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ff. 2-85v; ff. 86-87v blank. [Cicero] Tusculanae disputationes. Incipit: Cum defensionum laboribus senatoriisque muneribus. Explicit: variisque et circumfusis molestiis alia nulla potuit inveniri levatio. P. E. A. F. Rubric: Eloquentię principis M. Tullii Ciceronis Ad Brutum Tusculanarum Quęstionum Liber Primus in quo tractatur de immortalitate animi fęliciter Incipit. Latin. M. Pohlenz, ed., M. Tulli Ciceronis . . . Tusculanae Disputationes (Leipzig 1918) 217-459. Marginal commentary begins for Book I, f. 1v,"Doctrina greca, Homerus . . ."; for Book II, f. 24,"Quod philosophia necessaria sit unicuique generi hominum . . ."; for Book III, f. 35v,"Cicero invocat Brutum Cęsaris occisorem in cuius laude hoc opus composuit . . ."; for Book IV, f. 51,"In hac pręfatione vult ostendere quod omnis voluptas floruerit in urbe roma . . ."; for Book V, f. 66,"Hec questio quinta concludit quod virtus ipsa sola sit contenta . . ." Note on f. 1v,"M. Cicero post C. Cęsaris obitum reversus fuit in Tusculanum et phylosophię operam dedit et quemadmodum alia tempora tradidit precepta artis ita et hic quędam phylosophię pręcepta dare constituit et hoc tempore Cęsaris Augusti Lepidi et Antonii confecit opus.". Title from rubric. Support: Parchment. Script: Humanistic. Layout: 1-8¹⁰ 9⁶. Catchwords written horizontally between simple flourishes; quires and leaves evidently once signed in letter of the alphabet and arabic numeral (e.g. f. 73). 32 long lines, ruled in lead; pricking visible in lower margins. Span folios: ff. 1-87v (f. 1 is a flyleaf) Other Decoration: Decorated by the Master of the Putti; see L. Armstrong, Renaissance Miniature Painters & Classical Imagery (London 1981) 7-29, 117. Opening leaf, f. 2, with full border of dark red and green acanthus leaves on a blue ground, a cherub in the upper border and 2 sirens holding a coat of arms in the lower border; 7-line faceted initial in green on a dark red ground infilled with a coin-like roundel bearing a woman's profile in brown picked out in gold; similar initials, 5-line, beginning other books: f. 24, in blue on a brown ground placed over an amphora; f. 35v, in red on a blue ground over a sea centaur playing a lyre; f. 51, in red on a green ground over a putto carrying a shield; f. 66, in green on a red ground over a putto playing a flute. Rubrics, running headlines and extensive marginalia in the hand of the scribe, all in pale red ink. Acknowledgments: We thank Prof. Lilian Armstrong for the attribution of the decoration to the Master of the Putti, and for the relevant information about other manuscripts. Assigned Date: s. XV2. Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 7/31/2012. Cataloged from existing description: C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Bound, s. XV, in blind stamped goatskin now laid down on a nineteenth century calf binding over bevelled boards; the stamp forms a rope design in a wider outer and a narrow inner frame, and, in the center, a cross; gilt edges. HM 1031. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Written in Venice and decorated by the Master of the Putti, who flourished between 1469 and 1473, for a member of the Venetian Erizzo family, whose coat of arms appears on f. 2: azure, on a bend or a hedgehog sable and the initial E (Rietstap, vol. 2, pl. 274). The Erizzo family owned three other manuscripts decorated by the Master of the Putti workshop; see Armstrong, Renaissance Miniature Painters, 6. Below the text on f. 85v the initials"P.E.A.F." may signify"Paulus Erizzo Antonii Filius" (fl. 1473-1503?). The same scribe copied Oxford, Bod. Lib., Buchanan e.15, Fenestella, De magistratibus romanorum (Pächt and Alexander, 2, n. 558) and Vienna, Nat. Bibl., Cod. 3180, Sallust, Opera (H. J. Hermann, Die Handschriften der italienischen Renaissance, 2. Oberitalien: Venetien. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der illuminierten Handschriften in österreich vol. 8 pt. 6, Leipzig 1931, n. 24). The Bodleian and Vienna manuscripts by this scribe also bear the Erizzo arms and the same initials (reversed in the Bodleian manuscript:"P.E.F.A."). On f. 1, the partially erased acquisition note of the noble Paduan Marsilio Papafava:"1658 24 Decembre. Questo manoscrito fu comprato da me Marsilio Papafava con molti altri da Messer Paolo Fasolati per ducati venti." Owned by William Morris (1834-96); cataloguing notes on this manuscript in the hand of Sir Sydney Cockerell in Library files. Morris' manuscripts sold at his death to Richard Bennett; this manuscript among those re-sold by Bennett, Sotheby's, 5 December 1898, lot 365 to B. F. Stevens. Belonged to Robert Hoe: Cat. (1909) 13-14; his sale, Anderson, New York, 1911, pt. I, n. 2122 to G. D. Smith. Precise source and date of acquisition by Henry E. Huntington unknown.
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