Details

Subject(s)

• Latin drama (Comedy)—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Rome—Social life and customs—Drama [Browse]
• Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)—Italy—Naples [Browse]
• Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]
• Illumination of books and manuscripts [Browse]

Former owner

• Kane, Grenville, 1854-1943 [Browse]

Bookseller

• Maggs Bros [Browse]

Related name

• Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Kane MS. 25. [Browse]

Library of Congress genre(s)

• Drama [Browse]

Notes

• Script: Semi-Gothic.
• Decoration: One 4-line white vine-stem initial N, with blue, green, pink, and gold, within blue square surround, for the opening of Andria, fol. 1r, very similar in style to Roman decoration of the period. Space was left for unexecuted initials of 4 to 5 lines for play openings on fols. 26v, 55r, 81r, and 131r. Remaining arguments, prologues, and scenes open with undecorated red initials of 3 to 5 lines.

Binding note

Italy, 15th century. Brown leather over slightly beveled oak boards (7 mm thick); blind stamped with floral and geometric ornaments within five concentric rectangles formed by 4-5 parallel lines; rebacked and reornered.

Provenance

Kane MS. 25 was completed in Naples in December 1448, according to colophon on fol. 157v. Early provenance is unknown. Intermediate provenance is unknown. It was among the manuscripts of Giovanni Saibante and [Abate] Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727-1805), whose libraries were respectively in Verona and Venice. [Abate] Luigi Celotti (ca. 1746-1846) brought the libraries to England, where they were sold at Sotheby's, London, in February 1821. According to a marked copy of the Sotheby's catalogue in the collection of Paul Needham, the buyer was the London antiquarian bookseller Francis Edwards. The manuscript was next in the stock of the London antiquarian bookseller Maggs Bros., which offered it in their Catalogue 330 (1914), no. 235. The manuscript was purchased by Grenville Kane (1854-1943), of Tuxedo Park, N.Y. His bookplate is on inside front cover. Princeton University Library acquired the manuscript from Kane's heirs in 1946.

References

Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, page 56-59.

Cite as

Kane MS. 25, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

OCLC

1101935221

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...