MS. Lat. misc. e. 81
Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)
Collection, made by Nicodemo Tranchedini, of tracts, letters and poems; seven originally separate sections. Italian, c. 1465–70.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
21–26 long lines
Hand(s)
seven originally separate sections each by a different scribe
Decoration
Spaces left for a rubricator.
Binding
Contemporary Italian binding of brown morocco tooled with rope pattern and other designs and with inlet roundels, much repaired. Remains of four leather ties.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
On fol.1 are the initials N.TR. in red, on either side of a green laurel wreath containing a shield bearing a double-headed black eagle: these are the arms of Nicodemo Tranchedini of Pontremoli (1411–1481), who for long periods represented the Dukes of Milan as an ambassador, especially in Florence and Rome. For a summary of his career see E. Lazzeroni ‘Il Viaggio di Federico III in Italia’ in R. Dep. Stor. Pat. per la Lombardia, Atti e Memorie del Primo Congresso Storico Lombardo, Milan, 1937, p.327 n.174. He was a close friend of Cosimo de' Medici, was granted Florentine citizenship in 1449 and had a villa at Montughi outside Florence. Several MSS. he once owned bear his arms and initials done in the same style as in our MS.: eg. MSS. Florence Riccard. 541, 827, 834 (Nicodemo's letter book), 873, 1205; Bibl. Nazionale II.X.31, which is a humanistic miscellany in several hands including poems dedicated to Nicodemo; Milan Brera A.H.XII.16.
‘Al molto magnifico et R. sig. mio osservandissimo Il sig. Crispolto Bruschi. Todi’ (fol.132 (flyleaf)): this appears to be in the same hand as the additions on fol.101 and possibly fol.21v and 119. There is a similar note on the first flyleaf, and on fol.119 is written ‘1608 Chrispoltus’ in the same hand as the addition on fol.63v.
Bought from E. P. Goldschmidt, cat. 19, no. 229, 1929.
MS. Lat. misc. e. 81 – Part 1
Contents
Pr. Epist., Venice, 1502, bk.XXIII, ep.1.
Pr. in Rosmini, Vita di Francesco Filelfo, Milan, 1808, II p.321. Fol.20v–21v were originally blank.
MS. Lat. misc. e. 81 – Part 2
Contents
Pr. Aeneae Sylvii Opera, Basle 1571, pp. 905–914. Fol. 36v–37v were originally blank.
MS. Lat. misc. e. 81 – Part 3
Contents
Mid page 888 of letter as ed. in Opera cit., pp. 872–905; and in a revised edition by G. Toffanin, Pio II, Lettera a Maometto II, Naples 1953, p. 109ff. Fol.63 was originally blank.
MS. Lat. misc. e. 81 – Part 4
Contents
For Pellotus, a protégé of Nicodemo, see P. O. Kristeller, Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, Rome, 1956, p.156. The poems are not rubricated and have no headings. They are perhaps in the hand of Pellotus.
[To his patron, Nicodemo]
[To Nicodemo]
[To Nicodemo]
[To Marsilio Ficino]
Pr. by Kristeller, loc.cit., from this MS.
[On a visit Conte Jacopo Piccinino made to Cosimo de' Medici at his villa Careggi outside Florence 18 July 1464, for which see Giampietro in Arch. Stor. Prov. Nap. VII, 1882, p.380]
[To Piero de' Medici on the death of his father, Cosimo, d. Aug. 1464]
[On Cosimo, Pater Patriae]
[On Cosimo]
[To Bartolomeo Scala]
[On fireworks]
[To Nicodemo]
[On Nicodemo's villa]
[On the plague]
[To Francesco Sassetti, asking for copies of his Priscian, Servius and Pliny's Natural History]
[On the absence of his patron]
[On the too long absence of Nicodemo]
[A plea to Nicodemo to return to Montughi]
[To Lorenzo de' Medici on his going to Rome, probably in March 1465]
[To Nicodemo]
[To Ficino]
Pr. Kristeller, loc. cit., p.157, from this MS.
[To Don Federico, son of King Ferrante of Naples, probably when he stayed in Florence June 22–7 1465 while escorting his brother's bride, Ippolita Sforza, to Naples]
[To the Duke of Melfi who accompanied Don Federico]
[To Nicodemo]
[To the Greek poet Marullo?]
Fol.75v, 77, 81, 82v–84v were originally left blank.
MS. Lat. misc. e. 81 – Part 5
Contents
Geraldini (c.1453–1489) probably wrote these poems when he was in Florence as a young man, before he went to Spain in 1469. See Kristeller, loc. cit., p.155
Written after the death of Cosimo de' Medici, 1464
pr. Kristeller, loc. cit., p.157 from this MS.
