A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

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MS. Add. C. 14

Summary Catalogue no.: 24747

Contents

Petrarch, Vite degli Uomini illustri

Italian translation of Donato degli Albanzani da Pratovecchio

Thirty-five Lives, mostly concerned with Roman history

The Life of Caesar is of notable length (fols 100v-202v)

A list of contents is at the end

Language(s): Italian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment, paper
i + 308 leaves
Dimensions (binding): 13.75 × 9.75 in.

Hand(s)

Humanistic script (Pächt and Alexander ii. 285, Pl. XXVI)

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander ii. 285, Pl. XXVI

Fine initial

fol. 1r

  • Type initial R(omolo)
  • Subject Gold 8-line initial with white-stem interlace and floral designs

Fine border

  • Type border, upper, left and lower margins
  • Subject White-stem interlace, floral designs, gold disks, three birds, three butterflies and four putti. In the lower margin two putti support a laurel wreath, encircling a medallion, left blank to be filled with a coat of arms

History

Origin: 15th century, third quarter ; Italy, Florence

Provenance and Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian at Sotheby's on 2 April 1859 from the collection of Guillaume Libri. No. 791 in the sale catalogue

Record Sources

Description adapted (May 2025) by Stewart J. Brookes from the Summary Catalogue (1905). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1970)
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 5, p. 59

Bibliography

    N. Mann, ‘Petrarch Manuscripts in the British Isles’, Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 18 (1975), pp. 139–527, no. 161 (pp. 362-363)
    MSS. Add., handwritten catalogue by F. Madan [Weston Library, shelved at R. 6. 58]

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2025-05-29: Description revised to incorporate all the information in the Summary Catalogue (1905) and other printed sources

Data

The TEI-XML file for this record can be viewed in a GitHub repository.

Tabular data derived from the TEI-XML files is available in a GitHub repository.