Gratulatio ad Pium II pro foelici, ac secundo ex Mantuana peregrinatione reditu. Dialogus de optimo vitae genere deligendo. De monachis erudiendis. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, in Latin. [Florence, 1460]

253 x 181 mm. II + 139 + II leaves. COMPLETE. 14 quires. Collation: 1-13 , 14 (lacking the last blank leaf). Unfoliated. Blanks: fols. 2/10r, 14/8v, and 14/9r-v. Catchwords written in the center middle of the last page of each quire except quires 2 and 4. Text block: 164 x 90 mm, one column, 28 lines. The first capital letter of each sub-chapter set out. Ruled in brown ink. Text written in brown ink by a unique hand in formal humanist script. Headings and names of interlocutors in pale red ink. Two illuminated coats of arms of Pope Pius II (see below), numerous gold and white-vine initials (see below). Five one-line blue paragraph marks on fols. 2/8v, 2/9r, 2/10v, and 4/10v. Early twentieth-century German blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards. Spine with four raised bands, marbled flyleaves, gilt and gauffered edges. Upper joint skillfully repaired. A well-preserved manuscript. First leaf slightly soiled, four small round wormholes in blank outer margin of the first leaves reducing to one and then disappearing. A few marginal stains; old repair to the lower blank margin of fol. 14/3.

Text

fols. 1/1r-2/7v: G. Aliotti, Ad Maximum beatissimumq; Pontificem Pium II. Pro felici ac secundo ex Mantuana peregrinatione reditu (G. Aliotti, Epistolae et opuscula, II, pp. 323-345).
Inc. Ego beatissime pater cum per hos superiores dies Roma rediens
Expl. meae gratulationis cantus adoriar sic placet
78-verse poem follows on fols. 1/8r-2/9v (inc. Inclita signa uago lumen radiantia mundo)

fols. 2/10v-4/10r: G. Aliotti, Dialogus de optimo vite genere deligendo (C. Caby, Reseaux sociaux, pratiques culturelles et genres discursifs: a propos du dialogue De optimo vitae genere, pp. 461-482). Inc. Nuper apud foianum agri aretini opidum
Expl. Hiero. Vale o cimber! Mar. valete & reliqui. Finis

fols. 4/10v-14/8r: G. Aliotti, De monachis erudiendis (G. Aliotti, Epistolae et opuscula, II, pp. 176-292). Inc. Plerosque nostrorum temporum religiosos
Expl. beatissimi martiris donati inscriptum nomini atque constructum. Finis

Illumination

- fol. 1/1r: papal coat of arms of Pius II Piccolomini (55x109 mm) in shield in the bas-de-page, in blue and gold embellished with floriated extensions in red, green, purple, and gold;
- fol. 2/8r: large miniature (112x78 mm) bearing at the centre the coat of arms of Pius II in burnished silver, blue, and gold surmounted by a white and gold mitre and surrounded by a laurel crown held by two winged putti; the background is coloured in red and patterned in white, while the white-vine border and the putti are in blue, red, and green; attached to the miniature is a three-line gold and white-vine initial (18x19 mm);
- 5 four- to six-line gold and white-vine initials (34x31 mm) in blue, red, and green;
- 14 smaller gold initials (18x13 mm) variably mixing blue, red, and green for the ground with patterns in white.

Provenance

Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464), later Pope Pius II, gifted by the author;
‘Dr. Adolph [...]horn', small round stamp on title page, repeated on fol. 14/8r;
Moritz Diesterweg (1834-1906), publisher and bookseller in Frankfurt: pasted envelope on the first flyleaf verso, housing half a card from Diesterweg with some pencilled notes (‘Pius II Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini in humanistischen Minuskel geschrieben, sehr gut erhalten') and a folded piece of thick paper bearing several pencilled notes on both sides (side A: ‘Hieronymi Aretini monachis eruditis gehoert Papst Pius II 1440. Dedicationexempl. Manuscript auf Pergament in humanistischen Minuskel 2 Teile nebst Einleitung u. Widmung am Papst Eugen IV (Aeneas Silvio Piccolomini ) mit 19 blauen Initialen, 2 Borduere auf 1 Blatt, 1 schoenes Kopfstich mit Papstwappen in 4 Farben'; side B: Mk 900- Widmung an Papst in Hexameter in einen gepresste neueren Holzband. Vollstaendiges als das Exemplar in der Libreria Vaticana segnanto [sic] del num. 1063 139 Blatt. Aretino Girolamo Abate di Santa Flora Allen Maggs - Breslauer, R. - H. Rosenthal L. Bibl. Vatic. Hiesermann').

A DELUXE ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT OFFERED AS A GIFT BY THE ARETINE ABBOT AND HUMANIST GIROLAMO ALIOTTI TO POPE PIUS II PICCOLOMINI, PRODUCED IN THE FLORENTINE WORKSHOP RUN BY THE ‘KING OF THE BOOKSELLERS' VESPASIANO DA BISTICCI AND NARRATING A FASCINATING TALE OF PATRONAGE.

For more information about this manuscript, please refer to the article "A Papal Gift. From Girolamo Aliotti to Pope Pius II Piccolomini, via Vespasiano da Bisticci" appeared in the journal "Teca" of the University of Bologna (vol. 11, no. 4ns, December 2021, pp. 121-134): https://teca.unibo.it/article/view/13958/13746