Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Burney MS 201

Record Id:

040-003696025

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100108162342.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 201

Title:

Livy, Ab urbe condita.

Scope & Content:

Two copies of Livy's History of Rome bound together in the 18th century. Part 1 (ff. 1r-108v) contains Books 1-10 copied by a late-14th-century hand, Part 2 (ff. 109r-417r) contains Book 1-10 and 21-30 in a 15th-century copy made around 1464.

Contents:

ff. 1r-4v: Donato degli Albanzani, Tabula capitulorum for the First Decade.

ff. 5r-108v: Livy, Ab urbe condita, Books 1-10, imperfect due to the loss of leaves. Starting at 1.3 (at ‘creverant maxime’); lacking 1.7-30 (from ‘postquam facinus’ to ‘mons et quo’); lacking 1.33-2.25 (from ‘omnem Romam’ to ‘causa parumper’); lacking 2.32-40 (from ‘magna penu’ in the rubric to chapter 33, to ‘[mu]liebri edificatumque est’); lacking 2.47-55 (from ‘castra ad omnes’ to ‘[dilect]tus edicitur paventibus’); lacking 5.2-10 (from ‘invisere et u[supare]’ to ‘militum fuit delectum’); and lacking 10.20-end (from ‘iussit agmen [catchword:] quoque’).

ff. 109r-258r: Another copy of Books 1-10.

ff. 259r-265v: Tabula capitulorum for the Third Decade.

ff. 266r-417r: Books 21-30.

Decoration:

In Part 1 (ff. 1r-108v) 1 large foliate initial, in colours and gold, with a partial border incorporating heraldry (f. 1r). 8 large foliate initials in colours and gold with partial borders at the beginning of books (ff. 13r, 30r, 41v, 56r, 67v, 79r, 90r, 103v). Small initials alternately blue with red pen-flourishing, or red with purple pen-flourishing. Paraphs alternately red or blue. In Part 2 (ff. 109-417r) 1 large inhabited initial, in colours and gold, with a full border incorporating heraldry (f. 266r). 8 large initials in colours on a gold ground with foliate marginal extensions (ff. 298v, 313r, 327r, 341r, 357v, 375r, 392v, 404r). Spaces for decoration in the First Decade remain blank.Attributed to Leonardo Bellini (fl. Venice, c. 1443–90), (see Watson 1979 no. 502).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-003696025

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 201 : Livy, Ab urbe condita.

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0404]/040-003696025

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

One volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1375

End Date:

1464

Date Range:

1375-1464

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 365 x 255 mm (text space in first part (ff. 1-108): 2 columns of 52 lines (265 x 165) mm, in second part (ff. 109-417): 1 column of 42 lines (270 x 160) mm).

Foliation: ff. ii + 420 (ff. i-ii, 418-420 are flyleaves). Burney pagination 1-833.

Collation: 1⁴ (ff. 1-4), 2^10-6? (structure uncertain; ff. 5-10), 3-5¹⁰ (ff. 11-40), 6⁸ (misbound: the outermost bifolium should be the innermost bifolium; ff. 41-48), 7-12¹⁰ (ff. 49-108); 13-27¹⁰ (ff. 109-258), 28⁶⁺¹ (last leaf inserted; ff. 259-265), 29-42¹⁰ (ff. 266-405), 43¹² (ff. 406-417).

Script: Gothic (ff. 1r-108v); Humanistic cursive, with vertical catchwords (ff. 109r-417r).

Binding: Post-1600. Red morocco (Netherlands, probably the Hague) with a fine gilt panel, and a gilt framing roll with 13 different figures: a lion, a man with a viol, a stag(?), a man playing an organ, a man harping, etc.; marbled endpapers; gilt edges; rebacked.

Custodial History:

Part 1:

Unidentified owner: with the effaced arms of an early owner, including an eagle displayed (sable?) in chief (f. 1r). The first and last leaves are worn and dirty, suggesting that the imperfect text was without a binding for a significant period of time.

Unidentified readers, 15th century: with marginal annotations in Latin and Greek in several Gothic and humanistic hands.

Part 2:

Written in 1464 for a member of the Ciera family of Venice, with a scribal colophon: ‘Finis. Die 24 mensis decembris 1464’ (f. 417r), and arms: party per fess, argent and azure, a lion rampant countercharged, f. 266r; cf. Eugenio Morando di Custoza, Libro d'arme di Venezia (Verona: [Rilegata da Galvagni], 1979), no. 836). Worm-holes in the first few leaves show that Part 2 existed separately from Part 1 for a considerable period of time. If the text was completed in late December 1464, the illumination perhaps dates from 1465.

? Giovanni Battista Stefano, first half of the 16th century : inscribed 'Jo: Bap: Stephanus', in elegant humanistic cursive script (f. 258v).

Unidentified owner, 17th century?, with a motto(?) written as a series of monograms: 'Mores nostri ita …' (f. 258v).

Parts 1 and 2:

Henricus Hadrianus vander Marck, by 1727; perhaps bound for him: his sale, The Hague, 14 July 1727, manuscripts in folio, lot 17.

Unidentified owner, 18th century: inscribed in pencil, 'claraque cognomina familiæ …' (f. 418), possibly Askew's hand.

Anthony Askew (b. 1722, d. 1774), physician and book collector: his sale, 7 March 1785, lot 479, bought by Marsh for £4 4s.

Charles Marsh (b. 1735, d. 1812), F.S.A.: his sale, 1 Feb. 1816, lot 976.

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: https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=1427&CollID=18&NStart=201

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. 57.G. Billanovich, 'Petrarch and the Textual Tradition of Livy', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 14 (1951), 137-208 (p. 174 n. 3).Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 502.Albert Derolez, Codicologie des manuscrits en écriture humanistiques sur parchemin, 2 vols, Bibliologia 5 and 6 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1984), no. 365.Michael D. Reeve, 'The Place of P in the Stemma of Livy 1-10', in Medieval Manuscripts of the Latin Classics: Production and Use, ed. by Claudine A. Chavannes-Mazel and Margaret M. Smith (Leiden: Anderrson-Lovelace and the Red Gull Press, 1996) pp. 75-90 (p. 89).

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
Bellini, Leonardo, of Venice; illuminator, fl 1443-1490
Livius Patavinus, Titus, 59 BC-17,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000122834055,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/99942145
Marck, Henricus Hadrianus, fl 1727
Marsh, Charles, FSA, 1735-1812