If Pal. lat. 760 tells us when Francesco Angiolello began building his student library, Pal. lat. 745 shows what the next acquisition looks like when the transaction becomes even more explicit.
The manuscript is a large Infortiatum with the ordinary gloss, produced in northern Italy, probably Bologna, at the end of the thirteenth century.
At the top of folio 1r Francesco writes a purchase statement identifying:
- himself as buyer;
- Padua as the city;
- February 1457 as the date;
- a seller read by the catalogue as Ianocio [?] de Ianua—Janocio, perhaps, of Genoa;
- the price: 28 ducats.
This is stronger than a name in a margin.
It is stronger than a catalogue inference from later ownership.
It is a transaction written into the object.
Pal. lat. 745 gives the provenance graph a proper sale edge: buyer + seller + city + date + price, all tied to one physical codex.
Quick Read
- Pal. lat. 745 is a parchment Infortiatum with ordinary gloss, produced in northern Italy, probably Bologna, at the end of the thirteenth century.
- The codex contains extensive later legal annotations and therefore had a long working life before Angiolello.
- Francesco Angiolello’s acquisition note says he bought the manuscript in Padua in February 1457.
- The seller is recorded as domino Ianocio [?] de Ianua; the exact reading of the personal name remains uncertain, while the Genoa association is clearer.
- The price was twenty-eight ducats.
- This purchase follows Angiolello’s 1454 acquisition of Pal. lat. 760.
- The two books therefore allow us to watch a student library form over time rather than treating ownership as one isolated event.
- The manuscript later carries Ulrich Fugger’s library mark.
- It moved with the Fugger library from Augsburg to Heidelberg in 1567 and later entered Palatine custody.
- The hand-off from Angiolello to Fugger is not fully documented.
- The article’s canonical job is the explicit sale receipt, not the later collection route.
Comparator Firewall
Pal. lat. 745 is not evidence that the Voynich Manuscript was purchased in Padua, cost twenty-eight ducats or belonged to Angiolello.
Its job is evidentiary: to show what a genuine medieval manuscript-sale receipt looks like when the transaction is recorded inside the codex.
The Book Was Already Two Centuries Old
By February 1457, Pal. lat. 745 was not a new textbook.
Heidelberg dates the codex to the end of the thirteenth century.
Its script and format belong to the great northern-Italian tradition of glossed Roman-law manuscripts, probably Bologna.
Angiolello therefore bought a mature scholarly object with an inherited commentary environment.
This is important because student book markets were not limited to newly copied material.
Older professional codices could remain valuable educational infrastructure for generations.
The Sale Note Names the Buyer
Francesco identifies himself explicitly as owner:
Infortiatum mei Francisci filij Gregorij de Anzolellis civis Vincentinj…
The formula ties the book directly to Francesco, son of Gregorio Angiolello, citizen of Vicenza.
This is stronger than a later librarian’s attribution.
The buyer writes himself into the object.
The Sale Note Names the City
The purchase occurs in civitate Padue—in the city of Padua.
This locates the transaction itself, not merely the later use of the manuscript.
That distinction matters.
A student can buy a book in one city and carry it elsewhere.
A book can be produced in Bologna, bought in Padua, later owned in Augsburg and finally preserved in Rome.
Each city belongs to a different edge in the chain.
The Seller Is Named—But the Reading Is Not Perfectly Secure
The Heidelberg catalogue reads the seller as domino Ianocio [?] de Ianua.
The bracketed question mark matters.
We have a named seller in the object, but the exact transcription of the personal name is not absolutely secure.
The phrase de Ianua points toward Genoa.
Therefore the responsible statement is:
a seller whose name is read provisionally as Janocio/Ianocio, associated in the note with Genoa.
This is a small but useful example of confidence-aware transcription inside provenance work.
The Price Is 28 Ducats
Francesco paid twenty-eight ducats.
That is more than twice the twelve ducats he recorded for Pal. lat. 760 in 1454.
We should not interpret the difference casually.
Several factors could affect manuscript price:
- size;
- parchment quantity;
- textual completeness;
- quality of gloss;
- condition;
- scarcity;
- market demand;
- binding;
- decoration;
- seller circumstances.
The price difference does not tell us which factor dominated.
It does tell us that Angiolello’s student library represented serious material investment.
The Second Purchase Turns One Owner Into a Library
Pal. lat. 760 by itself gives us a student acquiring one major law book at the beginning of study.
Pal. lat. 745 changes the scale.
Three years later, the same student buys another major legal codex.
