Cicero (106-43 BC) - photo 1
Cicero (106-43 BC) - photo 2
Cicero (106-43 BC) - photo 3
Cicero (106-43 BC) - photo 4

Cicero (106-43 BC)

Lot 10
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
To bid, go to the website
CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1514481
Lot 10 | Cicero (106-43 BC)
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Cicero (106-43 BC)
De officiis, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Italy, possibly Florence, mid-15th century]
The last of Cicero's philosophical works, written at a time of political crisis after the assassination of Julius Caesar: the present copy a rare example of a literary Classical text partly written on palimpsest documents.

c. 200 x 135mm, iii (paper) + 84 + iii (paper) leaves, some palimpest, complete, collation: 1–712, catchwords throughout, 29 lines written in a fine Humanistic script, ruled space: c. 140 x 80 mm, rubrics in bright red, some interlinear and marginal notes added in a smaller more informal script, a few side-notes in Greek, ff.12v, 31, 32v, 39, decorated with four- and five-line initials in red with brown penwork ornament, ff. 1, 35v (the first leaves with wormholes and a little darkened, some staining and cockling). Bound in pasteboards covered with undecorated vellum, the spine lettered in gilt capitals Cicero De officiis 15th century’.

Provenance:
(1) ‘The Property of a Lady’, sold by Sotheby’s, 23 January 1950, lot 446 (mistakenly identified as the Rhetorica); bought for £8 by:

(2) Maggs Bros.: their typescript description and pencil annotations on back pastedown; bought on 5 May 1950 for £18 by:

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

(4) Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994): her leather book label inside upper cover, MS 108. On deposit at Bryn Mawr, BMC 58. Published in Faye & Bond, Supplement, p.404, no 108.

Content:
Cicero, De officiis: ‘Marci Tulii Ciceronis eloquentissimi officiorum [L]iber primus. incipit feliciter. Quamquam Marce fili te annum iam audientem Cratippum [...] si talibus monimentis preceptisque letabere. Deo Gratias Amen. Explicit liber de officiis’, ff.1–83; added notes, beginning ‘Si cupis omnia [...]’ and ending with the Seven Ages of the World, ff.83v–84v.

Cicero wrote De officiis, On (moral) duties, in the form of a letter to his son Marcus, who was studying philosophy in Athens, in 44 BC; it was to be his last work of moral philosophy. In three books, based on Stoic philosophy, the first deals with the Four Cardinal Virtues (justice, wisdom, fortitude, temperance), and the social duties and responsibilities that these require, while the second and third books deal with their application in everyday life, illustrated by historical Greek and Roman examples. He concludes that material wealth cannot compensate for the loss of honour or justice, and that every man has an active social duty to his fellow man.

Some of the leaves in this manuscript are palimpsest and their undertext is faintly visible: they appear to be from 14th-century Italian documents written on one side only (including ff.14v, 18v, 19, 23, 29, 33, 42v, and 43), with notaries' marks visible at ff.19, 77, and 80v.




Literature

Faye & Bond Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p.404, no 108.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
10.12.2025 – 10.12.2025
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

Related terms

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.