CASSIODORUS: LIBER HUMANIARUM LITTERARUM

MS 1800
MS Short Title CASSIODORUS: LIBER HUMANIARUM LITTERARUM
Text 1. FLAVIUS MAGNUS AURELIUS CASSIODORUS: LIBER HUMANIARUM LITTERARUM, QUI SCRIBITUR DE ARTIBUS ET DISCIPLINIS SECULARUM STUDIORUM, HOC EST DE GRAMMATICA, DE RETHORICA, DE DIALECTICA,    DE PHILOSOPHIA, DE MATHEMATICA, DE ARITHMETICA, DE GEOMETRICA,    DE ASTRONOMICA, DE MUSICA, QUOTING QUINTILIAN, PLATO, DONATUS,    CICERO, TERENCE, VARRO, ARISTOTLE, ISODORE, VIRGIL, BOETHIUS,    AND OTHERS 
2. ST. AUGUSTINUS: EXCERPTS FROM DE DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA, CONTRA PRISCILLIANISTOS, DE MUSICA, DE ORDINE, DE CIVITATE DEI, AND DE    GENESI AD LITTERAM 
3. DE DUODECIM VENTIS, A POEM IN HEXAMETER ON THE WINDS
Description MS in Latin with several phrases in Greek on vellum, Abbey of St.-Germain d'Auxerre, Burgundy, France, 850-875, 109 ff. (complete), 24x18 cm, single column (19x13 cm) 21 lines in uncials and Carolingian minuscule with pre-Carolingian letter-forms by several scribes, headings and titles in uncials and half-uncials throughout, 39 pp. with 3-line to full-page ornamental diagrams, including 10 pictorial drawings of animal heads, and of Donatus and other human faces, some with coloured washes.
Binding France, 18th c. mottled sheep, sewn on 5 cords.
Provenance 1. Benedictine Abbey of St. Germain d'Auxerre, Burgundy (ca. 875-1790); 2. Bouché, Paris; 3. Alexandre Dumas, Paris (-1850); 4. Dumas' sale, Paris 1850:841; 5. Baillieu, Paris (1850-1852); 6. Guglielmo Libri, Paris (1852-1859); 7. Sotheby's 29.3.1859:229; 8. Sir Thomas Phillipps, Cheltenham, Ph.16278 (1859-1872); 9. Katharine, John, Thomas and Alan Fenwick, Cheltenham (1872-1946); 10. Robinson Bros., London (1946-1978); 11. H.P.Kraus cat. 153(1979):2; 12. Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen and Köln, MS XII 1 (1979-1983); 13. The J.Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California (1983-1988); 14. Sotheby's 6.12.1988:34; 15. H.P.Kraus/Quaritch Partnership, unnumbered joint cat. (1991):2, acquired Dec. 1983; 16. De-accessioned Sotheby's 18.6.2002:38.
Commentary Cassiodorus (485-580) is the single most important source for the survival of classic secular arts and culture into the Middle Ages. It is the defining text of the seven Liberal Arts, the basis of education for a thousand years. In its account of the Seven Liberal Arts, supplied with philosophy and mathematics, the work preserves portions of texts, and identifies classical authors which are otherwise unknown. The present MS is one of the four oldest copies of the text.
Place of origin France
Dates 850-875