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De amicitia (MS M.882).

Accession number
MS M.882
Object title
De amicitia (MS M.882).
Display Date
ca. 1495.
Created
Rome, Italy, ca. 1495.
Binding
19th-century brown morocco, gilt to a 16th-century Italian design, on spine in gold: Ciceronis de Oratio
Credit line
Gift; William S. Glazier; December, 1956.
Description
115 leaves (1 column, 22 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 170 x 110 mm.
Provenance
Executed for Cardinal Raphael Riario (1451-1521, his arms on fol.1: per fess azure and or, a cinquefoil or on the first, surmounted by a cross and red hat; his devices: the rudder of a galleon, a bunch of flowers, a pair of doves; mottoes: Sola mors, Sic perpetuo (?), Hoc opus, Humana Fluctuant); owned in the 19th century by "a certain Gutenberg archdeacon whose name is inscribed on fol. 42" [this according to binder description; the inscription is barely legible under UV light]; Prince Lichnowsky Library (crowned monogram BPL in lower right corner of fol. 42); Sotheby's sale (London, 20 June 1900, lot 32); Sotheby's sale (London, 11 December 1956, lot 10); gift of Mr. William S. Glazier, December, 1956.
Notes
Ms. classical literature; written and illuminated in Rome, Italy, ca. 1495.
Texts: Cicero, Pro lege manilia (fols. 1-29); Pro M. Marcello ad patres conscriptos (fols. 29v-41v); Laelius sive de Amicitia (fols. 42-80); De senectute (fols. 80v-115).
Manuscript is not dated 1495 as stated in the literature; it has been dated by association with another Cicero made for the same patron, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum: Cicero, De Officiis, London, V&A, MS L.1609-1954, dated 2 November 1495.
Decoration: 4 historiated initials on 4 title pages with architectural borders.
Artist: attributed to Lauro Padovano by Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt.
Scribe: Bartolomeo Sanvito.
Script
humanistic cursive
Language
Latin
Century
Classification