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Burney MS 248

Record Id:

040-002237129

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x000128

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 248

Title:

L. Annaeus Seneca, De beneficiis, De clementia; Pseudo-Seneca, Epistolae Senecae ad Paulum et Pauli ad Senecam

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-106v: L. Annaeus Seneca (b. 4 BC, d. 65 AD), De beneficiis (On Benefits).

ff. 107r-126v: L. Annaeus Seneca, De clementia (On Clemency).

ff. 127r-130v: Pseudo-Seneca, Epistolae Senecae ad Paulum et Pauli ad Senecam (Seneca’s Letters to St Paul and St Paul’s Letters to Seneca), preceded by St Jerome’s prologue, which begins: ‘Lucius Annius Seneca Cordubensis Fotini Stoyci discipulus’.

Decoration:

9 large white vine initials (between 7 and 8 lines in height), in colours and gold on a blue ground, at the beginning of each book (ff. 1r, 10r, 24v, 40v, 58v, 73v, 92r, 107r, 123r). The first large initial has a matching three-sided border, incorporating hares and putti supporting a wreath with heraldic arms surmounted by a red ecclesiastic’s hat. Small initials in plain blue at the beginning of each letter on ff. 127v-130v.

Possibly illuminated by the so-called 'Fiesole' illuminator employed by the Florentian librarian Vespasiano da Bisticci (b. 1421, d. 1498), according to unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library.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
040-002237129

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 248 : L. Annaeus Seneca, De beneficiis, De clementia; Pseudo-Seneca, Epistolae Senecae ad Paulum et Pauli ad Senecam

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0243]/040-002237129

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

A parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 255 x 175 mm (text space 155 x 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. v + 135; ff. i-iii and 133-135 are modern paper flyleaves; ff. iv-v and 131-132 are parchment flyleaves; ff. 131-132 were formerly bound, inverted, as the two leaves directly preceding the beginning of the text (see pattern of worm holes, matching that of f. 1); Burney index paste on f. 135v; Burney pagination in black ink throughout.

Collation: i-iii¹⁰ (ff. 1-30), iv⁸ (ff. 31-38), v-vii¹⁰ (ff. 39-68), viii⁸ (ff. 69-76), ix-xi¹⁰ (ff. 77-106), xii-xiii¹⁰ (ff. 107-126), xiv⁴ (ff. 127-130).

Script: Humanistic. Written by the same scribe who signed as ‘Franciscus presbiter Florentinus oriundus’ in Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 166, f. 114r in 1457, and who also wrote Burney MS 138 (see de la Mare, ‘New Research’ (1985), p. 494).

Binding: Post-1600. Burney binding of brown gold-tooled and blind-tooled polished calf; top and bottom edges gauffered and gilt; faint fore-edge title; spine re-backed at the British Museum in 1962.

Custodial History:

Origin: Florence, Central Italy.

Provenance:

Pietro Riario (b. 1445, d. 1474), Italian cardinal and archbishop of Florence: the heraldic arms (f. 1r; see also Burney MS 198, ff. 4r, 106r, 197r) match his arms as a cardinal (1471-1474), though the red ecclesiastical hat on the top may be an addition to the original arms.

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. 64.

L.D. Reynolds, 'The Younger Seneca,' in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by L.D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), 357-80 (p. 365, n. 12).

A. C. de la Mare, 'New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence', in Miniatura fiorentina del rinascimento, 1440-1525: un primo censimento, ed. by A. Garzelli and A. C. de la Mare, Inventari e cataloghi toscani, 18-19, 2 vols (Florence: Giunta regionale toscana, 1985), I: 393-600 (p. 494).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Annaeus Seneca, Lucius, also known as Seneca the Younger, 4 BC-65,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121030100,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/90637919
Burney, Charles, classical scholar, 1757-1817
Jerome, Saint, c 345-420,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000123213293,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/95147024
Pseudo-Seneca,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000446442218,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/39386650
Riario, Pietro, Cardinal, Archbishop of Florence, 1445-1474,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000061346460,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/6012043

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. 64:

‘Codex membranaceus, in folio, pp. 258, sec. XV. Ineuntis, elegans; quondam familiae de Riariis.

1. Lucii Annaei Senecae de beneficiis libri septem ad Æbucium Liberalem. p. 1.

2. Ejusdem de clementia libri duo ad Neronem. p. 213.

3. Hieronymi testimonium de Epistolis S. Pauli et Senecae amœbaeis. p. 253.

4. L. Annaei Senecae, ut fertur, Epistolae ad S. Paulum, et Pauli ad Senecam, numero quatordecim. p. 253. Impress. in Fabricii Cod. Apocryph. Novi Test. edit. Hamb. 1719, tom. ii. P. 892.’