Epistolae familiares, 1425 - 1450

Previously Gordan MS 74

Parchment support, ff. ii (paper bifolium, i = front pastedown) + 161 + ii (paper bifolium, ii = back pastedown).

Eighteenth-century half-red morocco gilt. On green-stained panels on spine in gold: LEONARD/ BRUNI/ EPISTOLA and MST. IN/ MEMBRANIS

i+161+i; 256 x 175 mm bound to 264 x 190 mm

One column of twenty-seven lines (fols. 1-80); one column of twenty-eight lines (fols. 81-161); ruled with double vertical and horizontal bounding lines in hard point, full length (fols. 1-96); ruled with double vertical and upper horizontal bounding lines (fols. 97-161); pricking in right margin; written area: 180 x 105 mm

Humanistic script, written by a single scribe, which becomes smaller and more cramped towards the end of the text.

The first letter on f. 1r is an elaborate 5-line initial, gold on a rectangular dark blue ground surrounded by finely drawn white-vine branchwork with green infilling, the ground speckled. Initial has been worn. In lower margin of the same page an unidentified coat of arms, somewhat faded, shows a shell over a chevron above a cross. This is a later addition to the decoration and is set into a dark blue diamond with gold penwork flourishes. 2-line alternating red and blue initials begin each letter until f. 162r, where 2-line initials are either added in brown ink or (several times) the space left blank. Marginal notations in two Italian fifteenth-century hands throughout. Lower half of f. 161 has been removed below the end of the final letter, a later repair replaced missing parchment.

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto