Incipit Lucij Annei Senecae Cordubensis Liber de moribus in quo notabiliter [et] eleganter vitae mores enarrat.

Accession number: 
PML 16698
Author: 
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.-65 A.D.
Published: 
Impressum Taruisij : Per Bernardum de Colonia, M.cccc.lxxviij [1478].
Description: 
[428] p. ; 34 cm. (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1910.
Notes: 

Title from incipit (leaf a2r).
Imprint from colophon (leaf bb7r).
Printed in Bernardinus's type 1:81G.
Signatures: a¹⁰ b-h⁸ i¹⁰ k-l⁸ m¹⁰ n-z⁸ [et]⁸ aa-bb⁸: 214 leaves, leaves a1 and bb8 blank.
Paper format: Median folio.
53 lines. Capital spaces.
Blind bearer type visible below colophon.
Reprinted from the edition of Moravus, Naples, 1475, with editor statement in colophon: "Sub domino Blasio Romero monacho Populeti philosopho ac theologo celebri ..."
PML copy leaf dimensions: 33.3 x 21.8 cm.
The following works listed in the colophon are spurious: De moribus, De formula honestæ vitæ vel de quattuor virtutibus cardinalibus, De remediis fortuitorum, Libri decem declamationum, and Proverbia. The De moribus and the De formula honestae vitae are by Saint Martin of Braga and the Libri decem declamationum by Seneca the Elder. The Proverbia Senecae is " ... a collection of sentences, derived from the plays of Publilius Syrus and enlarged from other sources, especially the apocryphal Liber de moribus ... [which] were frequently published with title L.A. Senecae et P. Syri mimi Sententiae (Proverbia) ..." Cf. LCCS PA6648.P8-.P9.

Binding: 
Modern quarter brown leather over (original?) beech boards (34.5 x 23 cm.), sewn on 3 supports by Duprez-Lahey, 1946. Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; plain endbands. Note on front fly leaf by Belle Greene states that the previous binding was a forgery by Louis Hagué. Note suggests the gilt and gauffered edges are original, which seems unlikely since there is an earlier manuscript title on the bottom edge and the fore-edge tabs have been cut away; thus, the gauffering is likely modern and probably from Hagué.
Variant Title: 

Incipit Lucii Annei Senecae Cordubensis Liber de moribus in quo notabiliter et eleganter vitae mores enarrat

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: German, alternating red and blue lombards with florid tails, red paragraph marks and capital strokes. Annotations: No marginal notations in text. Manuscript title on bottom edge.

Provenance: 
Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased from Giuseppe Martini, April 1910.
Classification: 
Department: