• De fallaciis que sepius occurrunt in sacra pagina ... [etc.]

Extent:
  • 159 leaves : paper, illustrations ; 140 x 100 (106 × 70) mm bound to 146 x 102 mm.
Date:
  • 1460-1469
Language:
Abstract:
  • Humanistic compendium of rhetoric and linguistic texts.
Contents:
  • 1. fol. 1r-14v: De fallaciis que sepius occurrunt in sacra pagina. Anonymous treatise explaining how theologians can avoid sophisms and fallacious arguments.
  • 2. fol. 15r-68r: Epistolas ad illustrissimum principem Malatestam. 15th century Latin translation by Francesco Griffolini.
  • 3. fol. 68r-69v: [Preface to pseudo-Brutus' Epistolae LXX]
  • 4. fol. 69v-72v: [De inventione] / [Cicero]. Handbook for orators.
  • 5. fol. 72v-74r: [Text concerning the Seven Sages of Greece]. This copy begins with Thales of Miletus and ends with Periander of Corinth.
  • 6. fol. 75r-88v: [Liber sextus decretalium] / [Pope Boniface VIII]. Abridgement consisting of books 1-4.
  • 7. fol. 89r-104v: [Dialogi ad Petrum Paulum Histrum] / [Leonardo Bruni]. Bruni’s dialogues for Pier Paolo Vergerio. Princeton's copy ends at book 1, 40. In the lower margin of fol. 104v, there is an added inscription on five rhetorical categories.
  • 8. fol. 105r-116v: [Tractatus de compositione] / [Gasparino Barzizza]. On rhetoric and style in imitation of Cicero and Quintilian. Incomplete at end.
  • 9. fol. 117r-148v: [E]legantie Ciceroniane. Collection of Ciceronian phrases.
  • 10. fol. 149r-159v: [Unidentified text beginning Proemio di quello che tracta ...]. An unidentifed and incomplete Italian epistolary collection, with sample letters for different social and political occasions.
Description:
  • Incipit: [De fallaciis] "Columne basis triplicis innititur fides nostra. Est autem columna cum base triplici una trinitatis entia ..." -- [Epistolas] "Francisci Aretini in phalaridis Tiranni Agregentini epistolas ad illustrissimum principem Malatestam nouellum(!) proemium incipit. " -- [Preface to pseudo-Brutus] "[S]olent beatissime pater qui inuigilant alicui operi quod ad mores hominum spectet uel rerum notionem seu uite decorum ac cultum uuendi meliorem ..." -- [De inventione] "Sepe ac multum cogitaui mecum bonine an mali plus attulerit hominibus a ciuitatibus copia dicendi ac summum eloquentie studium." -- [Text concerning the Seven Sages] "Tales inuenit tempora anni et in ccclxv dies diuisit. " -- [Liber sextus decretalium] "[I]stud proemium in quatuor diuido partes." -- [Dialogi] "[V]etus est cuiusdam sapientis sententia felici homini hoc vel imprimis adesse oportere ... " -- [Tractatus de compositione] "Cum omnis commode et perfecte elocutionis preceptio in tres partes sit distributa." -- [Elegantie Ciceroniane] "[E]legantie Ciceroniane Materna lingua in quotidianum usum per Georgium Vallagussam exposite ad Johannem Antonium de Girardis Ticinensem ducalem canzellarium."
  • Explicit: [De fallaciis] "... creator et recreator. Et hic de fallaciis que sepius occurrunt in sacra pagina dicta sufficiant. Laus deo." -- [Epistolas] "... que talem virum tulerit civitatem quam qui miserit laudeni consecuturam. Deo Gratias." -- [Preface to pseudo-Brutus] "... et procul dubio caras habebit." -- [De inventione] "... eam civilis scientie partem esse dicamus." -- [Text concerning the Seven Sages] "... regis Jude mortuus vero est octogenarius." -- [Liber sextus decretalium] "Illa quippe qui ministerium consecrationis reposcunt nisi fuerit episcopus per alios faciat episcopos expediri." -- [Dialogi] "... neminem fuisse iamdiu qui aliquam prestantiam in his studiis habuerit" -- [Tractatus de compositione] "... quomodo vis per locare quoniam in consonantiam" -- [E]legantie Ciceroniane] "Per la qual cosa O Anthonio cum ogni forza da opera a la laude: Secorre a la patria e adiuta il tuo compagno in officio. Quamobrem mi Anthoni incombe toto pectore ad laudem subueni patrie opitulare tuo college."
  • Ms. composite codex.
  • Title from explicit of first work (fol. 14v).
  • Collation: Paper ; fol. ii (original paper) + 160 + i (original paper) ; some catchwords ; modern foliation in pencil.
  • Layout: 20-25 long lines per page.
  • Description: Watermarks (fleur à 8 pétales; anneau)
  • Decoration: Fol. 1r has a 4-line initial in gold on parti-colored blue and dark red grounds; fol. 105r has a 6-line initial in blue with pink infill highlighted with white tracery on a burnished gold ground with colored floral motifs. Maniculae traced in brown ink. Rubrics in pale red and bright red, paraph marks in red initials painted in alternating red or blue, some with penwork in opposite color.
Binding note:
  • Later binding. Italy, late 16th or early 17th century. Limp-parchment wrapper with yapps. Textblock sewn onto two bands or cords; plain-wound endbands without secondary sewing.
Provenance:
  • Unknown early and intermediate provenance. Owned by J.A. Dortmund. Sold by his family in 1992. Purchased by Princeton University Library from Sandra Hindman (Les Enluminures, Paris, Chicago) in 2005 (Acc. no. 2006-36).
Former owner:
  • Dortmond, J. A.
Contributor:
  • Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Princeton MS. 189
References:
  • Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, pages 469-471.
Alternative:
  • Humanistic miscellany
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