Ɵ Compendium of Latin translations of Greek texts on teaching, including Leonardo Bruni's translations of Xenophon's Hiero, Basil's De liberalibus studiis and Pseudo-Plutarch's Vita Marci Antonii, as well as Guarino of Verona's translation of Pseudo-Plutarch, De liberis educandis, fine humanist manuscript on paper [Italy (Genoa), dated 1439]

64 leaves (plus a modern paper endleaf at front and back and an original parchment endleaf at front), complete, collation: i-viii8, catchwords, double column of 32 lines of two good semi-humanist hands (first hand: fols. 1r-51v; second hand: fols. 51v-61r), six large initials in variegated red or blue, encased within contrasting penwork that scrolls in foliate forms into the borders, often stretching the entire length of those borders, watermarks of a flower close to Briquet 6641 (Siena 1434) and 6642 (Florence, 1440), seventeenth- or eighteenth-century No 29 on original endleaf at front and at head of text on fol. 1r, with brief notes there in same hand: Manuscripto edu[candis] liber[is] (partly torn away), upper and lower outer corners wanting from first leaf, small spots and stains, first and last leaves with a series of small dents in the leaves there perhaps from pieces of jewellery once kept flat inside book, overall excellent condition on supple and clean paper, 268 by 195mm.; late eighteenth- or nineteenth-century brown speckled calf over pasteboards, blindtooled with simple fillets, a small title block of red leather stamped pluta in gilt, blue marbled endleaves and doublures, some scuffs and chips to edges

A handsome humanist codex with rare works, that of Xenophon most probably only seen once at auction before; as well as a witness to often overlooked Genoese humanism

Provenance:
1. The lengthy inscription in elegant humanist script on the original endleaf at the front of this book states that the first part of this volume (fols. 1r-51v) was copied by Johannes de Logia, notary of Genoa, and finished on 31 March 1439. Soon after a second hand added fols. 51v-61r. Johannes de Logia is recorded elsewhere as the scribe of another Leonardi Bruni codex, that now Gdansk, Biblioteka Gdanska Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2434, finished in August 1401 (P.O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum, IV, 1989, p. 399), and two copies of Historiarum Alexandri Magni: Vatican, BAV MS Vat. lat. 11567 (copied in 1441 for Gottardo Stella; J. Ruysschaert, Codices Vaticani Latini, 1959), p. 318) and Genoa, Coll. Durazzo 50 [A IV 16] (copied in 1445 for Antonietto Grillo; D. Puncuh, I Manoscritti della Raccolta Durazzo, 1979, p. 120). Genoese humanism is a greatly neglected subject, but the wealthy city was an important centre for humanist studies, often with its scholars coming from the large and influential bureaucratic class of that city (as with the scribe Johannes de Logia here). Giorgio Stella (d. 1420) and Giovanni Stella (d. c. 1435) were among its patrons, and served as notary and chancellor to the city, respectively. Another chancellor, Jacopo Bracelli (d. 1466) was an author himself, composing works in emulation of Classical texts such as the 'Commentaries' of Julius Caesar.

2. The volume begins and ends with three swirling penwork devices (added under the scribe's inscription on the original endleaf and at the foot of the text on fol. 61r), and these are probably the marks of an Early Modern owner.

3. Aristophil collection, sold in Aguttes in Paris, 16 June 2018, lot 15.

Text:
The knowledge of Greek, or at least the content of Classical texts surviving in Greek, was a cornerstone of the Italian Renaissance, and accurate translations were greatly sort after. This humanist compendium was compiled and copied during the lifetimes of the two most famous Italian humanist translators of Greek texts: Leonardo Bruni (also called Leonardo Aretino; c. 1370-1444) and Guarino of Verona (1374-1460). Both learnt Greek from Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1350-1415), Bruni when he was studying under Coluccio Salutati in Florence c. 1400, and Guarino when in Constantinople, c. 1403 to 1408/9.

This volume comprises: St. Basil, De liberalibus studiis in Bruni's translation, opening with a letter by Bruni addressed to Coluccio Salutati used as a preface (fols. 1r-8r); Pseudo-Plutarch, Vita Marci Antonii in Bruni's translation, addressing Coluccio Salutati in its prologue (fols. 8r-38v); Pseudo-Plutarch, De liberis educandis in the translation of Guarino of Verona (fols. 38r-51v); and Xenophon, Hiero in Bruni's translation (fols. 51v-61r), ending with Explicit deo gratias amen in red. These short translations, along with others, appear to have circulated together in manuscript in the middle decades of the fifteenth century, and a codex with loosely similar contents copied in northern Italy by Johannes de Camenago and dated 1440 is now in the Houghton Library.

The Hiero by the Greek author, Xenophon (d. 355/4 BC.) is of especial note here. It sets out a fictional dialogue between Hiero, the tyrant of Syracuse, and the poet Simonides, in order to debate if a tyrant's life is better or happier than a commoner's, and concluding it is not. It is of extreme rarity on the market in any language, with the vast Schoenberg database recording only one other to ever come to auction, and that the Burgundian ducal copy in the French translation of Jean de Hennecart, once Phillipps MS. 2810 but sold privately by the Robinsons, and last appearing at auction in Drouot, 21 March 1973, lot 14 (and thereafter Tenschert, cat. 27, Leuchtendes Mittelalter III, no. 12). To this can be added only the fifteenth-century copy of Bruni's translation offered by Bernard Rosenthal in his cat. 9 (1959), no. 64.

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