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MS. Laud Misc. 718

Summary Catalogue no.: 1585

(fols. 1r–33r)

Flavio Biondo, De origine et gestis Venetorum siue Consultatio an bellum uel pax cum Turcis magis reipublicae Venetae expediat

Incipit: Magnum, Francisce Foscari, princeps Serenissime

Incipit: Venetam urbem ad annum salutis sextum quinquagesimum et quadragesimum

Explicit: gubernationis forma qua est parta. illam regere et amministrare pergetis

The text dates from 1452-4 and was first printed in 1481-2 (ISTC ib00702000); see D. Hay, 'Flavio Biondo and the Middle Ages', Proc. British Academy 45 (1959), appendix no. 5d.

Fols. 33v-38v blank.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: paper, folded in quarto; watermark two crossed arrows with plumes (type Piccard Online 123340-123362)

Extent: i + 38 + 1 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): 237 × 170 mm.

Layout

1 col., 27 lines; ruled space c. 148 × 115 mm. ; written above top line.

Hand(s)

Formal humanistic script; one hand.

Decoration

Space for initials (6-line, fol. 1r; 4-line, fol. 1v) not filled in.

Binding

Limp vellum binding.

History

Origin: 15th century (after 1452) ; northern Italy

Provenance and Acquisition

One of eight manuscripts in their original Italian bindings from an unidentified collection, acquired for William Laud perhaps in Venice, and with a number on the front cover, here ‘54’ (Quarto Catalogue, pp. xx-xxi)

William Laud, 1573-1645: acquired 1635.

Part of his second donation to the Bodleian, 1636.

Record Sources

Description adapted by Matthew Holford (July 2022) from the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Laudian Manuscripts, Quarto Catalogues II, repr. with corrections, 1969, from the original ed. of 1858–1885), with additional physical description.

Quarto Catalogue, col. 510

Quarto Catalogue, p. 581

Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 68