Collections (six manuscripts bound together); Italian (Venice, Verona, and Padua); 15th and 16th centuries (1460, 1536–40, 1551–64, etc.)

Title

Collections (six manuscripts bound together); Italian (Venice, Verona, and Padua); 15th and 16th centuries (1460, 1536–40, 1551–64, etc.)

Shelfmark

MS. Bywater 37

Place of origin

Italian, Venice

Italian, Venice (?)

Italian, Padua (?)

Italian

Date

16th century, c.1564–75

21 August 1460

15th century; after 1474

16th century, 1536–40

17th century, early

Language

Latin

Italian

Ancient Greek (to 1453)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Paper.

Physical extent

i + ii + 24 (parchment) + ii + 31 + 57 + 58 + 69 + 80 + i leaves.(see the descriptions of individual parts)

Binding

Bound in 18th-century Italian three-quarter parchment over pasteboards covered with paper decorated with a wavy red pattern on a white ground (of the type described by Mitchell, 1969, 131); the spine with a red leather title-piece lettered 'OPUSCULI | VARII, and with a paper label inscribed 'Nicolai | Sagundini | epist. ad | Bessarionem | (etc.) | [remainder damaged, illegible]'; the base of the spine inscribed 'No. 53' (cf under Provenance).

Acquisition

Bequeathed to the Bodleian by Ingram Bywater in 1915 (originally catalogued after accession under the Summary Catalogue no. 40069).

Provenance

Jacopo Soranzo (1686–1761): with his characteristic 'bold' foliation, now out of sequence (cf. Mitchell, 1969, 129–30, 131–2).

Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727–1806) (on whom see Falconer Madan, A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, IV: (collections received during the first half of the 19th century) nos. 16670–24330 (Oxford, 1897), 313): inscribed with characteristic: (i) pressmark at the base of the spine: 'No. 53' (cf. Christopher de Hamel, Hidden friends: a loan exhibition of the Comites Latentes Collection of illuminated manuscripts from the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Geneva, on view at Sotheby's on the occasion of the Colloque of the Comité International de Paléographie 20–28 September 1985 (London, 1985), no. 23, with pl.); (ii) foliations (cf. Mitchell, 1969, pl. XVIa); and (iii) paper insert with 'No. 53' (cf. Mitchell, 1969; and de Hamel, op. cit.); the manuscripts bound together for him.

Giuseppe Canonici (d. 1807): Matteo died intestate, and his manuscripts passed to his brother.

Giovanni Perisinotti: on Giuseppe's death in 1807, the manuscripts, about 3550 in number, passed to Perisinotti, and after many attempts to sell them, 2045 of them were acquired by the Bodleian in 1817; another group was sold at Sotheby's in 1821; and the remainder, 915 in number, were sold to Sneyd in 1834.

Rev. Walter Sneyd, of Denton House, Cuddeston (1809–1888), 1834: the upper pastedown with his circular bookplate design printed on a rectangular piece of paper (cf. de Hamel, op. cit.); sold at Sotheby's, 16 December 1903 and three following days, lot 708; bought by Dobell for £1 7s.

Bertram Dobell: catalogue 118 (Feb. 1904), item 275, priced £2 5s.

Ingram Bywater: inscribed with his Elenchus number in pencil in the top left corner of the upper pastedown: 'By. | 3677'; the upper pastedown with a cutting from the Dobell catalogue, inscribed in ink by Bywater: 'Dobell 1904'.