MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 274
Summary Catalogue no.: 18855
Contents
Followed by capitula for the first book.
Ed. M. D. Reeve, Oxford Classical Texts (2004).
Divided into five books (IV.31-46 treated as book V; on the division see Reeve, ed. cit., p. liii).
M. Reeve, 'The transmission of Vegetius’s Epitoma rei militaris', Aevum 74, 1 (2000),: 243-353 at 297 comments briefly on the textual affiliations of the manuscript.
Fol. i r-v blank; fol. 1r blank; fol. 1v with miniature, see Decoration.
Fols. 116r-117v blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
1 col. of 20 lines; ruled in hard point; written above top line; ruled space 181 × 98 mm. with two columns of c. 8 mm. to each side of the main ruled area.
Hand(s)
Humanistic script by Jacobus Curlus (Jacopo or Giacomo Curlo) (active in Naples from 1445), fol. 115v.
Decoration
Gennaro Toscano has tentatively attributed the miniature to the Maestro di Isabella di Chiaromonte (in La bibliotheca reale di Napoli ... (exh. cat., 1998), p. 374, and in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani: secoli IX-XVI, ed. M. Bollati (Milan, 2004), pp. 691-2).
Miniature, fol. 1v: Alfonso V of Aragon, I of Naples, in armour, on horseback.
Full border of floral designs, fol. 1v; two angels support a shield with the arms of Aragon and Calabria quartered.
Full border of coloured interlace and scrollwork, fol. 2r.
White-vine initials, 4-line for books, 2-line for chapters. 4-line initial P on scrollwork background, fol. 2r.
Binding
For Canonici (?) (see Provenance): green leather over pasteboards; gilt tooling around the edge of each cover, and on the spine; red leather label on the spine 'FL. VEGETII DE RE MILITARI', and below, in gilt on the spine itself, 'COD. M. PRO REG. ARAG'. Endleaves of laid paper, watermarked with bow and arrow (?) and initials A M or M A (cf. https://www.wasserzeichen-online.de/?ref=DE0960-PreissJA1M_23r). Pastedowns of decorated paper in red and yellow with a zigzag design.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Written for Alfonso V of Aragon and I of Naples (r. 1442-1458) (colophon, fol. 115v).
Library of the Kings of Aragon at Naples: perhaps identifiable in 'inventory A' (1481), no. 144, and 'inventory B' ('Index regalium codicum Alfonsi regis ad Laurentium Medicem ex Neapolitana eius bibliotheca transmissus'), Historici 146 (T. de Marinis, La biblioteca napoletana dei re d'Aragona, II, 190, 197).
Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805 (source of acquisition not known; not from Jacopo Soranzo).
Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817
Record Sources
Availability
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Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (5 images from 35mm slides)
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2025-01: Matthew Holford: description revised for publication on Digital Bodleian.