Marks of Provenance
Part 2: Notes in Books
How people who write in books help us tell the histories of objects.
Ownership Notes
Collectors and owners often wrote inside the manuscripts, leaving their name and the date, and sometimes other annotations. These notes can be helpful in tracing the history of the book, but they can also be difficult to decipher or misleading.
Notes in the margins reveal how our manuscripts have moved between different owners and different places; sometimes the sequence is clear, and sometimes it takes a little more work to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
A Simple Journey
Artes rhetoricae, Queens College, MS 33
This manuscript (Queens, MS 33) contains a late 15th- or early 16th-century copy of the Artes rhetoricae, a collection of rhetorical works by a range of ancient authors. This is a reasonably rare example of a Greek manuscript in our collections with a clear, straightforward provenance.
The Earl of Huntingdon, Henry Hastings left his signature (H. Huntyngdon) and a date on the first page of this manuscript, right above the decorative red band. The date of 1585 allows us to identify this as the 3rd Earl who lived between 1535 and 1595 and was a member of the Tudor court under Edward, Mary and Elizabeth. As a boy, he was educated alongside King Edward VI before attending Queens' College, Cambridge.
On the same page, Queens' College added their bookplate asserting ownership, a useful mark for future provenance researchers, in case the book ever moved somewhere else.
Did Henry Hastings donate this manuscript to the college himself? Other traces in the manuscript tell us this was not the case. Instead, he seems to have given it to his tutor, Thomas Church, whose ownership is also recorded in the book.
This note on the inside of the cover reads: "Tho: Church moriens legavit", which can be translated as: ‘bequeathed by Thomas Church.’
Tho: Church moriens legavit
Tho: Church moriens legavit
The notes in the book tell a story of lifelong connections between people and institutions. Hastings may have first owned the book as a student in Cambridge. The notes show that he and Church obviously maintained a connection with each other and with Queens' College into later life.
Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon by Unknown artist, oil on panel, late 16th-early 17th century (National Portrait Gallery).
Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon by Unknown artist, oil on panel, late 16th-early 17th century (National Portrait Gallery).
The Scribe is the Key
A Renaissance Miscellany, MS Add. 1024
Other manuscripts exchanged owners more often. This collection of religious texts (CUL MS Add. 1024) bears the marks of at least three of its previous owners.
The writer of this elegant, pocket sized manuscript identifies himself as Konstantinos Paleocappas, a Greek scribe who worked at the French royal library at Fontainebleau in the middle of the 16th century.
As a Renaissance prince, Francois I of France (1494-1547) was keen to build both a great art collection and a great book collection. He appointed the classical scholar Guillaume Budé as librarian and Budé set about acquiring hundreds of Greek manuscripts, employing scribes such as Palaeocappas to create new copies.
Knowing the scribe, and the time and place the manuscript was copied, allows us to identify the Lancelot mentioned in the dedication on the page preceding the main text, as probably Lancelot de Carle (1508-1568), Bishop of Riez, a French scholar and diplomat.
This page reads:
Ὡς ἀπὸ τοῦ βιβλιδίου.
| Δέλτος μὲν τελέθω βαιὴ, μέγα δ' ἔνδοθι κεύθω
| ἔγκειται μοι γὰρ δόγματα εὐσεβέων.
| Χεὶρ Κωνσταντίνοιο Παλαιοκάππου μοι ἔτευξε
| γράμματα τῷ καλάμῳ, εἵνεκα Λαγκιλότου.
The name of the scribe, and his dedication to Lancelot have been highlighted in the image.
Κωνσταντίνοιο Παλαιοκάππου in line three, can be transliterated as Konstantinoio Palaiokappou, and is the name of the scribe, Konstantinos Paleocappas.
In the next line, Λαγκιλότου (Lagkilotou) or Lancelot is named.
The first four lines are translated:
“As from the little book. I am born a little book, but I keep inside great things, because within me there are the doctrines/opinions of pious men.
Konstantinos Palaiokappas’ hand made my letters with the (reed) pen for Lancelot. […]”
There are two signatures on this page.
The top signature, 'M. Lort' belongs to Michael Lort (1725-1790), a clergyman and an academic, who for a brief period from 1759 was Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge.
The lower signature identifies the owner as A. Askew (1722-1774). Luckily, Anthony Askew was a prolific and well-known book collector in the 18th century. Records of his collections survive, and we know that this particular manuscript was sold by G. Leigh and J. Sotheby in the auction of his library in 1785 (lot 590).
The University Library acquired this manuscript in 1872, from the booksellers Reeves and Turner. Even though the book gives us a lot of information about its provenance, it cannot tell us where it was between 1785 and 1872.
A Greek Monastic Mystery.
Lexicon of Photios I, Trinity College MS O.3.9.
Finding the first owner of a book made in the 16th or 18th centuries, like our previous examples, is often possible because of the existence of other historical records. The same cannot be said for a 12th century manuscript, where the historical record is scarcer.
