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De re rustica.

Accession number
MS M.139
Object title
De re rustica.
Created
Italy, probably Milan, 1469
Binding
18th-century red morocco with stamped arms of the Sandri, counts of Monbasilio, descendants of the Del Carretto family; in a maroon case lettered: Columella - De Re Rustica - Libri XIII-XV.
Credit line
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1902.
Description
185 leaves (1 column, 29 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 270 x 190 mm
Provenance
Written for a member of the Del Carretto family (arms on title page), finished Sept. 10, 1469; inherited by the Sandri, counts of Monbasilio (their arms on cover); Duke of Hamilton Collection (Hamilton Palace Library, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland); sold privately in 1883 with the Hamilton Collection to the Royal Museum of Berlin (The Hamilton Palace libraries: catalogue of the Hamilton Collection of manuscripts, 1882, no. 184); resold with a portion of the Hamilton Collection returned from Berlin (London, Sotheby's, May 23, 1889, lot 50) to Butler (?); William Morris; purchased from Morris's estate in 1897 by Richard Bennett; Catalogue of manuscripts and early printed books from the libraries of William Morris, Richard Bennett, Bertram, fourth Earl of Ashburnham, and other sources, no. 109; purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) with the Bennett Collection in 1902; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).
Notes
Ms. agricultural treatise; written and illuminated in Italy, probably Milan, in 1469.
Decoration: 1 16-line miniature; 18 historiated medallions; 3 decorated initials; 1 page with full bianchi girari border; 13 pages with headpiece, tailpiece, and left border in bianchi girari.
Scribe: Henriecus Roffinus de Murialdo; who signed and dated the manuscript on fol. 184v: Henriecus Roffinus de Murialdo scripsit MCCCClxviiij die x septembris.
Artist: attributed to the Maestro delle Ore Birago (Pavia, fl. ca. 1460-ca.1480), one of two hands in Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.454.
Script
italic
Language
Latin
Century
Classification