Marston MS 47     France or Italy [?], s. XII/XIII
Ovid, Metamorphoses

1. f. 1r [Title in upper margin:]  Publij Ouidij nasonis Metamorphoseos liber
incipit. qui dicitur Ouidius maior. et habet libros xv. [text:]  Orba parente
suo quicumque uolumina cernis/ his saltem uestra detur in urbe locus/...
Emendaturus si licuisset eram.

Ovid, Tristia 1.7.35-40; S. G. Owen, ed., OCT (1915 and thereafter).

2. ff. 1r-120v Incipit liber metamorfoseos.  In noua fert animus mutatas
dicere formas/ corpora dij ceptis nam uos mutastis et illas/...Parte tamen
meliore mei.  super atra perhennis// [final 4 lines of text added, s.
XV#e#x., concluding:]  Siquid habent veri Vatum presigia viuam.
[Greek].

W. S. Anderson, ed., Teubner (1977); a new critical edition by R. J.
Tarrant is in progress (for additional information on the manuscript
tradition, see Texts and Transmission, pp. 276-82).  The text of Marston
MS 47 contains interlinear and marginal notes, including words and phrases
in Greek, throughout; some marginalia are contemporary; most are s.
xiv-xv.  Lactantian tituli, often in red ink, added in margins (D. A.
Slater, ed., Towards a Text of the Metamorphosis of Ovid [Oxford, 1927]).
Portions of text have been retraced by a later hand.

Parchment (much worn, pieced), ff. i (paper) + i (early parchment
flyleaf) + 120 + i (paper), 295 x 160 (225 x ca. 65) mm.  50 lines of
verse.  Triple vertical bounding lines, full length; three or four upper
and lower horizontal bounding lines and usually three or four through middle
of leaf, full across.  Additional pair of vertical rulings in outer margin.
Ruled in lead.  Remains of prickings in upper and lower margins.
I-XV 8.  Contemporary quire signatures (Roman numerals), some erased, in
lower margin, verso, for first 8 gatherings.  Catchwords, either horizontal
or vertical, appear to be later additions, s. xv.
Written by at least three scribes in scripts ranging from late caroline
minuscule to early gothic bookhand, all above top line (see also
provenance below).  Interlinear and marginal annotations and running
headlines by several hands, s. xiii-xv.
Two illuminated initials, f. 1r, severely damaged:  21-line initial
I
for first verse of art. 2 incorporates an elongated grotesque, originally
purple, red, blue, and green on gold ground; 4-line initial at beginning
of art. 1, gold on red ground with center totally effaced.  8-line initial
for Bk. 2, f. 8v, gold on blue [?] ground, now rubbed:  inhabited by
winged grotesque biting its back with intertwining foliage in blue, green,
orange and mauve on gold and red ground.  Books 3-15 have attractive penwork
initials divided red and medium blue with designs in both colors, ascenders
and descenders often sweeping far into margins.  Headings and paragraph marks
in red.  First letter of each verse (either set apart from text block between
the first and second or placed directly on the second vertical bounding line)
stroked with yellow.
Binding:  Place uncertain, s. xix.  Sewing, possibly original, on four
kermes pink slit straps.  Plain, wound endbands on tawed skin cores.
Tan blind-tooled goatskin over wooden boards, also possibly original
as they are cut in for the straps.  Title gold-tooled on spine:
"Ovidii Metam./ Saec. XV. M. S. in memb."

Written at the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century either in
France or Italy:  although the physical format and the penwork initials are
consistent throughout the codex and are characteristic of French
manuscripts of this period, the script of ff. 66r-180v is similar to that
occurring in manuscripts from Northern Italy.  Marginal annotations of the
14th-15th centuries appear to be written by Italian hands.
Belonged in the second half of the 15th century to Antonius Farfuzola who
annotated the text, added the final four lines of Book 15 and wrote the
following inscription on the early front flyleaf, verso:  "Die viiij#o
maricij [?] 1481 tertio die quatrigessime scilicet primo ueneri
inceptum fuit opus ouidij scilicet metamorfosios per dominum magistrum
antonium farfuzolam."  This inscription is written on the dorse of a
fragment of a 15th-century legal document, in Latin, recording events in the
diocese of Verona.  Belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 9033, note of T. E.
Marston on first flyleaf); sold by W. H. Robinson (London, Cat. 83, 1953,
p. 131 with reproduction of ff. 64v-65r) to H. P. Kraus, from whom it was
purchased in 1955 by Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  Ere ligabantur

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 69, no. 47.
F. Munari, Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Ovid's Metamorphoses,
University of London, Institute of Classical Studies, Bulletin Supplement
no. 4 (London, 1957) p. 57, no. 287.
B. Munk Olsen, L'Etude des auteurs classiques latins aux XI#e et XII#e
siecles v. 2 (Paris, 1985) pp. 152-53, no. C99.