout. Large and small plain red initials, and red paraphs, as far as f. 190v. The outlines of some initials (ff. 4r, 4v, 150v) have been pricked.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-002237116

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 235 : Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae,

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0230]/040-002237116

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

A parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Greek, Ancient
Latin

Scripts:

Greek
Latin

Start Date:

1434

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

1434-1499

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 260 x 170 mm (written area 170 x 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. vii + 211 + 3*, 3** (ff. i-iii, 209-211 are modern paper flyleaves; ff. iv-vii, 1, 205-208 are paper flyleaves of the 18th century); an 18th-century index to the books of the Institutiones grammaticae (titled ‘Index Prisciani’) has been pasted onto f. 211r.

Collation: i⁴(ff. 2-3**), ii-xv¹⁰ (ff. 4-143), xvi-xvii⁸ (ff. 144-159), xviii-xix¹² (ff. 160-183), xx-xxi⁸ (ff. 184-199), xxii^8-3 (6th and 8th leaves missing; ff. 200-205).

Script: Gothic (ff. 1-190); Humanistic (ff. 191-204). The scribe of ff. 4r-158v identifies himself as Johannes de Drizona.

Binding: Post-1600. Gold- and blind-tooled brown Burney binding of diced polished calf, with gold-tooled mark, ‘CODEX BURNEIANUS’, on upper and lower cover; spine rebacked at the British Museum.

Custodial History:

Origin: Northern Italy, (?Drizzona)

Provenance: Possibly Drizzona, in the province of Cremona: the earliest part (ff. 1-158v) was written in 1434 by Johannes de Drizona, according to his colophon (f. 158v): ‘Explicit Priscianus maior scriptus et finitus per Johannem de Drizona die viiii^o [septembris erased] Octobris m cccc^o xxxiiii’.

Andreas Sanudo (c. 1500?), of the Republic of Venice: two inscriptions contemporaneous with the two original parts of the manuscript have been altered to read ‘Iste liber est domini Andreae Sanuto quondam magnifici Mathei de bonis sui Marzupii’, with ‘Andreae Sanuto’, ‘Mathei’ and ‘sui Marzupii’ added over erasures in a late 15th or early 16th century hand (ff. 3r, 204r). This most likely refers to a member of the crusader and patrician Sanudo family who established and ruled the Venetian Duchy of the Archipelago.

Unknown owner, perhaps 17th century: inscription ‘C[asen?]sis venetiar(um)’, later crossed out (f. 4r).

Maffeo Pinelli (b. 1736, d. 1785), Venetian book collector: inscriptions '7945' (f. 2), and '7946', (f. 3**v), corresponding to the inventory number of his library (see Jacopo Morelli, Bibliotheca Maphaei Pinellii Veneti, 6 vols (Venice: Typis Palesii, 1787), III: no. 7945.

James Edwards (b. 1756, d. 1816), book collector and bookseller: bought at the sale of Pinelli’s library in London, 2 March 1789, as lot 12851, bought for £1 2s (see Bibliotheca Pinelliana: A Catalogue of the Magnificent and Celebrated Library of Maffei Pinelli, Late of Venice… The Whole Library ... Will Be Sold By Auction, on Monday, March 2, 1789 (London: Mess. Robson, Clarke, and Edwards, 1789), p. 537.

Rev. John Haddon Hindley (b. 1765, d. 1827), orientalist: his sale, on 4 March 1793, lot 1191, bought by Egerton for 19s.

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 Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm .

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. 62.

Margaret Gibson, 'Priscian, ''Institutiones grammaticae'': A Handlist of Manuscripts', Scriptorium, 26 (1972), 105-24 (p. 114).

Marina Passalacqua, I codici di Prisciano, Sussidi eruditi, 29 (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1978), no. 315.

G. L. Bursill-Hall, A Census of Medieval Latin Grammatical Manuscripts, Grammatica Speculativa: Sprachtheorie und Logik des Mittelalters, 4, (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1981), no. 86 (p. 114).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Burney, Charles, classical scholar, 1757-1817
Edwards, James, bookseller of London, 1756-1816
Hindley, John Hadden, orientalist, 1765-1827
Pinelli, Maffeo, of Venice, book-collector, 1736-1785
Priscian, fl 500-530,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000399133112,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/76294069
Sanudo, Andreas, of the Republic of Venice, c 1500

Places:

Cremona, Lombardy, Italy

Related Material:

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. 62: ‘Membranaceus, in folio minori, ff. 2 et 201, sec XV ineuntis, diversis manibus exaratus; olim Andreae Sanuto. Prisciani Caesariensis Commentariorum Grammaticorum libri duodeviginti; notis in principio instructi. Tit. “Prisciani Cesariensis, viri disertissimi gramatici apocrisarii et doctoris urbis Romane Constantinopolitane, de arte gramatica liber primus incipit.” In fine, “Iste liber est Domini Andreae Sanuto, condam magnifici Mathei de bonis sui marzupii.”’