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1media/DEO Border1.PNG2020-03-13T15:19:16-07:00Description and Contents De Officiis35plain9271522021-06-14T19:13:02-07:00Written on vellum, presumably in France circa 1400-1425
The leaves (124 in number) are ruled throughout in a slightly reddish ink, both for margins and for writing lines; most pages show dots for guidance in ruling the margins, and many show the same dots along the right-hand side of the recto of the leaf for guidance in the ruling of the writing lines. There are four ruled but unused leaves at the back of the text block.
The leaves are approximately 16.8 by 11.8 centimeters in size.
As a rule the number of written lines to a page varies between twenty-four (sixty-nine examples) and twenty-five (one hundred sixty-two examples); there are also pages with twenty-two lines (three examples), 23 (3 examples), 26 (7 examples), 27 (1 example, and 2 (the final page of each of the two included works), with 18 lines. Merrithew, 41.
Folios are numbered in the lower right-hand corner of the rectos in Roman numerals, many of which have been trimmed. Collation
"The codex is made up of fourteen quaternions containing Cicero’s De Officiis, followed by twelve leaves containing Aretino’s Praefation in Oeconomica Aristotelis and a binion of blank leaves, of which the last is pasted to the back leather cover. The Quaternions are arranged flesh-to-flesh side and hair-to-hair side, and catchwords or reclamantes appear written vertically in the lower right-hand corner of the final page of each quaternion." Merrithew, 40.