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

OR BROWSE BY

MANUSCRIPTS
WORKS
PEOPLE
PLACES

MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 257

Summary Catalogue no.: 18838

Contents

1.
Cicero, Somnium Scipionis (with glosses)
Language(s): Latin
2.
Macrobius, Commentary on Cicero, Somnium Scipionis (with glosses)
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 36+1 fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 345 × 242 mm.

Layout

2 cols., 50-4 lines, 237-255 × 163-175 mm.

Decoration

Fine miniatures.

  • Type miniature
  • Subject Three scenes. Scipio, with a sword and long cloak, and King Masinissa, in a crown, long robe and cloak, stand next to one another conversing. King Masinissa looks up at a semicircular diagram, showing the heavenly spheres. Scipio and King Masinissa seated on a long decorated seat, conversing.

fol. 1v

  • Type miniature
  • Subject Scipio asleep in bed, his sword placed by his side, supports with one hand a circle of spheres. In the centre of the circle are Rome and Carthage, surrounded by the Milky Way. Against it are three sets of figures, showing Scipio embracing his father; speaking to his grandfather, Scipio Africanus; and conversing with both of them together.

fol. 3r

  • Type miniature
  • Subject Macrobius writing at desk, next to an open cupboard with books, lying flat on shelves. On the desk is a circular stand with two open books.

Good borders.

Good diagrams.

Good historiated initials.

fol. 1r

  • Type initial M
  • Subject Macrobius, holding open book.
  • Type initial C
  • Subject Head-and-shoulders portrait of a young man.
Rewritten inscription as written 'in alma urbe in 1383', fol. 36v. (Pächt and Alexander ii. 128, pl. XII)

History

Origin: 1383 ; Italian, Bologna

Provenance and Acquisition

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Record Sources

Summary description abbreviated from the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ pars tertia codices Græcos et Latinos Canonicianos complectens, Quarto Catalogues III, 1854). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1970). Extent, dimensions and layout from Watson (1984).
Quarto Catalogue, vol. 3, col. 216
Quarto Catalogue, vol. 3, col. 217
Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 323

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (6 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 194

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-05: Add extent, leaf dimensions and layout from Watson, Dated and Datable.