This manuscript (Trinity College MS O.3.9.) dated to the 12th century, is the oldest surviving copy of a reference work called the Lexicon of Photios I, Patriarch of Constantinople (c. 820-c. 891), sometimes called the Codex Galeanus.
Written on parchment, it has been severely damaged by ink-gall corrosion, visible on the pages as brown stains.
The note at the top of the page records the ownership of the manuscript by Niketas Lychnos: "Χριστῶ τὸ δῶρον ἐκ Νικήτα τοῦ Λύχνου". This can be translated as “The gift to Christ of Niketas Lychnos”.
It is truly rare that such notes survive; those ownership inscriptions that do survive are often found on the first page of the text like this. Notes added to the front leaves of a book are often lost when books are rebound later in their history.
This seal (now at Dumbarton Oaks) bears the name of Niketas on the reverse, and was probably used by him to seal documents.
The second note, in the lower margin is barely legible. Fortunately scholars have been able to decipher it: “Ἐκοιμήθη ὁ δοῦλος τοῦ Θεοῦ Νικήτας αʹ εδρος καὶ αʹ νοτάριος ὁ Λύχνος ϛψζ” . This has been translated as: "The servant of God Niketas Lychnos, the proedros and protonotarios, was laid to rest, 1198/9".
Unfortunately, neither one of these notes tells us where Niketas donated this book, so the trail comes to an end.
A Spanish Connection
Canon Law, MS Ff.4.3
Sometimes, the notes written in a book provide hints, not full stories. This manuscript (CUL MS Ff 4.3) is a great example of the complex provenances of some of the Greek manuscripts in our collections. The manuscript contains a range of religious texts.
Two of the scribes of this manuscript have been identified as Andreas Darmarios and Nicolas de la Torre (Nikolaos Tourrianos). They were native Greeks who worked as professional copyists, in various cities across Europe, for different patrons. We know that the manuscript was made around 1563-1564, probably in Venice. The kind of paper the manuscript is written on is similar to other paper known to be used by Darmarios at that time.
The manuscript may have been made in Italy but this ownership note is written in Latin and Spanish. It has been interpreted as proof that the manuscript made its way to Spain.
It's possible that the manuscript was bought by a Spanish clergyman attending the Council of Trent, a major church council held near Venice at precisely this time. A similar note in another manuscript in the University Library suggests that this manuscript was later owned by the Spanish nobleman Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (1587-1645).
How it made its way from Spain to the collection of John Moore the Bishop of Ely (1646-1714), we do not know.
Ownership note in Latin and Spanish on f. ii recto.
Ownership note in Latin and Spanish on f. ii recto.
Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587–1645), Count-Duke of Olivares. Attributed to Diego Velázquez. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587–1645), Count-Duke of Olivares. Attributed to Diego Velázquez. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
"The title says
Various works of the most holy, most wise and most prudent man Demetrius Comatianus, archbishop of the whole of Bulgaria elaborated by himself as guardian of the books of the most holy church.
There is another book with the title
Summary of the divine and sacred canons from the same annals by the most venerable venerable servant of the law and judge of Thessalonike, Constantinus Armenopulos.
It costs one hundred reales, without any amendment. It has not been printed. R[eales] 100."
Notes in Books
How people who write in books help us tell the histories of objects.
Book Plates and Library Stamps
Trinity College MS B.10.17. The college bookplate.
Trinity College MS B.10.17. The college bookplate.
CUL MS Nn.3.16. Cambridge University Library Bookplate.
CUL MS Nn.3.16. Cambridge University Library Bookplate.
Christ's College MS 9. Christ's College Bookplate.
MS Christ's College 9.2. Christ's College Bookplate.
CUL MS Dd.6.19. Bookplate of the Royal Library (1737).
CUL MS Dd.6.19. Bookplate of the Royal Library (1737).
King's College MS 45. Bookplate of Jonathan Peckover.
King's College MS 45. Bookplate of Jonathan Peckover.
CUL MS Kk.5.12. Claude Sarrau's Coat of Arms on the Bookplate.
CUL MS Kk.5.12. Claude Sarrau's Coat of Arms on the Bookplate.
Christ's College MS Rouse 263. Christ's College Bookplate with Donation Information.
Christ's College MS Rouse 263. Christ's College Bookplate with Donation Information.
Images of BAV Pal. gr.31 and BAV Pal. lat.1950: © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Images courtesy of BAV and Heidelberg University Library.
All images of Leiden BPG 74 G: © Leiden University Libraries CC BY 4.0.
All images of Corpus Christi College (MS 081): © The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge CC BY-NC 3.0.
Portrait of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, NPG 1574, © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
Image of Fugger Family Crest: Das Ehrenbuch der Fugger, BSB Cgm 9460, © Bayerische Staatsbibliothek/ Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Niketas Lychnos seal: © Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC.
Portrait of Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587–1645), Count-Duke of Olivares, ca. 1636 or later. Attributed to Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, CC0 1.0.
All other images: © Cambridge University Library/Licensed under CC-BY-NC 3.0.
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