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Alternative title

Flavius Blondus

Type of resource

mixed material

Extent

ff. 202

Date created

[ca. 1442]

Language

Latin

Material

Vellum

Layout

36 lines to a page

Height (mm)

310

Width (mm)

223

Collation

1(10)-4(10) 5(6) 6(10)-20(10) 21 (six).

Writing

in a good Italic hand

Foliation

ff. i-ii + 1-202 + iii-iv

Provenance

Fol. 1r has a very fine full border of massive gold and colour, of characteristic Florentine work. Three times in the border occurs a blue shield with a representation of a barrel with a fire in it, set on an upright shaft upon a square base, and approached by a ladder. This is thought by George Williams, editor of the Correspondence of Bishop Bekynton (Rolls Series, I, xxxiii) to be the rebus of Thomas Bekynton (Beacon-tun), Bishop of Bath and Wells. Flavio Biondo (the author of the volume before us) was a correspondent of Bekynton's, and in a letter (I, p. 241) promises him a gift, which is probably this book. The letter in question was written at Florence in 1442.

Summary

MS 205 contains a mid-fifteenth-century copy of Flavio Biondo (1392-1463), Historia ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii probably made in Florence, c. 1442. Although Thomas James' catalogue records the presence of this manuscript in Corpus Christi by 1600, it does not appear in Parker's register. The volume appears to have been intended as a gift for Thomas Beckington (1390?-1465), bishop of Bath and Wells, who was a correspondent of Biondo.

Contents

Historia ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii

M.R. James Date

xv (about 1442)

Downloadable James Catalogue Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:yn920sp9798/MS_205.pdf

Superseded Interim Catalogue Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:hz522cw6398/205.pdf

Contains

• Flavio Biondo, Historia ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii. 1r-202v

  Author

  Flavio Biondo

  Note

  (1r) The initial has a half-length figure of a man in upright cylindrical red cap, and dark red robe, holding a book
  This MS. contains the Third Decade of Flavius Blondus's Historia ab inclinatione Romani imperii, beginning

  Incipit

  (1r) Laetanti iam mihi et exultanti

  Note

  (Decas III, Liber I, ed. Basel, 1559, p. 393)
  and proceeds to Lib. X of this Decade
  Then follow two books of a fourth Decade, of which the first is identical with the xith book of Decas III in the Basel edition. The second is inedited: an extract relating to a mission to Abyssinia is printed by G. Williams (Correspondence of Bishop Bekynton II, 227)
  The books begin as follows
  (22v) Liber II
  (42v) Liber III
  (60v) Liber IV
  (76v) Liber V (initial cut out)
  (92r) Liber VI
  (108v) Liber VII
  (125r) Liber VIII
  (139r) Liber IX
  (156v) Liber X
  Ending

  Explicit

  (172v) renouaturos expectare curauit

  Rubric

  (172v) Blondi Flavii Forliuiensis historiarum ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii decadis quartae liber primus

  Incipit

  (172v) Interea dum principio anni cuius gesta

  Note

  Partial border with curious flourishing in silver
  Ends

  Explicit

  (189r) et in ueronensibus retenta

  Rubric

  (189r) Incipit quartae decadi(s) liber secundus foelicissime

  Incipit

  (189r) Annus hic primus et quadra[gra]gesimus supra millesimum et quadringentesimum

  Note

  Ends

  Explicit

  (202v) et pacis constituendae arbitrium audiendum cremonam conuocari curauit

  Note

  Each book has a fine initial on burnished gold (Liber IX on silver): and the first lines of each are in Roman hand

TJames

378

Stanley

Lib. ab Al. 2

Repository

UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Location

MS 205

Use and reproduction:

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