• Humanistic miscellany

Extent:
  • 1 volume (ii, 160, i leaves) : illustrations ; 14 cm
Date:
  • 1460-1469
Language:
Contents:
  • 1.1r-14v: “Columne basis triplicis innititur fides nostra. Est autem columna cum base triplici una trinitatis entia ...” Explicit: “... creator et recreator. Et hic de fallaciis que sepius occurrunt in sacra pagina dicta sufficiant. Laus deo.”
  • 2.15r-68r: “Francisci Aretini in phalaridis Tiranni Agregentini epistolas ad illustrissimum principem Malatestam nouellum(!) proemium incipit. Vellem Malatesta nouelle princeps illustris tantam mihi dicendi facilitatem dari ...” Explicit: “... que talem virum tulerit civitatem quam qui miserit laudeni consecuturam. Deo Gratias.”
  • 3.68r-69v: “[S]olent beatissime pater qui inuigilant alicui operi quod ad mores hominum spectet uel rerum notionem seu uite decorum ac cultum uuendi meliorem ...” Explicit: “... et procul dubio caras habebit.”
  • 4.69v-72v: “Sepe ac multum cogitaui mecum bonine an mali plus attulerit hominibus a ciuitatibus copia dicendi ac summum eloquentie studium.” Explicit: “... eam civilis scientie partem esse dicamus.”
  • 5.72v-74r: Incipit: “Tales inuenit tempora anni et in ccclxv dies diuisit. Hic fuit philosophus asianus e septem grecie sapientibus primus Athenis claruit et Interrogatus cur non duceret uxorem dixit ob filiorum amorem ...” Explicit: “... regis Jude mortuus vero est octogenarius.”
  • 6.75r-88v: “[I]stud proemium in quatuor diuido partes. In prima quarum salutatio ponitur usque ibi sacrosancte. In secunda exordium usque ibi sane. In tertia narratio usque universitati. In quarta conclusio usque in fine. Primo igitur dominus Bonifacius doctores et scolares morantes in bononia salutat et benedicit ...” Explicit: “Illa quippe qui ministerium consecrationis reposcunt nisi fuerit episcopus per alios faciat episcopos expediri.”
  • 7. 89r-104v: “[V]etus est cuiusdam sapientis sententia felici homini hoc vel imprimis adesse oportere ... Quom solemniter celebrarentur ...” Explicit: “... neminem fuisse iamdiu qui aliquam prestantiam in his studiis habuerit||”
  • 8.105r-116v: “Cum omnis commode et perfecte elocutionis preceptio in tres partes sit distributa. Elegantiam compositionem et dignitatem, illud genus in quod ad compositionem attinet tribus in rebus est positum ...” Explicit: “... quomodo vis per locare quoniam in consonantiam||”
  • 9.117r-148v: “[E]legantie Ciceroniane Materna lingua in quotidianum usum per Georgium Vallagussam exposite ad Johannem Antonium de Girardis Ticinensem ducalem canzellarium. Cum Sepiuscule Johannes Antoni mi suauissime de studiis humanitatis verba ...” Explicit: “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.”
Description:
  • Script: Humanistica antiqua, by at least six different scribes, except for fols. 72v-74r, which contain additions by a reader writing in a cursive hand beyond the ordinary text area.
  • Decoration: Fol. 1r has a 4-line initial in gold on parti-colored blue and dark red grounds with white tracery highlights and green wash infill, penwork with foliate decoration, and besants extending into the upper and inside margins; 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 at the corners and burnished gold besants circled with ink ornamentation descending in the margin. Maniculae traced in brown ink (some added with decorative designs or flourishes); 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:
  • Italy, late 16th or early 17th century. Limp-parchment wrapper with yapps and formerly with end-ties, now missing. Textblock sewn onto two bands or cords; plain-wound endbands without secondary sewing.
Provenance:
  • Princeton MS. 189 is of unknown early and intermediate provenance. A. Dortmund (1912-1988), a Dutch dealer in writing instruments, is pasted on front pastedown (no. 404). Dortmund put together an extensive collection, a portion of which is exhibited at the Schriftmuseum J. A. Dortmund, University of Amsterdam. The present manuscript was sold by J. A. Dortmund's family in 1992. The Princeton University Library purchased the manuscript from Sandra Hindman (Les Enluminures, Paris, Chicago) in 2005 (Acc. no. 2006-36).
Contributor:
  • Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Princeton MS. 189
References:
  • Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, pages 469-471.
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