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Miscellaneous patristic texts on Saint John Climacus and the Scala paradisi.

Accession number
MS M.496
Object title
Miscellaneous patristic texts on Saint John Climacus and the Scala paradisi.
Created
Florence, Italy, Dec. 4, 1488.
Binding
Formerly Italian, 18th-century vellum over light boards; rebound by Deborah Evetts, in brown slip case.
Credit line
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1912.
Description
225 leaves (1 column, 32 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 345 x 230 mm
Provenance
Written and illuminated for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary; manuscript returned to Italy with Beatrice of Aragon after the death of Corvinus; in the collection of Giovan Francesco De Rossi (Giovanni Francesco Rossi) and Luisa Carlotta di Borbone (daughter of Lodovico, Duke of Parma), his wife; the Jesuit College at Wien-Lainz; Voynich, Florence; Tammaro De Marinis, Florence (catalogue 12, 1913, no. 15 and plate; listed as sold); purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Alexandre Imbert in 1912; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).
Notes
Ms. miscellany of patristic texts; written and illuminated in Florence, Italy, and dated Dec. 4, 1488.
Texts: Didymus Alexandrinus (Didymus the Blind), De Spiritu Sancto (fol. 2-37v); Paschasius diaconus, De Spiritu Sancto (fol. 38-62v); Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Epistolae (fol. 63-87v); Saint Proclus, Laudatio in sanctissimam Dei gentricem Mariam (fol. 88-91v); Daniel monacus (Daniel, monk of Raithou), Vitae sancti Joannis Climaci (fol. 93-96v); Joannes, abbas Raithensis (John, Hegumenos of Raithou), Epistola ad sanctum Joannem Climacum (fol. 96v-97); and Joannes Climacus (Saint John Climacus), Epistola ad Joannem abbatem Raithensis (fol. 97-98) and Scala paradisi (fol. 98-224v); colophon (224v); list of rubrics (fol. 225-225v).
Scribe: Sigismondo de'Sigismondi, who has signed and dated the colophon on fol. 224v.
Decoration: 1 full-page historiated frontispiece, 1 circular table of contents with emblems of Matthias Corvinus, 1 historiated initial, and 4 large illuminated initals with borders.
Artist: attributed to Monte di Giovanni di Miniato.
Script
Roman letters and humanistic script
Language
Latin
Classification