Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Accademia platonica (Florence, Italy)

[Neoplatonic and neopythagorean translations] [manuscript].

[Florence, circa 1475]

94 leaves : paper ; 210 x 137 (142 x 80) mm. bound to 222 x 148 mm.

Collection of translations of Greek works in the traditions of Plato and Pythagoras, originally translated into Latin mostly in Florence in the 1460s and 1470s, with various connections to the Accademia platonica under the auspices of Cosimo de' Medici. The manuscript is in 2 sections: the first is a group of works translated by Marsilio Ficino for Johannes Cavalcanti (both members of the Accademia), including De Platonis definitionibus by Speusippus and an epitome of Plato's works by Alcinous, which were first available in Greek in Florence in 1462. The second includes short works by Lucian of Samosata, translated by Antonio Pacini, also known as Tudertinus, for Rodolfo Lotto and Petrus Pazus (Piero Pazzi?); a work on friendship by Plutarch, translated by Guarino Veronese, an early humanist student and teacher of Greek, for his patron Leonello d'Este; and a work on Virgil by Cristoforo Landini (another member of the Accademia). Occasional marginal notes in multiple hands.

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Foliation: Paper, i (14th-century parchment pastedown) + ii + 94; 1-8¹⁰ 9⁶ 10⁸; 1-57, 59-93, [94-95], contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto. Parchment guards on gatherings. Vertical catchwords on lower right of last verso of each gathering except the last (f. 10v, 20v, 30v, 40v, 50v, 61v, 71v, 81v, 87v).

Layout: Written in 25 long lines.

Script: Written in humanistic cursive script by at least 2 hands (f. 1r-47v, 51r-92v).

Decoration: 3 illuminated initials in gold on blue, pink, and green ground with white scrollwork (f. 1r, 3r, 10r); 2-line initials in blue ink with guide letters visible in third work only (f. 11v-40v); rubrication in red in first section of manuscript (f. 1r-47v, works translated or written by Marsilio Ficino); some spaces left for initials in second section (f. 51r-91v); occasional manicules by multiple readers in works 3-5 (f. 19v-46v).

Binding: Contemporary (15th-century) oak boards and leather back with remains of 2 pairs of clasps. Parchment pastedowns are fragments from a large 14th-century manuscript; the one inside the upper cover shows the end of one of 2 columns, with 2 intials infilled simply with red and yellow, with text from Saint Ambrose's De fide resurrectionis.

Origin: Written in Florence, circa 1475.

LJS 438

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania LJS 438