Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 205: Flavio Biondo, Historia ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii

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Abstract/Contents

Summary
MS 205 contains a mid-fifteenth-century copy of Flavio Biondo (1392-1463), Historia ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii probably made in Florence, c. 1442. Although Thomas James' catalogue records the presence of this manuscript in Corpus Christi by 1600, it does not appear in Parker's register. The volume appears to have been intended as a gift for Thomas Beckington (1390?-1465), bishop of Bath and Wells, who was a correspondent of Biondo.
Contents
Historia ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii

Description

Alternative title Flavius Blondus
Type of resource mixed material
Extent ff. 202
Date created [ca. 1442]
Language Latin
Material Vellum
Layout 36 lines to a page
Height (mm) 310
Width (mm) 223
Collation 1(10)-4(10) 5(6) 6(10)-20(10) 21 (six).
Writing in a good Italic hand
Foliation ff. i-ii + 1-202 + iii-iv
Provenance Fol. 1r has a very fine full border of massive gold and colour, of characteristic Florentine work. Three times in the border occurs a blue shield with a representation of a barrel with a fire in it, set on an upright shaft upon a square base, and approached by a ladder. This is thought by George Williams, editor of the Correspondence of Bishop Bekynton (Rolls Series, I, xxxiii) to be the rebus of Thomas Bekynton (Beacon-tun), Bishop of Bath and Wells. Flavio Biondo (the author of the volume before us) was a correspondent of Bekynton's, and in a letter (I, p. 241) promises him a gift, which is probably this book. The letter in question was written at Florence in 1442.

Bibliographic information

M.R. James Date xv (about 1442)
Downloadable James Catalogue Record
Title
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:yn920sp9798/MS_205.pdf
Superseded Interim Catalogue Record
Title
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:hz522cw6398/205.pdf
Contains
Title
Flavio Biondo, Historia ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii. 1r-202v
Author
Flavio Biondo
Note
(1r) The initial has a half-length figure of a man in upright cylindrical red cap, and dark red robe, holding a book
This MS. contains the Third Decade of Flavius Blondus's Historia ab inclinatione Romani imperii, beginning
Incipit
(1r) Laetanti iam mihi et exultanti
Note
(Decas III, Liber I, ed. Basel, 1559, p. 393)
and proceeds to Lib. X of this Decade
Then follow two books of a fourth Decade, of which the first is identical with the xith book of Decas III in the Basel edition. The second is inedited: an extract relating to a mission to Abyssinia is printed by G. Williams (Correspondence of Bishop Bekynton II, 227)
The books begin as follows
(22v) Liber II
(42v) Liber III
(60v) Liber IV
(76v) Liber V (initial cut out)
(92r) Liber VI
(108v) Liber VII
(125r) Liber VIII
(139r) Liber IX
(156v) Liber X
Ending
Explicit
(172v) renouaturos expectare curauit
Rubric
(172v) Blondi Flavii Forliuiensis historiarum ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii decadis quartae liber primus
Incipit
(172v) Interea dum principio anni cuius gesta
Note
Partial border with curious flourishing in silver
Ends
Explicit
(189r) et in ueronensibus retenta
Rubric
(189r) Incipit quartae decadi(s) liber secundus foelicissime
Incipit
(189r) Annus hic primus et quadra[gra]gesimus supra millesimum et quadringentesimum
Note
Ends
Explicit
(202v) et pacis constituendae arbitrium audiendum cremonam conuocari curauit
Note
Each book has a fine initial on burnished gold (Liber IX on silver): and the first lines of each are in Roman hand
TJames 378
Stanley Lib. ab Al. 2
Location https://purl.stanford.edu/th326rk9801
Location MS 205
Repository UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Access conditions

Use and reproduction
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License
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Collection

Parker Manuscripts

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