COMPLETE GATHERING FROM A COPY OF ADAM DE MONTALDO'S "TERTIA PARS PASSIONIS" Ref 503 folio 1r

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: -

This is a complete gathering of four leaves from a copy of Adam de Montaldo's "Tertia Pars Passionis" that was produced in Italy either c.1458 or c.1479/80.

 

The size of each leaf is 228mm x 163mm (9ins. x 6 4/10ins.) and the size of the text block is 143mm x 99mm (5 6/10ins. x 3 9/10ins.).

 

The text begins in the second part of this three-part Latin verse adaptation of the Passion of Jesus Christ at the point relating to the pieces of silver. The third part of the adaptation (“Ultimus tractatus passionis”) begins on folio 3 recto. The text here ends just after Christ saying “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do”.

 

There are 27 lines in an accomplished humanistic hand in brown ink and with rubrics in very pale pink and mainly in the left hand margin and mainly unreadable.

The text is written above the top ruled line.

 

There is one four-line initial “I” in highly burnished gold surrounded with superb ornate penwork decoration with extensions top and bottom almost filling the entire border.

There are also fourteen small, red, paraph marks in the palest of red in the outside margins.

 

PURCHASE DETAILS: -

Purchased on 6th. December 2017 from Bloomsbury Auctions, 24 Maddox Street, London, W1S 1PP, Auction of Western and Oriental Manuscripts, Lot 42.

 

OVERALL CONDITION: -

Whilst there is rodent damage to the top, outside, corners of the leaves it does not affect the text. Also there are six very small worm holes only one of which is within the text but which does not affect it. Overall these leaves are in particularly nice condition.

 

OTHER LEAVES AND PROVENANCE: -

1. Lot 40 in the Sotheby's Western Manuscript and Miniatures sale on 7th. July, 2009 was a bound fragment of twelve leaves (three of which were blank) in three gatherings each of four leaves and from the same manuscript. Included was a seven-line colophon. This suggests that the text was from the end of the volume. As the Bloomsbury gathering includes the opening of the third part of the text it is probable that it comes immediately before the text contained in the Sotheby's item and that they are both continuous.

2. Not only did Adam de Montaldo compose the text it is probable that he also wrote the manuscript. The Sotheby's description gave a date for the manuscript of “second half of the fifteenth century and suggested that the dedication colophon related to a king of Aragon, either John II (1458-79) or more probably Ferdinand II (1479-1516). The Bloomsbury description gave a date of c.1450. The biography of Adam in TRECCANI (the Italian Encyclopedia of Sciences, Letters and Arts of the Giovanni Treccani Institute) indicates that the first draft of the Passion was written in 1458 and dedicated to Alfonso of Aragon (died 27th. June 1458) and that this was later expanded and dedicated to the successor Ferdinand. It is not known if these leaves are from the first dedication or the second.

3. It is difficult to know where in Italy the manuscript was actually written. If the leaves are from the first dedication they could have been written in either Naples or Lombardy. Adam was at the Aragonese court of Naples in 1457 and by 1458 he had taken the Augustinian habit probably between 1458 and 1460 in the Lombard province of the Order. If the leaves are from the second dedication they were probably written in Rome where Adam was from sometime in 1479.

4. The dedication colophon included with the Sotheby's text was seven lines and described thus – “while not recorded elsewhere, (it) is of some interest as it addresses a king “Accipe Rex triumphantissime munusculum meum ex animo ...” comparing his majesty to Caesar and expounding on his numerous virtues. It is conceivable that this is the sole surviving copy of an otherwise unrecorded humanistic work for a monarch such as the king of Aragon.”

Note: - Further enquiries have been made in an attempt to link the two parts of the manuscript together and to obtain the full text of the colophon included with the Sotheby's text. Sotheby's have been kind enough to forward a request for information to the buyer of their part of the manuscript, but at the time of writing these notes no response had been received.

 

OTHER COPIES OF THE TEXT IN MANUSCRIPT AND INCUNABULA: -

Manuscript Copies

1. The Sotheby's description did not include any reference to other copies of the text because at the time of that sale the author of their text had not been identified.

