Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini and Leonardo Bruni.

Format
Manuscript, Book
Language
Latin
Published/​Created
[England] : [Pieter Meghen], [between 1450 and 1475]
Description
1 volume (ii, 138, ii leaves) : parchment ; 27 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

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Special Collections - Manuscripts Princeton MS. 89 Browse related items Reading Room Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Former owner
    Translator
    Contains
    Notes
    • Contains Historia Bohemica by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini and Latin translations of selections from the original Greek history by Polybius.
    • Script: Humanistica antiqua.
    • Decoration: Each book opens with a 5- to 8-line burnished-gold initial on a blue and rose background with white tracery and penwork and green finials extending into the margins. A similar 4-line initial marks a division within the account of the First Punic War on fol. 101v, “Respon[si]o M. Attilii Consulis”). Other chapters and subsequent divisions marked with 2-line initials in blue or red, usually but not always alternating color.
    Binding note
    England, late 19th or early 20th century. Blindtooled brown morocco over pasteboard, with five raised bands and endbands with secondary sewing in brown, green, and tan; edges gilt.
    Contents
    • 1.1r: “Reverendo in Christo Patri et domino meo domino Christofero Wrsewyke Rachmundensium Archidiacono et magno regis elemosinario tuus Joannes Colet salutem dicit quam plurimam. Bohemicam historiam clarissime vir Christofore et pater grauissime ad te iam tandem misi ...” Explicit: “Tu vale humanissime Christofere et prudentissime pater, solatium profecto hominum et istius nostri regni magnum decus. Rome Kal. Aprilibus 1493.”
    • 2. 1v-80r: “Enee Silvii Piccolominei Senensis Cardinalis Sancte Sabine ad Alphonsum Aragonum Regem clarissimum in historiam Bohemicam: prologus. Interitura esse queque nascuntur, atque homines imprimis, quos ea de causa mortales appellant omnes norunt, plurimi damnant ...” Explicit: “Nobis persuasum est armis acquiri regna non legibus. Quo anno Eneas Siluius Piccolomineus Senensis Tituli sancte Sabine Cardinalis historiam hanc Bohemicam edidit assumptus est ad summum Pontificatum et nominatus Pivs Secundus, MCCCCLVIII. Finit Liber Quintus et vltimus Bohemice historie.”
    • 3.80v-129r: “Leonardi Aretini Philosophi Oratorisque clarissimi in historiam Primi belli punici Prologus Incipit. Vereor ne qui me putent antiqua nimia consectari si commentaria Primi Punici Belli perscribere, ac obscuratum iam pridem illarum rerum memoriam in hac demum etate nostra reuocare ad lucem aggrediar ...” Explicit: “... captiuique alii in triumphum ducti et supplicio affecti sunt. Bellum Conductorum Kartaginensium et rebellium post primum bellicum punicum feliciter finit.”
    • 4.129r-138v: “Bellum Gallicum ex Greco in latinum Translatum per Leonardum Aretinum Incipit feliciter. Post pacem igitur in Scicilia (!) cum Romanis factam Karthaginenses ista gessere. Romani vero post eam pacem aduersus Hilliryos ...” Explicit: “Per idem tempus C. Attilius alter consul per litteras Senatus e Sardinia accitus Pisas nauibus adue||”
    Provenance
    Princeton MS. 89 was written by the Flemish scribe Pieter Meghen. By 1745 the manuscript was in the newly furnished library of Blickling Hall, built in the early 17th century in the village of Blickling, north of Aylsham, in Norfolk, having passed by inheritance after the death of Sir Richard Ellys to the Marquis of Lothian. The present manuscript was one of eight of Ellys's manuscripts in the collection of Philip Henry Kerr (1882-1940), the 11th marquis of Lothian, sold in New York at an Anderson Galleries auction on 27 January 1932. Senator David Aiken Reed (1880-1953), of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Class of 1900, acquired the present manuscript at the Lothian sale; his signature, dated 1932, is on the front pastedown and his pencil acquisition note “Lothian 32 LDXXV” is found on the back pastedown. His widow, Edna French Reed, donated the manuscript to the Princeton University Library in 1953. The manuscript was accessioned in 1955 as AM 15461g.
    Source acquisition
    Gift; Edna French Reed, 1953.
    References
    Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, pages 302-305.
    Cite as
    Princeton MS. 89, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
    OCLC
    1108730789
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