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| | New York, New York Public Library, Spencer Collection,
NYPL Spencer 050 | | Description:Medici Aesop ff. ii + 75 + ii - Bound, s. XIX, in brown morocco leather over pasteboard by C. Smith; gold-stamped with Grolieresque interlace ornament. Gilt fore edge. - Medici arms on f. 68. Erroneously (?), Rev. Theodore Williams at Sotheby's, 5 April 1827. Possibly, Rev. Henry Joseph Thomas Drury (1778-1841), Sotheby's, 19 Feb. 1827; Sir Thomas Phillipps, MS 23609; purchased at Sotheby's 1 July 1946, lot 26a. - J. Kaimowitz & B. McTigue, "Illuminated Florentine MS of Aesop's..." Bull. of the NYPL82, 2 (1979). Fahy & McTigue, The Medici Aesop(1989). J.J.G. Alexander, The Painted Page(1994) 130-1. - Jonathan J. G. Alexander, James H. Marrow and Lucy Freeman Sandler, The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the New York Public Library(London / Turnhout: The New York Public Library / Harvey Miller Publishers, 2005) n. 100 | | Notes:-According to J. Kaimowitz, the ms. originally had at least 134 ff; the first 54 and 5 subsequent folios are missing. Piero de' Medici, Lorenzo's son, owned "a" Greek Aesop with miniatures (his inventory, 1495). | | Acknowledgments: - We thank Prof. Jonathan J. G. Alexander esp. for his expertise on the art; Dr. N. Kavrus-Hoffmann has studied the Greek text. | | Number of Parts: 1 - Number of Images Available: 6 | | Direct Link: http://ds.lib.berkeley.edu/NYPLSpencer050_42 | | Language: Greek Country: Italy Century: 15th |
| | Part 1: ff. 1-75v | | Description: - Parchment - 200 x 119 mm - 20 lines on pages without miniatures; interlinear space 6mm, ruled in drypoint, some prickings visible. 5 single folios (signed stigma, i.e. first five quires & part of 6th now missing), followed by seven quinternions. | | Country: Italy | Cardinal point: | | Region: Tuscany | City: Florence | | Assigned Date: s. XV4/4 | Searchable Date Range: 1475 - 1499 | | Dated by scribe: No | Inscribed Date: | | Document: No | Number of Scribes: ;1 | | Scribe(s): Demetrios Damilas | | Script: Humanistic | | Artist(s): Mariano del BuonoMaster of the Hamilton Xenophon | | Figurative Decoration: 135 (of an original 146?) miniatures illustrating the fables. Figures in border on f. 1. | | Other Decoration: 6-line gold opening initial on red and gold field. 3-line gold initials on red, green and blue fields. Border design in each left border; opening page with 3-margin border. Rubrics. | | Notes: Apparently copied from the edition printed in Milan, ca. 1480, by Bono Accursio; the scribe was living in Florence ca. 1478-90, and refers to himself as Demetrios Damilas, "Librarius florentinus"; 54 folios with Planudes' Life of Aesop possibly once at beginning of codex. Some damage from damp in the lower margins. Greek | | Number of Texts: 2 |
| | Text 1: ff. 1-40, 41-75; f. 75v blank | | Author: Aesop | | Title: Fables | | Language(s): Greek | | Incipit: Ἀετὸς καὶ ἀλώπηξ φιλιωθέντες | | Explicit: τοιαύτης ἀπονέμουσι χάριτας (end of fable Λύκος καὶ Γέρανος) | | Notes: The Vita Aesopiprobably once on the first 54 folios, now missing; 134 complete and 6 partial fables are conserved, and 7 lost (27, 43, 67, 69, 78, 79, 145) with lacunae between ff. 16v-17, 24v-25, 36v-37, 73v-74. | | Acknowledgments: Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, "Catalogue of Greek Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Collections of the United States of America. Part II: The New York Public Library," Manuscripta50.1 (2006) 21-76, here 63-68. | | Status of text: Incomplete | 
| f. 1
Historiated border including deer at rest, jewels, and, in the medallion in the lower border, an author portrait of Aesop as somewhat deformed; space reserved for miniature filled in by rubric.
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| f. 65
Fable of the Fisherman and the Minnow, who entreats for his life because he is so worthlesslly small.
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| f. 68
Fable of the Dog who came to Dinner, with the server setting the table, and many dogs wander about the room. On a wellhead within the miniature is the Medici coat of arms.
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| | Text 2: f. 40r-v | | Author: Ignatios the Deacon | | Title:
Tetrasticha iambica
| | Language(s): Greek | | Incipit: Σῦς εἷλκε τις μῦν, ἒργον | | Explicit: ὅτι τὸ ἀμφίβολον// | | Notes: Bk 1, poem 8: Σῦς καὶ μῦς; Bk 1, poem 19: Ὄνος; Bk 1, poem 22: Στρουθὸς. Lacuna between ff. 40v and 41r:Ἐπιθύμιον, Ὁ μῦθος δηλοῖ ὅτι τὸ ἀμφίβολον// χελιδὼν καὶ κορώνη | | Status of text: Ends defectively. | |
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