Accession number
MS G.66
Object title
Dicts and sayings of the philosophers (MS G.66).
Display Date
1450-1465.
Created
England, possibly Suffolk, 1450-1465.
Binding
English 15th-century blind-tooled brown calf over wooden boards, the central panel divided into lozenge-shaped compartments filled with two floral tools similar to those used by the Floral Binder.
Credit line
Gift of the Trustees of the William S. Glazier Collection, 1984.
Description
70 leaves (1 column, 36-40 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 263 x 188 mm
Provenance
William Burwell, probably of Sutton, Suffolk, sixteenth century; Bentley Lyonel John, Third Baron Tollemache, Helmingham Hall, Suffolk; his sale, London, Sotheby's, June 6, 1961, lot 13; purchased there by Maggs Brothers Ltd., London for William S. Glazier (1907-1962), New York; deposited in the Pierpont Morgan Library by the Trustees of the William S. Glazier Collection in 1963.
Notes
Ms.; written and illuminated in England, possibly Suffolk, between 1450-1465.
In 1048 or 1049, Abū al-Wafāʼ Mubashshir ibn Fātik composed Mukhtār al-ḥikam, an anthology of sayings of the sages of antiquity which came to be highly influential and included sayings not otherwise known from Greek or Latin sources. Before 1257, an anonymous translator at the court of Alfonso the Wise produced a Spanish version of this work under the title Bocados de oro. A Latin translation under the title Liber philosophorum moralium antiquorum (in some manuscripts the title is given as Dicta et opiniones philosophorum) was made by Giovanni da Procida from the Spanish version in the last decades of the thirteenth century. In the late 14th century, Guillaume de Tignonville translated the Latin version into French. In the 15th century, three English translations were completed (one by Stephen Scrope, one by Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, and one by an anonymous translator). MS G.66 is the unique manuscript evidence of the anonymous translation.
Decoration: numerous illuminated initials with penwork extenders.
In 1048 or 1049, Abū al-Wafāʼ Mubashshir ibn Fātik composed Mukhtār al-ḥikam, an anthology of sayings of the sages of antiquity which came to be highly influential and included sayings not otherwise known from Greek or Latin sources. Before 1257, an anonymous translator at the court of Alfonso the Wise produced a Spanish version of this work under the title Bocados de oro. A Latin translation under the title Liber philosophorum moralium antiquorum (in some manuscripts the title is given as Dicta et opiniones philosophorum) was made by Giovanni da Procida from the Spanish version in the last decades of the thirteenth century. In the late 14th century, Guillaume de Tignonville translated the Latin version into French. In the 15th century, three English translations were completed (one by Stephen Scrope, one by Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, and one by an anonymous translator). MS G.66 is the unique manuscript evidence of the anonymous translation.
Decoration: numerous illuminated initials with penwork extenders.
Script
bastarda
Language
Middle English
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