Details
VENICE -- CRONICA VENEZIANA POPOLARE, in Italian, MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER
[Venice, late 15th century]
Royal 4° (285 x 200mm). 433 leaves, of 436 (without ff.427-428; one text leaf cancelled after f.115), plus 34 blank leaves at end (6 additional blanks cancelled in second and last quires before the foliation was entered), later ink foliation 1-433 (with errors), frame-ruled in lead, justification 195 x 105mm, 25 lines written in brown ink in a cursive hand, pen-work initials in the same ink as the text, ff.138v-297v with initials and dates washed in yellow ink with gilt flecks, ca. 75 hand-coloured coats of arms on paper cut out and pasted into blank spaces or margins (occasional show-through of ink, occasional light soiling or dampstaining to margins, unobtrusively closed tears in several leaves). Modern calf over wooden boards, remains of 15th-century blind-stamped Italian goatskin sides and spine laid down, 8 of 10 original brass bosses retained.
PROVENANCE:
1. Laurentius Antonius de Ponte: his 18th-century engraved bookplate with manuscript shelfmark 'Cod. CIX KK.4' inside upper cover.
2. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872): his nos 7317 and 7820 on spine (The Phillipps Manuscripts, ed. A.N.L. Munby, reprint ed., London 1968).
CONTENTS:
This chronicle of the history of Venice covers the years 706-1477. Its incipit corresponds to that of a Venetian chronicle found in a manuscript at the Newberry Library, a codex that also belonged to Lorenzo Antonio da Ponte (MS. f87.1; see H. Baron, 'Early Renaissance Venetian Chronicles: Their History and a Manuscript in the Newberry Library', in From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni, Chicago 1968, pp.172-95). In the present manuscript the chronicle stands alone; it is not accompanied by three texts often found with Venetian chronicles and present in the Newberry Library manuscript: a legendary account of the deeds of Attila, a summary of major events in the history of Italy after Attila, and a survey of Venetian institutions and offices. How the present text relates to that of the Newberry codex and to the nearly 200 manuscripts of Venetian chronicles, all in institutional libraries, surveyed by A. Carile (La cronachistica veneziana (secoli XIII-XVI), Florence 1969) remains to be determined. In any case, most of those manuscripts end at dates earlier than the 1477 of this chronicle.
This manuscript also contains the coats of arms of the doges, drawn and coloured by hand, and cut out and pasted into spaces in the text or in the margins at the point where each doge's term of office begins.
[Venice, late 15th century]
Royal 4° (285 x 200mm). 433 leaves, of 436 (without ff.427-428; one text leaf cancelled after f.115), plus 34 blank leaves at end (6 additional blanks cancelled in second and last quires before the foliation was entered), later ink foliation 1-433 (with errors), frame-ruled in lead, justification 195 x 105mm, 25 lines written in brown ink in a cursive hand, pen-work initials in the same ink as the text, ff.138v-297v with initials and dates washed in yellow ink with gilt flecks, ca. 75 hand-coloured coats of arms on paper cut out and pasted into blank spaces or margins (occasional show-through of ink, occasional light soiling or dampstaining to margins, unobtrusively closed tears in several leaves). Modern calf over wooden boards, remains of 15th-century blind-stamped Italian goatskin sides and spine laid down, 8 of 10 original brass bosses retained.
PROVENANCE:
1. Laurentius Antonius de Ponte: his 18th-century engraved bookplate with manuscript shelfmark 'Cod. CIX KK.4' inside upper cover.
2. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872): his nos 7317 and 7820 on spine (The Phillipps Manuscripts, ed. A.N.L. Munby, reprint ed., London 1968).
CONTENTS:
This chronicle of the history of Venice covers the years 706-1477. Its incipit corresponds to that of a Venetian chronicle found in a manuscript at the Newberry Library, a codex that also belonged to Lorenzo Antonio da Ponte (MS. f87.1; see H. Baron, 'Early Renaissance Venetian Chronicles: Their History and a Manuscript in the Newberry Library', in From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni, Chicago 1968, pp.172-95). In the present manuscript the chronicle stands alone; it is not accompanied by three texts often found with Venetian chronicles and present in the Newberry Library manuscript: a legendary account of the deeds of Attila, a summary of major events in the history of Italy after Attila, and a survey of Venetian institutions and offices. How the present text relates to that of the Newberry codex and to the nearly 200 manuscripts of Venetian chronicles, all in institutional libraries, surveyed by A. Carile (La cronachistica veneziana (secoli XIII-XVI), Florence 1969) remains to be determined. In any case, most of those manuscripts end at dates earlier than the 1477 of this chronicle.
This manuscript also contains the coats of arms of the doges, drawn and coloured by hand, and cut out and pasted into spaces in the text or in the margins at the point where each doge's term of office begins.