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Burney MS 244

Record Id:

040-002237125

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x000124

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 244

Title:

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Institutio Oratoria

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1v-214r: Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (b. c. 35, d. c. 100), Institutio Oratoria (Institutes of Oratory), beginning with the Letter to Tryphonus and a list of incipits to Book 1. The explicit occurs on f. 212v, followed by an erroneously omitted passage of Book 1.1-2 on the inserted ff. 213-214. In the margin of f. 5r is a signe de renvoi (also found at the start of the text on f. 213r) and a marginal note referring to the omitted text at the end: ‘require in fine huius libri et id quod deficit, invenies sub signo prescripto’.

[ff. 1r, 214v, 215r-v are blank].

Decoration:

One large historiated initial depicting a man seated at a writing desk (Quintilian?), with a three-sided white vine border incorporating putti supporting heraldic arms, all with gold and colours (f. 2r). 11 large white vine initials in gold on blue ground at the beginning of the subsequent books (ff. 21v, 39r, 57r, 72v, 94r, 109r, 124r, 140v, 162r, 177r, 196r). Small initials in plain blue throughout.

The white vine borders and initials were possibly made by Gioacchino de Gigantibus (fl. c. 1448-1485), a German miniaturist active mainly in Rome, Siena, and Naples (according to unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library).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
040-002237125

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 244 : Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Institutio Oratoria

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0239]/040-002237125

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

A parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Greek
Latin

Scripts:

Greek
Latin

Start Date:

1435

End Date:

1455

Date Range:

c 1440-c 1450

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 330 x 235 mm (text space 220 x 135 mm).

Foliation: ff. iii + 218 + 149*; ff. i, 218 are modern paper flyleaves; ff. ii-iii, 216-217 are modern parchment flyleaves; Burney index on f. 218r; Burney pagination in black ink.

Collation: i¹⁴⁺¹ (first leaf added; ff. 1-15), ii-iii¹⁰ (ff. 16-35), iv⁶ (ff. 36-41), v-xx¹⁰ (ff. 42-200), xxi⁸(ff. 201-208), xxii⁴ (ff. 209-212), xxiii^three (precise structure uncertain; ff. 213-215).

Script: Semi-humanistic; ff. 1v and 213r-214r are in Humanistic.

Binding: Post-1600. Askew binding of brown diced calf, with a 'palmette and fleur-de-lys' gold-tooling motif; marbled endpapers; spine re-backed at British Museum.

Custodial History:

Origin: Florence, Central Italy.

Provenance:

Unidentified owner, 15th century: their arms azure, a lion rampant vert tongued gules, holding a branch vert (f. 2r); identified in the Catalogue of Manuscripts (see 'Related material'), probably incorrectly, as of the Scaglione family.

‘Jacobo de ayello’, 17th century?: inscribed name in bottom margin (f. 213v); perhaps related to the Jacubus de Aiello, O.M., to whom a letter is addressed in Holkham Hall MS 483 (see Kristeller, Iter Italicum, IV (Alia Itinera II): Great Britain to Spain, p. 45).

Anthony Askew (bap. 1722, d. 1772), physician and book collector: his sale, 7 March 1785, lot 517, bought by ‘Catomy’ for £2 15s.

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. 63.

Michael Winterbottom, ‘Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts of Quintilian’, The Classical Quarterly, 17 (1967), 339-69 (p. 355).

Jean Cousin, Recherches sur Quintilien: manuscrits et éditions (Paris: Société d'Édition les belles lettres, 1975), p. 77.

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
Burney, Charles, classical scholar, 1757-1817
Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius, Roman educator and rhetorician, c 35-100,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121271967

Places:

Florence, 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. 63:

‘Membranaceus, in folio, pp. 427, sec. XV., elegans ; olim familiae de Scaglione.

M. Fabii Quintiliani de Oratoria Institutione libri duodecim, cum Epistola ad Tryphonem.’