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

MS. Lat. class. c. 7

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

Contents

(fol.1)
Cicero, Epistulae ad Brutum
Language(s): Latin
(fol.15) (fol.48) (fol.50v)
Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem
Language(s): Latin
(fol.1) (fol.15) (fol.48) (fol.50v)
Ps.-Cicero, Epistulae ad Octavianum
Language(s): Latin
(fol.50v)
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
Language(s): Latin

There are corrections in the text, together with marginal corrections and comments in two contemporary hands, one of them probably that of the corrector of the text. As far as fol.107v many of the spaces left by the scribe for the insertion of Greek words are filled, also by two hands. The second appears only in the long passage on fol.107. The contents to fol.108v are exactly similar to those of cod.Vat. Palat. 1510 (s.XV exeunt.) as described in the edition of Sjogren (praef.vi), namely Books I–III, IV.1–4a, 14, 16. 1–4, 18. 2- end, 17.1–3, 19.1- end, V.1–8, 10, IX.2–4, 6.4–7, 6a. At that point the scribe continues with the remainder of the letters from V.11 in a different style of script. On fol.280v is the inscription ‘Hic est mei Iohanis liber Aurispe’. Aurispa possessed a MS.of Cicero's letters to Atticus (R.Sabbadini, Carteggio di Giovanni Aurispa, Rome 1931, no.91 p.113). However he describes the letters contained in his MS. as ‘completissimae’ so that it cannot be identified with this one.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper, watermark three mountains with cross cf.Briquet 11678 – 11728.
Extent: iii (modern paper) + 280 + iii (modern paper)
Dimensions (leaf): 290 × 215 mm.
Dimensions (ruled): 195–200 × 115 mm.
Foliation: modern pencil: i-iii, 1–283

Collation

1(10) - 28(10), Catchwords.

Layout

28 written lines per page, above top line

Hand(s)

Humanistic script

Decoration

Plain red initials.

Spaces left for initials.

Binding

Early 18th cent polished brown leather; the spine decorated and lettered in gilt 'CICERONIS | EPIST. | AD ATTIC:' on a title-piece, and 'MS.'; the edges of the leaves speckled red

History

Origin: 15th century, first half ; Italian, North-east, Ferrara (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Ownership inscription of Giovanni Aurispa : 'Hic est mei Iohannis liber Aurispe' (fol. 280v)

Hopetoun Library (bookplate with shelfmark)

John Adrian Louis Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun and 1st Marquis of Linlithgow (1869–1908) , his sale at Sotheby's, 25 Feb. 1889 and three following days, lot 518, bought by Ridler for £1 5s.

Henry White, F.S.A. (d. 1900) , his sale, Sotheby's 21 April 1902 and ten following days, lot 513, bought by Cockerell for £2 10s. (on behalf of?) C. M. Firth .

Bequeathed by him to the Bodleian Library, 1931

Record Sources

Typescript description by Bodleian Library staff, revised by Peter Kidd, late 1990s.

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (10 images from 35mm slides)

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.