Plutarch, Moralia (selection)

Title

Plutarch, Moralia (selection)

Shelfmark

MS. Holkham Gr. 97

Date

15th century

Language

Ancient Greek (to 1453)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

paper

Physical extent

iii + 61 leaves + ii foliated as 62–63.

Hands

Possibly the MS was copied in Padua by the same scribe as MS Par. gr. 2956. See F. Vendruscolo, ‘La "Consolatio ad Apollonium" fra Mistrà (?) e Padova: apografi quattrocenteschi del Bruxellensis 18967(b)’, Bollettino dei Classici, 17 (1996) 10, and E. Gamba, ‘Un nuovo manoscritto copiato da Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (Par. gr. 1833). Appunti per la ricostruzione della sua biblioteca’, Eikasmos 25 (2014) 348.

Decoration

Large decorative main headpieces (fols 1r, 23r), smaller for subsections (fols 41v, 48r) and large initials (fols 1r, 23r, 41v, 48r).

Binding

Typical Holkham binding of dark green leather, with Coke family ostrich crest in gilt in the centre of the upper cover; Date: early nineteenth century. Rebound by John Jones of Liverpool (worked for Holkham 1816–1823. The spine lettered in gilt: /PLUTARCHI OPUSCULA GR. MS. SÆC. XII.; in pasted black leather: MS. /HOLKHAM/ Gr. 97. Below there is a flowerish decoration in gilt.

Provenance

Ownership Notes: front paste down (top, right in black ink): signature of Thomas William Coke. fol. 1r: erased notes on top and bottom. Fol. iii(r): Joannes Calphurnius oratoriam Artem grece/ latineque Patavii gloriose docens librum/ hunc Cornoois Reg. s. Joannis Viri/dario devotus legavit Ut/ Inde Profitiens Lector gratus Existat/ Mccccc3. Cf. D. Marcotte, ‘La Bibliothèque de Jean Calphurnius’, Humanistica Lovaniensia 36 (1987) 189, type 1. Johannes Calphurnius bequeathed this codex to S. John Viridario in Verdara in Padua, in 1503. The MS alongside MS. Holkham Gr. 92 and MS. Holkham Gr. 116 was purchased by Thomas Coke in 1717 at Padua. See S. de Ricci, A handlist of manuscripts in the library of the Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall: abstracted from the catalogues of William Roscoe and Frederic Madden (Supplement to the Bibliographical Society's Transactions, 7, Oxford, 1932), pp. ix-x and 23. See also E. Mioni, Bibliothecae Divi Marci Venetiarum codices graeci manuscripti, vol. 1.1, Rome, 1967, Appendix, tab. V, and Marcotte, 1987, 185.

Catalogue Nrs: paste down (in pencil): MS. Holkham Gr. 97; fol. 1(r) (in pencil): No 275 (sup lin 6) D4B.ΙΙ. (= Old Catalogue Nrs: Olim Holkham Hall, Libr. of the Earl of Leicester, 276)