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

MS. Ital. e. 13

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

Contents

Rosarium odor vitae
Incipit: ⟨I⟩ nostri savii atici volero che per doe vie principale ...

A collection of eighty-one quotations in Latin from classical authors and the Bible, with Italian commentary.

Cf. Rosaio della vita: trattato morale attribuito a Matteo de' Corsini e composto nel MCCCLXXIII (Florence, 1845); on the attribution to Corsini cf. Anna Benvenuti Papi in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani XXIX (1983)

Language(s): Latin, Italian
(fol. 31)

Alphabetical subject index

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper, watermark head of a unicorn (cf. Briquet, no. 15768).
Extent: ii (modern paper) + 34 + ii (modern paper) leaves.
Dimensions (leaf): 210 × 150 mm.
Dimensions (written): 145–50 × 95–100 mm.
Foliation: Foliated in modern pencil: i-ii, 1–36; the original leaves (fols. 1–34) foliated in ink: 1–32, 24, 23(?) [sic].

Collation

1(12), 2(12), 3(10) Catchwords.

Layout

29–31 lines, in 1 column.

Hand(s)

Written in humanistic script by Naninus de Marsilijs (see Provenance).

Decoration

Spaces left blank for initials.

Binding

Three-quarter speckled brown leather and marbled paper over wood boards; rebacked.

History

Origin: 1440 ; Italian

Provenance and Acquisition

Colophon: 'Ego naninus de Marsilijs propria manu scripsi Et die xxij Junij Mºccccºxl. Explevj' (fol. 34r), and below this the arms of Marsigli of Bologna (a pointed oval enclosing a representation of a battlemented bridge over a river), between the letters 'N' and 'A'.

Inscribed in a contemporary hand 'Iohannes de cankero de almania' (fol. 34v), and with verses containing his name.

16th-century inscription, read by an early Bodleian cataloguer as 'Libraria di santa maria di Pino' (fol. 1r), i.e. Notre Dame du Pin, a Benedictine priory of St. Victor, Marseilles; the inscription subsequently read by Watson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts {ic}.435–1600 in Oxford libraries (2 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984), I, no. 528, as 'Libraria di santa M(ari)a di piaz[a?]', probably the Cistercian abbey of S. Maria de Placii, Ceneda, Veneto.

According to John W. Bradley, A dictionary of miniaturists, illuminators, calligraphers, and copyists ... (3 vols., London, 1887–9), II, 265, this manuscript was in the 'Libri sale catal. x. 156', but this reference has not been found.

Thomas Arthur or William Ridler: with their price-code and erased price (fol. i verso; cf. Buchanan cat., Introduction).

Bought by the Bodleian in 1941.

Record Sources

Typescript description by Bodleian Library staff, revised by Peter Kidd, late 1990s; bibliography for Rosarium updated October 2017.

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 528

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.