Vitae duodecim Caesarum: MS 5-1954

Titles

Vitae duodecim Caesarum

Maker(s)

Author: Suetonius
Artist: Firenze, Andrea da
Scribe: Monasterio, Johannes Hornsen de

Entities

• Other

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, ii paper flyleaves + 168 fols. + ii paper flyleaves, 255 x 170 mm (177 x 93 mm), 31 long lines, ruled in hardpoint, catchwords, running headers

BINDING: Early eighteenth century, mottled calf over pasteboards, arms of a cardinal of the Cibo family gold-stamped on both covers, mottled edges

CONTENTS: fols. 1r-167v Suetonius, Vitae duodecim Caesarum.

ORNAMENTATION: One white vine-scroll initial [A, 8 ll.] in gold on a ground of pink, blue and green, with vine-scroll edged in gold, within a square gold frame, accompanied by a full border of vine-scroll on ground of punched gold, pink, blue, and green, framed by narrow gold bands and inhabited by birds and putti, in the lower bar, a shield of arms (gules, two maces in saltire or, heads in chief, joined at the base by a knot or) within concentric gold bands between which can be read a partially erased inscription: [IO. BAT]TI[STA] DE MVTIS (fol. 1r); eleven white vine-scroll initials [8 ll.] with letters in punched gold on grounds of punched gold, pink, green and blue extending to form three-quarter borders with birds, butterflies, insects, gold discs and pen flourishing, for the start of each book (fols. 23v, 55r, 76v, 95v, 111r (a large grasshopper), 130v, 137v, 141v, 147v, 155r, 159r).

ORNAMENTATION: One white vine-scroll initial [A, 8 ll.] in gold on a ground of pink, blue and green, with vine-scroll edged in gold, within a square gold frame, accompanied by a full border of vine-scroll on ground of punched gold, pink, blue, and green, framed by narrow gold bands and inhabited by birds and putti, in the lower bar, a shield of arms (gules, two maces in saltire or, heads in chief, joined at the base by a knot or) within concentric gold bands between which can be read a partially erased inscription: [IO. BAT]TI[STA] DE MVTIS (fol. 1r); eleven white vine-scroll initials [8 ll.] with letters in punched gold on grounds of punched gold, pink, green and blue extending to form three-quarter borders with birds, butterflies, insects, gold discs and pen flourishing, for the start of each book (fols. 23v, 55r, 76v, 95v, 111r (a large grasshopper), 130v, 137v, 141v, 147v, 155r, 159r).

Notes

History note: Made for Giovan Battista Muti in Rome c.1460 (arms of Muti of Rome with inscription on fol. 1r); later owned by a Cardinal of the Cibo family (arms on binding), probably Camillo di Carlo Cibo (d. 1743); oval ink stamp of later owner, now erased (fol. 1v); possibly part of the collection of J.T. Payne; sold at Sotheby’s, 21 June 1860, lot 301; bought from Quaritch in 1860 by Henry H. Gibbs, first Lord Aldenham (1819-1907) (note on fol ii recto: Henry H. Gibbs St Dunstan’s 1860. Bought of Quaritch; armorial bookplate inside upper cover); sold at Sotheby’s, 22-24 March 1937, lot 329; bought from Davis & Orioli, 7 September 1943, by Viscount Lee of Fareham (armorial bookplate on recto of first flyleaf); his bequest, 1947, received in 1954.