Marston MS 168     Northern Italy, s. XV med

Gasparino Barzizza, Commentarii in epistolas Senecae



ff. 1r-338r  Avisti [sic] heri nobiscum et cet. hec est 65a epistola

que sic potest ad precedentem epistolam continuari.  Postquam superius

nactus occasionem...honestissimis actibus et pulcherrimis sapientissimorum

hominum.  Sed ante omnes huius amplissimi et sanctissimi viri Senece fluxit.

etc.  Expliciunt commentarij Gasparini pergamensis in epistolas senece

etc.  ff. 338v-340v blank


   Gasparino Barzizza, Commentary on Epistolae morales ad Lucilium, 65-124

only; f. 272v (in Epistle 115) blank with note "uacat."  Marston

MS 168 not discussed in L. A. Panizza, "Gasparino Barzizza's Commentaries

on Seneca's Letters," Traditio 33 (1977) pp. 297-358.



   Paper (polished; watermarks: similar to Briquet Tour 15909 and Piccard

Turm II.617), ff. ii (contemporary paper; watermarks: Briquet Lettre T

9120) + 340 + ii (same paper as front flyleaves), 335 x 230 (205 x 123) mm.

43 long lines.  Single vertical bounding lines (Derolez 13.11), ruled in

crayon or lead.  Rulings for text in lead.  Prickings in upper and lower

margins; two additional prickings in outer margin below top and just above

bottom lines of written space.

   I-XXXIV 10.  Catchwords, mostly trimmed, along edge of lower margin near

gutter, verso (Derolez 12.4).  Remains of quire and leaf signatures (e.g.,

a 1, a 2, a 3, etc.) in lower right corner, recto.

   Written in gothic cursive with humanistic features by a single scribe,

above top line.

   Illuminated initial, f. 1r, 8-line, blue with white highlights and 

burnished gold on gold ground with stylized foliage in green and dark red with

yellow highlights.  Terminals ending in foliage serifs, red, green with yellow

highlights, and gold balls with hairline extensions.  Numerous pen and

ink initials, 3-line, alternate red and bright blue with penwork designs of the

other color extending along margin.

   Binding:  Italy, s. xv.  Parchment stays are adhered to inner and

outer conjugate leaves of quires.  Original wound sewing on three tawed

skin, slit straps laid in channels on the outside of beech boards.  The

endbands, which are wanting, were sewn on tawed skin cores laid in grooves

and nailed or held in place by the bosses; they were tied down through a

tawed skin spine lining.

   Covered in sheepskin, originally brick red, with the surface now badly

rubbed and shedding.  Corner tongues.  Blind-tooled with an X in

concentric frames.  Four leaf-shaped catches with three flowers on each on

the lower board, one wanting; the upper board cut in for two kermes pink

straps attached with star-headed nails.  Five flower-shaped bosses on each

board and the trace of a chain attachment at the tail of the lower one.



Written in Northern Italy in the middle of the 15th century, probably as the

second part of a two-volume set:  the text begins with Epistle 65 and

contains none of the introductory material generally found in Barzizza's

Commentaries on Seneca.  Customs declaration, s. xv#2, on back pastedown:

"Aquesti libro de mosser Nicolau roujra Vicario de Munjesa.  ha de pagar de

port de Roma aqui vn florjn e medio."  Paper label, ca. 1800-1830, of the 

hatseller [!] Francisco Tolrra of Madrid (we thank S. Sider of the Hispanic 

Society of America for helping with the provenance of this manuscript).  

Bookplate of the literary scholar Feliciano Ramirez de Arellano, Marques de 

la Fuensanta del Valle (s. xix#2).  Unidentified notes in pencil on back 

pastedown, including "MS - XIV/ A. - 1 vol.;" unidentified bookplate on front 

pastedown superimposed on the Tolrra ticket:  Greek cross within concentric 

circles.  According to P. Kristeller (Iter Italicum, v. 5, p. 287, no. 168),

this manuscript was formerly "31-17" in the Capitular library at Zaragoza.

Purchased from Enzo Ferrajoli through Nicolas Rauch of Geneva

in 1958 by L. C. Witten (inv. no. 2149), who sold it the same year to Thomas E. 

Marston (bookplate).


secundo folio:  qui non seruit



Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 83, no. 168.


Barbara A. Shailor