Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The Brotherton Collection, which now forms part of the Library of the University of Leeds, contains a manuscript of Cicero's De Officiis which is usually assigned to the twelfth century. On page 3 of the catalogue of the Brotherton Library (printed for private circulation, Leeds, 1931) the manuscript is incorrectly said to contain ‘DE OFFICIIS LIBER PRIMUS’. In fact the manuscript contains all three books with the exception of nine leaves (seven of them from Book II) which have been removed. At present the manuscript consists of 41 folios on vellum measuring 11 in. X 7½ in. Ff. 39–41 are written by a later (14th-century?) hand.
page 35 note 1 The missing leaves contain the following portions of the text: (a) i. 102. 8 abiciunt oboedientiam …109. 5 dum quod velint con. (b) ii. 22.9 aut metu, ne vi parere cogantur … 73. 7 multa populariter, turn illud male, non (c) iii. 38. 9 aeneumque equum, ut ferunt fabulae … 45. 8 Qui cum ad diem se.
page 35 note 2 According to the catalogue the following manuscripts in the Brotherton Collection also belonged to Dr. Askew: Commentary on Psalms xviii-cxxix (Greek: 2 vols. quarto); Anastasius (Greek: 1 volume quarto); Excerpts from Ptolemy (Greek, with numerous diagrams: 3 vols. 8vo). All the volumes including the Cicero bound in old russian morocco gilt.
page 38 note 1 I have said that the source from which Ashew got the manuscript is unknown, Is it something more than a coincidence that the manuscript is closely dependent on V, that V was associated with the family of Vossius and Leyden, and that Askew weems to have started collecting about the time of his days as a student at Leyden?