Liber rethoricor[um]

Timespan:

Early works to 1800

Date:

1440

Description:

15th-century copy of a systematic treatise on rhetoric composed in the first century B.C. and frequently attributed to Cicero into the Renaissance. The text was the foundation for the study of rhetoric in the medieval and Renaissance periods. This manuscript is in an unusual small format. It is divided into 6 books rather than the customary 4, with the influential Book 4 divided into 3 parts so that Book 5 contains the figures of diction and Book 6 contains the figures of thought.

Language:

Latin

Provenance:

Sold by Les Enluminures (Paris and Chicago), 2013.

Relation:

The Rosengarten Family Fund Home Page: http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017.12/366323; Video orientation: http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017.12/100000249

Subject:

Rhetoric -- Early works to 1800; Rhetoric; Rhetoric, Ancient

Resource Type:

Text

Form/Genre:

Codices; Treatises; Manuscripts, Latin; Manuscripts, Renaissance; manuscripts (documents)

Physical Description:

130 leaves : parchment; 120 x 85 (74-76 x 53-55) mm bound to 130 x 98 mm

Rights:

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Notes:

Ms. codex.; Title from opening rubric (f. 1r).; Table of contents: 1. f.1r-17v: Marci Tuli C. Rethoricorum liber primus.; Table of contents: 2. f.17v-48v: Liber secundus M. T. C. Rethoricorum.; Table of contents: 3. f.48v-73r: Liber tertius.; Table of contents: 4. f.73r-86v: Liber quartus.; Table of contents: 5. f.86v-109r: Liber quintus.; Table of contents: 6. f.109r-130r: M. T. C. Rethoricorum liber vi.; Collation: Parchment, i (modern) + 130 + i (modern); 1-13¹⁰; [1-130], modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto; first recto of each gathering also foliated in pencil, lower right recto. Horizontal catchwords on last verso of each gathering, lower center.; Layout: Written in 18 long lines; faintly ruled in lead with vertical bounding lines.; Script: Written in a protohumanistic script.; Decoration: 4-line initial in blue with red penwork and three-quarter border in red and blue penwork (water-damaged, f. 1r); 3- and 4-line initials, at the beginning of each book, either blue with red penwork or red with blue or purple penwork and marginal extensions (f. 18r, 48v, 73r, 86v, 109r); numerous 2-line initials alternating between red with blue penwork and blue with red penwork; alternating red and blue paragraph marks; rubricated in red except for some rubrications in blue at book divisions; initials in text and catchwords touched with yellow.; Binding: Modern calf, blind-tooled.; Origin: Written in northern Italy, possibly Venice, between 1440 and 1460 (Les Enluminures).; Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.; Latin.

Physical Location:

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Manuscripts, Ms. Codex 1630

Collection:

Rosengarten Family Fund