Collection ID: 0027 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

De fructibus vescendis

Authors

• Massa, Battista, da Argenta (http://viaf.org/viaf/122031785)

Other related names

• Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio, 1431-1505, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/50035133)
• Baldi, Bernardino, 1553-1617, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/23011723)
• De Schweinitz, G. E. (George Edmund), 1858-1938, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/41830848)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

10a 189
(Philadelphia, United States, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia)

Alternate identifiers

• deRicci: 4
• Hirsch: 632

Publisher

Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Ferrara, Italy

Summary

This manuscript is possibly the presentation copy of a treatise on edible fruits dedicated to Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, by Baptista Massa of Argenta. Each chapter is devoted to a type of fruit and its effects on parts of the body such as the complexion, stomach, kidneys, heart, and brain. Names of medical authorities cited in the text, such as Galen, Avicenna, and Isaac Israeli, are written in the margins in red ink. It is a humanistic manuscript, dated 1471. The main text is accompanied by a shorter treatise on making barley water, framed as a letter to Pietro da Trani, also dated 1471; and an epigram dedicated to Massa by Ariosto and a table of contents for the main text on a bifolium which is now at the end of the volume but may originally have preceded the main text.

Notes

• Final quire (bifolium with table of contents) may originally have preceded the text (Peter Kidd)
   
• Structures of the last quires uncertain
   

Watermark

Basilisk (?)

Extent

Iv+80+iv; 156 × 115 mm bound to 160 x 122 mm

Foliation

Eighteenth-century (?) foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto, [i-iv], 1–78, [79-84]

Collation

1-7 (10), 8 (8), 9 (2)

Signatures

Quires 2, 4, 6, and 8 signed d, F, h, k(?), lower right first recto; quire 9 signed b, lower right second recto

Support

Paper

Catchwords

Horizontal, lower center or lower right last verso, quires 1-7

Binding

Modern brown calf, tightly sewn, blind tooled with framing fillets, probably in 1911 for Maggs Bros., signed on the upper turn-in in blind capitals "Bumpus Ltd Oxford S t W [London]", the spine lettered in gilt capitals "Masse [sic] de / Argenta / (Baptiste) / Opusculum / De Fructibus // Vescerdis [sic] / 1471 / Manuscript"; top of spine missing, boards detached

Layout

Eighteen lines per page; ruled in lead (vertical bounding lines) and pale ink (horizontals); written area: 95 x 65 mm

Decoration

Four-line illuminated initial in gold on a ground of red and green and arms of Ercole I d'Este with motto Cedite mihi on first page (fol. 1r); chapter-headings, marginal headings and notes in pale red; paraphs alternately red or blue

Script

Humanistic cursive

Terms, names, and headings in square capitals or formal humanistic script

Colophon

Opusculi finis de fructibus, 1471, die X Iunii (fol. 70r)

Provenance

• Provenance details by Peter Kidd: As only one other manuscript of the text is known to survive, of later date and of comparatively poor quality (to judge by the reproduction used as a frontispiece in Marighelli, op cit.), it may be either the author's own copy or the dedication copy; next to a section in the text beginning "de me taceo" is a marginal note "De me Baptista" (fol.6v); Ercole I d'Este (1431–1505), Duke of Ferrara: the work is dedicated to him and contains his illuminated device; an inventory of 1495 records three copies of Massa's works in his library, the second of which may be with the present manuscript: (i) "Baptista massa de ueneno in uulgaro …", (ii) "Baptista darzenta de fructibus in latino coperto de brasilio stampato in latino stampato" [sic], and (iii) "Baptista darzenta de la condutione de frutti in uulgare coperto de montanina rossa in cartoni" (see "La libraria d'Ercole I. (1495)", Appendix II in Giulio Bertoni, La biblioteca Estense: La coltura ferrarese ai tempi del duca Ercole I (1471–1505) (Turin, 1903), p.236 nos.33, 34, 36); an earlier inventory of Ercole's vernacular books records the two Italian volumes, one as "De le condizione e proprietate dei fructi composto per Batt. a M. a Massa de Aregenta", the other as "de li Veneni", the latter given to Ercole by "[...] da massa medico" on 20 September 1472 (see A. Venturi, "L'arte ferrarese nel periodo d'Ercole I d'Este", Atti e memorie della R. deputazione di storia patria per la provincia di Romagna, vol.6 (1888), pp. 91–119 at pp.107, 109); Perhaps in Genoa in the 16th century: uncertain inscription, perhaps "Costa L i – 8 – 0 / di moneta di Genova" (fol.78r); Inscribed "Bern. Bal[?]i"(?), 17th(?) century (fol.79r, which was perhaps originally the first page, see Collation), identified by de Marinis (see below) as "Bernardino Baldi", i.e. presumably Bernardino Baldi (1553–1617), mathematician and writer; Tammaro de Marinis (1878–1969), Italian scholar and bookdealer, by 1911; inscribed in pencil with his stock number "8629" (fol.1r, top left corner) (de Marinis, 1911, p.21); Maggs Bros., London bookdealers, whose description is stuck to the back pastedown, and whose pricecode "losoq" is penciled on the back pastedown, suggesting that they had paid £4 10s 6d for it. On the back is the penciled date "Nov. 29, 1911" ; George Edmund de Schweinitz (1858–1938), Philadelphia ophthalmologist, Fellow of the College (from 1887) and President (1910–13); acquired by him probably as a gift for the College; College of Physicians: Library bookplate (front pastedown), stamped with the accession number "80868" and date "JAN 15 1912", and inscribed "G. E. de Schweinitz, M.D." and with the price/valuation "[$]52 50"
   

Related resources

• A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts in the Library of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia by Peter Kidd (http://www.academia.edu/19606281/A_Descriptive_Catalogue_of_the_Medieval_Manuscripts_in_the_Library_of_the_College_of_Physicians_Philadelphia)
• Rudolf Hirsch, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts and Archives of the Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1983), no. 632.

Keywords

• Treatise
• 15th century
• Italian
• Italy
• Science -- Medicine
• Humanistic

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 10a 189: De fructibus vescendis are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, The Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia 10a 189: De fructibus vescendis. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — De fructibus vescendis
• fol. 70v — Tractatus de modo confitiendi ordeaceam
• fol. 79r — Epigram, Ariosto

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Engraved bookplate, College of Physicians
• fol. 1r — Illuminated initial P
• fol. 1r — Arms of Ercole I d'Este
• fol. 17v — Manicule
• fol. 34r — Manicule
• fol. 38v — Manicule