Beinecke MS 359               Italy, s. XV^^med
Pomponius Mela, De chorographia libri tres, etc.

1.  f.1r blank; f. 1v Nobili ac Generoso Viro Domino Lodisio Auria In
Expeditione Neapolitana Francorum Regis Admirato. [text of poem:] Tu quem
liligeras nutu frenare triremes/ Cernimus, Equoreis, et dare iura salis/...Haec
te fata manent, pergas per semita [?] Patrum/ Doria et in totta Doride victor
eris.

     Poem, 8-line, to Luigi Doria (Lodisius Auria) on the campaign of the French
to Naples (1494-95); added by a later hand.

2. ff. 2r-40v Pomponii Melle de cosmographia liber incipit.  Orbis situm
dicere aggredior impeditum opus et facundie minime capax...iam fretum uergens
promontorium operis huius atque athlantici littoris terminus explicit.  Finis.
f. 41r ruled, but blank

     G. Ranstrand, ed., Pomponii Melae De chorographia libri tres (Stockholm,
1971) pp. 3-65; not among the manuscripts listed by P. Parroni, ed., Pomponii
Melae De chorographia libri tres (Rome, 1984).

3.  f. 41v Ferruginei uetusto more attramenti conficiundi [sic] modus:
Ex Kyriaco Anconitano.  [text:] Primum quidem habeto gallarum minutarum
crisparumque ad drachmas tris...post collato et continuo scribito.

     Formula for making ink attributed to Cyriac of Ancona (Ciriaco de'
Pizzicolli, ca. 1391-1450), added in a later hand.

4.  f. 42r Marco Auria Nobili ac Magnanimo Viro. [text:] Marce decus ligurum,
preclara stirpe potentum/ Edite Lambarum, lux rediuiua toge/...Dicere fas nobis
hinc quod fatidica Doris,/ Aurius, ut redeant Aurea secla, regat.  f. 42v blank

     Poem, 8-line, to Marco Doria (Marcus Auria), added in a later hand.

     Parchment, ff. i (contemporary parchment, f. 1) + 40 (ff. 2-41) + i
(contemporary parchment, f. 42), 204 x 152 (138 x 98) mm. 27 long lines.
Ruled in ink for horizontal lines and in crayon for vertical;  single vertical
bounding lines, full length.  Prickings in upper and lower margins; and an
additional single pricking in outer margin just above upper edge of written
space (cf. A. Derolez, Codicologie des manuscrits en ecriture humanistique
sur parchemin, Bibliologia 5 [Brepols, Turnhout, 1984] p. 77).
     I-V^^8.  Catchwords, some accompanied by dots and flourishes, perpendicular
to text along inner vertical bounding line.  Remains of quire and leaf
signatures (e.g., e1, e2, etc.) in lower right corner, recto.
     Art. 2 written by a single scribe in elegant humanistic bookhand; art. 3, in
italic, added in late 15th century; arts. 1 and 4, in upright humanistic, in the
16th century.
     Small gold initials, 2-line, on red, blue, green rectangular grounds with
simple white-vine ornamentation and white filigree, at the beginning of each
book of art. 2 (ff. 2r, 15r, 29r).  Plain blue initials, 2-line, throughout.
Headings in red.  Guide-letters for illuminator and rubricator.
     Waterstained throughout; large portions of parchment covered by purple
blotches.
     Binding:  s. xv-xvi.  Original sewing on three tawed slit straps laced into
channels on the inside of beech boards and pegged, the channels filled in with
glue or mastic.  The spine is square.  Plain, wound endbands sewn on twisted,
laced cores sit on the spine.  Covered in brown leather, blind-tooled with
double fillets forming an X in a frame with lozenges made up of small
cross-shaped tool in each compartment.  One fastening, the catch with an S
on it on the lower board.  "Cosmographia" written on head edge.

Written in the middle of the 15th century, probably in Lombardy according to
A. Derolez; arts. 1, 3, 4 are later additions.  A hand contemporary with main
text carefully added Greek equivalents for Latin proper nouns (e.g., lilibeum =
[Greek]).  Perhaps owned by a member of the Doria family (see arts. 1 and
4).  From the library of W. Redmond Cross, Yale 1896; presented to the Beinecke
Library in 1969 by Mrs. Cross.

secundo folio: ita nominibus

Barbara A. Shailor