Commentaria ad Rhetoricam Ciceronis.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Contributor:

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, attributed name.

Perutii, Monterillus, 14th century, scribe.

Cosson, Charles Alexander, baron de, former owner.

Cosson, Claude Augustin, baron de, 1877- former owner.

Foyle, William A. (William Alfred), 1885-1963, former owner.

San Giovanni e Paolo (Church : Venice, Italy), former owner.

Language:

Latin

Subjects (All):

Rhetorica ad Herennium.

Rhetoric--Early works to 1800.

Rhetoric.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

annotations

palimpsests (manuscripts)

Commentaries.

Manuscripts, Latin -- 14th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Possible ownership inscription: Bertholinus, written by a 14th- or 15th-century hand on the possible original binding (parchment flyleaf following text, verso).

Formerly owned by the Dominican convent of San Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (note dated 1876, first flyleaf).

Sold by the Dominican convent of San Giovanni e Paolo to Baron Charles Alexander de Cosson (1846-1929) in 1876 (armorial bookplate inside upper cover; note on first flyleaf); later owned by his son, Baron Claude Augustin de Cosson.

Sold at auction as property of the late C. A. de Cosson at Sotheby's, 27 Mar. 1950, lot 30, to William A. Foyle (catalog description, first flyleaf).

Formerly owned by William A. Foyle (Beeleigh Abbey, Essex; leather bookplate inside upper cover).

Sold at auction as part of Foyle's collection at Christie's, 11 July 2000, lot 78.

Sold by Les Enluminures (Paris and Chicago), 2012.

Physical Description:

52 leaves : parchment ; 278-289 x 205 (223-235 x 157-167) mm bound to 295 x 213 mm

Production:

[Italy], 1342.

Other Title:

Plena et perfecta.

Language Note:

Latin.

Summary:

Early Renaissance commentary on most of the Rhetorica ad Herennium, the earliest comprehensive Latin treatise on rhetoric, attributed to Cicero throughout the Middle Ages and more recently to 13th-century notary and professor of rhetoric Giovanni di Bonandrea (Losappi/Zennaro). Frequent notes appear in the margins, including the names of the figures of diction in Book 4 (f. 43r-48v). Some leaves are palimpsests, written on parchment previously used for Italian legal documents (some previous text faintly visible perpendicular to the later text, f. 11v, 14r, 28r, 34v, 39r, 51v). One gathering, with text from the end of Book 3 and the beginning of Book 4, is missing between the fourth and last gatherings.

Contents:

1. f.1r-16v: [Commentary on Book 1]

2. f.16v-32r: [Commentary on Book 2]

3. f.32r-42v: [Commentary on Book 3 through 3.16.28]

4. f.43r-52v: [Commentary on Book 4.14.20-4.51.64]

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title from inscription added in lower margin of first page in an early modern hand (f. 1r); commentary also known as Plena et perfecta, from its incipit (f. 1r).

Incipit: Plena et perfecta locutio triplici comparatur adminiculo (f. 1r); explicit: ... dudum ipse et hospites sui sederent (f. 52v).

Foliation: Parchment, ii (modern paper) + i (14th-century parchment) + 52 + i (14th-century parchment) + ii (modern paper); 1¹² 2¹⁰ 3¹² 4⁸ 5¹⁰; 1-52, early modern foliation in ink, upper right recto. Gatherings signed 1-4, 6, in roman numerals, upper center first recto (f. 1r, 13r, 23r, 35r, 43r); contemporary gathering (letter) and leaf (arabic numeral) signatures faintly visible on many leaves, lower right recto. Horizontal catchwords on first 2 gatherings, lower center last verso (f. 12v, 22v).

Layout: Written in 2 columns of 58 to 71 lines; frame-ruled in lead.

Script: Written in Gothic script by at least 2 hands, one that of Monterillus Perutii (Peruzzi?; colophon, f. 34v; new hand begins, f. 35r), with marginal notes in additional hands.

Decoration: 14-line initial in red ink, with red infill and black penwork (f. 1r); 2-line initials, underlining of lemmata, and paragraph marks in red throughout; some initials in marginal notes touched with red; occasional manicules (for example, f. 1r, 1v, 5v).

Binding: 19th-century limp parchment (Les Enluminures); the parchment flyleaves are probably from the original binding.

Origin: Written in northern Italy, perhaps Venice or Bologna (Les Enluminures), in 1342 (colophon, f. 34v).

Publications about:

Losappio, Domenico, and Chiara Zennaro. "L'esegesi della Brevis introductio ad dictamen di Giovanni di Bonandrea e l'insegnamento della retorica a Bologna." Medioevo e Rinascimento 36 / n.s. 33 (2022), pp. 17-33: p. 29, n. 50.

Cited as:

Commentaria ad Rhetoricam Ciceronis (Ms. Codex 1629). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

823176523