• Biblioteca historica / Diodorus Siculus

Extent:
  • 1 volume (i, 166 leaves) : parchment, illustrations ; 29 cm
Date:
  • 1450
Language:
Author:
  • Diodorus, Siculus
Translator:
  • Bracciolini, Poggio, 1380-1459
Contents:
  • 1.1r-2r: “Prohemium in Libros Diodori Siculi quos Poggius Florentinus Latinos fecit ad Nicolaum Qvintum Summum Pontificem. Nullus antea quantumuis preclarus rerum scriptor fuit sanctissime pater ...” Explicit: “Sed iam ipse Diodorus loquatur.”
  • 2.2r-163v: “Diodori Siculi Historiarum Priscarum a Poggio in latinum traducti incipit Liber Primus in quo hec continentur Totius operis prohemium ... Liber Primus Magnas merito gratias rerum scriptoribus homines debent ...” Explicit: “Quibus de rebus suo loco scribetur a nobis. Explicit Liber VI.”
Description:
  • Title from printed catalog.
  • Latin translation of Diodorus Siculus' Biblioteca historica, Books 1-6, by Poggio Bracciolini in Rome about 1450; this manuscript was copied by one of his scribes, probably in Rome.
  • Script: Humanistica cursiva; punctuation by punctus and punctus elevatus.
  • Decoration: The text opens on fol. 1r with a 6-line gold initial N “Nullus antea” with white vine-stem decoration on blue, green, and pink, in squarish blue frame, and one gold carrot projecting into the left margin and ten small gold balls; erased arms at the foot of the page surrounded by a wreath, amid white vine-stem decoration as above, growing from a golden urn and surrounded by 33 little gold balls.
Binding note:
  • Italy, 15th century. Blind-tooled brown calf over wooden boards (approximately 7 mm thick), tooled with interlacing pattern and with an eight-pointed star centerpiece on each cover; four decorated leather clasps upper to lower board, decorative star-headed nails on the upper board, metal catchplates (decorated with fleurs-de-lis) on the lower board.
Provenance:
  • Garrett MS. 105 was produced in Rome shortly after 1450. The dating is based on the Roman-style decoration, the date circa 1450 for Poggio's translation, and its dedication to Pope Nicholas V, as well as annotations by Giovanni Tortelli and possibly by Poggio. Robert Garrett (1875-1961), of Baltimore, Maryland, Class of 1897, purchased the manuscript on 22 December 1924 from the New York antiquarian bookseller Wilfrid M. Voynich (1865-1930). His gift to the Princeton University Library, 1942.
Source acquisition:
  • Gift of Robert Garrett, 1942.
Contributor:
  • Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Garrett MS. 105
References:
  • Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 1, pages 233-235.
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