Details

Subjects:

Consolation -- Early works to 1800.
Consolation.
Happiness -- Early works to 1800.
Happiness.
Philosophy, Ancient -- Early works to 1800.
Philosophy, Ancient.
Philosophy and religion -- Early works to 1800.
Philosophy and religion.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Annotations.
Dialogues.
Poems.
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, Medieval.

Language:

Latin.

Summary:

14th-century English copy of Boethius' philosophical dialogue in five books between a narrator and Lady Philosophy which deals with ideas of fate, fortune, and the relationship between free will and divine omniscience, and which was one of the most important philosophical texts of the medieval period. The text alternates between Metrum (verse) and Prosa (prose), and this copy of the text begins with the fifth metrum of Book 2. The text of Books 2 and 3 is fairly heavily marked with interlinear glosses and occasional marginal notes and manicules, and has simple ornamental initials and rubrication; the remainder of the manuscript has only occasional interlinear glosses and spaces with guide letters for initials.

Contents:

1. f.1r-4v: [Book 2, Metrum 5 to end]
2. f.4v-20v: [Book 3]
3. f.20v-33v: [Book 4]
4. f.34r-43v: [Book 5]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from closing rubric (f. 43v).
Collation: Parchment, iv (19th-century paper, uncut) + 43 + iv (19th-century paper, uncut); 1-2⁶ 3-5⁸ 6⁸(-1). Link to collation model at end of record.
Layout: Prose sections written in 24 long lines, verse sections written in 2 columns, using the same horizontals; frame-ruled in faint ink.
Script: Written in English cursive script.
Decoration: 12 2-line painted initials (plus a single 1-line initial) and recurring rubrics Prosa and Metrum in blue in the early leaves of the manuscript (f. 1r-13v); occasional varying manicules (f. 2r with blue added, 4r, 10r, 19r).
Binding: 19th-century English half morocco, marbled boards and endleaves.
Origin: Written in England in the first half of the 14th century.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Lord Henry Maxwell Farnham (County Cavan, Ireland; armorial bookplate, inside upper cover).
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 7 December 1999, lot 33, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2013.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2021.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 14 (LJS 347).

Cited as:

LJS 347

Contributor:

Farnham, Henry Maxwell, Baron, 1799-1868, former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

840699700

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page

Collation model