Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 158: Cicero (M. Tullius Cicero), De inuentione. pseudo-Cicero, De ratione dicendi ad Herennium (Rhetorica ad Herennium)

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Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 158: Cicero (M. Tullius Cicero), De inuentione. pseudo-Cicero, De ratione dicendi ad Herennium (Rhetorica ad Herennium)

Alternate Title:

M. T. Ciceronis Rhetorica

Language:

Latin

Extent:

ff. 136 + 3

Dimensions:

290 Height (mm) and 200 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1400 - 1499]

Provenance:

At top of f. 1r (xvi): Liber quondam Theodori Archiepi Cantuariensis Doubtless the book was found by Parker at Canterbury and he was deceived by the Roman script into thinking it an early work.

Table of contents:

Show

• De inuentione
• De ratione dicendi ad Herennium (Rhetorica ad Herennium)

Description:

The text and script of CCCC MS 158, dating to c. 1450-1475, are a very good example of the sort of manuscript made for English humanists of the middle years of the fifteenth century. It is a copy of two works of Cicero on rhetoric. It was written in Italian-influenced humanist script by the scribe, John Pacy, who also worked on Cambridge, Pembroke MS 235, which is dated 1464. M. R. James thought that it came from the cathedral priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, but it does not appear to be listed in the catalogue. Matthew Parker, misled by the Roman form of the script, notes on f. 1 that the book belonged to Theodore, the seventh-century archbishop of Canterbury. The book contains fine decorative initials containing grotesques and dragons in grisaille.