Bod-Inc: S-120
Scriptores Rei Militaris
Scriptores rei militaris, sive Scriptores veteres de re militari (ed. Johannes Antonius Sulpitius Verulanus).
Analysis of Content
a1r [Title-page.] ‘Vegetius de re militari'.
a1v Sulpitius Verulanus, Johannes [Antonius: Letter addressed to] Petrus Paulus de Comite. Incipit: ‘Chari discipuli fidus praeceptor . . .’ The first edition of this collection of texts edited by Johannes Sulpitius Verulanus was printed by Eucharius Silber in 1487; see A‑041(1), F‑109, M‑287, and V‑052(1), all bound together in Auct. L 4.12.
a2r Vegetius, Flavius Renatus: Epitoma rei militaris [addressed to] Valentinianus, Roman Emperor. Edited by Johannes Antonius Sulpitius Verulanus, as stated in the opening letter. ‘Epitoma institutorum rei militaris ex commentariis Catonis, Celsi, Traiani, Hadriani, et Frontini'. Veg. 6-261 (no preface). See CTC VI 175-84. A copy of Silber's 1487 edition (V‑052); see M. D. Reeve, ‘The Transmission of Vegetius's Epitoma rei militaris’, Aevum, 74 (2000), 243-354, at 290 n. 90.
i4r [First colophon.]
k1r Frontinus, Sextus Julius: Strategemata. ‘Strategematicon liber'. Front. Str. 1-4. 7. 23; 4. 7. 29-4. 7. 35; 4. 7. 38-4. 7. 42; 2. 9. 7-10.
q6r [Second colophon.]
r1r Modestus [pseudo-]: De vocabulis rei militaris [addressed to] Emperor Theodosius. Ammien Marcellin, Jornandès, Frontin, Végèce, Modestus avec la traduction en français, ed. Jean-Marie N. Désiré Nisard, Collection des auteurs latins, 19 (Paris, 1878), 643-51; T. González Rolán and A. Moure Casas, ‘ “Modesti libellus de vocabulis rei militaris ad Tacitum Augustum” (Estudio de la transmisión manuscrita y edición crítica)', Cuadernos de Filología Clásica, 20 (1986-7), 293-328, at 311-19. The work attributed to Modestus consists of excerpts from Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris; see Lorenzo Dalmasso, ‘La Storia di un estratto di Vegezio saggio sulla fortuna dell‘“Epitoma rei militaris” ’, Rendiconti Istituto Lombardo di scienze e lettere, ser. 2, 40 (1907), 805-14, esp. 809-13. The compilation derives from an extant manuscript of Vegetius (Paris, BnF, MS. lat. 6503, ninth century); it first appears in manuscripts of the fourteenth century ascribed to Cicero (an ascription implicit in the 1471 edition of his philosophical works [Bod-inc. C‑299]), and it acquired the ascription to Modestus in an edition printed no later than 1474 ([Bod-inc. M‑285]); see M. D. Reeve, ‘Modestus, scriptor rei militaris’, in La Tradition vive. Mélanges d'histoire des textes en l'honneur de Louis Holtz, ed. Pierre Lardet, Bibliologia, 20 (Turnhout, 2003), 417-32; see here 424-25 on the dedication to Theodosius/Tacitus.
s1r Aelianus Tacticus: De instruendis aciebus [addressed to] Hadrianus, Roman Emperor. Translated into Latin by Theodorus Gaza. The translation is dedicated to Antonius [Beccadellus, called] Panormita. Incipit: ‘[S]cientiam Graecis acierum instruendarum . . .’ ed. F. Robortellus (Venice, 1552); ed. Sixtus Arcerius (Leiden, 1613). H. Köchly and W. Rüstow, Griechische Kriegsschriftsteller, vol. II/1: (Die Taktiker) (Leipzig, 1855), 199-554 (Greek and German texts). The Greek original is dedicated to Emperor Trajan, erroneously referred to as Hadrian in the Greek manuscripts and in Gaza's translation: see Max Jähns, Geschichte der Kriegswissenschaften vornehmlich in Deutschland. I: Altertum, Mittelalter, XV. und XVI. Jahrhundert, Geschichte der Wissenschaften in Deutschland, 21 (Munich and Leipzig, 1889), 94-7. The Latin translation of Theodorus Gaza follows a text of the Paris recension: see Köchly-Rüstow, 209. See also A‑041.
A1r Onosander: [Strategicus sive] De optimo imperatore [addressed to] Quintus Verannius(?). Translated from Greek into Latin by Nicolaus Sagundinus. Incipit: ‘[E]quitandi aut uenandi piscandi denique . . .’ ed. J. Lefèvre d’ Étaples (Paris, 1506); ed. N. Rigault (Paris, 1599).
Imprint
Imprint: Rome: Eucharius Silber, 1494. 4°.
Remarks: In five parts, dated: (I) 24 Oct. 1494; (II) 3 Nov. 1494; (III‑V) [undated].
Collation
Collation: a–p4 q6 r–x4 y2 A–D4.
Illustrations: Woodcut initials.
References
ISTC: is00344000
Hain: HC *15915;
Goff: Goff S‑344;
BMC: BMC IV 116;
Proctor: Pr 3878;
Others: BSB‑Ink V‑63; CIBN S‑172; Oates 1539; Sander 7502; Sheppard 3069-70.
LCN: 14803116
Copies
Copy number: S-120(1)
Binding: Nineteenth-century(?) paper boards, with manuscript title at the head of the spine, below ‘Lp' printed in black on a square paper label. Sprinkled red- and blue-edged leaves.
Size: 196 × 158 × 15 mm.
Size of leaf: 192 × 142 mm.
Contemporary annotation in German in light brown ink, on a1r.
Provenance: Georg Franz Burkhard Kloß (1787-1854); book-label; sale (1835), lot 2550; purchased for £0. 3. 0; see Books Purchased (1835), 20.
SHELFMARK: Auct. O inf. 1.42.
Copy number: S-120(2)
Binding: Seventeenth/eighteenth-century(?) parchment, with manuscript title across the head of the spine.
Size: 213 × 167 × 18 mm.
Size of leaf: 209 × 148 mm.
A few marginal notes, mainly extracting key words and adding ‘nota' marks in Greek ( σή(μ)αι(νε) ), in a contemporary humanist hand, in brown and red ink; for similar notes see A. de la Mare, The Handwriting of Italian Humanists (Oxford, 1973), pl. xxi(g) definitions of marginal signs [this one not included] used by Sozomenus da Pistoia in c.1420, later used by Poggius and other humanists, including the circle of Pomponius Laetus.
Provenance: Ingram Bywater (1840-1914); Elenchus, no. 3477; purchased from Ellis [or perhaps Ellis & Elvey] in Dec. 1906, no. 51, for £2. 2. 0; see cutting from the catalogue pasted on the front pastedown. Bequeathed in 1914.
SHELFMARK: Byw. T 9.18.
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