This manuscript preserves two important classical works of
rhetoric: Cicero (b. 106 BC, d. 43 BC)'s handbook for orators known
as De Inventione (On Invention) and the anonymous Rhetorica ad
Herennium (Rhetoric for Herennius). The latter was composed in the
early 1st century BC and attributed, until recently, to Cicero.
Both works were extremely popular in the medieval period and
usually circulated together, as this manuscript exemplifies. The
division between the two works (f. 47v) is not marked in any way in
the manuscript, suggesting that they were thought of as a unit.
Contents: ff. 3v-47v : Cicero, De Inventione , beginning: ‘Sepe
et multum hoc mecum cogitavi’. ff. 47v- 85r: Pseudo-Cicero,
Rhetorica ad Herennium , beginning: ‘Etsi in negociis familiaris
inpediti vix’. Decoration:1 large initial ‘S’ in brown ink
with a green and mauve back ground, with grotesques and foliate
motifs (f. 3v). Large initials in red or green, occasionally with
some penwork decoration.
