Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Commentary and prose paraphrase on the Metamorphoses of Ovid.

Accession number
MS M.938
Object title
Commentary and prose paraphrase on the Metamorphoses of Ovid.
Display Date
1446.
Created
Italy, probably Milan, 1446.
Binding
Formerly in 15th-century brown calf, much patched and preserved separately; rebound in full stained calf by Deborah Evetts in 1989.
Credit line
Purchase; Karl und Faber, on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund; 1968.
Description
182 leaves (1 column, 30-39 lines), bound : paper, ill. ; 288 x 204 mm
Provenance
Made for Melchioris de Arluno (on flyleaf II, verso: Commentarii in Methamorphoses Ouidii manuscripta ad usum Melchioris de Arluno anno 1446 scriptus); inside front cover: iste liber est spectabilis et generosi uiri domini Melchioris de Arluno potestatis Tredone de anno 1454; owned by the Helzcollegium S. Michaelis, Vienna (inscription on flyleaf II verso: Helzollegium S. Michaelis, Vienae; Karl und Faber, Kunst und Lieratur Antiquariat, Munich (catalogue Aktion 114, 5-6 November, 1968 pp. 14-16, lot 12, plates p. 15 and 16); purchased in this sale on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund, 1968.
Notes
Ms. literary commentary; written and illuminated in Italy, probably Milan, in 1446 (dated in inscription on flyleaf II verso).
Watermark: almost identical with Briquet 6596, noted in Bergamo and Milan in the second quarter of the 15th century.
Decoration: 1 illuminated title page with gilt initial, vinescroll borders, and arms (arms of Arluni of Milan: Shield: Argent a label (?) sable and gules, a chief or charged with eagle sable. Crest: torso and arms of man with gilt crown 5 fleurons on shoulders, above ostrich head facing right with nail in mouth, two ranks of gilt and colored feathers to left; flanked by the letters I (left) and P (right) above which, respectively, are the heads of a woman and man.), 5 border miniatures, 1 border monogram.
Script
cursive
Language
Latin
Century
Classification