Bod-Inc: S-150
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
De vita beata, et al [Spanish] Las obras de Seneca (trans. Alphonsus de Cartagena).
Analysis of Content
a1r [Title-page.]
a2r [Alphonsus de Cartagena]: ‘Prologue' [addressed to] Johannes II, King of Castille and León. Incipit: ‘[S]i los bienes mundanos principe muy poveroso, pueden dar bien . . .’ On Alphonsus' translations of the Senecan works, known as ‘Los cinco libros de Séneca', at the behest of King Juan II of Castille, see N. G. Round, ‘Perdóneme Séneca. The Translational Practices of Alonso de Cartagena', Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 75 (1998), 17-29. See also K. A. Bluher, Séneca en España (Madrid, 1983), 134-5, 143, with the introductions and glosses discussed at 144-5.
a3r [Alphonsus de Cartagena]: [Introduction to De vita beata.] Incipit: ‘[G]rand cuydado pusieron los Fabios gentiles en catar . . .’
a3v Seneca, Lucius Annaeus: [De vita beata]. Translated by Alphonsus de Cartagena. ‘Libro que scriuio a Galion dela uida bien auenturada'. Incipit: ‘[T]odos dessean O Galion hermano beuir bienauenturada mente . . .’ A translation of Seneca, Dialogi, VII; see J. M. Laspéras, ‘La Traduction et ses théories en Espagne aux XVe et XVIe siècles', Revue des Langues Romanes, 84 (1980), 81-92, at 82; Bluher, Séneca en España, 139-40.
e3r Seneca, Lucius Annaeus: [Epistolae ad Lucilium, LXXXVIII.] ‘el libro delas siete artes liberales'. Translated by Alphonsus de Cartagena. Incipit: ‘[D]esseas faber, que es lo que paresçe de los estudios liberales . . .’ On Alphonsus' translation of Seneca, Epistola 88, see O. T. Impey, ‘Alfonso de Cartagena, traductor de Séneca y precursor del humanismo español', Prohemio, 3 (1972), 473-94; Bluher, Séneca en España, 138-9.
f5v [De legalibus institutis.] ‘De amonestamientos y doctrinas'. Translated by Alphonsus de Cartagena. Incipit: ‘O ay cosa tam mortal alos ingenios humanos . . .’ On this North European medieval florilegium containing extracts from works including Pseudo-Seneca, De moribus, Prouerbia, De quattuor virtutibus, and De remediis fortuitorum, see Texts and Transmission, 367-8; N. G. Round, ‘The Medieval Reputation of the Proverbia Senecae: A Partial Survey based on Recorded MSS', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 72 (1972), 103-51, at 119; L. Borgi Cedrini, ‘Letteratura sentenziosa medievale tra Francia, Italia e Spagna: il cosidetto Libre de Seneca’ in Échanges culturels dans le bassin occidental de la Méditerranée (Toulouse, 1989), 179-86, at 179-80; Bluher, Séneca en España, 68, 140, 159.
h1r [Alphonsus de Cartagena]: ‘Prologo enla translaçion'. Incipit: ‘[Q]uand dulçe es la çiençia. O muy catholico . . .’ See Bluher, Séneca en España, 143 notes 93-4.
h3r [Alphonsus de Cartagena]: ‘Introduçion'. Incipit: ‘Dela prouidençia diuinal muchos son los que hablaron asi catholicos . . .’
h4v Seneca, Lucius Annaeus: ‘El libro que se llama de prouidentia de dios ad Lucilium'. Translated by Alphonsus de Cartagena. Incipit: ‘Preguntaste me Lucillo, pues el mundo se rige por la prouidençia de dios . . .’ On Cartagena's translation of Sen. Dial. see Round, ‘Translational Practices', 18 note 5; Bluher, Séneca en España, 136-7.
l1r Seneca, [Lucius Annaeus: De constantia sapientis]. ‘El segundo libro dela prouidentia de dios'. Translated by Alphonsus de Cartagena. Incipit: ‘Enel libro delos remedios dela fortuna, pone consola . . .’ On Alphonsus' designation of this work as a second book of De providentia see Bluher, Séneca en España, 138.
Imprint
Imprint: Seville: Meinardus Ungut and Stanislaus Polonus, 28 May 1491. Folio.
Collation
Collation: a–f8.8.6 g–m8.6 n o8 p6 q–s8.
Illustrations: Woodcut initials in red and black ink.
References
ISTC: is00374000
Hain: HC 14596;
Goff: Goff S‑374;
BMC: BMC X 38;
Proctor: Pr 9528;
Others: Haebler, Bibliografía ibérica, 621; Kurz 342; Sheppard 7307; Vindel, Arte V, 78: 23. Microfiche: Unit 2: Classics in Translation: Part I CT 98.
LCN: 14053317
Copies
Copy number: S-150(1)
Wanting the blank leaves s7-8. Sheppard notes that g8 is blank, but is not the original leaf.
Binding: Nineteenth-century gold-tooled green morocco, with the stamp of the Biblioteca de Salvá; gilt-edged leaves; marbled pastedowns; green silk bookmark.
Size: 291 × 215 × 26 mm.
Size of leaf: 283 × 200 mm.
Some marginal notes in a sixteenth-century Spanish hand, supplying pointing hands, brackets, ‘nota' marks, and a comment in Latin. On g1v a gloss in Spanish on a Senecan remark about women: ‘Estonçe | [Es]te prouerujo o doctrina | está meior declarado y | entendido al pr[o]posito de | Séneca en la glosa pri | mera, y declara allj a[ue] . . .’
Provenance: Vicente Salvá y Pérez (1786-1849). Pedro Salvá y Mallen (†1869). Ricardo Heredia († c.1891); see monogram; Catalogue de la bibliothèque de Heredia (1891), no. 322. Purchased from Albert Cohn, Catalogue 212 (1896), no. 56, for 250 Marks; see Library Bills, 30 Nov. 1896.
SHELFMARK: Inc. d. S4.1491.1.
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