Various works of Ovid in a manuscript by Nicolas Crabel, written at Padua in 1448-1449, with additions of the later 15th and 16th centuries

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Identifier: Adv.MS.18.2.9

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Scope and Contents

The contents of the manuscript are as follows:

(i) Ovid. `Ars amatoria` (`de arte amandi` manuscript; ‘P. Ovidi Nasonis Amores’, etc., page 113). The first gathering has been wrongly bound; the correct order of folios is 3, 2, 6-10, 5, 4, 1 (folio 1).

(ii) Ovid. `Amores’ (`de sine titulo` manuscript; ‘P. Ovidi Nasonis Amores’, etc., page 5). ii.14. 31-16.8 are omitted (folio 29).

(iii) Ovid. `Remedia amoris` (`de remedio amoris` manuscript; ‘P. Ovidi Nasonis Amores’, etc., page 205). vv.801-802 are omitted (folio 58).

(iv) Ovid. `Tristia` (`de tristibus` manuscript). Here divided into 47 letters (i.3-4, iii.1-2, 7-8, and iv.5-6 are not separated; i.9 is divided at 38, v.2 at 44) (folio 68).

(v) A poem of eleven four-line stanzas, beginning `Angelorum filie stelle resplendenti` (folio 111 verso).

(vi) Ovid. `Ex Ponto` (`de Ponto` manuscript; ‘ P.Ovidi Nasonis Tristium Libri quingue’, etc.) Here divided into 48 letters (`15` is passed over: i.2 is divided at 66) (folio 112).

(vii) Life of Ovid (beginning `Publius ouidius naso Sulmone(n)sis poeta sum(m)us doctor fabular(um)’) and summaries of `Heroides` i-xiv, xvi-xxi (beginning `ad euide(n)cia(m) (er)go cui(us) cu(m)q(ue) ep(isto)le tria requivu(n)tur`) (folio 163).

Folios 171-172 blank.

(viii) Ovid. ‘Heroides` (no title in manuscript). This is the normal mediaeval text, viz. i-xiv, xvi.1-38, xvi.145-xxi.14 (folio 173).

(ix) Ovid. `Heroides`, xv (‘Heroides’, page 287 - Dörrie cites this manuscript as ‘3`) (folio 217).

Folio 220 recto blank.

(x) Ovid. `Heroides,` xxi.15-146 (‘Heroides’, page 276). This part is apparently copied from the edition by Jacobus Rubeus (folio 220 verso).

(xi) Excerpts, concerning the ancient temples of Rome, from a version of the third part (`Periegesis`) of the `Mirabilia urbis Romae`, very close to the earliest known redaction (cf. ‘Codice topografico della città di Roma’, iii, pages 45, 53-61) (folio 223).

(xii) Names of rivers, mythological figures, and poets (folio 223 verso).

Sections (i)-(iv) and (vi) were written in Gothica textualis by Nicolas Crabel (subscriptions: folio 58 `Explicit hic liber laus deo. Nicolaus Crabel`, folio 68 `Explicit Ovidius de Remedio amoris, scripsi Nicolaus Crabel padue Anno mº ccccº xlviiiº die xxiiiº me(n)sis Augusti`, folio 111 `Explicit liber publii Nasonis Ouidii de tristibus quos v(idelicet) libros scripsi Nycolaus Crabel in studio patauino Anno m.ccccº et xlviiiº alte(r)a die post mathei ap(osto)li et eua(ngelis)te tu(n)c t(em)p(o)ris ibi studens i(n) Cano(n)ib(us); folio 162 `Liber mei Nycolai Crabel de Middelburch que(m) Padue scripsi anno mº.cºcºcºcº.xlixº. Laus sante Trini(ta)ti individue`). (viii) is in a similar, but slightly smaller and looser hand, (ix) is very similar to (viii) but rather finer and more upright, (xi)-(xii) are in bastarda, (v) is in bastarda currens, second half of 15th century, (vii) is in the hand of Hans Pirckheimer (see below), (x) is in a 16th-century hand.

Initials of poems or parts of poems in sections (i)-(iv), (vi), (viii), and (ix) are alternately blue and red; initials of lines in these sections have a red vertical stroke through them. On folio 124 verso is the heading `pictura ymaginis nasonis` and the beginnings of a sketch. Frequent marginal and interlinear glosses, the majority in the hand of Hans Pirckheimer, a few (mainly variant readings) probably in that of Dr Johann Pirckheimer, and one (folio 220 verso) possibly in that of Wilibald Pirckheimer.

Dates

Creation: 1448-16th century.

Extent

1 Volumes (v + 233 + ii folios.)

Language of Materials

Latin

Additional Description

Arrangement

Collation: 1¹⁰ (wrongly bound, see above), 2-10¹⁰, 11¹⁰ + 1 leaf after 11¹⁰, 12-15¹⁰, 16¹², 17-23¹⁰. Signatures by the 16th-century hand in the lower right corners of the first half of each gathering (1-16: a-q; 17: no letter; 18-23: α-y).

