MS. Don. f. 30

Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and, Ecclesiasticus.

(fols. 1r-45r)

Proverbs

(fols. 45r-60r)

Ecclesiastes

(fols. 60r-139v)

Ecclesiasticus; 'oratio Iesu filii Sirach' (51:1) is treated as a heading (fol. 137r), and before 52:1 is another: 'Incipit oratio Salomonis' (fol. 139r).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: en proferam (Prov. 1:23)

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: 139 leaves (plus 2 original pastedowns).

Dimensions (leaf): 155 × 110 mm.

Dimensions (ruled):

Foliation: Foliated in modern pencil: 1–139.

Collation

I-XIII¹⁰ (fols. 1–130), XIV^10–1 (last leaf cancelled); catchwords, usually between single dots, roughly in the middle of the lower margin.

Layout

Ruled in pale brown ink with 20 lines, between single vertical bounding lines extending the full height of the page. 19 lines of text per page, below top line.

Hand(s)

Written in humanistic script; guide-letters for coloured initials usually visible.

Decoration

Ecclesiastes named in reddish capitals; occasional heavily abbreviated running-titles.

One four-line foliate initial in pink, green, blue, on a gold ground, with foliate decoration extending along the inner and upper margins (fol. 1r); the other books and chapters alternately with two-line plain red or blue initials (that to Ecclesiasticus three-line).

Binding

Original blind-tooled binding. Sewn on three slit straps laced into wood boards, covered with polished brown leather, stamped with patterns made up primarily from a single X-shaped tool; with the remains of two straps at the fore-edge, with metal clasp fittings on the lower board; the edges of the leaves gilt; the spine with a 18th/19th-century paper label inscribed 'Parobolas [sic] | Salomonis | Eccl. & Eccli.'; the lower two bands broken at the lower joint.

History

Origin: 15th century, c. 1470–1480 ; Italian, Venice (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

The text with various near-contemporary additions, corrections, and marginalia.

Inscribed, 1836: 'Dono oblatum B[...]ii cleri(?) call(?) [...]s a B[]ed[...] Joanne Bapt(ist)a []assa chori vicario Metrpol. [...] 1836' (upper pastedown).

Inscribed 'In desiderio di contrasegnare la giusta divizione, che professa Niccolò Grisogono al nobile personaggio il sigr Barone F. M. de Stefaneo, gli assoggetta il presente monumento, che col cuore gli D. D. D.' (transcription uncertain) (upper pastedown).

Various other owners'(?) and booksellers' inscriptions (upper pastedown).

Bought from Lawrence Witten Rare Books by Bodley's American Friends, 1978.

Record Sources

Draft description by Peter Kidd, late 1990s.

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.

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