SATIRES OF JUVENAL
| MS | 2047 |
| MS Short Title |
SATIRES OF JUVENAL |
| Text | DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS: SATIRES |
| Description | MS in Latin on vellum, Ferrara, Italy, 1453, 66 ff. (-2), 25x18 cm, single column (16x10 cm), 29 lines in a sloping humanistic book script, the first page entirely in capitals, headings and first initials to every line in red, 11 2-to 3-line initials in burnished gold with intertwined white-vine patterns in pale brown infilled with blue, pink, green and bright red, dotted in white and yellow, with partial or full-length white-vine borders with extensions in designs of bezants and flowers with penwork sprays, 4 large, 7-to-8-line, initials with full borders in broad white-vine panels enclosing 12 miniatures. |
| Binding | England, early 19th c., red morocco gilt, sewn on 5 cords, blue silk endleaves gilt. |
| Provenance | 1. Private collector, England (early 19th c.); 2. Marquesses of Bute, MS 107, Luton (19th c. - 1983); 3. Sotheby's 13.6.1983:15; 4. The Schiller collection, Paris (1983-1985); 5. Sotheby's 18.6.1991:85; 6. Sam Fogg cat. 16(1995):99. 7. De-accessioned April 2014 to Jörn Günther |
| Commentary | The style of illumination is broadly that of the Bible of Borso d'Este, commissioned in Ferrara in 1455, and illuminated by a number of artists. Luxurious Renaissance MSS of this kind were the particular taste of the princes of the courts in the Italian states. The Satires of Juvenal (ca. 60-140 AD) form a witty ridicule of the vice and dissipation of the Roman Empire in the age of Nero, Domitian and Trajan, and was the last of the great poetry collections of the golden period of Roman literature. |
| Exhibited | University of Oslo. Domus Bibliotheca, 6-15 May 1996: European medieval manuscripts from The Schøyen Collection. |
| Place of origin | Italy |
| Dates | 1453 AD |