LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA EPISTOLAE

MS 2106
MS Short Title LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA EPISTOLAE
Text LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA: EPISTOLAE INCLUDING THE SPURIOUS CORRESPONDENCE WITH ST. PAUL
Description MS in Latin on vellum, Milano, Italy, ca. 1440, 228 ff. (complete), 23x16 cm, single column, (15x9 cm), 29-30 lines in a cursive humanistic book script by 2 scribes, headings in red, 2-line initials in blue or red with contrasting penwork throughout, 3 very large historiated illuminated initials, 2 of them by the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum.
Binding Milano, Italy, ca. 1440, panelled, blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, sewn on 4 bands, 3 brass catches.
Provenance 1. Dionigi de Garbagnate, Milano (ca. 1440); 2. Johannis Sordi, Milano (1659); 3. Favio del Core and his descendants, Lugano (-1996) 4. Christie's 3.4.1996:6.
Commentary The Master of the Vitae Imperatorum was one of the foremost Milanese illuminators of the time, employed at the court of the Visconti. Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 BC-65 AD) was statesman, stoic philosopher and dramatist of the silver age of Roman literature. The Epistula morales ad Lucilium were published in 64, a total of 124 letters dealing with moral issues and discussion how to approach death. The famous correspondence with St Paul, 8 letters from Seneca and 6 letters from St. Paul, had been a frequent companion to the Letters from the early middle ages. The letters are first referred to by St. Jerome in De Viribus Illustribus from 392, and later by St. Augustine as well. If authentic, these letters would have been written 58-64 during St. Paul’s arrest in Roma. Most scholars have considered the correspondence to be apochryphal, but the 1600 year old discussion continues to the present. In a congress entitled "Seneca and the Christians" organized by the Catholic university of Milano in 2006, new evidence for authenticity came forth and 12 out of 14 participants argued for authenticity.
Place of origin Italy
Dates ca 1440 AD