15th century Italian manuscript of works by Cicero

Item

Identifier: Adv.MS.18.5.15

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The contents of the manuscript are as follows:

'Laelius de amicitia' (folio 1);

'Cato Maior de senectute' (folio 25); and,

'Paradoxa Stoicorum' (folio 47) (49 'infinite'-end is lost).

The text shows a great many variants, especially changes of order and small omissions, from that of the older manuscripts.

On folio 1 is a gold initial with white vine-stem decoration, filled with green and lilac and surrounded with blue. Other initials are plain, in red or blue. Headings in brown. Written in a round humanistic hand.

The front pastedown consists of the upper half of a leaf containing, in a 15th-century litera bastarda with numerous contractions, part of a treatise on canon law (incipit 'Octauum impedim(en)t(um) [[??]] ponit iacula uidel(icet) q(uo)n(iam) m(atrimoniu)m (contra)hunt illi q(u)i s(un)t in sac(r)is ordinib(us) (con)stituti'); written on one side only, therefore probably a cancelled leaf; pricking with a flat awl in the outer margins, ruling in ink; 2 columns; 30 lines survive; surviving height 155 millimetres, width 234 millimetres, surviving height of column 128 millimetres, width of column 75 millimetres.

On folio 1 is written 'Costo ef 18'.

Dates

Creation: 15th century.

Extent

1 Volumes (56 folios.)

Language of Materials

Latin

Additional Description

Arrangement

Collation: 1-6⁸, 7¹⁰ (-7⁹; 7¹⁰ used as pastedown). Signatures in the form c1-4 in the right-hand lower margin of gatherings 1-4. Catchwords in the lower right-hand margin, at right angles to the text. Pricking with a triangular awl in the outer margins, from first recto to last verso of each gathering: no pricks for guide-lines. Ruling in ink. 1 column. 25 lines. Ruled area 155-159 x 95-98 millimetres. Secundo folio: `et illorum illustrium’.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Vellum. Binding of brown calf on wooden boards, tooled blind, with remains of two clasps (rebacked).

Custodial History

The manuscript was presented to the Advocates’ Library circa 1700, by James Jamieson, Doctor of Theology.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

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

Bibliography

Cicero. ‘Cato Maior’, edited by K Simbeck (Leipzig, 1917).

Cicero. ‘Laelius’, edited by K Simbeck (Leipzig, 1917).

Cicero. ‘Paradoxica stoicorum’, edited by O Plasberg (Leipzig, 1908).

These works were first printed together at Rome in 1469.