Cicero, De Officiis, Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), De Conjuratione Catilinae and Bellum Jugurthinum, Poems

Description: 

Cicero, De Officiis, Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), De Conjuratione Catilinae and Bellum Jugurthinum, Poems

Italian, 1st half 15th century (before 1454)

Language: Latin

ink on paper
height 21.6 cm
width 14.5 cm

The manuscript contains 181 leaves of paper and one front and one back flyleaf, both of paper. No illuminated initials, however, spaces were left for small illuminated initials at the beginning of each text:

  • Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (2r-85v)
  • [Unknown], Poems (85v-87r)
  • Caius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), De Conjuratione Catilinae (88r-118r)
  • [Unknown], Poem (118)
  • Caius Sallusticus Crispus (Sallust), Bellum Jugurthinum (119r-181v)

University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives
Edward Burgess Manuscript Collection, Ms. 32

 

Diebold, William. The Illustrated Book in the Age of Printing: Books and Manuscripts from Oregon Collections. Portland, OR: Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, 1993, pp. 17-18 - Quoted with permission

Although contemporary with numbers 3 and 4 [refers to exhibit from which this text was originally a catalog entry], also Italian Cicero manuscripts, this is a very different, much less luxurious kind of book, as is clear from its decoration and its support. This book is written on paper, which was much cheaper than parchment and was commonly used in the fifteenth century, particularly in Italy, for everyday books. Unlike every other manuscript in this exhibition, number 2 was not decorated by a professional illuminator. The large initial "E" on the verso was supplied by an early owner and it is the only such initial in the book; all the others are missing, as on the recto, where the scribe has left a tiny "c" in the left margin indicating the letter to be added. Also executed by this early owner (perhaps the Augustinian friar Jacobo Baptista of Prato, whose 1454 owner's mark is on the book's first page) is the small marginal drawing of a sword labeled Justitia ("Justice").

Protocol: 
University of Oregon - Public Access
Community: 
University of Oregon
Category: 
Manuscripts and Manuscript Illuminations
Creator: 
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and author, 106 BCE-43 BCE)
Rights: 
Image reproduced with permission from University of Oregon Library. The institutions that house the specific Medieval Portland objects ultimately hold the rights to their image and reproduction; the images are provided here as a courtesy by those institutions and are for non-profit, educational use only.
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