2. Having identified the author of the text, the Bloomsbury description did include reference to a single other manuscript that they had been able to find in the “In Principio” datebase, namely “El Escorial, lat. I.iii21, fol.30r onwards”. El Escorial have been contacted for further information but no reply has been received. I was advised to contact the “Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes” in Paris on this and any other manuscript that they were aware of and they did reply with the additional information that the El Escorial relates to a manuscript of 30 leaves (not beginning at folio 30r onwards) and that they are not aware of any other manuscript of this text.

3. A search of the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts has identified a further manuscript of the text with the following description - “SDBM-9614, Adam de Montaldo, Passion of Christ, 40 folios, 1473/74, De Marinis, Auction/Dealer Catalogue 1913 Lot 1, height 213mm, width 148mm. The dimensions are such that this item cannot be anything to do with the leaves under discussion. Also, it cannot be the El Escorial manuscript because of the difference in the number of leaves and also because the El Escorial manuscript is mentioned in a catalogue of 1911 (Catalogue: Antolin, 2, 1911, p. 470). Tammaro De Marinis was a very successful book seller in Florence between 1904 and 1924.

 

Incunabula Copies.

1. A copy in Rome, 20 folios, printed 1483, Codice Identification IT\ICCU\RMLE\065375.

2. Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke Web Site – M25291 – a fragment of 6 leaves printed 1480.

3. Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke Web Site – M25290 – 26 leaves printed c.1480.

4. Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke Web Site – M25293 – 20 leaves printed 1483-1493.

5. Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke Web Site – M25294 – 20 leaves printed c.1490. (This has been digitalised at bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?pid=d-1603513. The text of the third part on these four leaves can be seen to begin in opening 17 of the digitalised text but the two are not at all the same. But which is which version? Also, this digitalised text does not have the royal colophon).

Note: - 2-5 above can be found at: - www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/MONTADA.htm#M25294

 

GENERAL COMMENTS: -

Not withstanding the minor condition issues with these leaves, they are a superb addition to this or any collection of medieval manuscripts. Not only do they exhibit a fine humanistic script, probably written by the author of the text, the text itself is one of rarest works by the author, Adam de Montaldo. That rarity is evidenced by the fact that only two other manuscript copies are recorded on any database and only five incunabula copies are so recorded.

 

Whilst it is not actually known which dedication these leaves are from, it does seem more likely that they are the first (c.1458) even though the “i's” are dotted. This is because the text of the 1490 printed version is so different, is probably from the second version and does not have the royal colophon.

 

In view of the known manuscript and incunabula copies of the text having between 20 and 40 folios, it is probable that these four leaves and the Sotheby's leaves (of which only nine were written on) could represent about half of the full text.

 

ADAM DE MONTALDO: -

Note: - This note it taken mainly from the biography on the TRECCANI (the Italian Encyclopedia of Sciences, Letters and Arts of the Giovanni Treccani Institute) Web Site.

 

Adam de Montaldo was born in the fourth decade of the fifteenth century (i.e. between 1430 and 1440) in the area a Genoa in Liguria, Italy. Nothing is known about him until 1457 when he stayed at the Aragon court in Naples. He took the Augustinian habit, probably between 1458 and 1460, in the Lombard province of the Order. Between 1464 and 1475 he seems to have had several positions and undertaken important tasks in the area of Genoa but in 1476 he was accused of disobedience. By 1479 Adam seems to be back in favour as he was elected “praeses” (head) of the chapter of the Roman province of the Order in Genazzano and also vicar and “praeses in the chapter of the congregation of S. Maria del Popolo in Rome. In 1483 Adam was again in trouble, being arrested following accusations of throwing discredit on various relations of important people. He was released after a few months due to the intervention of Pope Sixtus IV who granted him the Priotate of St. Anthony of Padua with an annual income of 100 florins. Adam was very attached to Pope Innocent VIII of whom he was perhaps a confessor and perhaps he preached in the basilica of Saint Peter between 1486 and 1487. He died in Rome at the end of March 1494, stabbed to death in his room near the convent of St. Augustine after a sermon in which he had vehemently accused Alexander VI of “marranism”.

 

Adam de Montaldo was a prolific writer, beginning when he was at the Aragon court in Naples (a text dedicated to Alfonso d'Aragona (1457) can be traced back to that period). Many of his writings were academic or theological and were often dedicated to important people. It would seem that his writing continued through to the end of his life.

 

 

 

Done