Franklin

Guerino Meschino.

Author/Creator:
Andrea, da Barberino, approximately 1370-
Format/Description:
Manuscript
214 leaves : paper, color illustrations ; 236 x 160 (165 x 108) mm bound to 235 x 163 mm
Production:
[Italy], 1472.
Status/Location:
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Details

Standardized Title:
Guerrino il Meschino
Other Title:
Guerino il Meschino.
Guerrino detto il Meschino.
Meschino da Durazzo.
Subjects:
Italian literature -- 15th century.
Italian literature.
Romances, Italian -- Specimens.
Romances, Italian.
Form/Genre:
Codices.
Romances (literary genre)
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.
Specimens.
Language:
Italian.
Summary:
Romance about Guerino, son of an Italian prince. Separated from his parents as a baby and deprived of his royal status (dubbed "Meschino," "Wretched"), he embarks on a number of chivalric adventures, travels the world, discovers his identity, and returns to recapture his kingdom. This work is also known as Guerino il Meschino, Guerrino detto il Meschino and Meschino da Durazzo.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Early title "Guerino Meschino" is written along the lower fore-edge of the manuscript; later title "Guerino" is written on the front cover board.
Collation: Paper, 214; 1-19¹⁰20-21¹²; [1-214]; modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto. Catchwords, lower center verso on the last leaf of each gathering. Link to collation model at end of record.
Layout: Written in 32 long lines; ruled in lead.
Script: Written in a humanist script.
Decoration: Illuminated 4-line initial in blue, green and gold (f. 1). Small initials in red, with guide letters usually visible in the left margin.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet, Fleur, 6597 or 6599.
Binding: Contemporary square wooden boards sewn on three thongs threaded through the boards and pegged. Metal catches on lower cover decorated and engraved with Gothic capital "S."
Origin: Written in northwest Italy (Maggs) in 1472 (f. 214v).
A brief description of the manuscript in Italian is pasted inside the front cover.
Generally fragile; portions of the manuscript are in very poor condition. Upper part of each page severely dampstained throughout the manuscript, sometimes affecting legibility of the first few lines; however, the parts of each page unaffected by this staining are in excellent condition. Bottom part of f. 1 torn away, but no text missing. Binding and covers loose; spine missing. Back cover board broken in half and held together only by pasted-down endpaper. There is evidence of worm damage.
The text of Guerino il Meschino was first printed at Padua in 1473, but the printed text differs in many respects from the text of this and other manuscripts.
Penn Provenance:
The bookplate of Graf L. v. d. Pahlen is pasted inside the front cover; "Phillippe" is scribbled in plummet in the lower margin of f. 164r.
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 1 December 1987, lot 34.
Appears in Maggs Bros. catalog B15 (1990), no. 8.
Formerly owned by Lawrence J. Schoenberg, LJS 18.
Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 1993.
Cited in:
Allaire, Gloria. "An overlooked exemplar of Guerrino il Meschino by Andrea da Barberino (Cod. Vaticanus Barberinianus latinus 3988)," Manuscripta 39 (July 1995), pp. 120-130
Cited as:
UPenn Ms. Codex 16.
Contributor:
Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)
OCLC:
155958597
Access Restriction:
Access to this item is subject to staff review.