YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Marston MS 251 Northern Italy, s. XIV/XV
Isidore, Synonyma
1. notes on front pastedown (now lifted): Senecha tragediarum/
Iniqua rare maximis virtutibus fortuna parcit/. Quare multa bonis
uiris aduersa eueniunt/ nichil accedere bono uiro mali potest.
[followed by:] Isidorus ethimologiarum/ Omnino enim fingendi
locus vachat ubi ueritas cessat.
Extracts here attributed to Seneca and Isidore, Etymologiae.
2. ff. 1r-64r Incipit prologus synonime sancti ysidori archiepiscopi
yspaniensis. [prologue:] In subsequenti hoc libro qui nuncupatur
synonima id est multa uerba in unam significationem coeuntia. sancte
recordationis ysidorus archiepiscopus ex yspania introduxit...
Explicit prologus. Prefatio sancti ysidori. ysidorus lectori
salutem. [text, f. 2r:] Uenit nuper ad manus meas quedam cedula
quam synonimam dicunt. Cuius formula persuasit...tu mihi supra omnia
in uita mea places. Explitiunt [sic] synonima sancti ysidori.
[followed by the plea to the reader to read and profit by books rather
than merely to collect them, f. 63r:] In cuiuscumque manibus libellus
iste uenerit. rogo et cum grandi humilitate supplico...sed magis de
assidua predicatione eternum premium mereantur accipere. La pe ra
[sic]. f. 64v ruled, but blank
Isidore of Seville, Synonima de lamentatione animae peccatricis;
PL 83.827-68.
Parchment, ff. i (original parchment pastedown) + 64, 156 x 118
(91 x 68) mm. 18 long lines. Single vertical and double horizontal
bounding lines; ruled in lead. Remains of prickings in upper, lower
and outer margins for all rulings, with some double prickings for the
first of the lower horizontal bounding lines.
I-XIII 8. Horizontal catchwords centered below text space and
written between lead rulings, verso.
Main text written by a single scribe in round gothic bookhand;
art. 1 added in a mercantesca script.
Plain letters, 5- to 2-line, in red, mark text divisions.
Headings, initial strokes, a few pointing hands, in red. Guide
letters for initials.
Binding: Italy, s. xv. Original wound sewing on three tawed
skin, slit straps laced through tunnels in the edge to channels on
the outside of wooden boards and nailed. Primary endbands caught
up on the spine. Red, cream and green chevron endbands are sewn on
tawed skin cores which are laid in grooves on the outside of the
boards and nailed. Spine lined with leather between supports.
Modern parchment addition pasted around spine, much worm eaten.
Off-set impression of liturgical manuscript (s. xii?) with neumes,
inside front board. Covered in kermes pink, tawed sheep with
corner tongues. Blind-tooled with diagonal and quartering
triple fillets. One fastening, the catch on the lower board,
the upper one cut in for the strap which is attached with
star-headed nails. Five flower-shaped bosses on each board
(two wanting on each).
Written perhaps in Northern Italy at the end of the 14th or
beginning of the 15th century; early provenance unknown.
Unidentified notes, s. xix-xx: "34" in pencil on parchment
addition to spine; "Isidorus - 14th-15th century" and "40921"
in pencil on front pastedown. Purchased from B. M. Rosenthal
in 1959 by Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).
secundo folio: Uenit nuper
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 94, no. 251.
Barbara A. Shailor