Romuleon

Item Information

Place of origin:
[Italy]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1-9v: Chapter index, alphabetical Aescamus enee filius fundavit civitatem Albanam.../...et corporis hitum libro nono capitulo vigesimo quinto.
2. fol. 10r/v: blank.
3. fol. 11-153: Romuleon Incipit liber qui Romuleon intitulatur eo quod de gestis Romanorum tractat editus ad instantiam strenuissimi ac spectissimi militis domini Gomecii Hyspani [i.e. dedicatee Gomez Albornoz, Governor of Bologna]. Liber Primus.../Principibus placuisse viris non ultima laus est. Inquit oratius in epistolis suis.../...et translatam ad italiam rediit./ Explicit Romuleon secundum exemplum Amen/ Amen/ - Amen - Amen/ Gratias Agimus ihesu christe quam liber/ explicit iste. Amen. Amen.
4. fol. 153v: blank.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Written in northern Italy in the second quarter of the fifteenth century (the paper stock is localizable to that region during that period)
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: Purchased in Italy by Nicolas-Antoine Labbey de Billy (1735-1825), his round armorial stamp on fol. 1 ("Bibliotheca Billiana"). Labbey de Billy moved to Italy after the French revolution, where his manuscript collection was sold in Besançon in 1826. The French notes on fol. i may be in his hand. Owned by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Barrois (1784-1855), his 1849 sale (no. 482) to Bertram, the Fourth Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878). Handwritten letter from Dante scholar Page Toynbee to Cockerell tipped in at front, dated 4 June 1901.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased at the Ashburnham sale, Sotheby's London, 10 June 1901, lot 523 (lot number written inside front cover) to Sydney Cockerell for the Boston Public Library (BPL bookplate inside front cover, embossed on fol. 1 and 2, Cockerell's notes inside front cover).
Notes (date):
This date is inferred.
Notes (citation):
Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, I, 922
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: Anibal ex indigatione...
Collation: Paper, with watermarks as follows: three round-peaked mountains within a circle, similar to Briquet 11851; scissors similar to Briquet 3682 (associated with Genoa); and the letter "M," similar to Briquet 8353 (associated with Genoa and Florence), vellum guards on innermost bifolia ; fol. i (paper) + 153 ; 1-14¹⁰ 15¹⁰⁺² (fol. 151-152 are tipped-in singletons, 162 (final leaf) used as pastedown) ; catchwords in center lower margin of final folio of each quire, in a decorative brown ink filigree frame with red and/or yellow wash, that on fol. 110v an elaborate urn on a table. Foliated in modern arabic pencil on the upper outer corner of each page (e.g. 1r, 1v, etc.).
Layout: Two columns, 48 lines. Bounding and writing lines in light plummet.
Script: Written in a humanistic cursive in brown ink with rubrics in brown ink in margin.
Decoration: Sentence initials stroked yellow; books begin with 2- to 4-line red epigraphic capitals with brown filigree penwork, those on fol. 1 and 11 slightly larger; chapters begin with 2-line epigraphic capitals. Brown and/or red penwork birds on fol. 34, 58, 64 and 93v, nota bene marks throughout.
Binding: 18th-century mottled paper over pasteboard, vellum spine, title handwritten in Italian: "ROMUL/EON/ [ ]entone/ storia/ Romana/ Manoscritto." Front flyleaf and pastedown are contemporary with the present binding; final flyleaf and conjugate pastedown are original.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Zoltan Haraszti, "Medieval Manuscripts in The Library," More Books III (1928): 67. On Labbey de Billy, see A. Caston, Catalogue des incunables de la Bibliothèque de Besançon (Besançon, 1893): 5-6, note 4; see also Catalogue des livres et manuscrits de la bibliotheque de feu M. Labbey de Billy (Besancon: Charles Deis, 1826)
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
06_01_018648
Call #:
RARE BKS MS f Med.25
MS G.31.70 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999090770973