Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 158: Cicero (M. Tullius Cicero), De inuentione. pseudo-Cicero, De ratione dicendi ad Herennium (Rhetorica ad Herennium)
Abstract/Contents
- Summary
- The text and script of CCCC MS 158, dating to c. 1450-1475, are a very good example of the sort of manuscript made for English humanists of the middle years of the fifteenth century. It is a copy of two works of Cicero on rhetoric. It was written in Italian-influenced humanist script by the scribe, John Pacy, who also worked on Cambridge, Pembroke MS 235, which is dated 1464. M. R. James thought that it came from the cathedral priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, but it does not appear to be listed in the catalogue. Matthew Parker, misled by the Roman form of the script, notes on f. 1 that the book belonged to Theodore, the seventh-century archbishop of Canterbury. The book contains fine decorative initials containing grotesques and dragons in grisaille.
- Contents
- De inuentione -- De ratione dicendi ad Herennium (Rhetorica ad Herennium)
Description
| Alternative title | M. T. Ciceronis Rhetorica |
|---|---|
| Type of resource | mixed material |
| Extent | ff. 136 + 3 |
| Date created | [ca. 1400 - 1499] |
| Language | Latin |
| Material | Vellum |
| Layout | double columns of 27 lines |
| Height (mm) | 290 |
| Width (mm) | 200 |
| Collation | a(2) A(8)-R(8) b(1). |
| Writing | in a beautiful Roman hand rather sloped, but not by and Italian scribe |
| Foliation | ff. i-ii + a-b + 1-136 + c + iii-iv |
| Provenance | At top of f. 1r (xvi): Liber quondam Theodori Archiepi Cantuariensis Doubtless the book was found by Parker at Canterbury and he was deceived by the Roman script into thinking it an early work. |
| Research | Mr E. H. Minns of Pembroke College has called attention to the probable identity of the scribe of this MS. with the scribe of the Pembroke College MS. no. 235, who gives his name as John Pacy, Chaplain, with the date 1464. There is no decorative work in the Pembroke MS. |
| Decoration | The decorative initials are very beautiful. The letter is in gold: coloured foliage (pale brown) surrounds it on a ground, parti-coloured, of blue and red dotted with white: these grounds have sharply cusped edges. There are finely painted grotesque figures in grisaille and dragons (compare this with MS 285).Sub-sections have plain gold initials. |
Bibliographic information
| M.R. James Date | xv |
|---|---|
| Downloadable James Catalogue Record | |
| Superseded Interim Catalogue Record | |
| Contains |
|
| TJames | 231 |
| Stanley | O. 28 |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/sp902vq7011 |
| Location | MS 158 |
| Repository | UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Collection
Parker Manuscripts
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