Laurentianus plut. 58.26 – Fz

Previous descriptions: Bandini (1764–1770 vol. 2, 469–70).

Reproductions: Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana

Family: d² / h

Siglum: Fz

Shelfmark: Laurentianus plut. 58.26

Date: Last quarter of the 15th century

Format: paper, 200×140 mm, III + 195 ff.

Material: perfect state of conservation.

Binding: –

Watermarks: throughout the manuscript there is a crossbow set in a circle, similar to Piccard Waffen XI 2229 (Casola Valsenio 1491) and Briquet 739 (1470–1500).

Scribes: the manuscript’s only scribe is Alexius CeladenusAlexius Celadenus(see Speranzi 2009; Speranzi 2011; Speranzi 2015, 288 n. 2), previously known as Harlfinger’s Anonymus δ-καί.

Annotations: none.

1 (1r–192r) Pollux, Onomasticon. The work itself is preceded by an exhaustive summary of all ten books, which covers ff. 1r–14v (see also Ambrosianus A 78 sup.Ambr. A 78 sup. [Ab], and Neapolitanus II D 30Neap. II D 30 [Ne]). On f. 15r there is the Prefatory EpigramPrefatory epigram (Pollux). Incipit: ὦ παῖ πατρὸς ἀγαθοῦ (1.1). Explicit: κόρημα, κιβωτόν καὶ λήϊνον (10.192). Contains books 1 (ff. 15r‒47v), 2 (ff. 47v‒70v), 3 (ff. 70r‒81v), 4 (ff. 81v‒99r), 5 (ff. 99r‒108v), 6 (ff. 108v‒126r), 7 (ff. 126r‒138r), 8 (ff. 138v‒157r), 9 (ff. 157r‒174r), and 10 (ff. 174r‒191v). Chapter titles are present, initial letters are rubricated and the beginning of each book has a decorated frame. On f. 192r, at the end of the work, the scribe wrote the Closing EpigramClosing epigram (Pollux) in dodecasyllables.

ff. 192v–195v: blank.

Fz was entirely copied by Alexius CeladenusAlexius Celadenus in the last quarter of the 15th century. He was born in Mistras, in the Peloponnese, in 1451, then fled with his family to Italy, where he was taken in and educated by Bessarion. He lived between Rome and Southern Italy; he became Bishop of Molfetta and Gallipoli, a role he held until his death in 1517; on his life see Monfasani (1984) and Speranzi (2009, 115). After his death, his library was incorporated into the Medici library, a fate that also befell Fz (see Speranzi 2015, 288 n. 2). This manuscript belongs to a family (h) which includes three other witnesses: Ambrosianus A 78 sup.Ambr. A 78 sup. (Ab), Neapolitanus II D 30Neap. II D 30 (Ne) and Neapolitanus III E 38Neap. III E 38 (Np). The connection between Fz and Ab is not clear and the latter could have been copied in Rome, by Demetrius DamilasDemetrius Damilas; the other two were instead written in Southern Italy at the same time as Fz, and suggest the existence of a regional, albeit late, textual tradition of the Onomasticon.