De senectute.

Accession number: 
PML 3827, 683, 778
Author: 
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Published: 
[Westminster] : William Caxton, 12 August 1481.
Description: 
[120] leaves (2 pts. in 3 v.) ; 28 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
PML 3827 purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Collation, Part I): 1⁶; a⁶; b-h⁸ i⁴; Part II): 2a-f⁸: 120 leaves, leaves 1/1, a6, and i4 blank.
Colophon (leaf i3r): Thus endeth the boke of Tulle of olde age translated out of latyn in to frenshe by laurence de primo facto at the comaundement of the noble prynce Lowys Duc of Burbon / and enprynted by me symple persone William Caxton in to Englysshe at the playsir solace and reverence of men growyng in to olde age the xii day of August the yere of our lord .M.CCCC.lxxxi:
Copy 1 of De amicitia (PML 683) and De senectute (PML 778).
De senectute is thought to have been translated by Stephen Scrope, and his text may have been revised by John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, who also translated De amicitia and De nobilitate (BMC).
Paper format: Chancery folio
PML 3827 (De nobilitate) formerly part of PML 682 (De amicitia) but bound separately and given new accession number. Leaf 2f8 is damaged, paper repaired along inner margin.
PML copy (PML 778, De senectute) missing 2 leaves: 1/1 and i4 (blanks).
PML copy leaf dimensions: 26.5 x 17.4 cm, trimmed.
Printed in Caxton's types 2*:135B and 3:135G.
Title from Prologue (leaf 1/2r): Here begynneth the prohemye upon the reducynge, both out of latyn as of frensshe in to our englyssh tongue, of the polytyque book named Tullius de senectute.

Binding: 
PML 3827, De nobilitate (previously part of PML 682 and given the new accession number PML 3827): Modern quarter brown goatskin over paper boards (28 x 19.5 cm), by Duprez-Lahey. Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; plain endbands; gilt edges.
Variant Title: 

Cato maior, sive de senectute

Inscriptions/Markings: 

PML 3827, De nobilitate: Hand decoration: Rubricated, red lombards, paragraph marks (C-type with extended upper stroke), and underlining. Annotations: No notations in text.
PML 683, De amicitia: Hand decoration: Rubricated, red lombards, parapraph marks, and underlining; penwork border decoration, erasing first 4 words from line 1 (leaf a1r). Annotations: Some notations in text, several manicules and pentrials. Several margins with ruling/grid lines added.
PML 778, De senectute: Hand decoration: Unrubricated, rubrication unrealized. Annotations: No notations in text.

Provenance: 
PML 3827, De nobilitate: Henry Stevens (1819-1886) placed book in Edward A. Crowninshield's sale, Puttick and Simpson, 12 July 1860, lot 1867, to Minton; Bertram Ashburnham (1797-1878), Earl of Ashburnham, his sale, Sotheby's, 25 June 1897, pt. I, lot 989, to Pickering for: Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (front fly leaf recto of PML 682) and bibliographical notes: No. 263, 30/6/97 and price code: wmd/y/a (front fly leaf recto of PML 682), entire collection purchased by: Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Century: 
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