Chronica: MS 285

Titles

Chronica

Maker(s)

Author: Eusebius Pamphilii
Scribe: Pollini, Domenico di Niccolò

Entities

• Other

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, i modern paper flyleaf + ii parchment flyleaves + 76 fols. + ii parchment flyleaves + i modern paper flyleaf, 370 x 267 mm (255 x 175 mm, width variable), two or three columns, 40 lines, ruled in hardpoint, alphabetical quire marks in red ink.

BINDING: eighteenth century, diced and polished brown calf over wooden boards, with gilt tooling on boards, edges and turn-ins, the alternating palmettes and fleur-de-lys motifs characteristic of bindings from the collection of Dr Anthony Askew (1722-1774).

CONTENTS:
fols. 1r-3r Prefaces of Jerome and Eusebius
fols. 3r-71r Eusebius, Chronica in the Latin version of St Jerome
fols. 71v-73v Jerome’s continuation
fols. 73v-76v Continuation of Prosper of Aquitaine, ending Valentiniano .vi. & nono consulibus. Hic finit prosper post hieronymum. v. dcxlvi.

ORMAMENTATION: Ten white vine-scroll initials [4-5 ll.] in gold on square grounds of blue, dark red and green for major divisions in prose sections (fols. 1r-5v); the text is written in brown and red, with divisions marked by red paraph marks for text in brown, and blue paraph marks for text in red; record of Christ’s birth added in gold (fol. 63r).

Notes

History note: Part of the library of Mario Maffei of Volterra (1463-1537) (erased ownership inscription on fol. 1r, repeated in modern pencil on fol. ii verso: De figli et h[er]edi de M. Mario Maffei); Dr Anthony Askew (1722-1774); his sale at Leigh’s, March 1785; bought by Michael Wodhull (notes on fol. i recto: ‘Leigh’s Auction. Dr Askew’s manuscripts. M: Wodhull, Mar. 12th 1785’); his sale, Sotheby’s, 11 January 1886, lot 1045; bought by Ellis; Sidney Graves Hamilton (1855¬-1916), Fellow and Librarian of Hertford College, Oxford (armorial bookplate inside upper cover); sold at Sotheby’s, July 26 1917, lot 478; bought by Leighton; purchased for the Fitzwilliam Museum in August 1917.