Shelfmark
MS 147
Author
Uniform title
[Metamorphoses]
Title
The Metaporphoses [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M. R. James catalogue: L. Apuleii Madaurensis Metamorphoseon libri XI. et Florida
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MLGB II: Apuleius
Publication, distribution, etc.
Italy, 1350-1450.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 220 x 156 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Secundo folio: nodosum gerit.
Note
Date: Robertson and Ker suggest early 15th century, but due to the similarity to Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, L 58 supp. (dated to the 14th century), this manuscript could have been produced earlier than 1400. There are no palaeographical details to suggest either way.
Note
Material: membrane; heavily damaged -- mould damage has pitted the surface of many leaves and caused the media to detach. As a result, the text is often illegible. 20th-century wax repairs to some folios and many long edges.
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 145 x 99 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: v + 124 + iv.
Note
Collation: 1 leaf + 1-4¹⁰ 5⁸ 6-12¹⁰ 13⁶ (6 cancelled).
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: no signatures visible due to damage of the leaves' edges; catchwords.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in ink; including blank folios 121-124. No pricking visible, perhaps due to the mould damage along the edges.
Note
Mise-en-page: single columns (30 lines) written in a set script below the top line. Rubrics. Paragraph marks.
Note
Decoration: the first folio has two full page illustration: f.1r is a coloured drawing of a donkey, f.1v is a pen drawing of a bearded male figure, sat on a dais holding a book on his lap and a pen in his right hand -- it is likely to portray Apuleius. Forty-seven pen drawings appear on the bas-de-page of following folios, illustrating episodes in the narrative (for an exhaustive description, see James). The style of this artist is similar to that of the illustrations in Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, L 58 sup., although not as precise. Minor initials in red (2-3 lines); red minim strokes decorate capitals at the beginning of sentences. Catchwords appear inside drawings of animals at ff.79v and 109v.
Note
Handwriting: southern littera textualis; multiple scribes.
Note
Correction: interlinear spelling corrections in Bernardo Bembo's hand.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: signposts and brief marginal notes added in Bembo's humanistic hand throughout. His notes and ex libri appear at ff.123v-124r. On f.123v there is a Greek alphabet accompanied by their pronunciation and the Gloria Patri in Greek with an interlinear transliteration. M.R. James added a "title page" with basic information about this volume on the last pf the modern paper upper flyleaves.
Formatted contents note
ff.2r-106r: Apuleius, Metamorphoses ; ff.106r-120v: Apuleius, Florida ; ff.121r-124v: blank.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries, v. 2 (1977), p. 760
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), pp. 76-80
Citation/references note
Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 1697, 12
Citation/references note
N. Giannetto, Bernardo Bembo: umanista e politico veneziano (Florence, 1985), pp. 311-312
Citation/references note
D.S. Robertson, "The manuscripts of the Metamorphoses of Apuleius", Classical Quarterly 18 (1924), pp. 27-42, 85-99
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 147
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available (NB images of ff.44v-45r missing from microfilm); Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 2007
Provenance
Origin: Italy.
Provenance
Provenance: owned by Bernardo Bembo in the 15th century, who wrote "Codex Bernardi Bembi patricii veneti" on f.123v. 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.6.2.
Binding
19th-century green morocco over paste/millboards, bound by J.S. Wilson (Cambridge) in 1894. Covers decorated with blind fillet to form a border, blind dotted fillet on board edges, and gilted dotted fillet on turn-ins. Spine with five raised bands, decorated with gilt titling ("L. Apvlei Metamorphoses et Florida" ; "ms. saec. xiv"). Endpapers of modern plain and decorated paper (lining papers and facing leaves); three leaves at both ends of the textblock.
Subject
Apuleius Metamorphoses Manuscripts.
Genre/Form
Illustrated works.
Added entry--name
Bembo, Bernardo, 1433 - 1519 former owner.
Added entry--name
Wotton, Henry (), 1568 - 1639 Sir former owner.
Added entry--place
Italy.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B50113