Seneca — 15th century, beginning; Italian, Lombardy or Verona

Title

Seneca — 15th century, beginning; Italian, Lombardy or Verona

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 86

Place of origin

Italian, Lombardy or Verona

Date

15th century, beginning

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Hands

Written by Pace (or Isace?) de Paulinis de Roma . (Pächt and Alexander ii. 765)

Decoration

Fine miniatures. Title Medea Type miniature Subject Medea in a chariot drawn by two dragons. Walled castle with tower; two children giving a robe to crowned Glauce (?); Creon (?) in tower.

Fine borders.

Fine initials (decoration partly unfinished). (Pächt and Alexander ii. 765, pl. LXXIII) 10- to 13-line initials in gold frames, with borders in right margins, decorated with animal figures, acanthus leaves, flowers and gold disks.

fol. 1r Title Herules furens Type initial S Subject Hercules with a club, in lion skin, speaks to an armoured soldier; Juno seated on a bench above. fol. 21r Title Thyestes Type initial Q Subject Atreus serves Thyestes his two sons at feast. fol. 38v Title Phoenissae Type initial C Subject Oedipus and Antigone; battle scene in the background; leopard with red collar in the border. fol. 48v Title Phaedra Type initial I Subject Hunting scene. Death of Hippolytus. fol. 68r Title Oedipus Type initial I Subject Oedipus, blind; Jocasta, stabbing herself with a dagger; Oedipus (?) kneeling before a statue; griffon. fol. 84r Title Troades Type initial Q Subject Walled city; scenes showing fates of Trojan women. fol. 118v Title Medea Type initial D Subject Walled castle; on the wall Medea slaying her child; at the base of the wall crowned Creon (?) and Medea giving a robe to two children. fol. 118v Title Agamemnon Type initial O Subject Agamemnon returning home with prisoners and a band of warriors. The murder of Agamemnon. fol. 134r Title Octavia Type initial I Subject Two panels: (1) Nero seated on the throne and Octavia (?) with another woman and soldiers; (2) Octavia in a ship with sailors. Pelican feeding its young with its blood (?) on top of the initial I. fol. 149v Title Hercules Oetaeus Type initial S Subject Hercules on his funeral pyre gives his bow to Philoctetes; two women watch. Hercules rises to heaven from his funeral pyre.

Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Provenance

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Title

Seneca, Tragedies

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 86

Date

15th century, beginning

Language

Latin

Physical extent

1 volume