Scala was Chancellor of Florence by April 1465, and possibly earlier
MS. Lat. misc. e. 81 – Part 6
Contents
Language(s): Latin
C.I.L. V.7989
C.I.L. IX. 1558
C.I.L. IX. 1575. This copy may be earlier than any of those cited there
Two lines of a Greek poem (Anthologia Graeca XVI, 120) written as an inscription, deriving in this form from Ciriaco of Ancona. See E. W. Bodnar, Cyriacus of Ancona and Athens, Brussels, 1960, p.156
Reise, Anthol. Lat., no.242
Reise, Anthol. Lat. no.1
WIC 10656. The others in series as in Reise, Anthol. Lat., nos.507–518; one also in Walther, no.19305
Reise, Anthol. Lat., nos.555–565
Fragment, cut off at the top, followed by a few words of a Greek-Latin glossary
ll. 1–8
Hippolita Sforza, bride of Alfonso Duke of Calabria, arrived in Naples on 14 Sept. 1465. See Canetta in Arch. Stor. Lombardo X, 1883, p.780
Lucrezia d'Alagno, mistress of King Alfonso I of Naples (d.1458) was in Ravenna, where the poet states her to be, by the end of 1464. See Filangieri in Arch. Stor. Prov. Nap. XI, 1886, p.359
Conte Jacopo Piceinino, who died mysteriously in prison in Naples 12 July 1465
The poet refers (fol.108) to the preparations the king is making for his son's marriage. See fol. 103 above
The poet Porcellio Pandoni was teaching in the Studio at Naples in mid 1465–6. See Percopo, in Arch. Stor. Prov. Nap. XX, 1895, p.320
The end of the poem has been cut off by the binder
Copy of a letter from Pompeius Bononiensis [in Naples] to Paulus Vannus [in Rome]. The writer describes recent entertainments arranged by King Ferrante, probably for Ippolita Sforza, who attended them, discusses the mysterious death of Jacopo Piccinino, and asks his friend to look after his books until his return
Pope Paul II, elected Aug. 1464, d.July 1471
Fragment.
A list of classical authors. Further books are listed below and on fol.118v, with the names of the people who have borrowed them: these include Antonello [Petrucci] secretary of the King of Naples and Antonio Rossi of Florence, secretary to the Cardinal of Spoleto. The writer was also having Ovid's Fasti copied by the scribe Giovan M[arco Cinico] of Parma. Fol.100v–102v, 117 were originally left blank
MS. Lat. misc. e. 81 – Part 7
Contents
Collection of poems by Gentile Becchi of Urbino, tutor to Lorenzo de' Medici, cr. bishop of Arezzo 1473, d.1497. The poems, possibly dedicated to Iacopo Ammanati, Cardinal of Pavia, all seem to have been written in the 1460's. Fol.119 was originally blank, apart from the heading ‘Gentiles’. Fol.120 is also headed ‘Gentiles’.
For Piccinino's death see fol.107
Vopiscus was Bartolomeo Scala, protégé of the Medici and Chancellor of Florence from c.1465
Carlo de' Medici became Provost of Prato in Aug.1460. See Pieraccini, La Stirpe dei Medici di Cafaggiolo, Florence, 1924, I.90
Roberto Martelli died in January 1463/4. See Arch. di Stato, Florence, Grascia Morti 5, fol.44v
Two other versions of this poem exist, in MS. Florence Laur.54.10, Scala's Collectiones Cosmianae, fol.153 and MS. Laur.90 sup.39 fol.30. The last two lines of all three are different. See Bandini, Cat. Codd. Lat. Bibl. Laur. II, col.650; III, col.552
On the failure of the lion hunt arranged for Ippolita Sforza: see letter of Marco Parenti, 22–7 June 1465, pr. Guasti, Lettere di una Gentildonna Fiorentina, Florence, 1877, p.432
The Cardinal of Pavia was Jacopo Ammanati, cr. 1461, d.1479
Pellegrino Allio (1440– c.1467–8) was in Florence in 1463–4 and then went to Rome. See Flamini, Pellegrino Allio, Pisa, 1893
This poem, addressed to Piero de' Medici, is also in MS. Florence B.N. II.X.31, fol.166v
Cosimo died 1 Aug. 1464
The poem probably concerns Lucrezia Tornabuoni, wife of Piero de' Medici
Giovanni Tornabuoni married Francesca, daughter of Luca Pitti, in 1466
Carlo Marsuppini died in 1453. His tomb was sculpted by Desiderio da Settignano, d.1464
On the shop of the bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci
Probably on Otto Niccolini's mission to Rome in 1467/8
The condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni prepared to attack the Florentines in the spring of 1467
Charles de Bourbon, Archbishop of Lyons, was sent to Rome as envoy of the King of France in October 1466
Probably to Lorenzo de' Medici; the negotiations for his marriage to Clarice Orsini began early in 1467
Platina was imprisoned in 1464 by Pope Paul II for his outspokenness
On the humanist and statesman Giannozzo Manetti, d.1459
Lorenzo, brother of Cosimo de' Medici, died in 1440
Ercole d'Este was badly wounded at the battle called ‘della Molinella’, July 1467
To Giannantonio Campano 1429–1477
To the Cardinal of Pavia.
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Last Substantive Revision
2017-07-01: First online publication.