Vernacular Culture and Greek Texts in Renaissance Florence: a Database of Florentine Vernacularizations of Greek texts (c. 1460-1500)

Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Lat. fol. 510

Item

Manuscript copy id

MC0000004 See all items with this value

Translator

Poggio Bracciolini (Poggius Florentinus) See all items with this value

Work

Diodori Siculi Historiarum priscarum <libri> a Poggio in Latinum traducti See all items with this value

Shelfmark

Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Lat. fol. 510 See all items with this value

Date

1450s (ante 1459) See all items with this value

Seen

Yes

Material

Parchment See all items with this value

Dimensions and Structure

272 x 197
I + 172 + II’ (the front flyleaf is original)
18 quires: I-XVII(10), XVIII(2) See all items with this value

Type of script

humanist book hand attributed to the scribe "Franciscus presbiter" (see Sideri 2024 in the Bibliography). See all items with this value

Scribe

"Franciscus presbiter" (see Sideri 2024 in the Bibliography). See all items with this value

Annotations

a) corrections and "notabilia" by the main scribe;
b) a few corrections and "notabilia" autograph by Poggio Bracciolini (attributed, see Sideri 2024 in the Bibliography)
c) a few additional annotations by a later hand. See all items with this value

Decoration

Fol. 1r: frontispiece with a golden initial interwined in a square of scrolling white vine-stems on a ground of blue, green and pink. In the lower margin, a bar decorated with white vine-stems on a ground of blue, green and pink houses the shield of arms of the Strozzi Florentine family.
In the rest of the manuscript, each book is preceded by a simple initial in blue ink.

Marks of ownership, inscriptions and previous shelfmarks

On the verso of front flyleaf there is the following indication (a date of accession): «15. L. 81», followed by «Eil Mitt Weil | Joachim d(er) Eltern Grafe | Graue zu Ortenburg etc. m(anu) p(ropria)». The same note of ownership is repeated at fol. 172r. The manuscript thus belonged to the humanist Bavarese earl of Ortenburg, Joachim Graf zu Ortenburg (1530-1600). On the verso of the front flyleaf there are too additional mottos by Joachim: «Umbra non cedit soli» and «Successus humanae foelicitatis est aeternae damnationis iuditium».
After being part of the Ortenburg library, the manuscripts was part of the book collection of the Austrian earl Heinrich Wilhelm Starhemberg (1593-1675), preserved at Shloß Riedegg. On the upper margin of fol. 1r a 17th-century hand wrote: «Ex libris Ill(ustrissi)mi D(omi)ni Henr(ici) Guil(lelmi) Com(itis) a Starhemberg Riedegg». See all items with this value

Incipit

Fol. 1r, letter of dedication to Pope Nicholas V, inc.: "PROHEMIUM IN LIBROS DIODORI SICVLI QVOS POGGIVS FLORENTINVS LATINOS FECIT AD NICOLAVM QVINTVM SVMMVM PONTIFICEM. Nullus antea quantu(m)uis preclarus rerum sc(ri)ptor fuit". 

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Explicit

Fol. 172r: "barbaris plures exeis tenuerunt. Quibus derebus suo loco scribet(ur) a nobis. FINIS."

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Bibliography

C. Sideri, "Correzioni, ritocchi e marginalia d'autore nella tradizione: nuove schede minime per Poggio Bracciolini", Studi Medievali 65/1 (2024), pp. 191-223, Plates. I-VII