Manuscript on paper of Cicero, Paradoxa, Pseudo-Cicero, Synonyma, and other texts
Description:
In Latin., Script: the original parts are copied by two scribes: A copied art. 1 in Gothica Semihybrida Libraria/Currens; B, writing a bold Gothica Cursiva Formata with “northern” features and marked by lengthened and decorated ascenders on the top line, copied artt. 4, 6 and 7. The additional texts, copied on blank spaces or pages, are in badly shaped Humanistica Cursiva (art. 2), slovenly executed Gothica Semihybrida Currens (art. 3), Humanistica Cursiva (art. 5, [1] and [2]) and Gothico-Humanistica Cursiva (art. 5, [3] and [4])., There are remnants of an early foliation in arabic numerals (17th century?) in the upper outer corner of the recto pages, starting f. 16 ("1")., In the original parts all initials are missing; at the opening of art. 6 the upper half of f. 17r is blank (in view of a picture which was not executed?) and a later hand has entered a large and coarse initial “C” (8 lines) containing a human face; in that art. there are guide letters for the small initials which were intended to open each entry; a few of these initials were added afterwards. The initial planned at the opening of art. 7 is 6 lines high. The opening lines of art. 1 are in a large fanciful display script overdecorated with flourishes and almost illegible. There is some pale red stroking of the majuscules on ff. 68v, 69r and 70v., The manuscript contains: 1) Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Paradoxa. 2) Prophecy in 11 verses added by a slightly later hand on the blank lower half of the page. The text is corrupt. 3) Two rhetorical exercises by an unrecorded author addressed to an emperor, who is praised with all possible exaggeration. 4) Astronomical or computistical table, recording for each month 3 up to 7 days, of which two are superscribed with a cross and an hour, the remaining ones only with the letter "p". The crosses are crutched crosses up to September inclusive, afterwards simple crosses. 5) Notes added by slightly later hands on a blank page; notes on ancient Roman abbreviations; various Latin names applied to the Greeks. 6) Ps.-Cicero, Synonyma, printed from 1487 onward, with 17th century Italian annotations, in the same hand as in art. 1, found in the margins of ff. 23v-25r. 7) Ps.-Sallustius, Invectiva in Marcum Tullium Ciceronem., and Binding: 20th century. Yellow parchment over light cardboard, with turned edges.
Manuscript on parchment (hairside yellow and speckled) of Cicero, Epistolae ad familiares. With Extract from Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae III.8.8: Epistula Fabricii et Aemilii consulum ad Pyrrhum regem. The text was copied ca. 1400 and the border decoration added between ca. 1415 and 1431
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in a neat fere-humanistic hand by a single scribe, below top line., 14 elegant illuminated initials and partial borders at the beginning of each of the 16 books (the opening pages of Books XII and XV have been excised). Initials, 5- to 3-line, blue with white filigree or red with gold filigree on cusped grounds of gold. Most of the illuminated initials filled with bust-length portraits, presumably of Cicero's correspondents, on red, blue or diapered ground. Some initials filled with vine scrolls with trilobe leaves in red with white highlights against gold ground. Partial borders, scrolling vine with trilobe leaves or acanthus in blue, pink, red and gold with white highlights and green, red and blue with gold highlights. Small figures of angels, dressed in green with gold wings in borders or margins, some playing musical instruments, one holding an open book, one holding the cloth of Veronica. Other marginal figures include the "Agnus Dei" and a pelican piercing its breast. The figures are all characterized by white faces, small angled black eyes, and a preference for green and gold, the green with contour lines in gold. Plain initials alternate red and blue. Rubrics throughout., and Binding: Nineteenth century, France (?). Red velvet case with a dark green gold-tooled label: "M. T. Ciceronis Epistolae Ad Familiares MS. in Membranis". Gilt edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin letters, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript fragment on parchment of Cicero's Epistolae ad familiares. Used as cover on a copy of Nicolas Remy, Daemonolatreiae libri tres (Frankfurt: In officina Palthenii, 1596).
Description:
In Latin., Layout: Single column of 26 lines., and Decoration: Rubrication.
