LEAF FROM A COPY OF CICERO'S "DE REPUBLICA" Ref 552 recto

THE QUALITY OF THIS PICTURE IS NOT AS GOOD AS IT SHOULD BE BUT UNFORTUNATELY IT IS THE BEST THAT I COULD GET.

 

 

Note;_-

It is evident that this leaf and Ref 551 are from the same manuscript even though they are from different texts and written by different scribes. Both leaves are effectively the same size and the prickings for the rulings are the same distance from the edges of the leaves, and they both have 41 lines.

 

TEXT: -

Cicero's “De Republica” is a series of six books about politics and government.

 

This leaf is from Book Six of De Republica, “Somnium Scipionis” (The Dream of Scipio) and the text begins in paragraph 22 at “vel caucasum” and continues through to the end of that book (paragraph 29). The final written line on the verso “Explicit somnum Scopionis” advises us of that fact.

 

The size of the leaf is approx. 370mm x 262mm (14 6/10ins. x 10 3/10ins.).

 

The leaf is neither illuminated nor decorated. On the verso there is a space left for a one-line initial to be added but this was never completed.

 

PURCHASE DETAILS: -

Purchased 2019 from Libreria Antiquaria Dentis, Turin, Italy.

 

PROVENANCE: -

I have received advice that the leaf was probably produced c.1470-1480.

Whilst there are no endorsements on this leaf, the fact there is a central horizontal crease would indicate that it , like Ref 551, has been used as a file.

This leaf, together with Ref 551 were both in the same academic collection in Turin.

 

OVERALL CONDITION: -

As well as the horizontal crease through the centre, there is significant creasing in the bottom margin of the leaf (not affecting the text.) and to a lesser degree at the top (again not affecting the text). There is also a 25mm tear in the top margin at the outside edge. Other than these minor faults this is a nice, clean leaf with virtually nothing else in the way of age related wear.

 

 

GENERAL COMMENTS: -

Yet again, this is another magnificent addition to the collection. Most leaves relating to “Somnium Scipionis” are the commentary by Macrobius on it. To find a leaf containing part of the actual Cicero text from it is quite amazing.

 

Single leaves with humanistic script are uncommon because the texts of the books that they were once part of were generally retained within their bindings. A second leaf (Ref 551), whilst from a different Cicero text, is certainly from the same manuscript, and they both must be from a compendium of some sort.

 

MACRUS TILLIUS CICERO: -

Marcus Tullius Cicero, born 3rd. January 106 BC, died 7th. December 43 BC was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher, who served as consul in the year 63 BC. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. Though he was an accomplished orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement. Cicero has been traditionally considered the master of Latin prose and he was an energetic writer with an interest in a wide variety of subjects. Cicero was declared a "righteous pagan" by the early Catholic Church, and therefore many of his works were deemed worthy of preservation. Saint Augustine and others quoted liberally from his works "On the Commonwealth" (also known as "On the Republic") and "On the Laws," and it is due to this that we are able to recreate much of the work from the surviving fragments. (ex Wikipedia)

 

DE REPUBLICA – SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS: -

“De Republica” (“On the Commonwealth”) is a dialogue on Roman politics by Cicero, written in six books between 54 and 51 BC. The work does not survive in a complete state, and large parts are missing. The surviving sections derive from excerpts preserved in later works. Cicero uses the work to explain Roman constitutional theory. Written in imitation of Plato’s “Republic”, it takes the form of a Socratic dialoguein which Scepio Aemilianus takes the role of a wise old man.

The work examines the type of government that had been established in Rome since the kings, and that was challenged by amongst others Julius Caesar. The development of the constitution is explained, and Cicero explores the different types of constitutions and the roles played by citizens in government. The work is also known for the “Dream of Scipio”, a fictional dream vision from the sixth book.

 

The dialogue, between a number of people, is portrayed as taking place in Scipio's estate, during three consecutive days. Each day is described in two books, with an introduction by Cicero preceding the dialogue of each book. A large part of the last book (the sixth) is taken by Scipio telling a dream he had: this passage is known as “Somnium Scipionis”, or "Scipio's dream".

 

Since not all of the work survives, some of the content is surmised from references by other ancient authors.

Book one: Contains a discussion between the protagonists of the political situation of their time. The theme of the work is given and some comments are made about the theory of constitutions.

