Pseudo-Pliny the Elder, De Viris Illustribus, in Latin, manuscript on vellum

Estimate

2,000 - 3,000 GBP

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Description

39 leaves, plus original flyleaf, 173mm. by 118mm., lacking first leaf, else complete, collation: i^{9 [of 10, lacking i], ii-iii^{10, early foliation in roman numerals (followed here) includes the first flyleaf, 24 lines, vertical lines ruled in plummet, horizontal lines ruled in blind, written-space 105mm. by 70mm., written in dark brown ink in an elegant slightly sloping humanistic cursive minuscule, opening words of each chapter in capitals, last word in blue capitals,}} initials painted in blue throughout, 2 lines high in lapidary form, a few contemporary annotations and corrections, some pages a bit thumbed or smudged, extreme edges darkened, now in an old binding of limp vellum formed from a piece of a manuscript Lectionary of c.1200 including readings from Luke 6 and I Peter 3, outside of the sheet erased, inside lined with paper pastedowns

Provenance

provenance

Sixteenth-century inscription on flyleaf, apparently, “Hic liber erat suetonii de Ceteribus de Senis, Mei Alexandri de Somodo presbitro”.

Catalogue Note

text

The manuscript comprises about 75 short lives of important figures in Roman history from Romulus to Pompey, attributed here (as also in Cambridge University Library, MS. Dd.viii.22) to Caius Plinius Secundus, the Elder Pliny (c.23-79 A.D.). The subjects include Tarquin, Mucius Scaevola, Hannibal, Claudia the Vestal virgin, Scipio Africanus, Antiochus king of Syria, Quintus Metellus, Gaius Gracchus, Cornelius Sulla, Mithridates king of Pontus, and so. It opens imperfectly in the life of Romulus, “scutis eam obrui precepit, Nam …” and ends with the life of Pompey, “… odoribus cremandum curavit, FINIS”.