Peterhouse : Cicero, Curtius &c.

Peterhouse

<p style='text-align: justify;'>A decorated late 15th-century compilation of historical and philosophical texts, mostly related to Alexander the Great.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Some little is known about the provenance of the manuscript. The date and description of the owner given in the colophon is problematic since the production of this book can be associated with the first phase of Raphael de Marcatellis's career as a bibliophile in the 1460s, when he was abbot (1463-78) of St Peter's Abbet at Oudenburg. The book may be a product of the Bruges book trade, and can be associated with several other manuscripts from the Oudenburg period of the collector's activity(Alain Arnould, 2017). De Marcatellis’ ex libris may be found on f. 158v, and his abbatial coat of arms at ff. 1r and 146r.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> At some point after the death of de Marcatellis, the manuscript came into the hands of one Algernon Peyton (d. 1667), rector of Doddington and fellow commoner at Peterhouse (elected 1637), who travelled extensively on the continent during the interregnum and donated the volume to the college in June of 1660 according to an ex dono inscription on f. 1r.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>MS 269 also represents a fine example of the interplay between manuscript and print in the later medieval period: the fourth text included here, the Historia Alexandri of Curtius, was copied not from an earlier manuscript, but from the first printed edition by Vindelin de Spira (Venice, 1470/1). It is also worth noting that the first two books of the Historia as found here are in fact not true Curtius, but later supplements. </p>