Marston MS 9            Florence, ca. 1460-65
Curtius Rufus, Historia Alexandri Magni, It. tr. Pier Candido Decembrio, etc.

1.  ff. 1r-208v  Incomincia la hystoria d'Alexandro Magno figluolo di 
Philippo Re di Macedonia scripta da Quinto Curtio Ruffo hystorico....
Alexandro in questo mezo mandato Leandro con molta pecunia per condurre 
gente darme del peloponese...et alla memoria del quale ogni debito honore 
e Referito. Finisce el duodecimo et ultimo libro della hystoria d'
Alexandro magno figliuolo di Philippo Re di macedonia...Nellano 
.Mccccxxxviij. a di .xxj. d'aprile in Milano.  Laus Deo Finis.

Curtius Rufus, Historia Alexandri Magni, translated into Italian and
supplemented with material from Plutarch by Pier Candido Decembrio;
text printed "Apud Sanctum Jacobum de Ripoli" in Florence, 1478 (GKW, 
v. 7, no. 7877). Missing portions of the text are clearly indicated in 
the manuscript by explanatory rubrics, e.g., on ff. 88v, 89r, 90v, 
197r-v, 198r.

2.  ff. 208v-216v  Al serenissimo prencipe et excellentissimo signore
Philippo Maria duca di Milano di Pauia et Angera conte et di genoua
Signore.  Incomincia la comparatione di Caio Iiulio [sic] Cesare 
imperadore maximo et d'Alexandro magno Re di macedonia da P. Candido 
ordinata....Io credo serenissimo prencipe che fia molte singulari et 
gioconde quistioni le quali non solamente da licterati et docti huomini
...uno specchio della loro gloria parue che fussino innamorati. 
Finisce la comparatione di Caio Iulio Cesare...felicemente.

Pier Candido Decembrio, Comparazione di Cesare e d'Alessandro Magno, 
published with art. 1 in GKW, v. 7, no. 7877.

Parchment, ff. ii (modern paper) + 216 + ii (contemporary parchment
bifolium; ii = back pastedown), 292 x 215 (176 x 114) mm.  30 long 
lines. Double vertical bounding lines (Derolez 13.31); ruled in pale 
brown ink.  Three single prickings in margins:  5 mm. below lowest 
horizontal ruling in outer margin; in inner margin 23 mm. above top 
line and 61 mm. below lowest horizontal ruling.
	I-IX 10, X 8, XI-XXI 10, XXII 10 (-9, 10).  Vertical catchwords 
between inner bounding lines in lower margin (Derolez 12.5).  Remains
of two sets of quire and leaf signatures (e.g., t 4, t 5, +, etc.) in 
lower right corner, recto, with one set correcting the 
misalphabetization of the other.
	Written by a single scribe in a slightly rounded humanistic 
bookhand with many cursive elements, below top line.
	One illuminated intial, 6-line, gold against blue, green and pink 
ground with white vine-stem ornament, extending into inner margin to form
a partial border; terminating at top and bottom in pen inkspray with buds 
in green and pink and gold balls with hair-line extensions.  Plain 
initials, 3- to 
2-line, in blue, mark text divisions; headings in pale red.
	Binding:  Italy, s. xv-xvi.  Sewn on four tawed skin, slit straps
laid in channels on the outside of wooden boards and pegged.  Gilt edges.
	Covered in brown goatskin with corner tongues, and blind-tooled with a
ropework star inside painted (red) and blind-tooled circles inside a
floral border, all with metallic annular dots.  There are traces of four
leaf-shaped fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the upper one cut
in for fabric straps attached with star-headed nails.  Rebacked twice.

Written in Florence ca. 1460-65 by an anonymous scribe who specialized in
copying vernacular texts and who also copied Beinecke MS 151 (vol. I, pp. 
202-03) and Marston MS 247; he has been named by A. C. de la Mare the 
"Scribe of Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, San Marco 384" (see New 
Research, Appendix I, p. 548, no. 90, for other manuscripts by this scribe). 
Inscription in upper left corner on front pastedown:  "1608 Di Trani nori [?] 
comparo lire quattro"; pasted over this was a small rectangular piece of paper,
now removed, with "242h" handwritten, the number in black ink and the letter
in red ink.  The bookplate, s. xviii, of Graf von Chotek (partially effaced)
on front pastedown (F. Warnecke, Die deutschen Buecherzeichen...[Berlin,
1890] p. 47, no. 327).  From an unidentified French collection, s. xviii
(full-page inscription on f. i recto); although a later hand has added a
note at the bottom of the leaf that the manuscript belonged to Comte
Firmian (Carlo Giuseppe di Firmian, 1716-82), we have been unable to locate
the book in the multi-volume catalogue of his collection.  Belonged
to Acton Griscom (De Ricci, v. 2, p. 1168, no. 32).  Purchased from 
Lathrop C. Harper in 1949 by Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  questa passaua

Bibliography:  De Ricci, v. 2, p. 1168, no. 32; Faye and Bond, p. 65, no.
9; The Medieval Book, p. 107, no. 103.

Barbara A. Shailor