Shelfmark
MS 157
Author
Title
Bucolics [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M.R. James catalogue: Naldi de Naldis Bucolica
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MLGB II: Naldus Naldii
Publication, distribution, etc.
Italy, 1475-1500.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 210 x 125 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Secundo folio: en dure.
Note
Date of creation: W.L. Grant identified this version of Naldi's text to be its third and final retention, which is datable to c.1478.
Note
Material: membrane; Gregory's rule (FHHF). Some purple-ish discolouration throughout.
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 125-135 x 81 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: i + 32 + i.
Note
Collation: 1⁴ 2-3¹⁰ 4⁸.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: none except for one catchword at the end of third quire.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in dry point; no pricking visible.
Note
Mise-en-page: single columns (20-21 lines) written in cursive but calligraphic script above the top ruled line. The capital letters at the beginning of each verse are slightly separated from the rest of the text and have their own column traced in hard point. Rubrics in capital letters. Characters' names added in red ink in the margin.
Note
Decoration: f.1r presents a historiated initial (4 lines) portraying Daphne chasing a nymph; the letter itself is burnished gold on blue background with white infills. It includes a flower and acanthus border in green, pink, blue, yellow and gold, while the incipit in capitals written in gold. A bas-de-page shows the coat of arms of the de Medici family. The rest of the volume includes smaller burnished gold initials (2 lines) on blue, pink or green background. Some lines have been highlighted by adding flowers on both sides of the line in blue ink.
Note
Handwriting: humanistic cursive; one scribal hand.
Note
Abbreviation and punctuation: ae diphthong is rendered through an "e" with a cedilla. Puncti; puncti elevati; colons.
Note
Correction: mistakes corrected by knife erasure.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: f.iv verso includes an epigram penned by Naldi himself presenting this copy to Bernardo Bembo, asking him to read his verses. Bembo adds below "id est poete manibus ingenium".
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 764-765
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, 99
Citation/references note
N. Giannetto, Bernardo Bembo: umanista e politico veneziano (Florence, 1985), pp. 336-337
Citation/references note
Naldo Naldi, Epigrammaton liber, ed. A. Perosa (Budapest, 1943), pp. vi, 10-11
Citation/references note
W.L. Grant, "Four MSS of Naldo Naldi's Eclogues", Manuscripta 11 (1967), pp. 155-158
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 157
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 2116
Provenance
Origin: Italy. Presented to and owned by Bernardo Bembo in the late 15th century.
Provenance
Provenance: 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.6.12.
Binding
18th-century calfskin over pasteboards by John Slatter, c.1715. Covers decorated with blind double fillets 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 in 1974 by R.L. Day with four raised bands, decorated with gilt tools and fillets. Endleaves of modern laid paper and medieval membrane.
Subject
Subject
Latin poetry, Medieval and modern Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Naldi, Naldo, 1439 - approximately 1520 inscriber.
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
B50123