Cato's Disticha de moribus (Caxton): London, British Library, IB.55034

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Material: Paper

Size: 273 mm x 192 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

Collation:

Perfect?

Rubrication and decorated initials:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Hand decoration:

Not decorated.

Additions:

'A few unusual words are glossed in a 16th-century hand in Latin and English'. BMC XI, 133.

Binding Description:

'Bound in the British Museum bindery in 1898 in gold-tooled brown morocco'. BMC XI, 134.

Accompanying Material:

None.

History:

Provenance:

BMC XI

'This copy was owned in 1730 by Maurince Johnson of Spalding, Linconshire, the antiquary (1688-1755), according to a note in BL Lansdowne MS 825, ff. 5, 6. It was then part of a tract volume, bound in the following order:

1. Reynard the fox I (Duff 358; De Ricci 87:6);
2. The game of chess II (Duff 82; De Ricci 18:2);
3. Curial (Duff 84; De Ricci 20:2);
4. Cato IV (Duff 79; De Ricci 16:12)
5. the present item;
6. Court of sapience(Duff 260; De Ricci 68:3).

The trac volume remained in the possession of the Johnson family until January 1898, when it was broken up for sale and the present item and theCourt of sapience (now IB. 55055) were bought by the British Museu; the other four items were purchased by the executors of W. H. Christie-Miller for the Britwell Court Library. The Court of sapience and Reynard the fox I wre now in the Pierpont Morgan Library (Goff C-429 and R-137), and Cat IV and the Game of chess II are in the Yale Center for British Art (Goff C-313 and C-414). Cf. Needham (1986), Appendix B, No. 10'.

Acquisition:

Image Gallery:

sig. c2r; right; marginalia (gloss); 16th century?

sig. c6v; left; marginalia (gloss); 16th century?

Works referred:

BMC XI

DeR(C)

Administration Information:

Images are supplied by Lotte Hellinga and scanned by CB and JT (2014).

Quoted from BMC XI with kind permission by the editor.

Ed. by ST and TK (2014/15)