This manuscript, written in a humanistic script, contains the
Epigrammata by Martial (ca. 40- ca. 102) in twelve books, followed
by the usual two concluding texts, Xenia and Apophoreta. The first
leaf of the manuscript is missing. Several epigrams were added,
probably at the same time period, but by a hand different from that
of the principal scribe (41v, 105v, 132r, 133v, 136v). In the
absence of a title page, the decoration is limited to a series of
initials, created by two different artists; one with bianchi
girari, the other with interlace on a background of gold, sometimes
referred to as “a cappio annodato.“ Each epigram begins with a
simple initial in blue. Produced in Northern Italy in the middle of
the 15th century, the manuscript was verifiably in France since the
18th century, in the hands of the Jarente de Sénas family; later
it was owned by Ambroise Firmin-Didot. During the 19th century,
ownership changed several times before the manuscript became part
of the collection of Martin Bodmer.