The object of study is becoming a collection.
We can now reconstruct at least a partial personal library:
- Pal. lat. 760 — explicitly bought in 1454;
- Pal. lat. 745 — explicitly bought in 1457;
- Pal. lat. 786 — ownership inferred strongly from Angiolello’s hand;
- possibly Pal. lat. 732.
This is much closer to how professional education actually works.
A student does not become a jurist through one book.
Why the Book’s Internal Glosses Matter
Pal. lat. 745 contains layers of commentary by numerous juristic authorities.
Angiolello therefore acquires not only Justinian’s text but a manuscript conversation spanning generations.
The educational value resides partly in the architecture of accumulated interpretation.
This helps explain why an old codex could command a high price.
The book is a portable scholarly network.
A Sale Receipt Is Stronger Than Reader Handwriting
This article becomes most useful when placed beside Pal. lat. 786.
In Pal. lat. 745, ownership is explicit.
The buyer says he bought the book.
In Pal. lat. 786, Angiolello’s ownership is reconstructed from his annotations and from the wider cluster of books around him.
Both kinds of evidence matter.
They do not have equal weight.
explicit purchase statement > ownership inferred from use-traces.
This simple hierarchy will matter later whenever Voynich marginalia are used to infer ownership.
The Hand-Off to Fugger Is Still Missing
The later history is clear enough to place the codex in Ulrich Fugger’s library.
His library mark appears in the manuscript.
With Fugger’s collection, the book moved from Augsburg to Heidelberg in 1567.
After Fugger’s death, it passed into Electoral Palatine custody.
But we do not yet have a complete explicit chain from Francesco Angiolello to Ulrich Fugger.
That missing interval should remain visible.
Why This Is More Valuable Than a Famous Owner
Ulrich Fugger is historically famous.
Francesco Angiolello is much less famous.
For this article, Francesco’s small purchase note is more valuable.
It tells us exactly how the object entered one owner’s library.
Later fame does not automatically produce better provenance.
Sometimes the obscure student leaves the stronger receipt.
What Pal. lat. 745 Adds
- An old northern-Italian legal codex, probably Bolognese.
- An explicit buyer: Francesco Angiolello.
- An explicit purchase city: Padua.
- An explicit date: February 1457.
- A seller named in the manuscript, with the reading of the personal name kept provisional.
- A price: twenty-eight ducats.
- A second explicit acquisition in Angiolello’s student library after Pal. lat. 760.
- A later Ulrich Fugger mark and 1567 Augsburg→Heidelberg transfer.
- A clear evidentiary benchmark for what a genuine sale edge looks like.
What It Does Not Add
- No Voynich sale receipt.
- No evidence that Voynich was bought in Padua.
- No certainty about every letter of the seller’s name.
- No complete Angiolello→Fugger transfer chain.
- No basis for converting medieval ducat values into a simplistic modern price.
The Explicit-Sale Protocol
- Transcribe the purchase formula exactly.
- Identify buyer and seller separately.
- Record uncertainty in personal-name readings.
- Record city, month/year and price.
- Search for the seller in local university, notarial and merchant records.
- Compare the purchase with the buyer’s other known books.
- Keep later collection history separate from the original sale unless the hand-off is documented.
Evidence Ledger
Known
Francesco Angiolello states that he bought Pal. lat. 745 in Padua in February 1457 for twenty-eight ducats from a seller whose name Heidelberg reads provisionally as Ianocio/Janocio of Genoa.
Strongly supported
The codex formed part of Angiolello’s Paduan student library and later entered Ulrich Fugger’s collection.
Plausible
The seller was a Genoese individual named Janocio/Ianocio whose identity may be recoverable from other Padua or commercial records.
Open
The complete custody chain from Angiolello’s ownership to Fugger’s acquisition.
Unsupported
Any relationship between Angiolello’s law-book purchases and Beinecke MS 408.
Research Sources
- Heidelberg University Library — Pal. lat. 745 manuscript description
- Bibliotheca Palatina Digital — Pal. lat. 745
- Voynich and Padua — Pal. lat. 760
- Voynich and Padua — Pal. lat. 743
- Voynich Research Library
The Final Idea
Pal. lat. 745 is valuable because the hand-off into Angiolello’s library is not inferred.
The buyer says he bought it.
He names the city.
He names the seller.
He records the price.
That is what a provenance edge looks like when the book itself remembers the transaction.
The closer Voynich research can move toward evidence of this type, the less it will need to rely on stories built around gaps.