<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Provenance: Ex Duke N.I.Simonich collection, Imperial Public Library in 1868. There are imprints of the owners’ seals: two unknown Persian (f. 274r) and one Persian with the date 1836, belonging to Duke Simonich (f. 619r) and also his signature (f.1r).There is no mention about the date and place of origin. According to the palaeographical features it can be dated to the end of the 17th c. or beginning of the 18th c.</p><p>The binding is of plain very dark brown leather. The outside covers are decorated with three deep stamped yellow and red medallions filled in with the floral ornament, which is actually a bouquet of red flowers in a red vase (the central medallion) and one whole flower in each top and bottom ones. The central big medallion is of multi-tooth almond shape; two others are much smaller – lotus-like. The edge and the corners are torn of colour. The doublures are of light brown thin leather. Needs restoration: the upper cover falls out.</p><p>The paper is of two kinds and in good condition: The MS was skillfully restored in the 18th c. The paper of the old part is Oriental, thin and glossy. The new ones are of Italian origin with different water marks: LENZI E SCAPUCCI and LA TROTA with the fish in oval frame, and GIO & COs. CINI, and LA STELLA (ff. 181-182), and B.C. with a lion in an oval frame and a six-pointed star.</p><p>Text in nasta‘liq in Indian ink, headings in thulth in red, gold and blue. Almost full copy: there is no Preface, the story of Rustam and the div Akvan (Mohl chapter 13d) are missing. The episode about the div Barkhiyas (son of Akvan Div) is introduced into the story of Bizhan and Manizha.</p><p>Incipit of the poem is normative: ba nam-I khudavand-I jan-u khirad…</p><p>The MS has been rebound in the wrong order. The correct order of folia is as follows: ff. 244, 251, 245-250, 252, etc., 321, 320-323, 325, 324, etc., 446, 448, 447, 450, 449, 451-454, 456, 455, 458, 457, 459, etc., 508, 517-524, 509-516, 525, etc.</p><p>Explicit (normative): har an kas ki darad hush-u ray-u din…</p><p>Illuminations. There are ‘unvans in the beginning of each section (ff.1v and 274v) in a very neat hand in the technique combining shiny and matt gold and polychrome. The central part of the cartouche is executed in the special style of a very thin qalam over gold in a floral ornament. The text on both sides of the double page sarlauh (ff.1v-2r) is surrounded by gold clouds. The strips dividing the columns are decorated with vertical herbal ornament in red and blue. The text on the page with a miniature is usualy decorated with the interlinear gold clouds, which are executed not very thoroughly.</p><p>The manuscript contains 64 miniatures, executed at different times. Evidently the illustrating of the ms was not finished. Several spaces were left blank for the miniatures by the earliest painter, contemporary with the calligraphy. Those paintings are now in rather poor condition. However the later artist, who started working on it in the 19th century entered only five (ff.55v, 75v, 101v, 134r, 194r), having left blank still two more (ff.41r and 52v).</p><p>Not all the verses have been checked in Mohl's edition and the full identifications can be completed only when the images are available.</p><p>Some of the paintings were prepared for restoration: mostly faces were scratched out, as on f.122r. In the first six miniatures and also on ff.92v, 117r, the faces were repainted by a Qajar artist who entered them into the blank spaces.</p><p>The most interesting of them is the miniature “Rustam pulls the Khaqan of Chin from His elephant by lasso” (f. 182r), where European influence is felt not only in the manner of depiction, but also in the watercolour technique.</p><p>The painting was described and reproduced in black and white by Gyuzalyan and Dyakonov; see Gyuzalyan and Dyakonov, 1934; Gyuzalyan and Dyakonov, 1935, p.86, pl.50.</p></p>
