Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T01:24:07.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Manuscript of Landino's Xandra in South Africa1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

L. F. Casson
L. F. Casson*
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Get access

Extract

S. Grey 3 c 12 is a miscellany of Latin poems in the South African Library, Cape Town. It is one item in a collection of manuscripts, and a much larger number of printed books, given to the library in 1861 by Sir George Grey, governor of the Cape. At the time of the gift, he had relinquished his office for a similar post in New Zealand, where he had been governor also before coming to South Africa. While in New Zealand for the second time, he formed another but smaller collection of manuscripts, now in the Public Library at Auckland. Both collections are the work of an amateur bibliophile, a gentleman of private means, who assembled with intelligence and good taste.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 10 , 1963 , pp. 44 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1963

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 See Briquet 3373, 6654, 8938, 5908, 3544.

3 Complete collation: [a]-[k]10.

4 Printed in Perosa, A., Christophori Landini cartnina omnia (Florence, 1939), pp. 1-135.Google Scholar

5 Printed in Baehrens, E., Poetae Latini minores (Leipzig, 1879-1883), v, 316 ff.Google Scholar

6 Printed in Baehrens, op. at., III, 247-262.

7 Printed in Ehwald, R., P. Ovidius Naso (Leipzig, 1916), 1, 173-179.Google Scholar

8 Printed in Baehrens, op. cit., 1, 58-87.

9 Comparison with the printed text (Paris, 1791) shows that the MS omits three poems (Inc. ‘Annua publicitus'; ‘hide tui'; ‘Mine, mones’) but includes four not there published (Inc. ‘Si multos multae'; ‘Solus habes'; ‘Si semper tantus'; ‘Cum mea me genetrix’). In spite of its subject, ‘Cum mea me genetrix’ (here under the heading De ortu atque obitu hermaphroditi) is no part of the Hertnaphroditus; nor even, though it is ascribed to him elsewhere, did Panormita write it. It is undoubtedly medieval, and perhaps older. See the discussions in the apparatus of F. Buecheler and A. Riese, Anthologia Latina (Leipzig, 1906), 1, ii, 265, and of Baehrens, op. cit., IV, 114-115, where it is printed under other headings.

Conversely, it is probable that some poems are correctly attributed to Panormita in the MS, though not forming a part of the Hertnaphroditus.

10 There is no satisfactory edition of the poems of Carlo Aretino. The most readily available is that printed in the Carmina illustrium Poetarum Italorum, ed. G. G. Bottari (Florence, 1719-1726), VI, 267-287. This contains only seventeen of the twenty-four poems ascribed to him in this MS, the exceptions being

  • (1)Preface to translation of Homer, addressed to Pope Nicholas v (Inc. ‘Alme pater’).

  • (2) Latin translation of Iliad, bk. I (Inc. ‘Nunc iram eacidem’).

  • (3) Latin translation of Iliad, IX, 308-422; the speech of Achilles to Odysseus (Inc. ‘Parce prccor’).

  • (4) Cornelia in Pompcium (Inc. ‘Libera fortuna’).

  • (5) Epigramma brachij (Inc. ‘Transiui intrepidus’).

  • (6) In N. picimnum et cerpellonem (Inc. ‘Ite truces’).

  • (7) A [sic] leonardum (Inc. ‘Hoc nouum carmen’).

Nos. 4-6 are distichs; no. 7 is in Sapphics. Whether nos. 4-7 can be attributed to Marsuppini on the authority of this MS is doubtful. The authorship of no. 5 is often ascribed to others, e.g., Leonardus Brunus Aretinus. Perhaps at least some of these poems are attributed to Marsuppini, even in this MS, only by implication.

11 Unrevised: I, xxv, 20 Vinde niator for Vindemiator; II, iii, 27 cantante for cantate; II, xiv, 2 cogit; II, xx, 3 candidior una diebus; II, xxix, 24 Antoniumque; II, xxix, 27 potuit conspicere; III, vii, 120 lingua facunda.

Revised: I, xxiii, 4 amice; I, xxiv, 49 iam liquit ab annis; I, xxx, I Prime nostrorum comitum lohannes; III, vii, 151-152 et legerat omnes annales, priscum; III, xvii, 159 niveo … cygno, but the following lines are in their unrevised state; III, xviii, 62 venturo; in, xviii, 64 bisque etiam nonos.