Catchwords by the text-hands in gatherings 1-10, 12-15 (in the lower right hand margin), and 18-21 (in the lower centre margin, surrounded by a red frame), folios 1-28 and 29-35 are numbered 1-28 and 1-7 respectively by the 16th-century hand, folios 173-216 are numbered 1-44 by the text-hand. Pricking in the outer margins, with a circular awl in gatherings 1-11, with a triangular awl in 12-22. Ruling mostly in ink (with a hard point for the frame in the first three sheets); no guide lines in gathering 17; no ruling in gathering 23. 1 column. 41-42 lines in gatherings 1-11, 32 in 12-16, circa 40 in 17, 37-39 in 18-22, 38 in 23. Ruled area 210 x 115-130 millimetres (gatherings 1-11), 190 x 112 millimetres (12-16), 200 x 140 millimetres (17), 195-200 x 110 millimetres (18-22). Secundo folio: `illo sepe loco`.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Paper (watermark in the fold, possibly a bull`s head, but not in Piccard). Scottish binding of brown diced russia, tooled blind, first half of nineteenth century (rebacked, 1937).

Custodial History

The manuscript belonged to the German family of Pirckheimer: Hans (died 1492), a student in Italy, including Padua, in 1448-1450, when he presumably acquired it; his son Dr Johann (?1440-1501), and his famous grandson Wilibald (1470-1530). The library remained in family possession in Nürnberg after Wilibald`s death: there this manuscript was seen in 1632 by J F Gronovius, who made notes from it in the margins of a copy of the Frankfurt, 1582, edition of Ovid (now Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, MS. Diez 8 2586) and sent his collations to N Heinsius (letter of Gronovius to Heinsius 30 March 1637, in P Burman, ‘Sylloge epistolarum a viris illustribus scriptarum’ (Leiden, 1724-1727), volume 3, page 19; cf. ‘Philologus’ cvi, 1962, 163). Pirckheimer’s library was purchased in 1636 by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel,and this manuscript was seen in his possession by Heinsius (cf. ‘Eranos’ li, 1953,75; ‘Studi ital. di filol. Class’, xxix, 1957, 108-109, 112). Heinsius in his editionof Ovid (Amsterdam, 1652) cites it both as Pirckheimerianus and as Arondelianus,but was aware of their identity (cf. his note on ‘Pont.’ i.1.24; M D Reeve in ‘Rheinisches Museum für Philologie’, cxvii (1974), 133-166, especially 138 and n. 21). It had been removed from the Arundel collection before 1678 (when it was divided between the College of Arms and the Royal Society), and had come into the possession of Heinsius, among whose books it was auctioned in 1682 (‘Bibliotheca Heinsiana’ (Leiden, 1682), volume 2, page 68, number 94), when it fetched 10 or 11 guilders (prices respectively in priced copies of ‘Bibliotheca Heinsiana’, in the National Library of Scotland, pressmark K.R.34.P., and the Bodleian Library, pressmark Bodl.Mus.Bibl. III 8 31). Markings in the Bodleian copy of ‘Bibliotheca Heinsiana’ suggest that it was bought by Edward Bernard; in that case it will be number 99 of his manuscripts in his ‘Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae’ (Oxford, 1697), volume 2, part 2, page 227. The manuscript was bought by the Advocates’ Library in 1721.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Presented, 1925, by the Faculty of Advocates to the nation on the foundation of the National Library of Scotland.

Existence and Location of Originals

Ovid. ‘Heroides’, edited by Jacobus Rubeus (Venice, 1474).

Existence and Location of Copies

Microfilms available:

Mf.Sec.MSS.424;

Mf.Sec.MSS.790.

Related Materials

J F Gronovius’s copy of the Frankfurt, 1582, edition of Ovid is now at Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, MS. Diez 8º 2586.

Bibliography

‘P. Ovidi Nasonis Amores’, etc., edited by E J Kenney (Oxford, 1901).

Ovid. ‘Tristia’, volume 1, edited by G Luck (Heidelberg, 1967).

‘P. Ovidi Nasonis Tristium Libri quingue’, etc., edited by S G Owen (Oxford, 1915).

Ovid. ‘Heroides`, edited by H Dörrie (Berlin, 1971).

Valentini, R, and G Zucchetti. ‘Codice topografico della città di Roma’, iii (Rome, 1946).
On the library of the Pirckheimer family see ‘Die äIteren Pirckheimer’ by Arnold Reimann (Leipzig, 1944), passim.

P Burman, ‘Sylloge epistolarum a viris illustribus scriptarum’ (Leiden, 1724-1727), volume 3.

‘Philologus’ cvi, 1962.

‘Eranos’ li, 1953.

‘Studi italiani di filologia classica’, xxix, 1957.

‘Operum P. Ovidii Nasonis Editio Nova’, 3 volumes, edited by N. Heinsius (Amsterdam, 1652).

‘Rheinisches Museum für Philologie’, cxvii, 1974.

‘Bibliotheca Heinsiana’ (Leiden, 1682), volume 2.

‘Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae’ (Oxford, 1697), volume 2.