Written in very regular, bold Italian minuscules of the period of the Renaissance.
The first page of the preface is surrounded by an illuminated border in gold and colors in the Renaissance style of ornament, into which are introduced the Caraccioli arms belonging to the distinguished Neapolitan family of that name. The initial F on this page is historiated with a view of Rome, and each of the ten books has an eight-line initial of dull gold on a background of red, blue and green, with marginal ornamentation.
From the close agreement, even in punctuation, between this MS. and the edition printed at Milan in 1495 by Ulrich Scinzenzeler for Alexander Minutianus, and from other features which forbid the supposition that one is taken directly from the other, we must conclude that they both reproduce a common ancestor.
This MS. of the first Decade of Livy is in unusually fine preservation, and is bound in russia extra, with broad borders of gold and gilt marbled edges.
Brought from Palermo by Dr. Anthony Askew (1722-1772), it was sold with his collection of MSS. in 1785. Michael Wodhull, Esq., of Thenford, Northamptonshire, who gave seven guineas for the volume at "White's sale" in March, 1798, added to his customary entry of these details on the fly-leaf this note: "This appears to be the very Book which I saw Sir W. Burrell purchase at Dr. Askew's manuscript Auction (No. 482) for thirty-two guineas; in Sir W. Burrell's Auction, May, 1796, it is said to have gone for about five (No. 657). The note in Bib. Askev. manuscripta is: 'Ex Panormo in Sicilia hunc cod. adduxit secum Cl. Askevius.' & '300 annor. MSS. longe pulcherrimus.'"
At the sale of the Wodhull library in January, 1886, the Livy MS. and the greater part of the 15th-century books hereinafter described were acquired by the donor of the collection, William Loring Andrews, M.A., of New York City.
PRINTED BOOKS
1. BIBLIA LATINA. Moguntiae, Johannes Fust et Petrus Schoeffer, 14 August, 1462.