12 E.g., I, iii, 7-8 om.; 1, vii title: imitationem] admirationem; I, xix, 22 repulsa] revulsa; I, xxiv, 64 licere] placere; I, xxv, I frondet] floret; II, i, 19 flectuntur] labuntur; II, viii, 35 civilia] felicia.

13 Owing to the inferior quality of L4, Perosa included only a selection of its readings in the apparatus of his edition. For the purposes of this article, this MS has been recoUated twice more; once (and very kindly) by him, once by me (from microfilms).

14 E.g., I, iii, 41 queant] queat; I, v, 49 artus] arctus; I, vi, 12 Esto] Est; I, vii, 36 excepi] excepti; I, xxiv title: opiscum] om.; I, xxiv, 57 Protinus] Protinus inuidia; I, xxv, 8 versicolore] Versicolare; I, xxvi, 2 nigri] nigris; I, xxviii, 26 color] calor; I, xxviii, 28 squalida] squalia corr. to squalida.

15 E.g., I, ii, 34 Atque] ac; I, iii, 20 calere] carere; I, iii, 35 mens] spes; I, v, 31 mollius] mollibus; I, xiii, 33 iocis] iovis; I, xxiii, 12 adiicit] addicit; I, xxiv, 21 tribulum] tribunum; I, xxiv, 31 Arion] orion.

16 E.g., I, v, 45 obstupui] obstui; I, xxii, 36 fronte] Fronde; I, xxiii title: opiscum] om.\ I, xxiv, 113 laquearia] lequaria; I, xxviii, 45 madentes] medentes; n, viii, 42 totiens] toties; n, xx, 14 quotiens] quoties; III, v, 28 decern] decent.

17 E.g., 11, xv, I aeternum] aetereum, ethereum; III, iv, 110 veris venit] venit (both words om.); in, iv, 118 benigna] puella, om.; III, xv, 18 victrix] victor, victum; III, xvi, 38 constructa] constricta, conspripta (for conscripta?).

18 The exceptions are I, ii, 20, where Tironem is miscorrected to Tironam (L4 has Tyronetn); I, v, 50, where diu is miscorrected to dim; and III, vii, 164, where moribus (wrong) is corrected to molibus. L4 reads moribus.

19 I, xxv, 20 Vinde niator (for Vindemiator) corr. to Vinitor uue;; II, xiv, 2 cogit corr. to iubet; 11, xx, 3 candidior una diebus corr. to nunquam cessura diebus; 11, xxix, 24 Antoniumque corr. to Iohannemque; n, xxix, 27 conspicere corr. to iam cernere.

20 Op. cit., pp. xlii, xlvi-xlvii.

21 This corrector's hand is also active in the margins of the Elegies of Maximianus, immediately following, up to fol. 76v. On fols. 70r, 72r, 73r he writes: ‘Hie in impressis incipit quarta [quinta, sexta] elegia’ (the beginnings of these poems not being distinguished by headings); and on fol. 76v, below the last poem: ‘Gli due distichi doue e nominato maximiano nelli stampati sotto nome di Cornelio Gallo non ui sono'. These remarks may have some bearing on the dates of G and L4. Had he before him the Utrecht ed. of Maximianus (Hain 10945), c. 1473, and the Venice ed. of 1501, in the last of which this ascription is found?

22 For an account of his scribal activities, see Jose Ruysschaert, ‘Dix-huit manuscrits copies par le florentin Pietro Cennini', La Bibliofilia IIX (1957), 108-112; B. L. Ullman, Origin and Development of Humanistic Script (Rome, 1960), pp. 123-126 and pis. 69, 70. As bases for comparison with the Grey MS., I have used photographic reproductions from Rome, Vat. lat. 1459 (fol. 76v), Paris, B.N. lat. 4865 (fol. 3’), Florence, Laur. 38.38 (fols. iv-2r, 40v-41r; 65v-66r), 53.28 (3 pp.), Florence, Bibl. Naz. II IX 14 (4 pp.), London, B.M. Harley 4868, fols. Ir , 4r, 152r, 152v (not included in Ullman's list).

23 The parts legible by ultra-violet light are here reproduced, in the hope that they can be identified and completed from other sources: