Shelfmark
MS 156
Author
Title
Bembicae peregrinae [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M. R. James catalogue: Pauli Marsi Pierii Piscinatis Bembice Peregrine
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MLGB II: P. Marsus
Publication, distribution, etc.
Italy, 1450-1475.
Physical description
1 v. ; 222 x 120 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Secundo folio: est etiam.
Note
Material: membrane; Gregory's rule (HFFH).
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 135 x 86 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: iii + 40 + i.
Note
Collation: 1-10¹⁰.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: catchwords written perpendicularly to the main text in the bottom right corner of folios.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in dry point; pricking sometimes visible on short margin.
Note
Mise-en-page: single columns (18 lines) written in a cursive script below the top line. Rubrics.
Note
Decoration: Bernardo Bembo's motto "virtus et honor" written in capital letters in purple ink surrounded by a crown of laurel and palm tied with red ribbons on f.iii verso. Bembo's coat of arms as bas-de-page of f.1r. Simple purple initials (2 lines).
Note
Handwriting: littera antiquior cursiva (or humanistic cursive); one scribe.
Note
Correction: none.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: Bembo added some additions in yellow ink and maniculae to the main text, as well as other notes on ff.39v-40r. Here he writes a summary of an election in Venice on 13 July 1494 with a memorandum of names and votes.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries, v. 2 (1977), p. 764
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), p. 85
Citation/references note
Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 1697, 95
Citation/references note
N. Giannetto, Bernardo Bembo: umanista e politico veneziano (Florence, 1985), pp. 338-339
Summary, etc.
Scope and content: Paolo Marsi was an Italian humanist who met Bernardo Bembo when he moved to Venice around 1467/68. Marsi composed 21 poems in elegiac couplets to honour Bernardo after travelling with him to Cadiz and Seville in 1468. Some poems are addressed to the Virgin; others to the senate and people of Syracuse who would not let the author land due to fear of the plague.
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 156
Provenance
Origin: Italy. A note at f. 15v indicates the composition as 28 August 1467, when Marsi was visiting Hippo alongside Bembo.
Provenance
Provenance: owned by Bernardo Bembo in the 15th century, who wrote in the margin of ff. 39-40 and elsewhere in the text. 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.6.11.
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 rebacked with five raised bands, decorated with gilt fillets and blind tools. Endleaves of modern paper and pre-modern membrane (ff.ii, 40 are the original pastedowns). 20th-century repairs done by R. L. Day.
Subject
Subject
Latin poetry, medieval and modern 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
B50122