Shelfmark
MS 110
Author
Title
Tragedies [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M. R. James catalogue: L. Annaei Senecae tragoediae
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL: Seneca, Tragoediae decem
Publication, distribution, etc.
Italy, 1325-1375.
Physical description
1 v. ; 390 x 266 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Secundo folio: No[n] vetera patrie.
Note
Date of creation: Giannetto, who wrote the most recent description for this manuscript, dates it to the thirteenth century. However, it is likely that she trusted James' own dating, which seems erroneous given the aspect of the handwriting. It is more likely than the book was made in the fourteenth century, as Ker suggested.
Note
Material: membrane. Gregory's rule (FHHF).
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 278 x 162 mm or 270 x 224 mm (double or triple columns, tragedies) ; 330 x 250 mm (triple columns, extracts).
Note
Number of leaves: iii + 52 + iii.
Note
Collation: 1-6⁸ 7⁴.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: no signatures. Catchwords centred in between the ruling of the two columns.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in ink, mostly faded. No pricking visible.
Note
Mise-en-page: double or triple columns (56 lines, save for f.52v, which has 77) written below the top line in a set hand. Folios 1r-4r and 52v present triple columns, the rest of the text is arranged in double columns. Paragraph marks. Sometimes, the initials of the play's characters appear in the margins and in between columns. The initial of each verse is slightly separate from the rest of the line, but they do not have their own column.
Note
Decoration: red and blue initials (2-4 lines) with pen flourishes. Catchwords sometimes enclosed in decorative circles and dots in black ink. The very last text includes line fillers in black ink. A few doodles of human heads (ff. 14r, 31r).
Note
Handwriting: southern littera textualis. Letter "m" sitting on its side, looking like number 3. One scribe throughout.
Note
Punctuation: puncti, puncti elevati and interrogativi.
Note
Correction: some erasures and corrections in-text. Missing lines added by the scribe at the bottom of columns at f.3r.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: there are extensive interlinear and marginal notes to the texts throughout in different late medieval hands. Some maniculae. It is possible to identify Bernardo Bembo's hand in a few instances (e.g. "Nota & iterum nota suauissimum notandum" at f.52r). Additional notes and scribbles on f. ii verso, which outline the tragedies included in the codex, and then record the births of two sons, "Carolus" and "Dominicus", on 16 February 1391 and 3 August 1395. More are found on f.54r-v in at least six different hands, which include one line in Hebrew and three lines abridged from Seneca's proverbs -- the latter in Bembo's hand.
Formatted contents note
Contents: ff.1r-5r: Hercules furens; ff.5r-10v: Thyestes; ff.10v-13v: Thebias; ff.13v-19r: Hippolytus; ff.19r-24r: Oedipus ; ff.24r-29v: Troades; ff.29v-34r: Medea; ff.34r-38v: Agamemnon; ff.38v-43r: Octavia; ff.43r-52r: Hercules Oeteus; f.52v: extracts from pseudo-Martinus of Braga, De moribus ("Omne peccatum est actio. Actio autem ... fecisse peniteat") and from the letter beginning "Ave mi paule carissime. putasne me" (only 4 lines).
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 723-724
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), pp. 45-46
Citation/references note
Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 1697, 113
Citation/references note
N. Giannetto, Bernardo Bembo: umanista e politico veneziano (Florence, 1985), pp. 303-307
Citation/references note
G. C. Giardina, L. Annaei Senecae Tragediae, Studi pubblicati dall'istituto di filologia classica, 20 (1966)
Citation/references note
R.H. Philps, "The manuscript tradition of Seneca's tragedies", Classical Quarterly 18 (1968), pp. 153, 155, 167-169
Citation/references note
A.P. MacGregor, "The MS tradition of Seneca's tragedies: 'ante renatas in Italia litteras'", Transactions and Proceedings of of the American Philological Association 102 (1971), pp. 328, 347-351
Citation/references note
A.P. MacGregor, "L'abbazia di Pomposa, centro originario della tradizione "E" delle tragedie di Seneca", La Bibliofilia 85 (1983)
Citation/references note
E. Dekkers, Clavis Patrum Latinorum, Sacreis Erudiri, iii (1951, 2nd ed. 1961), no. 1090
Citation/references note
Patrologia latina 72, cols. 29-32
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 110
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 2007
Provenance
Origin: Italy.
Provenance
Provenance: bought by Bernardo Bembo in 1450 (f.53r: "hic senece volumen tragedialle (sic) quod meum est emi ego [bernardus bembo] ducatis quinque cum dimidio id est ducatis v ÷. Quo tempore uincentie in domo eximii arcium ac theologogie (sic) doctoris magistri Iohannis Franzigine morabar anno natiuitatis milesimo quadragintessimo. quinquagessimo. anno Iubelei"; f.53v: "ego b[ernardus bembo] emi has tragidias duc' 6"). It was very likely brought to Eton by Sir Henry Wotton, who acquired part of Bembo's library when it was sold in Venice during one of his stays. Former ECL shelfmark: Bl.2.9.
Binding
18th-century calfskin over pasteboards by John Slatter, c.1715. Covers decorated with blind double fillers to form a border; blind roll to form a panel in the centre of the board with blind tools at its outer corners; gilt roll on board edges. Spine with five raised bands, decorated with blind fillets and gilt titling ("Senec" "Trag") with floral decoration over red label. Endleaves of modern paper and pre-modern parchment; ff. ii and 54 were the original pastedowns. 20th-century repairs done by R. L. Day.
Subject
Subject
Latin drama (Tragedy) Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Bembo, Bernardo, 1433 - 1519 former owner.
Added entry--name
Wotton, Henry (), 1568 - 1639 Sir former owner.
Added entry--name
Added entry--name
Day, R. L. binder.
Added entry--place
Italy.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B50037