De officiis

Item Information

Title:
De officiis
Author:
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Binder:
Ducastin
Former owner:
Wasservas
Former owner:
Honore, Godefroy
Former owner:
Barrois, Joseph, approximately 1785-1855
Former owner:
Ashburnham, Bertram Ashburnham, Earl of, 1797-1878
Former owner:
Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle, Sir, 1867-1962
Auctioneer:
Sotheby's (Firm)
Date:
November 5, 1440
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Italy
Manuscripts, Medieval--Italy
humanistic scripts
Cathedral bindings
Calf bindings
Blocked bindings
Inscriptions
Dates (Provenance)
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Places:
Italy
Extent:
77 leaves : parchment ; 260 x 180 (173 x 105) mm bound to 27 x 19 cm, in box 30 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/d504vn953
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. 1-1v: originally blank, with later inscription by Jean de Henri (1602)
2. fol. 2-77v: Cicero, De officiis M.P.C. OFFICIORUM.../QUAMQUAM TE M. FILI ANNUM/ iam audientem.../...instructor morum liber his est officiorum/ Excedunt cunctos pene libros phylosophorum/ Isti quos fecit tres tullium officiorum/ ANNUM DOMINI MCCCCXL DIE V NOVENBRIS.
3. fol. 78: blank.
4. fol. 78v: originally blank, with marriage, birth and death notices in French, dating from 1519-1526, concerning the Honore and Wasservas families (Suzannne de Wasservas is mentioned several times)
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Written in Italy, 5 November 1440. See colophon.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: In France by the sixteenth century, where it belonged, ca. 1519-1526, to the French families of Honore and De Wasservas, with their birth, death and marriage notes in French on fol. 78v; given in 1602 by one Jean De Henri, lord of Jenvaux, to his grandson, Maximilien de Jamblins, called Doyon (see inscription on fol. 1 and signature "Max. Doyon" within initial on fol. 2); owned by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Barrois (1784-1855), his 1849 sale (n. 200) to Bertram, the Fourth Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878)
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased for the BPL by Syndey Cockerell at the Ashburnham sale, Sotheby's London, 10 June 1901, lot 130 (lot number written inside front cover; Cockerell's notes on fol. 2v.
Notes (citation):
Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, I, 921
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: Atque hec quidem...
Collation: Parchment, fol. ii (modern parchment) + 78 + ii (modern vellum) ; 1¹⁰⁺¹ 2-7¹⁰ 8⁶⁺¹ ; catchwords in lower center margin, last verso of each quire. Foliated in modern arabic pencil on the upper outer corner of each page (e.g. 1r, 1v, etc.), begins with "1" on contemporary vellum flyleaf, ends with "78" on contemporary vellum flyleaf at rear (numbers on leaves used here for reference).
Layout: One column, 29 lines. Bounding and writing lines ruled in blind.
Script: Written in a humanistic bookhand in brown ink with rubrics in red epigraphic capitals.
Decoration: 3-line gold initials on colors on fol. 13v, 20, 76 and 77; 5- to 6-line white vine initials in gold on and filled with colors at incipit of each book, fol. 2, 23v and 53.
Binding: Blocked and tooled two-tone calf cathedral binding, unsigned but attributed by de Ricci to Ducastin (ca. 1830), speckled edges, gold-decorated board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers and flyleaves, rebacked, spine gilt and tooled with red leather labels: "Ciceronis/ officiorum/ libri tres" and "1440." Housed in red cloth clamshell case.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Zoltan Haraszti, "Medieval Manuscripts in The Library," More Books III (1928): 64 (this description pasted inside front cover and on fol. iv)
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
06_01_018642
Call #:
RARE BKS MS f Med.19
MS G.31.84 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999087646236