Beinecke MS 180                                                        Italy, s. XV^^2
Claudian, De raptu Proserpinae

          ff. 1r-20v    Claudiani poetae clarissimi liber primus de raptu
     proserpine feliciter incipit. Inuenta secuit primus qui naue profundum/
     Et rudibus remis sollicitauit aquas/...Antra procul sillea petit,
     canibusque reductis/ Pars stupefacta silet, pars mundum exterrita
     latrat. Explicit liber Claudiani de raptu proserpine.

          The order of the verses is confused, but is not due to misbinding:
     1.1-2.320; 3.45-170; 2.321-3.44; 3.294-448 (3.171-293 now lost).
     According to J. B. Hall, ed., Claudian De raptu Proserpinae (Cambridge,
     1969), Beinecke MS 180 belongs to that class of manuscripts which is
     free from all lacunae (MS y in his sigla; p. 32).

          Parchment, ff. i (paper) + 20 + i (paper), 216 x 130 (148 x 85)
     mm. Written in 27 lines of verse; double vertical bounding lines. Ruled
     in ink; prickings (often two spaced closely together) along upper and
     lower edges.
          I-II^^10. Catchwords perpendicular to text.
          Written by a single scribe in neat humanistic script.
          Crude initials in red, some with red and/or blue penwork designs;
     rubrics throughout.
          Binding: s. xix-xx. Brown paste-paper case with a blank paper
     label. (See also MSS 184 and 194.)

          Written in Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century;
     early provenance unknown. Belonged to the German landscape painter and
     engraver Friedrich von Schennis (1852-1918; bookstamp on f. 1r). Bought
     in 1949 from C. A. Stonehill by Thomas E. Marston (bookplate) who presented
     it to Yale in 1951.

     secundo folio: Coniurant

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 37, no. 180.

     Barbara A. Shailor