Marston MS 64     Northern Italy, s. XV 1/4
Alexander of Villa Dei, Doctrinale

ff. 1r-54v  [Preface:]  Scribere clericulis paro doctrinale nouellis/  
Pluraque doctorum sociabo scripta meorum./...Iste fere totus liber est
extractus ab illo./...[text, f. 1v:]  Capitulum primum de 
declinationibus. Rectis as es a dat declinatio prima./...Nate dei deus
atque tibi deus alitus alme/ Quas tres personas in idem credo deitatis./  
Deo. gratias. Amen.

	D. Reichling, ed., Das Doctrinale des Alexander des Villa-Dei,
Monumenta Germaniae paedagogica, v. 12 (Berlin, 1893) pp. 7-178.  
Some minor interlinear and marginal glosses on ff. 1v-19v 
(through ch. 5).

	Parchment, ff. i (paper) + i (modern parchment) + 54 + i 
(modern parchment) + i (paper), 264 x 184 (162 x 95) mm.  24 long lines.
Single vertical bounding lines, full length, with an additional ruling
within text space to delineate narrow column for the first letter of
each verse.  Ruled in lead or pale brown ink.  Prickings in upper and
lower margins.  Single pricking in outer margin, 8 mm. above top
line.
	I-VI 8, VII 6.  Horizontal catchwords in lower margin near gutter,
verso (Derolez 12.4).  Remains of quire and leaf signatures (e. g.,
a i, a ii, a iii, etc.) in lower right corner, recto.
	Written in round gothic bookhand by a single scribe, below top line.
	One historiated initial, f. 1r, 6-line, pink, red, and green with 
white filigree on gold ground thinly edged in black, with a half-length 
portrait of a teacher in red robes and a red cap holding a book, against a
blue ground with white filigree.  In the lower margin arms of the Pesaro
family of Venice (per pale indented or and azure; Rietstap, v. 2, p. 418),
framed by scrolling acanthus, green, red, blue, and pink.  Plain initials
and paragraph marks both alternate blue and red.  Headings in red.
	Binding:  England, s. xix.  Light brown leather, gold-tooled.  
Gilt edges.  Rebacked.  Title on spine:  "Alexander de Villa Dei 
Doctrinale. MS: In Memb:."  Bound for Henry Drury by C. Lewis in 1820 
(note on f. i recto).

Written in Northern Italy in the first quarter of the 15th century for
an unidentified member of the Pesaro family of Venice whose arms
occur in the lower margin of f. 1r.  Belonged to the Rev. Henry Drury
(1778-1841; inscription on f. i recto; see binding); his sale (Evans,
3 March 1827, no. 188).  Armorial bookplate with motto "Invictus maneo"
of John Trotter Brockett (1788-1842; DNB, v. 2, pp. 1280-81);
his [?] note, f. i recto, that the manuscript was acquired from Thorpe
in 1832.  Round leather booklabel of Edward Hailstone (1818-90;
DNB, v. 8, p. 886); his sale (Sotheby's, 23 April 1891, no. 327).
Belonged to William Morris, Kelmscott House, Hammersmith (1834-96;
booklabel).  Morris' manuscripts sold at his death to Richard Bennett;
this manuscript among those re-sold by Bennett (Sotheby's, 10 Dec. 1898,
no. 1190).  Unidentified Sotheby sale description (no. 105) glued inside
front cover.  Purchased from Maggs Bros., London in 1956 by L. C. Witten 
(inventory no. 1245), who sold it in the same year to Thomas E. Marston 
(bookplate).

secundo folio: Ir uel ur

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, pp. 71-72, no. 64.

Barbara A. Shailor