THE AURISPA CICERO

MS 612
MS Short Title THE AURISPA CICERO
Text
  1. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO: EPISTOLAE AD FAMILIARES
  2. ORIGINAL RECORD OF A LITERARY FESTIVAL ON 29 JUNE 1496 IN THE HOUSE OF CARDINAL D'ESTE
  3. JACOBUS DE VAGNONIBUS: HIS FUIT LARCIBUS DOCTISSIMUS ILLE JACOBUS QUEM PEDEMONTANE PROGENUERE PLAGE. A POEM
  4. JACOBUS DE VAGNONIBUS: EPIGRAMMA AD PREDICTUM DOMINUM FUSCUM
  5. LUDOVICO ARIOSTO: IN DOMINUM PANDOLPHUM ARIOSTUS, A POEM
Description MS in Latin and Greek on vellum, Firenze, Italy, ca. 1435-40, 156 ff. (complete), 35x25 cm, single column, (24x14 cm), 35 lines in an extremely fine regular round humanistic book script, headings in red capitals, the spaces in text filled with Greek minuscule and capitals, as well as further annotations in autograph by the humanist Giovanni Aurispa, the first owner. 13 illuminated historiated initials by Bartolomeo d'Antonio Varnucci. Texts 2-5: written 29 June 1496 in Italian cursive.
Binding Italy, ca. 1435-40, wooden boards covered with old vellum, sewn on 6 double thongs.
Provenance 1. Giovanni Aurispa, MS 355 (1370-1459); 2. Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, Ferrara (1479-1520); 3. Antonio Porunti (16th c.); 4. Laurence Witten (ca. 1950); 5. Philip Hofer, Cambridge, Massachusetts (until 1951); 6. Myron A. Hofer 2nd, Cambridge, Massachusetts (from 1951); 7. Maggs cat. 816(1953):147; 8. Sotheby's 6.12.1988:48; 9. Quaritch, London. 10. De-accessioned April 2014 to Jörn Günther
Commentary By a scribe extremely close in style to Johannes Andreae de Colonia, whose scribal annotations derive from the notes in Coluccio Salutati's MS of the same text in Laurenziana Library, Laur. 49,7. Texts 2-5 are unique. Text 5 is possibly by the poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1553). He was a member of Cardinal d'Este's household from 1503. Text 1. Marcus Tullius Cicero’s (106-43 BC) letters to about 90 different family members and friends were written in the period 68-43 BC. Due to their style and historical importance a total of more than 800 letters have survived, and through this voluminous correspondence Cicero is known to us more intimately than anyone else in the ancient world. For Cicero’s letters to his brother Quintus, see MS 1781 text 2.
Exhibited 1. Conference of European National Librarians, Oslo. Sept. 1994. 2. University of Oslo. Domus Bibliotheca, 6-15 May 1996: European medieval manuscripts from The Schøyen Collection.
Place of origin Italy
Dates ca 1435 - 1440 AD