Details

Standardized Title:

Rhetorica ad Herennium.

Subjects:

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

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Treatises.
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Latin.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

1. f.1r-17v: Marci Tuli C. Rethoricorum liber primus.
2. f.17v-48v: Liber secundus M. T. C. Rethoricorum.
3. f.48v-73r: Liber tertius.
4. f.73r-86v: Liber quartus.
5. f.86v-109r: Liber quintus.
6. f.109r-130r: M. T. C. Rethoricorum liber vi.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from opening rubric (f. 1r).
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).

Local notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Penn Provenance:

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

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1630

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

OCLC:

825807528

Web link:

The Rosengarten Family Fund Home Page