Racehorse powders and other remedies: an illuminated manuscript of Vegetius's manual on horse medicine, commissioned by the King of Naples
Digesta artis mulomedicinae. [With:] Curis boum epithoma ex diversis auctoribus.
Small folio (285 x 190 mm). Illuminated manuscript on paper, written by the scribe Ippolito da Luna. 113 ff. Original, contemporary dark brown calf over wooden boards with blind tooling, roll-stamp decoration and ornamental gilt stamps from the workshop of Masone di Maio (Naples), three raised bands, gilt title on upper cover. Stored in custom cloth box with gilt morocco spine label.
€ 150,000.00
Unrecorded illuminated manuscript, signed by the scribe and commissioned by the King of Naples for the Ferrillo Family of Naples, still preserved in its original, strictly contemporary binding from the Masone di Maio workshop.
The "Mulomedicina" is a concise summary of Roman veterinary science, addressing the care of horses, mules and donkeys - animals vital to the economy and military. Roman veterinarians (mulomedici) were critical to maintaining these animals' health, akin to the modern importance of mechanics for vehicles. Vegetius lists the breeds of horses that are best for each of the three prestigious activities for which horses were used: war, racing, and individual transport. Hunnic horses make the best war mounts, Cappodocian horses excel in the circus, while the most graceful and comfortable riding horses come from Persia and the Arabian Peninsula. Most of Vegetius's recommendations and remedies apply to racehorses, the type of equine in which he shows most interest.
The work remained influential for centuries, with early translations proliferating in the 14th and 15th centuries. Latin manuscripts, however, are rarer; only 19 were identified by Vicenzo Ortoleva in 1996, compared to over 200 copies of Vegetius's "De rei militaris".
Notably, our manuscript shares similarities with a luxurious copy commissioned by King Ferdinand I of Aragon, also written by Ippolito da Luna (sold at Sotheby's in 1994; Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts SDBM_191032 and SDBM_MS_22189). According to Ortoleva, the colophon in Ferdinand's copy is in fact identical to the one in our manuscript (cf. Ortoleva 1996, p. 11): "Hos Vegetii libellos Hippolytus lunensis mendosissimo exemplari. Qua. Potuit. Diligentia transcripsit".
1. Commissioned by King Ferdinand of Aragon from his courtly scribe Hippolytus Lunensis (also known as Ippolito da Luna) and his workshop, for the Ferrillo family of Naples, probably for Matteo Ferrillo, Count of Muro Locano, knight and seigneur of the king. 2. Owned by Mingoval, squire of King Ferdinand of Aragon, at the beginning of the 16th century (his inscription on the front of the first blank leaf: "Lo echuyer maior se chiama mingoval"). 3. Late 16th-century annotations and maniculae in the margins throughout, likely by a practising veterinarian. 4. Els Llibres del Tirant , cat. 17 (2007), no. 2.
113 leaves (of 114; fol. no. 58 missing); collation: I.10, II-VII.8, VIII.8-1, IX-XIII.8, XIV.10, the first and last leaf of the outer gatherings glued to front and lower inside cover to serve as pastedowns. Refined 16th-century foliation in Arabic numerals to upper right corners, beginning with the title-leaf. Ruled in light brown ink for 28 lines per page, written in dark brown ink in a meticulous and very experienced Roman humanist hand by a scribe who identifies himself in the colophon as Hippolytus Lunesis. Index and table of contents from fol. 112 added later by an experienced 16th century scribe. Catchwords throughout. Justification: 185 x 140 mm, rubrics in red, each paragraph introduced by a red two-line Lombard. Watermark: a ram's head/skull with eyes and ears in a circle throughout, not identified (not recorded in Piccard). Contemporary annotations in Latin, manicula in the margins and at the end of the manuscript, perhaps by a 16th-century hand, apparently modifications and additions by a practicing veterinarian; a few annotations by the very erudite scribe himself, some of them with textual conjectures and amendments to the text of the model. Pagination in upper right added together with the table of contents from fol. 112v to lower pastedown by a very experienced scribe, possibly dating from the 16th century, added by a later owner.
The illumination is in very good condition, colours bright and luminous, delicately executed. Paper brittle and delicate in the first half of the manuscript (up to about fol. 66) with occasional damage to the paper caused by ink corrosion, at times heavy; the paper in the first half of the book also appears to be a bit thinner (although all the paper of the book comes from the same mill, all leaves bearing the same watermark), because the ink on recto and verso infiltrated the paper and shines through. Some waterstaining at lower margins, otherwise very clean and smooth paper apart from occasional browning. Rubrics and chapter headlines have almost entirely faded in the first half of the book but are very clear in the second. The beautiful binding has remains of clasps; edges and corners bumped and rubbed; slight defects to to upper spine and lower cover.
E. Lommatzsch (ed.), P. Vegeti Renati artis mulomedicinae libri (Leipzig, Teubner, 1903). A. Lupis & P. Saverio, Caccia e pratica veterinaria a Napoli e nelle corti italiane del Quattrocento (Bari, Adriaica, 1992). V. Ortoleva, La tradizione manuscritta della "Mulomedicina" di Publio Vegezio Renato (Acireale, Sileno, 1996). V. Orteva, Postille alla "Tradizione manoscritta della 'Mulomedicina' di Publio Vegezio Renato", Sileno 24 (1998), pp. 181-205. For the binding cf. T. de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI. Notizie ed elenchi. Vol. I: Napoli, Roma, Urbino, Firenze (Florence 1960), tav. XXXVII, no. 224; for a reproduction of a very similar binding see A. Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders (Cambridge 1989), pp. 110f. and pp. 258 ff. with a list of known bindings by this artist.
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