Geoffrey of Vinsauf (fl. c. 1200)

Los 7
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
VeranstaltungsortVereinigtes Königreich, London
Aufgeldsee on Website%
ID 1514451
Los 7 | Geoffrey of Vinsauf (fl. c. 1200)
Schätzwert
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Geoffrey of Vinsauf (fl. c. 1200)
Poetria nova, in Latin, decorated manuscript on paper and vellum, [Italy], 1417
A Humanist manuscript of the most influential medieval treatise on rhetorical poetics, signed by the scribe Dominicus and in a contemporary binding.

218 x 150mm. 54 leaves, collation: 16(of 8, lacking i and viii), 2-414, 56(of 8, final two leaves cancelled blanks), modern foliation in pencil 1-54, catchwords survive, first and last leaves of gatherings of 14 vellum, the rest paper, prickings survive, 18-21 lines written in a gothic script by the scribe Dominicus, ruled space: 122 x 77mm, contemporary glosses, initials in red and blue with contrasting penwork, capitals touched in yellow, rubrics in red, a small doodle of Christ on the cross on f.21 (lacking the first and eighth leaves, marginal thumbing and some waterstaining, a few wormholes, the vellum leaves a little darkened, repairs to f.50). Contemporary red-dyed sheepskin over wooden boards, brass bosses, remains of fasteners, one ctach on back (lacking clasps and 3 bosses, scuffed and with some losses to the sheepskin). In a fitted cloth sleeve and box.

Provenance:
(1) Written in 1417 by the scribe Dominicus: colophon on f.53: 'Explicit liber Poetrige [sic] Novelle deo gratias / Qui scripsit scribat semper cum Domino vivat / Vivat in celis Dominicus nomine felix Mocccco.xvij'.

(2) Ernst Philip Goldschmidt (1887-1954): his catalogue 23, Mediaeval literature and science with a few manuscripts of the classics [...] including a small collection of manuscripts of the classics, 1930, no 155. His stock book number '11235' in pencil on lower pastedown. Acquired in 1949 by:

(3) Howard Lehman Goodhart (1884-1951), stockbroker and bibliophile: his leather book label on inside upper cover. By descent to his daughter:

(4) Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994): her leather book label on inside upper cover, MS 97. On deposit at Bryn Mawr, BMC 54. Published in Faye & Bond, Supplement, p.403, no 97.

Content:
Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova, lacking opening leaf and beginning with v.80 'Est opere prime, quo limite debeat ordo', ff.1-53; blank f.54.

'The Poetria nova, written by the Englishman Geoffrey of Vinsauf shortly after 1200, was the most influential medieval treatise on rhetorical poetics. Modeled on Horace’s Ars poetica, it is an art of poetry (and prose) in 2121 hexameter verses. Like its other chief source the Rhetorica ad Herennium (attributed to Cicero during the Middle Ages), the Poetria nova takes its structure from the five canons of rhetoric. It treats invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory, with special attention to amplification and abbreviation, the figures of speech and thought, and the stylistic techniques of ‘conversions’ and ‘determinations.’ This synthesis of Horatian and Ciceronian doctrine, combined with an abundance of illustrative set pieces (such as the famous lament for King Richard Lion Heart), was an immediate and lasting success. Geoffrey Chaucer cited the Poetria nova more than once, and a century later Desiderius Erasmus still considered it a major authority on rhetorical composition' (M. Camargo, introduction to the revised edition of Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova, transl. by M.F. Nims, 2010).




Literature

Faye & Bond Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p.403, no 97.
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