YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE MANUSCRIPTS
Marston MS 218 Switzerland or Northern Italy, s. XV 2
Paul the Deacon, Historia gentis Longobardorum, etc.
1. ff. 1r-76v [Title added in upper margin:] De gestis seu rebus
Longobardorum. [chapter list:] Incipiunt capitula primi libri.
Incipiunt capitula libri primi. Quod septentrionalis plaga quanto...rege
gessit. [text, f. 1v:] Septentrionalis plaga quanto magis ab estu solis
remota est et niuali frigore gelida tanto salubrior corporibus...maxime semper
cura francorum Auarumqe pacem custodiens. Amen. f. 77r-v ruled, but blank
Paul the Deacon, Historia gentis Longobardorum; L. Bethmann and
G. Waitz, eds., Scriptores rerum germanicarum v. 27 (1878) pp. 52-242.
Here the text is divided into six books, each preceded by a table of
chapters.
2. ff. 78r-88v Eo anno nitorium palladij mens tua que et discere cupit
immenso sapientie amore succensa...Vniuersam enim humanam ubique naturam
uolumus per nos fieri esse meliorem. Explicit gesta. ff. 89r-90v ruled,
but blank (see also provenance)
Palladius of Helenopolis, Liber de moribus Brachmanorum, Lat. tr.;
PL 17.1131-46.
Paper (watermarks: similar to Piccard Ochsenkopf I.731-35), ff. ii (paper,
ii = modern title page) + 90 + ii (paper), 310 x 215 (188 x 132) mm. 2 columns,
27 lines. Single vertical bounding lines ruled in lead. Text rulings
in ink. Prickings in upper, lower and outer margins.
I-II 12, III-VII 10, VIII 6. Vertical catchwords perpendicular to text
along inner bounding line, verso.
Written in a cursive minuscule script, above top line; the first
words of each chapter in large gothic bookhand.
One initial, divided red and blue, 5-line, with red penwork flourishes,
f. 1r; the initial may have been retouched by a contemporary hand. Plain
red initials throughout; spaces for rubrics left unfilled, except for
those at beginning of each book. Running headlines in red. Guide letters
for decorator.
Binding: Germany, s. xix. Quires cut in for sewing. Rigid vellum case
with a red, gold-tooled label: "P. Diacon. De Gest. langobar." Early title in
ink on fore edge: "De Gest. Longobardo."
Written in Switzerland or Northern Italy in the second half of the 15th
century to judge from the watermarks, script and decoration; inscription
of Gionnantonio [sic] Zavallo with date "1563" on f. 89r. Signature, s. xix,
on f. ii verso of "Gaudenzio Claretta," perhaps to be identified with
the historian and author Baron Gaudenzio Giuseppe Luigi Maria Claretta
(1835-1902). Unidentified shelf-mark [?] "A Tu" in upper right corner,
f. 1r. Purchased from C. A. Stonehill (inv. no. 13685) in 1958 by Thomas
E. Marston (bookplate).
secundo folio: quo solis
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 89, no. 218.
Barbara A. Shailor