Cynthia, seu, Elegarium libri tres

Item Information

Title:
Cynthia, seu, Elegarium libri tres
Title (alt.):
In Cynthiam
Elegarium libri tres
Description:
Marcantonio Aldegati (Marcus Antonius Aldegatus) was a professor of poetry at Ravenna around 1480. This is the only known manuscript of this unpublished poem. This elegy to Cynthia was written in Mantua between 1476 and 1483 and is dedicated to the manuscript's first owner, the Cardinal of Santa Maria Nova, Francesco Gonzaga; it is included in his 1483 inventory (see Bottari, p. 21, note 2).
Author:
Aldegati, Marcantonio, active 14th century
Former owner:
Gonzaga, Francesco, 1444-1483
Former owner:
Sneyd, Walter, 1809-1888
Former owner:
Schab, William H.
Auctioneer:
Sotheby's (Firm)
Former owner:
Art ancien S.A.
Date:
[1476–1483]
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Illuminations
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Italy
Manuscripts, Medieval--Italy
Inscriptions
Marginalia
Vellum bindings
humanistic scripts
Poetry
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Subjects:
Elegiac poetry, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Italy
Places:
Italy > Emilian (region) > Ravenna (province) > Ravenna
Extent:
52 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 240 x 175 (140 x 95) mm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/b56498622
Terms of Use:
No Copyright - United States icon No Copyright - United States
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[Italy]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1v-51v: REVERENDISSIMO IN CRISTO/ patri ac domino meo singularissimo domino Francisco de Gonzaga, sanctae Mariae novae Cardinali Bononiae legato./ Mos fuit antiquis sacrorum maxime princeps.../MARCI ANTONII ALDEGATI MAN/TUANI IN CYNTHIAM LIBER PRIMUS/ Qui colitis Musas et Phoebi numina vates cernite quoque munero sit mihi scaevus Amor/ Cernite que vario voluantus sidera motu.../...Hos tibi commendo eum genitore suo./ Mantua me genuit fecit me Cyn[ ]vatem [ ] goria[ ]E C.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Possibly written in Ravenna.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: With colored endpapers used for Matteo Luigi Canonici. Unidentified inscription (Matteo Luigi?) on f. 1v. Rev. Walter Sneyd (his sale at Sotheby's, 16 December 1903, lot 20); L'Art Ancien (cat. 37, no. 1).
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased in 1954 from W.H. Schab (cat. 20, no. 1, pl.)
Notes (date):
This date is inferred.
Notes (citation):
Bond, W.H. Supplement to the Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 213
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: MARCI ANTONII ALDEGATI...
Collation: Parchment, fol. iii (first two later paper, third (former pastedown) and fourth contemporary parchment) + 51 + ii (later paper) ; i² 1-5¹⁰ ; vertical catchwords in lower right corner, final verso of each quire. Modern pencil arabic foliation, upper outer corner each page, beginning on i2, thus reaching 51.
Layout: Single column, 22 lines. Bounding and writing lines ruled in blind.
Script: Written in a humanistic bookhand in brown ink with original rubrics.
Decoration: fol. 2: full-page border of blue tight interlace on gold background surrounding a blue-interlace Q on gold background, text incipit above and to the right in gold on salmon; 4-line blue initial, fol. 4v; 7-line interlace in color(s) with white filigree on gold leaf background throughout, 30 in all. Gold leaf quite thick, with some gesso bleeding through.
Binding: 18th-century vellum over pasteboard, gilt-stamped red leather label on spine, "M. Aldegat./ Mant./ Carmina Latina/ Cod. M."
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Zoltán Haraszti, "Notable Purchases," BPLQ VII (1955): 76-77. Guglielmo Bottari, Marcantonio Aldegati, poeta latino del Quattrocento (Palermo, 1980), 20 (describing this manuscript).
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
06_01_018688
Call #:
RARE BKS MS q Med.126
MS 1548 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999090789486