Details

Other Title:

Familles de Venise.

Subjects:

Aristocracy (Social class) -- Italy -- Venice -- History.
Nobility -- Italy -- Venice -- History.
Nobility.
History.
Aristocracy (Social class).
Venice (Italy) -- History.
Venice (Italy) -- Politics and government -- Early works to 1800.
Italy -- Venice.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Chronicles.
Coats of arms.
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Work containing historical articles on about 400 noble families residing in Venice over a period of almost a thousand years, together with their coats of arms (f. 50r-352r); and a list of the Doges, likewise with their arms (f. 355r-416v), to Leonardo Donà (elected in 1605). The section on noble families is arranged alphabetically by family name. The section on Doges is arranged chronologically. Preceded by extensive introductory material (f. 6r-47r) on the foundation of the city and the history and institutions of Venice from late antiquity on. This material includes such sections as lists of hospitals in Venice, etc. There is an alphabetical index at the end (f. 425r-443r).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f. 49r). Title on spine label: Familles de Venise [sic].
Date taken from bookseller's notes (H.P. Kraus). No date of composition given in the manuscript, but it must be after the election of Leonardo Donà in 1605.
Foliation: Paper, 444; [i, 1-443]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto. Also contains a contemporary pagination: [2-5], 6-889; upper outer corners. Back pastedown numbered p. 890, and the front pastedown must be counted as p. 1. References in this record are to the modern foliation.
Script: Written in a cursive script by a single hand.
Decoration: Hundreds of colored coats of arms in the outer margins. Designs in bright watercolors (blue, red, yellow and light purple) on dedicatory pages (f. 1r-v), title page (f. 49r) and introduction to section on Doges (f. 352r). When a family had founded a church, a depiction of it is painted beneath that family's armorial shield. When the execution of a member of a particular family is mentioned in the text, the execution is depicted, e.g.: the beheading of the Doge Marino Falieri (f. 187r, 387v); the hanging of Marco Donado dalla Madale (f. 159v); the beheading of Francesco Carmignola (f. 115v); and the strangulation of Francesco da Carrara in 1405 and the beheading of Marsilio da Carrara (both on f. 113r).
Binding: Contemporary gilt levant morocco with two leather-and-metal clasps. Cover wearing at edges and splitting at hinges. Some wormhole damage in both upper and lower boards. Some smudges and stains.
Origin: Written in Venice, ca. 1608-1612 (Kraus); no date of composition in manuscript, but it must be after the election of Leonardo Donà in 1605.

Penn Provenance:

Former owners include: Prince Liechtenstein Library (bookplate, inside upper cover; stamps).
Previously sold by H. P. Kraus (New York); sold by John J. Fleming, Rosenbach Co. (New York), 1957.

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. 99 (Ms. Italian 36).

Cited as:

UPenn Oversize Ms. Codex 278

OCLC:

155964250