Beschreibung:

Bifolium from a large decorated manuscript of Ovid, Heroides, in Latin elegiac verse couplets [Italy (perhaps Pavia), late thirteenth or fourteenth century] 2 conjoined leaves, with a large initial H (opening Haec tua Penelope lento tibi mitti …, the opening of the letter from Penelope to Ulysses, most probably at the opening of the original codex) in green, heightened with small yellow circles and white dots, on deep red grounds with thin dark blue acanthus leaves, the whole initial encased within red penwork frame, a swirl of similar foliage at its foot, with 2 parallel red penlines emerging at 45 degrees up and towards inner border, another more rustic red initial with penwork on second leaf, opening lines of title in capitals touched in red joined together by wavy penstrokes, each line opening with capital touched in red, these set in margin as commonly with verse, red rubrics, single column of 38 lines in a rounded Italian early gothic bookhand, recovered from a binding and hence with losses of section of about 40 by 90mm. from outer edge of mid-point of leaves (affecting ends of about 10 lines), much paper adhered to inside (what can be seen there very clean and crisp, and thus would benefit from this being professionally removed), scuffs, stains and tears, the inscription at foot of first leaf Cardinalii Zaberella referring to Francesco Zaberella (1360-1417), but in a seventeenth-century hand and more probably referring to contents of book this was bound around rather than provenance, overall fair and legible condition, each full leaf approximately 330 by 240mm. From a splendid pre-humanist copy of the works of the celebrated Roman poet, Ovid (43 BC.-17/18 AD.). It was produced in a large format perhaps for classroom use, and appears to have been used for much study in the century or so after its production: there are lightly erased sections of medieval marginalia on the outside leaves as well as many neat interlinear additions explaining words or giving alternative readings above the main text visible on the inner sections. This is the least well preserved of Ovids works, and by far the rarest to find in manuscript. It consists of fifteen fictional verse letters by aggrieved heroines from Greek and Roman mythology whose lovers had mistreated, neglected, or abandoned them. The rich palette and style of decoration of the main initial shows commonalities with book decoration produced in Pavia in the fourteenth century, with noted use of dotting instead of penwork to highlight areas of block colour (cf. F. Avril and M.T. Gousset, Manuscrits enluminés dorigine italienne III, 2013, nos. 24 & 27, as well as 25).