YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 87 Italy, s. XV^^med
Caesar, Opera omnia
1. ff. 1r-79r C. Iulii Caesaris Commentariorum belli gallici liber
primus incipit feliciter. Iulius Celsus. V. C. emendauit. Gallia est
omnis diuisa in partes tres quarum unam incolunt belge...Ipse bibracti
hiemare constituit his litteris cognitis rhome dierum. xx. supplicatio
redditur.
A. Klotz, ed., Teubner v. 1 (1929) pp. 1-178.
2. ff. 79r-90v A. Hircii Commentariorum belli galli gallici epistola
primum ad Cornelium Balbum incipit feliciter. Coactus assiduis tuis
uocibus balbe...cuiusquam existimem posse comparari. Vale. Incipit
eiusdem liber belli gallici Iulius Celsus Constantinus. V. C.
emendauit. Omni gallia deuicta cesar cum a superiore estate nullum
bellandi...quod sibi spes aliqua relinqueretur iure potius disceptandi
quam belli gerendi.
Klotz, op. cit., v. 1, pp. 178-205.
3. ff. 90v-146r C. Iulii. Caesaris. Commentariorum belli ciuilis
Pompeiani liber primus incipit feliciter Iulius. Caelsus. Constantinus
Quintus. consul emendauit. Litteris a fabio. C. cesaris consulibus
redditis egre ab his impetratum est...indicatis deprehensisque
internuntiis a cesare est interfectus.
Klotz, op. cit., v. 2 (1950) pp. 1-159; V. Brown, The Textual
Transmission of Caesar's Civil War (Leiden, 1972) p. 57 (list of
Contaminated Manuscripts: M-N Types).
4. ff. 146v-164r C. Iulii. Caesaris. A. Hircii. Commentariorum.
belli. Alesandrini....emendauit. Bello Alexandrino conflato Cesar rhodo
atque ex siria ciliciaque...Rebus felicissime celerrimeque confectis
Cesar in italiam celerius omnium opinione uenit.
Klotz, op. cit. v. 3 (1966) pp. 1-53.
5. ff. 164r-185v A. Hircii. Commentariorum. belli. africani...
emendauit. Cesar itineribus iustis confectis nullo die intermisso ad
xiiii KL. Ian....in portibus cohibeatur ad urbem rhomam uenit.
Klotz, op. cit., v. 3, pp. 59-135.
6. ff. 185v-195v A. Hircii. Commentariorum. belli. hispaniensis...
emendauit. Pharnace superato affrica recepta qui ex his preliis cum
adoloscente...que non solum uobis obsistere etiam celum diruere
possent. Quarum laudibus et uirtute. [added in a somewhat later hand:]
Explicit Liber comentariorium Iulij Caesaris. Laus deo. f. 196r-v blank
Klotz, op. cit., v. 3, pp 136-67.
Parchment, ff. i (original parchment) + 196, 230 x 162 (154 x 94)
mm. Written in 35 long lines; single vertical bounding lines. Ruled in
pale ink or lead; remains of prickings in upper and lower margins.
I-XIX^^10, XX^^6. Catchwords perpendicular to text along inner
bounding line.
Written by a single scribe in a small elegant humanistic bookhand.
Fine initials, gold capitals, 9- to 5- line, edged in yellow,
filled with white-vine ornament, on blue, green, and red ground,
decorated with yellow dots (cf. Paecht and Alexander, v. 2, no. 237:
Oxford, Bod. Lib. D'Orville 209 [Tuscany, s. XV^^med]). Headings in red.
Binding: s. xv. Wound sewing on four slit straps. Colored beaded
endbands sewn onto cores of tawed skin laced and nailed into wooden
boards. All edges gilt. The sewing straps are laced through tunnels in
the edges of the boards and nailed in channels on the outside,
protruding well above the face. Covered in dark brown goatskin, blind-
tooled with an eight-pointed star and corners filled in with rope-tool
interlace interspersed with copper-colored dots, in a border of
rectangular tools. Four catches on the lower board and stubs of red
cloth (velvet?) straps lined with parchment held to the upper with star
headed nails (exhib. cat., The History ot Bookbinding, 525-1950
A.D.,
The Walters Art Gallery [Baltimore, 1957] no. 196; T. de Marinis, La
legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI [Florence, 1960] v. 1,
p. 101 [incorrectly identified as "Yale MS. Richardson 16"]).
Written probably in Florence or Tuscany in the middle of the 15th
century; early note on front flyleaf: "Quisto libro e de Baldanto
Balducci." Description of manuscript, in Italian (s. xix) pasted inside
front cover. Belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 12277, note on f. i
recto); his purchase from Payne and Foss in 1848 (one of a group of
manuscripts from the abbey of Nonantola). Label with "From the Library
of George Dunn [1864-1912] of Woolley Hall near Maidenhead." Wilfred
Merton collection (booktag inside front cover). Acquired by David
Wagstaff (bookplate) from Davis and Orioli in 1942; gift of Mrs. David
Wagstaff in 1943.
secundo folio: damnatum penam
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 27, no. 87.
E. T. Silk, "The Wagstaff Collection of Classical and Mediaeval
Manuscripts", Gazette 19 (1944) pp. 1-5 (plate of f. 1r opposite p. 6).
Barbara A. Shailor