Cosmographia

Manuscript in Latin in Humanistic bookhand on parchment, containing Pomponius Mela 'Cosmographia' [fols. 1-30r], the anonymous 'Descriptio Ligustice regionis', a description of Liguria and Genoa, [fols. 30v-34r], and Gaius Julius Solinus 'Polyhistor' [34v-106v]. Decoration: 33 major initials in white vine-scroll style; smaller initials alternating in red and blue; manuscript guide letters. Ruled margins left and right, with small initials indented into the left-most border. Headings and captions in red ink. Initial and final two leaves blank, and not part of the main collation. Collation: [a-m]8, [n]10. Incipits: ‘Pomponii Melae Cosmographi liber primus incipit feliciter prologus’; ‘Descriptio Ligustice Regionis’; ‘Caii Solini Liber inscriptus Polyhistor’. A printed description of the manuscript cut from Bernard Quaritch Ltd. Cat. 138: A Catalogue of Manuscripts Arranged in Chronological Order (1893), item 100, pasted to the front pastedown. Annotations: Occasional marginal annotations in two hands, mostly correcting errors in the text (cf. fol. 40v), some interlinear. A lengthy passage has been added at the end of the 'Descriptio Ligustice Regionis' (fols. 33v-34r) in a different hand, providing an account of what earlier authors have written about Liguria. MS note on front flyleaf in the hand of Michael Wodhull (1740-1816): ‘Leigh’s auction Dr. Askew’s manuscripts L1: s12: d- M. Wodull Mar: 15th 1785’; Wodhull’s MS contents on same leaf with the note: ‘collat: & complet’. Twentieth-century MS pencil notes describing the manuscript on front flyleaf and bookseller’s code on rear flyleaf. Leaf size: 233 x 160 mm; text frame: 165 x 100 mm.

Referenced in: Private pleasures: illuminated manuscripts from Persia to Paris: the collection of Denys Spittle (Cambridge : Fitzwilliam Museum, [2007]) pp. 59-60. Potten, Edward, 'From Byzantium to Alberto Sangorski: Treasures from the Thomas Edward Watson Collection at the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds', The Book Collector, Autumn 2023, pp. 1-16 (pp. 10-12).

This manuscript has previously been confused and conflated with another manuscript of Pomponius Mela, lot 947 in the 1859 auction of the manuscripts of Guglielmo Libri.