Virgil’s Aeneid
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Place |
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Repository | University of Western Australia Library |
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Collection | Special Collections |
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Shelf mark | RARE Q873.01 V814 |
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Former shelf mark |
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Manuscript name |
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Name | Virgil’s Aeneid |
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Contents |
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Summary |
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Physical description |
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Support | Paper. Watermark: ox’s head surmounted with seven-petalled flower - type of Briquet 14785, 14787, 14789, 1492: a mid fifteenth-century mark, found in Northern Italy (Bergamo) and in Germany as far North as Brandenburg |
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Dimensions | 275 x 195 mm; leaves 11 by 7 3/4 ins. - 279 x 193 mm. |
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Extent | 205 folios, with one final blank, but lacking other blanks at both ends |
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Collation | Collation uncertain; gathering at front of 6 or 8 leaves and from viii of 10, last now of 5 |
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Catchwords | No catchwords |
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Signatures | No signatures |
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Foliation | Early foliation to f. 26 only. Book numbers supplied at the top of the page in an early hand |
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Condition | Waterstains, almost entirely marginal, from f. 131-141 and from f. 184-end; but in very clean sound condition with wide margins |
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Layout |
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Scribes |
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Scripts | Written in a large gothic text hand in dark brown ink, the interlinear gloss in a light ink. Corrections and additions in a sixteenth-century hand on f. 84b. |
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Decoration | Coat of arms (coloured) on opening folio. Five-line decorative initial A on f. 1, with white and blue ornament and penwork infilling and marginal prolongation. Initial letter to each book and preliminary verse in blue with puce penwork infilling or red with red infilling. Pointing hand on f. 85. |
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Musical notation |
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Binding | 1825: "superb" red velvet binding 1976: Red velvet (spine worn), gilt fifteenth-century centre- and corner-bosses, clasps and catches. This is not the original binding, but it could be a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century rebinding re-using the medieval metalwork. The edges are red (not gilt as one would expect with a medieval velvet binding). The present endleaves are marbled and date from the early nineteenth century. Size of binding: 295 x 220 mm. After its acquisition by the University of Western Australia, the manuscript was re-bound in modern red library buckram, with the bosses, clasps and catches retained. |
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Seals |
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Accompanying material |
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History |
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Origin | Northern Italy (or just possibly South Germany); mid-fifteenth century |
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Provenance | (1) A coat of arms, azure, five lozenges conjoined in bend or, (within a laurel wreath) has been added at the foot of f. 1 a few years after the completion of the text. These arms were born by Langen (Westphalia) and de la Motte-Baraffe (Brabant), but no Italian claimant is recorded. (2) Abbe Celotti; his sale, Sotheby's, 14 March 1825, lot 321, price 22 pounds: "superbly bound in crimson velvet with gilt clasps and catches". It was described in the sale catalogue as "From the Mocenigo Library at Venice". (3) Phillipps MS. 988 and 2878, entered twice in error. Phillipps' crest, etc., stencilled on blank leaf. (4) Sotheby's sale, 30 November 1976: Bibliotheca Phillippica; Medieval manuscripts. New Series: pt. 11 : catalogue of manuscripts on papyrus, vellum and paper .... (lot 878), price US$1,320.90 (5) Alan G. Thomas sale 1977: Catalogue 36, lot 5 (1,250 pounds)
Mocenigo Library, Venice. Abbe Luigi Cellotti (ms. 321). Sold by Sotheby's in 1825 for 22 pounds. Phillipps MS. 2878. Sold by Sotheby's in 1976 for 1,320.90 pounds. Sold by Alan G. Thomas in 1977 for 3,000.00. |
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Acquisition | Bought from Alan G. Thomas (Catalogue 36, 1977, lot 5) for 1,250 pounds. Purchased and donated by the Friends of the UWA Library |
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Bibliography |
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Bibliography list |
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Analysis |
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Commentary |
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Description by | UWA Library staff, based on Alan G. Thomas, Catalogue 76 (1977) |
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Acknowledgements |
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Other descriptions |
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Digital copies |
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