Five leaves from a copy of Notitia Dignitatum: MS 86-1972

Titles

Five leaves from a copy of Notitia Dignitatum
Notitia Dignitatum

Maker(s)

Scribe: Angeli de Aquila, Antonius

Entities

• Leaf (manuscript)
• Fragment (manuscript)
• Other

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, iv paper flyleaves + 5 fols. (guarded on parchment, interleaved with modern paper and bound out of order, in the original volume they would have appeared in the following order, though not as consecutive leaves: fol. 5, fol. 2, fol. 3, fol. 4, fol. 1) + iv paper flyleaves, 242-265 x 188-195 mm (210-220 x 145-185 mm), two columns, varying number of lines, ruled in pale brown ink.

BINDING: 1980, quarter brown morocco, marbled paper over wooden boards, by the Cockerell bindery; when Francis Wormald purchased the manuscript, the leaves were stitched onto parchment guards and bound within pasteboards covered in brown paper (preserved with re-bound manuscript).

CONTENTS:
fol. 1r-1v Notitia dignitatum, In partibus Occidentis, Preses Dalmatie (Seeck 1876, i), with full-page miniature on fol. 1r and on fol. 1v one column with 17 lines of text, inc. Sub iuris [dictione] viri perfectissimi presidis Dalmatie…expl. Ceteri presides ad similitudinem presidis Dalmatie officium habe[n]t, followed by scribal colophon, Explicit Mappa Mundi scriptum per Antonium Angeli de Aquila. Sub Anno domini Millesimo cccc xxvij de mense Julij die xiij eiusdem mensis etc.

fol. 2r Notitia dignitatum, In partibus Orientis, Consularis Palestine (Seeck 1876, xxxiv), with large miniature and two columns with eight lines of text beneath, inc. Sub dispositione clarissimi consularis Palestine

fol. 2v Notitia dignitatum, In partibus Orientis, Preses Thebaidos (Seeck 1876, xvii),
with large miniature and two columns with eight lines of text beneath, inc. Sub dispositione viri clarissimi presidis Tebaido

fol. 3r Notitia dignitatum, In partibus Occidentis, Magister scriniorum (Seeck 1876, xvii), with large miniature and three lines of text beneath, inc. Magister memorie annotationes omnes dictat…expl. Magister libellorum cogitationes et preces tractat

fol. 3v Notitia dignitatum, In partibus Occidentis, Proconsul Africe (Seeck 1876, xviii), with large miniature and three lines of text beneath, inc. Sub dispositione viri spectabilis proconsulis Africe…expl. Officium (without the list of officials)

fol. 4r-4v Notitia dignitatum, In partibus Occidentis, Dux provincie Valerie (Seeck 1876, xxxiii), with full page miniature on fol. 4r and on fol. 4v two columns with 36 lines of text containing a list of the officials of the province, inc. Sub dispositione viri spectabilis ducis provincie Valerie ripensis: Cuneus equitum…expl. Singulares et reliquos officiales

fol. 5r-5v Notitia dignitatum, In partibus Orientis, Vicarius diocesos (sic) Pontice (Seeck 1876, xxv), with full page miniature on fol. 5r and on fol. 5v a column with 28 lines of text containing a list of the Pontic provinces and their officials, inc. Sub dispositione viri spectabilis vicarii diocesos (sic) pontice provincie infra scripte: Bithinia…, expl. Vicarius pontice xii

DECORATION: Three full-page and four large framed miniatures: fol. 1r Preses Dalmatie, Theca with two imperial portraits and blue cloth-covered table with Book of Mandates in upper tier, in lower tier walled city with six crenellated towers labelled Provincia Dalmacie; fol. 2r Consularis Palestine, Male personification of Palestine enthroned beneath the city gate of Jerusalem and holding standard inscribed Provincia Palestina on left, on right the insignia of the Consularis of Palestine: theca with two imperial portraits, blue cloth-covered table with codicillus and golden cornucopia filled with pieces of gold; fol. 2v Preses Thebaidos, Blue cloth-covered table with Book of Mandates in upper tier, in lower tier walled city with six crenellated towers; fol. 3r Magister scriniorum, Three pairs of codices in upper tier corresponding to the three magistri scriniorum in the western part of the Roman Empire, as listed in the caption beneath: [magister] memoriae, [magister] epistolarum and [magister] libellorum, in lower tiers four bundles of scrolls, three codices, tabella with Greek writing, and three individual scrolls; fol. 3v Proconsul Africe, Female personification of Carthage, the administrative centre of the Province of Africa, with crown and halo, holding two branches (sheaves of grain), and flanked by a theca with two imperial portraits and a blue cloth-covered table with a codicillary leaf in upper tier, in lower tier two merchant ships, each carrying ten sacks of grain; fol. 4r Dux provincie Valerie, Book of Mandates and epistola (scroll) in upper left-hand corner, followed by twenty forts labelled: Solue, Hitercisa, Nuncinercisa, Conradcuba, Alrino, Odiabo, Grumero, Solua, Adherculem, Cipri, Constantiam, Campona, Vetusalina, Matrice, Intercisa, Adnamantia, Lussonio, Ripaalta, Adstatuas, Florentia; fol. 5r Vicarius diocesos (sic) Pontice, Theca with two imperial portraits, blue cloth-covered table with Book of Mandates and epistola (scroll), and eleven crowned and nimbed female personifications of the Pontic provinces carrying dishes full of gold coins.

Notes

History note: Giordano Orsini, Archbishop of Naples (1400-1404) and Cardinal (1405-1438), identifiable with Liber de armis et insigniis Romanorum antiquorum et de Istris Bellicis in ipsis listed among Cardinal Orsini’s manuscripts in a catalogue compiled in 1434 (Cancellieri 1786, II, 895, 909; Schnabel 1926, 243); at some point after Cardinal Orsini’s death in 1438 the manuscript passed into the Royal Library at Naples, probably the Liber de insignibus Romanorum in inventory B of the Aragonese library sent to Lorenzo the Magnificent (de Marinis 1947-1952, II, 197, item 176); at the Carthusian house at Saragossa by 1580, where it was consulted by Jerónimo Zurita (1512-1580); removed from there in 1626 by Gaspar de Guzmán, Duke of Olivares (1587-1645), and listed in the 1627 inventory of his library, shelf-mark ‘Cax. 12, numero 6’ (de Andrés 1972, 5-6 and 1973, 52, no. 947; see also Maier 1969, 1003-1004 no. 1); to his nephew Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, Marques of Eliche y Carpio (1629-1687); left by him, together with other books in his possession, to the house of the Discalced Carmelites at Seville; taken to the house of the Discalced Austin Friars at Lyon, no. 57 in a catalogue of their library compiled c.1700 (Martin 1885-1899, VIII, 253, no. 57); probably in England by 1852 when Frederick Sandys (1829-1904) used three other leaves from the same manuscript (present whereabouts unknown) to make watercolour copies for the Rev. James Bulwer (1794-1879), which are now in the Burwell collection in Norwich (Castle Museum and Art Gallery, NWHCM 1951.235.1223.B21-B23); pressmark ‘N 114’ written in pencil on every leaf; London, Puttick and Simpson’s, 10-13 July 1861, lot 705 (vendor unknown); purchased for £6-7-6 by Molini for Guglielmo Libri (1803-1869); his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 23-29 July 1862, lot 342; purchased for £21 by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), his MS 16397; purchased from Messrs Robinson by Francis Wormald (1904-1972) in 1948; presented to the Museum by Mrs Wormald in 1972 in accordance with her late husband’s wishes.