Bod-Inc: P-383
Plotinus
Enneades (trans. and comm. Marsilius Ficinus).
Analysis of Content
a2r Ficinus, Marsilius: ‘Prohemium' [addressed to] Laurentius de' Medici. Dominic J. O'Meara, ‘Plotinus', CTC VII 55-73, at 69-70; see Marsilio Ficino, Lettere, ed. Sebastiano Gentile, I (Florence, 1990), p. clxxvii; for this edition in general see CTC VII 58-9, 68-73, with the edition listed at 71; see also Henri D. Saffrey, ‘Florence, 1492: the Reappearance of Plotinus', Renaissance Quarterly, 49/3 (1996), 488-508.
a3r Porphyrius: ‘Plotini uita'. Translated by Marsilius Ficinus. Incipit: ‘[P]lotinus philosophus nostro seculo singularis pudore quodam . . .’ Explicit: ipsum significare potest See CTC VII 70. Ficinus is named as translator in the printed title. Albert M. Wolters, ‘The First Draft of Ficino's Translation of Plotinus', in Marsilio Ficino e il ritorno di Platone: studi e documenti, ed. Gian Carlo Garfagnini, Istituto Nationale di Studi sul rinascimento, Studi e Testi, 15, 2 vols (Florence, 1986), I 305-29.
b1r [Table of contents, with a note on the number of books.] A table of contents appears before some books of Enn.
b2r Ficinus, Marsilius: [Preface addressed to the readers.] CTC VII 70-1.
b2r Ficinus, Marsilius: ‘Argumentum . . . in primum librum Plotini Platonici.’ Incipit: ‘Anima rationalis media est inter formas diuinas . . . [P]eroportune primus hic omnium nobis occurrit . . .’ Explicit: tua uoluntate dissentiat CTC VII 72-3. Each book of Enn. is divided into further books, then into chapters, a heading and ‘argumentum' being provided for each chapter, but grouped together before Ficinus's translation of the text. The same arrangement is followed for subsequent books, until Enn. 4. 3, when the ‘argumenta' for each chapter are placed directly before the chapter to which they refer.
b7v Plotinus: [Enneades. Translated by Marsilius Ficinus.] Incipit: ‘Quaerit utrum perturbationes sensus opiniones cogitatio . . . [V]oluptates et dolores timores item atque audaciae . . .’ Explicit: fugaque solius ad solum See CTC VII 71.
uu10r Ficinus, Marsilius: [Letter addressed to] Petrus Laurentii de' Medici. Incipit: ‘[C]um idibus Nouembribus in agro Caregio una cum Magno Laurentio . . .’ Explicit: producet in lucem See CTC VII 71.
uu10r [Colophon.]
uu10r ‘Registrum.’
[*1r] ‘Emendatio in Plotinum.’ Incipit: ‘Carta prima, facie secunda, linea xxxviiii. Placitura immo placituram . . .’
Imprint
Imprint: Florence: Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, 7 May 1492. Folio.
Collation
Collation: a10 b8 c–n10 o12 p–z & aa–uu10 [*]2.
References
ISTC: ip00815000
Hain: HC *13121;
Goff: Goff P‑815;
BMC: BMC VI 640, XII 46;
Proctor: Pr 6156;
Others: BSB‑Ink P‑620; CIBN P‑480; Kristeller, Supplementum Ficinianum, I, p. lxvi, no. h 1; Denis O'Brien, ‘Une Bibliographie analytique des éditions, traductions et commentaires de la Vie de Plotin 1492-1980', in Porphyrius, La vie de Plotin, ed. L. Brisson and others, I, Histoire des doctrines de l'antiquité classique, 6 (Paris, 1982), at 151; Rhodes 1449; Sheppard 5114-15.
LCN: 14016120, 14016153
Copies
Copy number: P-383(1)
Wanting the blank leaf a1.
Binding: Eighteenth-century half russia, over red paper boards; the gold stamp of the Bodleian Library on both covers.
Size: 345 × 238 × 86 mm.
Size of leaf: 337 × 221 mm.
Early ‘nota' marks on a5v and a6r.
Provenance: Vienna, Augustinians; inscription in a sixteenth-century hand on [*2r]: ‘Conuentus sancti Augustini Vienne'. Purchased for £2. 5. 0: see Books Purchased (1791), 2.
SHELFMARK: Auct. K 2.20.
Copy number: P-383(2)
Binding: Contemporary blind-tooled half pigskin over wooden boards; two clasps and catches lost. Formerly chained: staple-marks of a hasp at the head of the lower cover. Two former shelf numbers(?) in black ink, ‘223' on the upper cover, and ‘16' at the head of the spine. Remains of an early paper label, inscribed ‘Plotinus', at the head of the upper cover. On both covers triple fillets form the outer border within which is a foliate and floral roll. Further fillets form the inner rectangle, which is decorated with repeated tendril stamps enclosing a small fleuron, and, outside these, a repeated lattice-work stamp. The spine is decorated with a repeated square flower-petal stamp, which gives a chequer-board effect.
Size: 361 × 242 × 102 mm.
Size of leaf: 338 × 224 mm.
Two parchment endleaves, parts of leaves from a late fifteenth-century missal (canon of the mass).
Provenance: Scar of a book-plate on the front pastedown. Two duplicate notes, one in red pencil on the front pastedown, the other in black ink on the recto of the front endleaf. Ingram Bywater (1840-1914); Elenchus, no. 2587. Bequeathed in 1914.
SHELFMARK: Byw. F 3.12.
Copy number: P-383(3)
Bound in a modern guard-book of fragments.
Two fragments, leaves a3 (25) and uu10 (26), both considerably cropped. Not in Sheppard.
Size: Leaf a3: 320 × 196 mm; leaf uu10: 250 × 151 mm.
On a3r an Italian decorated border consisting of a single gold fillet edged in black with foliate and floral decoration in gold, green, red, maroon, blue, pink and white; in the lower margin a gold circlet within which, on a blue background decorated with gold stars, is a coat of arms: or, a bear's head couped sable, its tongue proper, surmounted by a gold helm with the bear's head as crest, and with black and white mantling. In the upper margin the gold fillet is surmounted by a pink and maroon ribbon forming a semi-circle coloured in blue, with ‘IHS' in gold; a nine-line initial ‘P is supplied in interlocked blue and red, with red and purple pen-work decoration; on a3v a four-line initial ‘R' is supplied in red with purple pen-work decoration; paragraph marks are supplied in red or blue. On uu10r a three-line initial ‘C' is supplied in blue with red pen-work decoration; paragraph marks are supplied in red or blue.
Provenance: Unidentified coat of arms (see above), probably Italian. Francis Douce (1757-1834); from shelfmark. Presumably bequeathed in 1834.
SHELFMARK: Douce Fragm. b.1(25-6).
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