A Venetian Commonplace book
Commonplace Book, in Latin and Italian, manuscript on paper [Italy, Venice?, second half 15th century and early 16th century].
An intriguing mix of the secular and the religious: a 15th/16th-century Commonplace book containing sermons and excerpts from Church Fathers, but also Italian recipes on how to cure genital pains and how to make decent ink.

141 x 97mm. i + 107 + i leaves, ff.1-8v in two columns of 38 lines written in a very neat minuscule semi-Gothic script; ff.9-107 a single column of varying lines in several different hands, all ruled, rubrics in red, occasional initials, headers and paraphs in red (opening leaves soiled and partially detached from binding, ff.24-25 loose, lower margin of f.1 repaired, thumbing and occasional stains and smudges throughout). 19th-century quarter-calf gilt, titled ‘Sermoni e consolazioni morali’ on spine (edges scuffed, upper part of spine peeling off).

Provenance:
Colker MS 47, acquired in 1964 from Maggs.

Contents:
Sermons and sayings of Church Fathers and philosophers (including on asking forgiveness, on comforting someone in distress, on seeking charity), ff.1-13; Ps.-Seneca, ‘Aliqua dicta Seneche’ ff.13v-16; Sermons, including on the Nativity (f.24), on bigamy (f.57v), on the Septuagint (f.61), ff.16v-92v; recipes, in Italian, including medicinal ones for bad hips (‘A dolori di fianchi’) and for tightness of chest (‘Chi fusse stretto di petto’), and practical ones for making ink ‘A fare bono inchiostro’ and getting rid of flies ‘A correr via le mosche’, ff.93v-95; prophecy about a recently deceased German saint, in Latin, f.95v; further recipes, in Italian, including one against scabies (‘Contra la rogna’), to cure genital pains (‘Al male delli membri genitali’), and stomach ache (‘A guarir il dolor del ventre’), ff.96-97; verses, in Italian, that were apparently sent by Pope Urban V to accompany an Agnus Dei sacramental sent to Emperor Charles IV, beginning ‘Balsamo et crisma cu[m] la munda cera [...], ff.97v-98; extracts from Church Fathers, including Gregory, Isidore, Augustine and Jerome, in Latin, ff.99-106; recipe, in Italian, f.107.

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