Marston MS 286          Venice [?], s. XV 2/4
Guarino da Verona, Regulae grammaticales, etc.

1.  ff. 1r-22v  Partes gramatice sunt quatuor videlicet littera. syllaba.
Dictio et oratio.  Littera ut u...Vt me uel prope me latet liber petrum
uel petro.

Guarino of Verona, Regulae grammaticales; numerous early printed editions
of arts. 1-3.  Beginning on f. 13v rubrics divide the text into the 
following sections:  Incipiunt Aduerbia, De comparatiuis, De superlatiuis, 
De participijs, De Inchoatiuis, De meditatiuis, De frequentatiuis, 
De desideratis, De figuris, De Patronomicis [sic], De etheroclitis.

2.  f. 22v-23r  Incipit orthographia.  A separans m uel n [?] abs q. c.
t. cetera uult ab...extruit exanguis excindit et expuit expes.

Guarino of Verona, De orthographia.

3.  ff. 23r-28r  Incipiunt versus differentiales.  Dicitur esse nepos de nepa
luxuriosus/ Ast natum grati post natum dic esse nepotem/...Nauis. tris
imbris pontis sic dicito partis/ Rarius is reliqua. plus pluris lis quoque 
litis.  Expliciunt carmina differentialia Guarinj Veronensis.  f. 28v blank
except for pen trials

Guarino of Verona, Carmina differentialia.

Parchment, ff. ii (paper) + 28 + ii (paper), 210 x 140 (136 x 86-89) mm.
31 long lines traced.  Single vertical bounding lines ruled in hard point or 
lead (Derolez 13.11); rulings for text in brown ink.  Prickings in upper and
lower margin. A single pricking in outer margin, 80 mm. below top line
(Derolez 18.3).
I-II 10, III 8.
Written in humanistic bookhand, below top line; marginal annotations in
humanistic cursive.
One illuminated initial of poor quality, f. 1r, 11-line, purple with
white filigree on gold and blue ground; filled with a stylized flower red
and green with white filigree, upper terminal extending into pen-and-ink
inkspray with gold balls and a mauve flower in upper border; pen-and-ink
flourish with gold balls, ending in a bird's head, mauve, green and blue.
Plain initials and paragraph marks alternate in blue and red; headings in red.
Arms of the Valaresso family of Venice in lower border (azure, 3 bars gemelles
or); partially effaced arms of Cardinal Bessarion in outer margin (azure, a 
cross botonny gules, a chief or; crest, cardinal's hat and crozier). 
Binding:  place uncertain, s. xix [?].  Rigid vellum case.  Remains of a
brick red label.

Written probably in Venice in the second quarter of the 15th century, perhaps
as early as the 1430s.  According to A. C. de la Mare the script resembles that
of Nicolaus de Salveldia (Colophons, v. 5, nos. 14554-55)
who signed Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana Edili 215, at Venice in 1441, and
St. Gall, Bibl. Vadiana MSS 306-8, at Padua in 1442-43; if Marston MS 286 was
copied by him, it is probably earlier than his dated manuscripts.  Belonged 
to a member of the Valaresso family of Venice (arms in lower margin, f. 1r).
Subsequently owned by Cardinal Bessarion (d. 1472) whose arms were added
in the outer margin of f. 1r.  Since the arms include the cardinal's
insignia, they were probably added by Bessarion after ca. 1441 (see C.
Bianca, "La formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione," in
Scrittura biblioteche e stampa a Roma nel Quattrocento. Aspetti e
problemi.
Atti del Seminario, 1979 [Vatican City, 1980: Littera Antiqua 1, 1] pp.
116-17).  Inscription of "W. Oothont/ Verona 1873" on front pastedown.  
Bookplate of Thomas E. Marston; the date and source of acquisition unknown.

secundo folio:  Accidentia verbi

Barbara A. Shailor