Details

Subjects:

Italian literature -- 14th century.
Italian poetry -- 14th century.
Italian poetry.
Italian literature.

Form/Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)
Manuscripts, Italian -- 15th century.
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Manuscript of the Teseide of Boccaccio. First three folios missing. This manuscript lacks the first 20 verses and ends with verse 83 of book xii, followed by a somewhat later inscription indicating ownership of "Bartolomeo & Tomaso Cholnj[?] Chessetto [or Chessello]" and an inscription on the verso of the last leaf. The text belongs to the B group of manuscripts (cf. Salvatore Battaglia's critical edition, Florence, 1938).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).
Foliation: Paper, iv + 66 + iv; 4-23, [24-29], 30-69; contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 2 columns of 38-40 lines; ruled in lead.
Script: Written in a cursive script by two different hands.
Decoration: Red used on some earlier pages for headings and highlights, with 2 red initials (f. 4v, 5r).
Binding: Full brown Niger; bound by R. R. Donnelley, 1953.
Various smudges and stains. A few folios trimmed close to the text. First and last folios show evidence of conservation repairs. In some places the rebinding has virtually eliminated the gutter.
Origin: Written in Italy[?], probably during the 15th century (notes of Thomas R. Adams, on file in the Library). Zacour-Hirsch suggests late 14th century.

Penn Provenance:

Bartolomeo and Tomaso Cholnj[?] Chessetto [or Chessello] (inscription, f. 69r).
Gift of Francis Campbell Macauley, 1953.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 94 (Ms. Italian 12).
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Teseide / edizione critica per cura di Salvatore Battaglia (Firenze: G. C. Sansoni, 1938).

Publications about:

Cursi, Marco and Francesco Marco Aresu. "Un codice del Teseida conservato a Philadelphia e un nuovo frammento del cantare della Guerra di Troia." Medioevo letterario d'Italia 15 (2018), pp. 141–53.

Cited as:

Giovanni Boccaccio, Teseide (Ms. Codex 254). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Contributor:

Macauley, Francis Campbell, former owner.

OCLC:

155964181