Christ Church MS. 508
Ovid, Tristia; Italy (?north-east), s. xv3/4
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Ed. J. B. Hall (Stuttgart, 1995), with this manuscript listed as O8 in the codicum catalogus. The books divide at fol. 19, 33, 52, 68. There is a considerable amount of glossing, diminishing throughout the volume, in a very small version of the text hand. Most of this indicates grammatical relationships, but, e.g., a sequence of five citations from Tibullus appear as a marginal gloss on fol. 30. Fol. 86v has only four lines and the colophon, which is presented cul-de-lampe.
Fol. 87–89v: blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Written in long lines, 21 lines to the page (above top line).
No signs of pricking, some very light signs of bounding and ruling by dry-point, with double vertical borders (that to the left reserved for the opening capital of every other verse), but single horizontal bounding lines.
Hand(s)
Written in a slanted humanist cursive with extravagant two-stroke final s.
Punctuation by line-ending point, double point (also at pauses within the line), and punctus interrogativus.
The manuscript has been previously described: Ker, MMBL, 3:609.
Decoration
Headings in red at the opening and at book divisions. At the opening of the text and of its sections, two-line red Roman capitals, unflourished. Red sidenotes indicate important topics, by the scribe. On each recto, a running header of the book number in Roman capitals.
Binding
Brown russia letter, gilt stamps and bit tooled, s. xix, over millboards. Sewn on three thongs. In the spine compartments ‘Ovidius de tristibus M.S. saec. xiv [sic]’ in gilt. Endleaves and pastedowns marbled paper, a ChCh bookplate on the front pastedown.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
There is continuous evidence of ownership from the early nineteenth century. At fol. iv, ‘Celotti’ ‘159’; his sale, 14 March 1825, lot 217. On the book-collector and art dealer, Luigi Celotti, see now Anne-Marie Eze, Abbé Luigi Celotti: Connoissuer, Dealer, and Collector of Illuminated Miniatures (unpublished doctoral thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 2010). Sir Thomas Phillipps bought extensively at the sale: A. N. L. Munby, The Formation of the Phillipps Library up to the year 1840, Phillipps Studies, 3 (Cambridge, 1954), 50–51 & 147, including this manuscript, with his nos 960 and 2767 (in ink, fol. iv; the stamped ex-libris, fol. ii). It was put up for sale at Sotheby’s in the eight part of the Phillipps collection, on 10 June 1896 as lot 941, but did not sell (Schoenberg 40265) and returned to their rooms for the tenth part, 6 June 1898, lot 887 (Schoenberg 60033; a note from the sale catalogue, pasted to our fol. iv); it was purchased by J. and J. Leighton, booksellers, for 1 guinea. They sold it to Charles Butler (1822–1910) and it later made a return visit to Sotheby’s for sale, along with other manuscripts which had been owned by Butler, on 19 July 1921, as lot 489 (Schoenberg 48856); a pencil note in the Bodleian copy suggests it sold for £28 (which would be a remarkably high price). Presumably, from there, it reached Dobell’s: their catalogue 48 (1925), no. 14 offered for 10 guineas (the page pasted to our fol. i), whence purchased by S. G. Owen, the editor of (1889, 1894, 1915) and commentator on (1893, 1902, 1924) the Tristia. He bequeathed the book to ChCh, as he did the previous manuscript.
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Christ Church Library.
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2017-07-01: First online publication.