Beinecke MS 114                                                      Italy, s. XV^^2/4
Lactantius, Opera

     1. f. 1r    Copy of passage omitted from Institutiones VII. 9 and
     supplied in a later hand, with note "hec praecedencia debebant posita
     esse libro septimo et capitulo ix...." f. 1v blank

     2. ff. 2r-8v    [Prefatory material:] De his libris dici potest aliquid
     habere eos ut consonum qui non precipiendi auctoritate sed proficiendi
     exercitatione scribuntur a nobis...[followed by a table of contents:]
     Quanti sit et fuerit semper cognitio ueritatis et quod nec sine
     religione sapientia nec sine sapientia sit perturbanda religio. C.
     j....Exortatio ut omnes properent ad suscipiendam cum religione
     sapientiam per quam peruenitur ad beatissimam eterne uite hereditatem
     C. xxi.

     3. ff. 9r-162v    [Heading, in a later hand:] Liber Coelij Lactancij et
     firmiani diuinarum institucionum aduersus gentes primus de falsa
     religione ad Constantinum Imperatorem feliciter incipit. [text:] Magno
     et excellenti ingenio uiri cum se doctrine penitus dedissent quicquid
     laboris poterat impendi...ac deuicto aduersario triumphantes premium
     uirtutis quod ipse promisit a domino consequamur. Deo gratias. Firmiani
     lactantij aduersus gentiles liber septimus et ultimus explicit.

          S. Brandt and G. Laubmann, eds., CSEL v. 19 (1890).

     4. ff. 163r-177v    [Heading, in a later hand:] Liber Coelij Lactancij
     firmiani de Opificio dei seu hominis formacione Incipit ad demetrianum.
     [text:] Quam minime sim quietus etiam [later addition: in] summis
     necessitatibus extimare [sic]...si labor meus aliquos homines ab
     erroribus liberatos ad iter celeste deuexerit. Finis Lactantij Firmiani
     de opificio hominis.

          S. Brandt, ed., CSEL v. 27 (1893) pp. 3-64.

     5. ff. 177v-193v    [Heading, in a later hand:] Liber Coelij Lactancij
     de Ira dei ad donatum Incipit. [text:] Animaduerti sepe donate plurimos
     id existimare quod etiam nonnulli philosophorum putauerunt...ut et
     propitium semper habeamus et numquam uereamur iratum. Firmiani
     Lactantij de ira liber explicit. [later addition:] Laus deo.

          S. Brandt, ed., CSEL v. 27 (1893) pp. 67-132.

          Parchment, ff. i (paper) + 193 + ii (paper). 280 x 192 (178 x 116)
     mm. Written in 39 long lines; single vertical bounding lines. Ruled in
     hard point or lead; remains of prickings in all margins, except inner.
          I^^8, II-XII^^10, XIII^^8, XIV-XVII^^10, XVIII^^6, XIX-XX^^8, XXI^^6
     (-6). Catchwords along lower edge.
          Written by a single scribe in a "fractured" gothic script (see
     below). Marginal notations by several later writers, one of whom made
     extensive corrections to the text and added Latin translations for the
     Greek passages.
          Ten neat gold initials, 9- to 8-line, infilled and surrounded by
     white vinework on blue, pale green, and pale red grounds, with white
     dots and pale yellow highlights (ff. 9r, 33v, 53v, 77r, 100r, 119v,
     144r, 163r, 163v, 177v). Greek quotations in red (only for ff. 1r-88r).
     Capitals and paragraph marks, alternating red and blue for ff. 2r-8v.
          Binding: s. xviii. Brown calf case, gold- and blind-tooled with
     interesting pictorial tools.

          Written in Florence ca. 1425-35, according to A. C. de la Mare;
     arms of unidentified owner effaced (f. 2r). The same scribe copied a
     whole group of texts in a distinctive fractured gothic hand which has
     occasionally been thought to be of the 14th century or even earlier (A.
     C. de la Mare, "Humanistic Script, the first ten years," in Das
     Verhaeltnis der Humanisten zum Buch, eds., F. Kraft, D. Wuttke
     [Boppard, 1977] n. 35); the texts he copied included Asconius Pedianus,
     rediscovered by Poggio and friends at St. Gall in 1416 (Florence, Bibl.
     Laurenziana 50, 4: 2nd part) and speeches of Cicero rediscovered by
     Poggio in 1417 (Florence, Bibl. Laurenziana 48, 25). He also copied
     Quintilian (Vatican, Pal. lat. 1557), and the Letters of Pliny (using
     Coluccio Salutati's manuscript, Florence, Bibl. Laurenziana 47, 34),
     and further speeches of Cicero (Vatican, Ottob. lat. 1463/1). Belonged
     to Abate Luigi Celotti (ca. 1768-ca. 1846; see Phillipps Studies, v. 3,
     pp. 50-51); Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 947; tag on spine). Presented to
     Yale in 1943 by Thomas E. Marston.

     secundo folio: [rati]onem. C. xij

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 31, no. 114.
     
     Barbara A. Shailor