[Cosmographia] / Pomponii Mel[a]e.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Mela, Pomponius, author.

Contributor:

Bonius, Antonio de, former owner.

Boncompagni, Baldassarre, 1821-1894, former owner.

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Standardized Title:

De chorographia

Language:

Latin

Subjects (All):

Cities and towns, Ancient--Early works to 1800.

Geography, Ancient--Early works to 1800.

Geography, Ancient.

Cities and towns, Ancient.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

palimpsests (manuscripts)

Manuscripts, Latin -- 15th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Antonio de Bonius (?), 1450 (inscription, f. 70v).

Formerly owned by Prince Baldassarre Boncompagni of Rome (no. 356 (306)).

Appears in J. Halle Antiquariat's cat. 50 (1914), no. 20.

Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Feb. 1997.

Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2012.

Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2019.

Physical Description:

70 leaves : parchment ; 169 x 111 (116 x 68) mm bound to 178 x 124 mm

Place of Publication:

[Italy], [between 1440 and 1450]

Language Note:

Latin.

Summary:

Geographical work describing the populated areas of Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia as known to the historian and geographer Strabo. Many leaves of the manuscript are palimpsests, the parchment having been formerly used for legal documents and washed for re-use. The earlier texts are occasionally faintly visible running perpendicular to the Mela text.

Contents:

1. f.1r-1v: Proemium.

2. f.1v-26r: [Liber primus, Descriptio orbis]

3. f.26r-50r: [Liber secundus, Situs Europae]

4. f.50r-70v: [Liber tertius, Ambitus orbis, ora oceani et insularum eius]

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title from rubric (f. 1r).

Collation: Parchment, 70 + ii; 1-7¹⁰; [1-70]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto (19th-century foliation with larger numbers, also in pencil, also upper right recto, skips f. 38 and f. 50; this earlier foliation and the note in pencil at the upper margin of the first page are both mentioned in the 1892 catalog of the Boncompagni library). Link to collation model at end of record.

Layout: Written in 23-24 long lines; frame-ruled in lead.

Script: Written in a rounded northern Italian humanistic script.

Decoration: 1 6-line initial in blue with red acanthus-leaf decoration, ornamental frame, and extensions (f. 1r); 15 2- or 3-line initials in either red or blue; 5 of the red initials have penwork in black (f. 5r, 37v, 42r, 55r, 60r); marginal notations, mostly place names, in red or blue; rubrics in red.

Binding: 15th-century parchment over pasteboards.

Origin: Possibly written in northern Italy, before 1450 (date of ownership inscription, f. 70v); probably written between 1440 and 1450.

Local Notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 130 (LJS 60).

Cited as:

Pomponius Mela, Cosmographia (LJS 60). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

822230178

Online:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page

Collation model