Marston MS 18     Milan, ca. 1467
Francesco Filelfo, Oratio

ff. 1r-82r  Francisci Philelfi Oratio Parentalis De Divi Francisci
Sphortiae Mediolanensium Ducis Felicitate.  [S]i fieri posse censerem:
ut lamentationibus ac lachrymis saeuo et peracerbo naturae uulneri mederemur:
quod ex incommodo fortasse magis quam ex immaturo Francisci Sphortiae...ut
non mortuum minus quam uiuum ab uno Francisco Philelfo et amatum illum, et
obseruatum, et celebratum, praesentes omnes uenturique cognoscant.
[colophon:]  Que quidem oratio habita est ab eodem Francisco Philelfo
equite aurato laureatoque poeta in ecclesia cathedrali Mediolani die lunae
vii idus martias anno a natali christiano Millesimo quadringentesimo
sexagesimo septimo.  f. 82v ruled, but blank

Francesco Filelfo, Oratio parentalis de divi Francisci Sphortiae
Mediolanensium ducis felicitate; printed in Milan and Venice in 1481 and
thereafter (Hain nos. 12918-25).  Brief notes by scribe, in red, in column
ruled in outer margin.  For other manuscripts containing this work see
A. Calderini, "I codici milanesi delle opere di Francesco Filelfo,"
Archivio Storico Lombardo  ser. 5, 42 (1915) nos. 33, 34, 35, and
p. 394, no. 45.

	Paper (watermarks, much worn, buried in gutter:  similar in general 
design to Piccard, Ochsenkopf VII.955), ff. i + 82 (modern foliation begins
on front flyleaf) + i (paper), 234 x 162 (131 x 72) mm.  16 long lines.  
Double vertical bounding lines and two additional vertical rulings to 
delineate column in margin for notes.  Rulings impressed on a ruling board
from the center of the gathering out; vertical rulings do not always extend
to the lower edge of leaves; single pricking along lower edge.
	I-X 8  (+ 1 leaf at end).  Vertical catchwords, surrounded by dots, 
between vertical bounding lines (Derolez 12.5).
	Written by a single scribe in a neat sloping humanistic bookhand, above
top line.
	Space left for initial on f. 1r is unfilled; heading in majuscules,
colophon, and marginalia, in pale red.
	Binding:  Italy, s. xix in.  Quarter bound in brown mottled calf;
mottled yellow and green paper sides; pale brown edges.  Gold-tooled spine
including title, which is mostly wanting.  Spine worm-eaten.

Written in Milan ca. 1467 when the oration was delivered; according to
A. C. de la Mare the manuscript was very probably copied by one of Filelfo's 
scribes, Fabricius Elphiseus, who was secretary to Galeazzo Maria 
Sforza, Duke of Milan 1466-76; Elphiseus signed Paris, B. N. lat 8125 and El
Escorial g. II. 9, both containing works of Filelfo and both written in a more
formal style of writing than Marston MS 18.
Unidentified notes and shelf-marks, s. xviii-xix,
include:  remains of square white label at head of spine with only "21" in
ink now visible; round white paper label at tail of spine:  "7797/ III M"
in ink; on front pastedown, all in pencil:  "Num. 36 (partially erased),
"82" written twice; "50" enclosed by a circle, "307" and "81 B1" [remainder
unclear]; on front flyleaf, partially erased "No 22."  Purchased from
C. A. Stonehill in 1949.

secundo folio:  nostros cogitatus

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 66, no. 18.

Barbara A. Shailor