Item Summary

Work by neo-Platonic philosopher, Marsilio Ficino, along with the only known copy of an anthology of letters and orations collected and corrected by the priest Jacopo (also known as Giacomo) di Nanni da Livorno for the teaching of grammar and rhetoric, almost certainly an autograph text by Jacopo da Livorno himself.

Descriptive Information

Title
[Italian miscellany]
Call Number
Princeton MS. 253
Identifier
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/4q77g165p
Publisher
[Tuscany], [between 1440 and 1458]
Language
Italian
Date Created
1440-1458
Format
Manuscript
Extent
120 leaves : paper ; 212 x 141 (47 x 84-87) mm bound to 215 x 145 mm.
Provenance
Probably owned by Giacomo de Nanni da Livorno. Intermediate provenance unknown. In the collection of Dr. Cesare Alvarotti Rasi until at least 1967. Purchased by the Princeton University Library from Les Enluminures, Chicago, which may have purchased it at an Italian auction house, Pandolfini Casa d'Aste, Florence.
Source Acquisition
Purchase, 2018. AM 2019-74.
Rights Statement
No Known Copyright
Contents
1. fol. [i]r: [Calendrical notes]. Consists of entries numbered from 1 to 19.
2. fol. 1r-3r: [Examples of formal addresses for letters to various public and familiar people]. Formal addresses for letters to various public and familiar people, roughly sorted by rank, beginning with the religious figures, rulers, professions, then family and friends and finally, bureaucrats. Important figures, all active in the 1440s or shortly before, are used as examples, such as Bartolomeo Zabarella, Archbishop of Florence, Emperor Frederic III, and Sigismundo Pandolfo Malatesta.
3. fol. 4r-107r: [Epistolary anthology]. Giacomo [Iacopo] di Nanni da Livorno (fl. ca. 1428-76), a priest and teacher, compiled this unedited autograph epistolary anthology, containing nearly 400 Latin and Italian letters, either fictitious or abridged from authentic correspondence, for use in teaching good epistolary etiquette and style, with marginal additions, corrections, and topical headings in the author's hand. There are multiple letters in duplicate, first in Italian, followed in Latin, to serve as linguistic comparisons
4. fol. 107v: [Apocryphal letter attributed to Publius Lentulus]. Caption: Temporibus Octaviani cesaris cum exuniverses mundi partibus illi quod preaherant provinciis scriberent senatoribus ... herodis regis scripxit senatoribus sic de christo jesu. Attributed to a fictional Prefect in Judea, who supposedly preceded Pontius Pilate, this letter is addressed to the Roman senate during the reign of Tiberius, which describes Jesus's appearance. The rubric here, however, attributes it to the reign of Octavius.
5. fol. 108r-113r: Invectiva Marsilii Figlinensis ad suum Ghuardavillam Volteranum. The only extant manuscript copy of a youthful work by the neo-Platonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino written between 1451 and 1454 when he was still a young scholar working as a tutor (ripetitore) for the family of Piero di Messer Andrea de'Pazzi, a wealthy Florentine and friend of the Medici (Cristiani, pp. 212-13).
f. fol. 114r-119v: [Calendar]. Rubrics at the top of each folio provide the number of days, hours, and moon cycles, followed by standard calendrical tables including the moon's position, dominical letters, and the nones, ides, or calends; astrological position of the sun is also noted for each month. Only a single feast: January 1, Feast of the Circumcision of Christ.
Notes
Incipit: [Calendrical notes] "Hic est terminus in Venetiam ..." -- [Examples of formal addresses] "Sanctissimo in Christo patri et Domino ... [fol. 3r] de malatestis habendo tanquam fratri carissimo." -- [Epistolary anthology] "Vergognia sarebbe adere signori senatori e insufficiente lufficio della lingua ... civitates qua re remota omnis mos sanctus in nihilum redigi necesse est Vale ..." -- [Apocryphal letter ] "Apparuit temporibus istis et adhuc est homo magnae virtutis ... in colloquio gravis rarus et modestus inter fiolios [sic] hominum. Valete." -- [Invectiva Marsilii Figlinensis] "Cogis me tetrum ac detestandum non hominum dico sed infimum belluarum genus ... [fol. 113] ut inquit ille irisci [sic] poterit in quod ante dese confiteri voluerit finis ..."
Explicit: [Invectiva Marsilii Figlinesis] "invectiva [Marsillii: expunged] Figlinensis in inferos Pedagogos ad suum [Ghuardavillam: expunged] [Volteranum: expunged] Ego sum Testis"
Ms. composite codex.
Title devised by cataloger.
Collation: Paper ; fol. ii + 120 + i ; catchwords ; early modern foliation in ink.
Layout: 26 lines per page ; partially frame-ruled.
Description: Watermarks (uncial M with a cross; horn; tulip)
Origin: Written in Tuscany circa 1440-1458. Bound together before May 12, 1458.
Binding Note
Contemporaneous binding. Italian, probably from Pistoia, ca. 1458. Blind-stamped leather over wooden boards. Central panel with concentric frames. Parchment pastedowns (now lifted) of recycled city statues of Pistoia. 4 metal bosses on each cover (1 missing from lower board). Metal catchplate and decorative nail remain from clasp.

Discovery Information

Subject
Humanism—Italy—History—15th century—Early works to 1800
Letter writing—Early works to 1800

Physical Characteristics

File Count
248

Institutional Information

Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean Manuscripts
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/17080f76-a649-4ad7-8464-0d143c09e353/manifest