Anonymous, I fatti di Cesare, in Italian [Italy, 14th century]

c.290x220mm, paper, i+99+i (flyleaves medieval parchment), watermark in the form of a crossbow (similar to Briquet nos.714–715), f.3 lost at an early date and replaced with a blank, otherwise apparently complete, foliated in ink 1–2, 4–99, based on catchwords originally in quires of 10 leaves, with catchwords on ff.9v, 19v, etc. to 89v, but medieval rebinding in quires of 12: i-vii12, viii12+2-1 (bifolium added after f.97, leaf cancelled after f.99), blind-ruled, 32 lines (c.210x150mm), red initials, numerous leaves stained, torn, or wormed, very rarely affecting the legibility of the text, often with old repairs, some quires loose, UNRESTORED MEDIEVAL BINDING, sewn on three slit alum-tawed thongs and sewn into wood boards covered with brown leather, blind-tooled and with metal bosses in each corner, the clasp catch-plates with the IHS monogram of Bernardino of Siena and a gothic letter ‘S’, defective, wormed, loose

Provenance

(1) Inscribed ‘Questo libro sie [ ... effaced words ... ] in Firenze’, 15th century (f.1r); a similar inscription on the facing page perhaps includes the word ‘divinam’.  (2) Inscribed ‘Jachopo di Franc[esc?]o, Messer Fran[cesc?]o’, 15th or 16th century (f.99v).

Text

This is an Italian translation of the French Li fait des Romans, a life of Caesar, itself based on Latin writings mainly by Lucan, Suetonius, Sallust, and Caesar himself, apparently first translated into Tuscan in the 13th century, with a prologue not found in the French version. Forty-one manuscripts are listed by the Tradizione della letteratura italiana database, with a variety of incipits. The text is edited by L.Banchi, I fatti di Cesare, testo di lingua inedito del secolo XIV, 1863.

The text begins ‘No [sic] nostro signore dio stabilio el mondo E sottomiselo alla subieccione de Adamo nostro primo padre …’ and ends ‘... E quasi tutte laltre membra con molto pocho. Finito libro.’; the missing f.3 contained from ‘non avia fatto niente la’ to ‘e dice che fo possente’ (Banchi, 1863, pp.7–10). At the end are added a note on the love of wine and women: ‘Amore de donna e vino e fiassco …’, and an 8-line note about death, beginning ‘Guerra me facta per altrui mal dire …’, perhaps by Giovan Francesco Suardi (d.1469).