Beinecke MS 159                                            Italy, s. XV^^3/4
Cicero, De officiis, etc.

     1. ff. 1r-92r    Quamquam te marce fili annum iam audientem
     Cratippum...Sed multo fore cariorem si talibus monumentis
     praeceptisque laetabere. Finis. [Greek].

          C. Atzert, ed., Teubner (1949) pp. 1-123.

     2. f. 92r    Silus [?] Italicus in Ciceronis laudem. Tullius
     gratas raptabat in agmine turmas/...Par decus eloquio cuiquam
     sperare nepotum. f. 92v miscellaneous notes

          Walther, Initia 8719 (with four extra verses and rubric
     at beginning).

          Parchment, ff. iii (paper) + 92 + iii (paper), 227 x 147
     (147 x 90) mm. Written in 26 long lines; single vertical
     bounding lines. Ruled in hard point; some prickings along
     lower edge.
          I-VIII^^10, IX^^12. Catchwords perpendicular to text.
          Written by one scribe in round humanistic script; a
     second contemporary hand corrected the text and added
     marginal and interlinear notes/corrections in both Latin and
     Greek, as well as the poem on f. 92r. One initial (f. 1r),
     a 5-line gold capital filled and
     surrounded with white-vine ornament on a blue, red, and green
     ground with white dots, extending into the left and top
     margins (cf. Paecht and Alexander, v. 2, no. 335: Oxford,
     Bod. Lib. Laud Lat. 48 [Rome? 1450]). Other initials 3-line
     capitals alternating red and blue, throughout.
          Binding: s. xix. Dark purple goatskin quarter case,
     gold-tooled. Textured paper sides.

          Written probably in the third quarter of the 15th
     century in Northeastern Italy (we thank A. C. de la Mare for
     the attribution); early ownership by a scholar familiar with
     Greek. Erased inscription in lower margin of f. 1r. Belonged
     to David Wagstaff (bookplate); presented to Yale by Mrs.
     David Wagstaff in 1943.

     secundo folio: sint in philosophia

     Bibliography: De Ricci, v. 2, p. 1901, no. 4; Faye and Bond,
     p. 36, no. 159.

     Barbara A. Shailor