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St John's College MS. 12

Francesco Patrizi of Siena, De regno ac regis institutione

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Fols. 11–260
Rubric: Ad Inclitum ac Celeberrimum Calabrie ducem Alphonsum Aragonum Serenissimi Regis Ferdinandi Primogenitum FRANCISCI PATRICIJ SENTUSIS [sic for SENENSIS] Pontificis Caietanj Prefatio in Libros de Regno ac Regis Institutione Lege feliciter
Incipit: Maximum onus ex hoc Iudice suscepisse videor Alphonse […] [fol. 14, the text, following a repetition of the initial rubric] Nouum et animaduertione fortasse dignum plerisque videri poterit vt quj paulo ante
Explicit: secundum virtutem sunt et perpetuam posteritatis laudem meruerunt xxx
Francesco Patrizi of Siena, De regno ac regis institutione

For Patrizi (1413–92), bishop of Gaeta and translator of Greek Aristotle commentaries, see the most recent study, Anna Laura Puliafito, ‘Il “Liber de principiis” di Francesco Patrizi’, Rinascimento 2 ser. 27 (1987) 141–75. Ed. Paris, 1567. Preceded by a table of contents for the nine books in chapter order (fols. 1–10) and a poem ‘Ad lectorem Qui precepta Legis Regum Ducumque Libellis […] ’ (fol. 10v, on a part sheet pasted to the leaf).

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: De studio ac (table)
Secundo Folio: dominatu (text, fol. 12)
Form: codex
Support: Paper, folded in folio; all quires are normal sequences of (usually five) bifolia. The paper is propably from a single stock, with a small mark of the type Main/Hand, with a prominent cuff. This resembles a group of marks presented as Piccard XVII nos. 189–370, widespread in the period 1485 x 1525 (in some cases, later).
Extent: Fols. vi + 260 + iv (numbered fols. vii–x). There is also an original foliation in arabic, in which fols. 11–260 are 3–252.
Dimensions (leaf): 375 × 260 mm.
Dimensions (written): 270 × 160 mm.

Collation

1–1310 148 15–2510 2612. Regular catchwords in the gutter, no signatures.

Layout

In long lines, 37 lines to the page. No prickings; bounded and ruled in red ink.

Hand(s)

Written in French cursiva; a more formal variety, including some humanistica, is used for headings and decorative opening lines. Punctuation by infrequent medial point only.

Decoration

All headings and the regular running titles identifying the constituent books are in text ink.

At the head of the text proper (fol. 11), a 7-line silver-blue capital on a red-dotted gold ground with flowers and a half border, mostly gold and blue with leafy sprays and flowers; a similar initial appears at the head of book 1 proper (fol. 14).

At the foot of the first page is a blazon in a green leafy wreath with golden leaves at the quarter points (see Provenance below).

Book divisions have 5-line painted capitals with highlights (within books at chapter heads 4-line), either silvery blue or blue on brownish-red with gold tracery or gold on the blue with white tracery. Some are not entirely finished.

See AT no. 793 (78).

Binding

Brown leather over millboards, with a plain gold-stamped rectangle with fleurs-de-lis in the corners; in the centre a plaque amid leaves and vine, with the inscription ‘P. de Regno’ (‘? Chichester’, says the library’s notes to Coxe). Sewn on six thongs. Gold ‘12’ at head of spine, ‘Patricius de Regno M. S. 12’ in black ink on the leading edges. Pastedowns and flyleaves are paper of the same stock and ruled as for the text leaves; inside the front cover a College bookplate. At the front, six paper flyleaves, a quire; at the rear, four more, also a quire (vii–x).

History

Origin: s. xvi in ; France

Provenance and Acquisition

A blazon, azure bordered or, three rampant stags or (fol. 11).

‘Liber Collegii Sancti Iohannis Baptistae Oxon’ ex dono Henrici Price sacrae Theologiae Bacchalaurej ejusdem Collegii Socij’ (fol. 2, s. xvii).

Record Sources

Ralph Hanna, A descriptive catalogue of the western medieval manuscripts of St. John's College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.

Bibliography

Funding of Cataloguing

Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Thompson Family Charitable Trust

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2021-08: First online publication

See the Availability section of this record for information on viewing the item in a reading room.