De bello italico adversus gothos, etc., 1475 - 1499

Previously called Gordan MS 52.

MS 52 has been badly damaged by fire and water, especially at the beginning and end; most of the text is still legible, with the greatest damage to the text on ff. 1r-v and 2r, where several places are almost completely effaced; the presence of "ghost initials" (e.g. fols. 32v, 34r, 55r), several places in the text where a page is marked with the trace of an initial that looks as if it has bled from the opposite page where there is no initial, suggests that at some time the manuscript was taken apart, put back together incorrectly, then later reassembled in the correct order.

Parchment support, ff. v (paper, i=front pastedown) + 75 + i (contemporary parchment) + ii (paper bifolium, ii=back pastedown).

Twentieth-century vellum. Written vertically along spine in gold: "LEONARDUS ARETINUS DE BELLO GALLICO MS. 15TH CENT."

iv+76+i; 200 x 139 mm bound to 216 x 158 mm

Single column, twenty-six lines, ruled in red ink with single vertical bounding lines; written area: 130 x 85 mm

Humanistic script. Written by a single scribe; marginal notes, mostly obliterated, in the same hand in red.

All the initials have suffered water-damage. Two-, three- and four-line initials at the beginning of each book; fol. 1r, a four-line gold initial on a white-speckled dark red ground, with white-vinework intertwined; fols. 2r and 39r three-line gold initials on dark red outlined and speckled with gold; fols. 22v and 58r three-line gold initials on a blue ground; marginalia in red throughout

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.