Book two: An outline of Roman history and the development of the constitution.

Book three: The role of justice in government is examined, as are the different types of constitutions.

Book four: A discourse about education.

Book five: The characters converse about the qualities of the ideal citizen in government.

Book Six: Little of this book survives except the “Somnium Scipionis”, which functions as the conclusion to the work.

 

Large parts of the text are missing: especially from the 4th and the 5th book only minor fragments survived. All other books have at least some passages missing. ”Scorpoi's Dream, which is only a part from the 6th book, is nearly all that survives from that book. The “Somnium Scipionis”, as it is known, survives because it was the subject of a commentary by Macrobius, who excerpted large portions; both he and his readers in the Middle Ages and Renaissance were mainly interested in its discussion of astrology and astronomy, especially given the loss of the rest of the book. An enterprising copyist early in the textual tradition appended a copy of the “Somnium” to a copy of Macrobius's Commentary, but this copy appears to be inferior to the one Macrobius was reading. This text became so popular that its transmission was polluted by multiple copies; it has been impossible to establish a stemma or it. (ex Wikipedia)

 

(The part of Book six that survives begins in paragraph 9 of the text of “Somnium Scipionis” and continues through to the end.).

 

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT

RECTO

SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS

 

22....... of the Caucasus here or crossed the waters of the Ganges there? Who in the other remote regions of the rising or the setting sun or of the North or South will hear your name? Yet, leaving these aside, you can certainly see in what a narrow field your human glory aspires to spread. Again, the very men who talk of you, how long will they talk?

23 Why, even if those generations of men to come should care to hand down, in succession from father to son, the glory of each one of us; yet, still, owing to the deluges and conflagrations of the earth, which must happen periodically, we cannot acquire a lasting, much less an eternal renown. Nay, what does it matter that mention should be made of you by those who shall be born hereafter, when there was none among those who were born before you? They were not fewer in number but were, at any rate, better men;

24 the more so, as, among those very men, by whom our name may possibly be heard, no one can secure his reputation for a single year. Men, to be sure, commonly measure the year by the return of the sun, that is of a single heavenly body: but when all the constellations together shall have returned to the same point from which they once started; and after long intervals shall have restored the order of the whole heaven as it was before, then can that really be called the year of revolution: in which I hardly dare to say how many generations of men are comprehended. For as at that time, when the soul of Romulus made its way into these heavenly regions, the sun appeared to men to disappear and to be darkened, so whenever, in the same quarter and at the same time, the sun is again eclipsed, then, all the constellations and stars having been restored to their original position, you can say that a year has been fulfilled. But of this year know that as yet not a twentieth part has come round.

25 So, should you have lost hope of return to this place, on whom great and illustrious men rest all their hopes, what then is your human glory worth, which can hardly affect a scanty portion of a single year? Therefore, if you will choose to look aloft and fix your gaze on this our resting-place and eternal home, nor ever enslave thyself to the rumours of the rabble, nor stake the hope of your life on the rewards of men: virtue must draw you by her own attraction to true glory; what others say of you, let that be their own concern; but still they will talk. However, all that talk of theirs is both confined within those narrow bounds, which you can see, and has never been of long continuance in the case of any. It is buried with the men themselves, and ends in the forgetfulness of posterity."

26 When he had ended: "For my part," said I, "Africanus, if indeed a pathway, as it were, is open to the gates of heaven for those who have deserved well of their native land; although I have not failed to do you honour, from my boyhood t reading in my father's footsteps and in yours, yet now, with so great a prize before me, much more watchfully will I strive."

"Strive indeed," said he, "and be persuaded of this: it is not you that are mortal, but this body. For you are not that which your bodily form presents to view, but it is the mind of any man that is the man, not that figure which can be pointed out by the finger. Know then that you are a god; since he is a god who possesses force, feeling, memory and prescience, who directs, governs, and moves that body, of which he is the master, just as much as the supreme God of all moves this universe. And as the universe which is in some degree perishable is moved by God, who is himself eternal, so is the frail body moved by an immortal soul.

27 For that which moves all the time is eternal; but that which imparts motion to something else and itself receives its motion from some other source, must have a limit to its life because its motion can end. Therefore that only which moves of itself, because it never abandons itself so it never ceases to move. Moreover this is the source, this is the original cause of motion to all other things that move. ….........

 

Done