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

MS. Canon. Ital. 223

Summary Catalogue no.: 20275

Contents

Giovanni de Lusa, Fiore dell'Arte Rettorica
(fols. 1r-9v)

Capitula to the four books.

(fols. 10r-57r)

Book 1

Incipit: Perche tute cosse che dal summo e eterno dio prociedeno
Explicit: a la diuina gratia e gran bonta dequel summo e eterno dio el qual vive e regna in secula seculorum
Incipit: Rethorica he scientia de venusta locuzione
Explicit: e dire le suo opinione
Final rubric: Completo el primo libro del arte de rethorica. Seguita el segondo delambasiate arrenge sermoni daltro oppinione.
(fols. 57v-102v)

Book 2

Incipit: El comanda la diuina e humana scriptura
Explicit: a questo libro segondo
Final rubric: Complito he el libro secondo el qual tracta delle ambasiate sermoni erenge ...
(fols. 103r-115r)

Book 3

Incipit: Nel principio meço e fine de questo nostro terço libriçolo
Explicit: e retenerla priegadio chetel concieda
Final rubric: Complito el terço libro del dire e taçere cum tempo ...
(fols. 115v-165v)

Book 4

Rubric: Comença el libro quarto et ultimo el qual tracta del conseio ...
Incipit: Perche sono molti cheuile aduersita se conturbano
Explicit: E dapoi in sieme sempre fono perfecti amici. Deo gratias. Amen.
Colophon: (fol. 166r) Explicit hic liber qui quatuor continet in se | Artem rethorum ambasatas sermones arengas | Modum dicendi cum tempore atque tacendi | Et dandi consilia eadem que retinendi.| Per me Johannem delusa sic translatatus | In hoc vulgari descriptus atque conpletus. | Millequatercenturum cum quadraginta duobus | Quinto Januarij domini currentibus annis. | Deo Gratias.

Fols. 166v-171v blank except for later additions: two copies of a quatrain beginning: 'Io son la morte'.

Language(s): Italian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
166 + v fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 210 × 140 mm.

Layout

1 col., 34 lines, 138 × 85 mm.

Hand(s)

Hybrida; written by Giovanni de Lusa, chancellor of Kotor, who also wrote MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 38 (q.v.)

Decoration

Penwork initials: 10 lines (fol. 10r), otherwise 7-8 lines at the beginning of books (blue with red flourishing and heraldry (?) in red: see provenance), typically 4 lines at the beginning of chapters (alternating blue with red flourishing and red with red flourishing).

Rubrics; alternating blue and red paraphs.

Binding

Standard Canonici binding of plain parchment over pasteboard.

History

Origin: 1442 ; Italian (perhaps written at Kotor in present-day Montenegro)

Provenance and Acquisition

The griffin rampant gules in the larger initials may refer to the arms of Grifo of Venice (cf. MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 38).

Jacopo Soranzo: characteristic endpapers.

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Record Sources

Adapted by Matthew Holford (May 2025) from the following sources, with limited additional description:
A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 245
A. Mortara, Catalogo dei manoscritti italiani che sotto la denominazione di Codici Canoniciani Italici si conservano nella Biblioteca Bodleiana a Oxford, Quarto Catalogues XI, 1864

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 245

Last Substantive Revision

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