Shelfmark
MS 149
Author
Title
De officiis [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M. R. James catalogue: M. T. Ciceronis De officiis libri III.
Publication, distribution, etc.
Rome, 1497 February 14 [i.e. 1498].
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 153 x 102 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Secundo folio: impedio.
Note
Material: membrane; Gregory's rule (FHHF).
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 101 x 52 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: i + 128 + i.
Note
Collation: 1-12¹⁰ 13⁸.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: quires marked with letters of the Roman alphabet (A-N) in the bottom right corner of folios; no other signatures or catchwords.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in dry point; no pricking visible.
Note
Mise-en-page: single columns (25 lines) written below the top line in a cursive script. Rubrics and running headers written in capitals. Marginal signposts in red throughout. Contemporary numeration marks the first 50 folios.
Note
Decoration: historiated initial (8 lines) presenting Cicero addressing his son on f.1r, where the text is surrounded by a classical architectural frame and a bas-de-page portraying four men reading. Decorated initials (6 lines) in red and gold on coloured background (green, purple, accompanied by simple scrollwork with floral motifs in green, red, and blue with gold details. Simple initials (3 lines) in blue. Each book begins with a few lines written in capitals in a larger script, alternating gold, blue, purple and red lines. The artist has been identified as Bartolomeo Sanvito, who also "signs" the colophon.
Note
Handwriting: humanistic cursive and square capitals, in the hand of Bartolomeo Sanvito throughout, who "signs" the colophon.
Note
Abbreviation and punctuation: "esse" abbreviated as "ee" with "ss" inter linea; ligature & for "et". Puncti, puncti versi, colons.
Note
Correction: none.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: one 16th-century note written in French upside down at f.120v: "In honours cause maintaine".
Formatted contents note
Contents: ff.1r-126r: Cicero, De Officiis; ff.126v-128v: blank.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 760-761
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), p. 81
Citation/references note
Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 1697, 119
Citation/references note
N. Giannetto, Bernardo Bembo: umanista e politico veneziano (Florence, 1985), pp. 294-295
Citation/references note
J. Wardrop, The Script of Humanism (Oxford, 1963), pp. 24, 29-31
Citation/references note
J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. de la Mare, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey (London, 1969), pp. 105, 107, 109
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 149
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 2552
Provenance
Origin: colophon at f.126r reads: "M.T. Ciceronis Officiorum | lib. finit Romae die | martis .xiv. Februar. | mcccclxxxxvii. B.S." i.e. the book of Cicero De Officiis was finished in Rome on Tuesday 14th February 1497. As Italians at the time began the calendar on 25 March, the day of the Annunciation, this manuscript's date corresponds to what we would now refer to as 1498 (beginning on 1 January). B.S. have been identified as the initials of Bartolomeo Sanvito.
Provenance
Provenance: likely owned by Bernardo Bembo in the 15th-16th centuries as he had other volumes copied by Sanvito in his library. However, it is worth noting that there are no marginalia in Bembo's hand or his coat of arms in this volume. It was very likely brought to Eton by Sir Henry Wotton, who acquired books and manuscripts during his stays in Venice. Former ECL shelfmark: Bl.6.4.
Binding
18th-century speckled and polished 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; the panel is polished calfskin while the rest is speckled. Spine with four raised bands, decorated with gilt fillets, blind and gilt tools. Endleaves of modern paper; one flyleaf at both ends of the textblock. Repairs have taken place as Ker mentions two flyleaves at each end instead. A parchment flyleaf belonging to this manuscript, blank except for a ?17th-century inscription "Script. 1497", was misbound in the 18th century as f. iii of ECL MS 160.
Exhibitions note
Exhibited: "Aldus Manutius and the Renaissance book", Tower Gallery, Eton College, June-December 2015.
Exhibitions note
Exhibited: "Aldo Manuzio: il rinascimento di Venezia", Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, 19 March 2016-19 June 2016 (extended to 31 July 2016).
Subject
Cicero, Marcus Tullius De officiis
Subject
Ethics Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Sanvito, Bartolomeo, 1433 - 1511 scribe.
Added entry--name
Bembo, Bernardo, 1433 - 1519 former owner.
Added entry--name
Wotton, Henry (), 1568 - 1639 Sir former owner.
Added entry--name
Added entry--place
Italy Rome.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B50114