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

MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 5

Summary Catalogue no.: 18586

Contents

Language(s): Latin and Italian

Ovid, Heroides (fragmentary) (with Italian notes)

Surviving text: ii. 139-iii. 114; v. 28-91; iv. 148-v. 27; v. 92-xii. 193; xiii. 41-xx. 30; xx. 225-xxi. 12 (end).

Final rubric: Explicit liber Ovidii Epistolarum, cujus carmina 3408

Ep. xv is lacking, as is xvi.39-142.

(fol. 42v)
Epitaphium Hectoris
(fol. 42v)
Epitaphium Achillis

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper
iv + 42 + ii leaves
Dimensions (binding): 277 × 204 × 20 mm.
Dimensions (leaf): 268 × 200 mm.
Foliation: Contemporary foliation on recto folios in red ink, with modern foliation in pencil.

Layout

190–193 × 106–109 mm.

Hand(s)

Two hands.

Decoration

Frequent flourished initials in red and black ink of three lines in height.

Cadels in brown ink of three lines in height on fols. 19r and 43v.

Rubrication commonly used to mark the beginning or end of a poem.

Lesser initials commonly stroked in red, particularly on fols. 5v–6r and 8v–9r.

Sketches, doodles, pen trials, and later flourishings found on fols. 1r, 4v, 13v, 17v, 23v, 32r–33r, and 37v–38r.

Marginal manicula in ink on fols. 4v, 7r, 9v, 10v, 17r, 19r, 26v, 30v, and 34v.

Empty space at three lines in height left for initial on fol. 13v.

History

Origin: 15th century

Provenance and Acquisition

'Liber hic Jachobi Efarientis dicitur esse, Cujus si patriam cupias cognoscere, dicam ; Dectonectani castro libeat mihi dici, Tuque mihi tribuas librum tu, si invenies tu, Dictum namque duos frater tribuam tibi parvos, Nec dabo Emenidi castaneas ficus tibi causam, Ut pedibusque gulam frangat tibi mulam.'

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Record Sources

Description adapted from the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ pars tertia codices Græcos et Latinos Canonicianos complectens, Quarto Catalogues III, 1854).

2025-05-16: Additional data collected by Ella Osbourne and Kris Darby as part of the 'Big Data' and Medieval Manuscripts workshop held at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford on 29th May 2025. Data encoded in TEI-XML by Sebastian Dows-Miller on 4th June 2025.

Last Substantive Revision

2025-05-16: Additional data collected by Ella Osbourne and Kris Darby as part of the 'Big Data' and Medieval Manuscripts workshop held at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford on 29th May 2025. Data encoded in TEI-XML by Sebastian Dows-Miller on 4th June 2025.