Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti — c. 1487; Italian, Bologna

Title

Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti — c. 1487; Italian, Bologna

Shelfmark

MS. Broxb. 85.7

Place of origin

Italian, Bologna

Date

c. 1487

Language

Italian

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

i + 62 leaves

Hands

Formal humanistic hand, possibly of the author; brown ink.

Decoration

(fol. 1v) monumental dedication page, inscription in white capitals on a black ground enclosed within an arched frame with marbled pink base and arch, green pilasters, and blue architrave, a coat of arms within the arch (see under provenance)

(fol. 2r) opening of text: plain violet four-line initial on gold ground; frame border with panels containing blue or green laurel wreaths, flowers and cornucopiae on a background of gold ornamental scrolls, and in the centre of each side a dove, one flying, the other on the ground; a coat of arms in the centre panel of the lower border (see under provenance).

Two-line gold chapter initials in blue, green, and red framed particoloured panels heightened with white.

Binding

Venice?; 16th cent., third quarter. Red morocco richly tooled in gold on both covers with azured and solid leafy tools, small rosettes and dots within the central panel and border; the inner and outer frames formed by double lines, those of the inner shaped into crescents at the corners. A foliate cartouche in the centre of each cover encloses the initials S. (above) L. (left) A. (right) M. (below). Remains of four crimson silk strings on each cover, two on the fore-edge and one each at top and bottom. Three raised bands and four raised half-bands divide the spine into eight panels; the head and tail panels, larger than the others, are further divided into two by triple gold lines, making a total of ten, each containing a pair of leaf motifs tooled in gold. The raised bands are decorated with triple horizontal gold lines; the half-bands are hatched with pairs of gold lines filled with dots. Both the bands and half-bands also have a single or double horzontal gold line immediately above and below them. Red and yellow headbands. Spine liner from a late medieval manuscript. Edges of leaves gilt and gauffered.

Acquisition

Presented to the Bodleian by his son, John Ehrman, in 1978 through the Friends of the National Libraries.

Provenance

Dedicatory inscription of fol. 1v: 'IOANN . SA . ARGENTEVS . CLARIS . SIMAE . AC . PVDICIS . D . MINO . CRE . AFFINI . CARISS . S . P . D . '. Within the lunette above is an unidentified coat of arms, described by Warner as 'per fess gules and or, the first charged with an estoile of the second' and found by Chandler in two manuscripts containing other works by Sabadino. They are not the Arienti arms. The arms in the centre of the lower border on fol. 2r are those of the Leonesi family of Bologna. Chandler suggests that the text was dedicated to Colomba, the sister of Sabadino's wife Francesca Bruni.

Initials on binding: S. (above) L. (left) A. (right) M. (below)

Inscriptions in black ink on the binding: 'A'(?) at the top of the spine, '10πs'(?) at the top of the upper cover.

Charles Fairfax Murray: book-plate, front pastedown. Acquired from Leo S. Olschki in Florence after 1900. Pencil note '37', front pastedown, in an unidentified hand.

C. W. Dyson Perrins: bought from Fairfax Murray, 1906. Book-plate, front pastedown. Three labels: bottom of spine, circular, inscribed '80'; front pastedown, printed 'C.W. Dyson Perrins', inscribed '80'; back pastedown, circular, printed 'Perrins Collection', inscribed '3'. No. 80 in Warner's catalogue (see under literature). Pencil notes by Dyson Perrins, fol. ir.

Albert Ehrman: bought at the Dyson Perrins sale, Sotheby's, 1 Dec. 1959, lot 84. Sale label, front pastedown. Ehrman book-plate, front pastedown. Formerly Broxbourne ledger no. R 1672.