Manuscript on paper containing letters by or related to Lapo da Castiglionchio (d. 1381), and his family: 1) Lapo da Castiglionchio, Letter, written in 1377, to his son Bernardo, canon of the cathedral of Florence, then 14 years old, containing an elaborate treatise in three parts dealing with political and historical questions. 2) Bernardo da Castiglionchio (1363-1383), Letter to his father Lapo, in which he thanks him for the education and protection his father has provided and in particular for the extensive letter he has written in reply to his questions. 3) Bernardo da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Lapo, of about the same time, in which he resumes the theme of the nobility of the Castiglionchio family and provides a panegyric of his father with details about his career. 4) Francesco da Castiglionchio (second half of the fourteenth century), Letter to his father Alberto, brother of Lapo, written 8 June 1381 or slightly later. Describes the coronation of Charles III, King of Naples and Sicily (1381-1386) by Pope Urban VI in the church of St. Peter in Rome on 2 June 1381, an event in the preparation of which Lapo had an important role. 5) Francesco da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Alberto staying at Verona, dated 17 July 1381 and relating the death of Alberto's brother Lapo, which happened in Rome on 27 June of the same year after a short illness, a couple of weeks after the coronation of Charles III, which had been so important for the improvement of the Castiglionchio family. 6) Niccolò Acciaiuoli (1310-1365), Extracts from a letter, dated 26 Dec. 1364, to the Florentine merchant Angelo Soderini (d. 1377) established in Avignon.
Description:
Binding: Seventeenth century (?). Brown leather with artificial cross grain over cardboard. Blind-tooled spine with four raised bands and gold-tooled inscription in the second compartment: “CASTIGLIONCHIO / EPISTOLE”. Below a small oval paper label with the number “7” in red ink. Yellow spine., Headings and explicit formulas in pale red ink; marginal captions and notes in the same colour or in black; paragraph marks in pale red ink. 4-line initials (Capitalis) in blue (missing f. 2v), at the opening of each art. and of the subdivisions of art. 1. On f. 1r 7-line white vinestem initial integrated into left margin border of the same style. In the lower margin, in a wreath, the Volognano-Castiglionchio coat of arms: silver, with four chains azure in saltire and castle azure. Running headlines in pale red Capitalis in art. 1 only., On the author, a Florentine poet, friend of Petrarch, professor of Canon Law, lawyer, diplomat, politician, see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, v. 22 (1979), pp. 40-44., and Script: Copied by one hand in careful Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. The first line of each text and some headings are in Capitalis.
Subject (Geographic):
Florence (Italy)--History
Subject (Name):
Castiglionchio, Lapo da,--d. 1381
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Nobility--Italy
Manuscript on paper (thick) of Giovanni Battista Cortona, Libro di Abbaco, probably an autograph manuscript
Description:
In Italian., Watermark: anchor, var. Piccard, Ankerwasserzeichen?, V.102?., Script: Written by one hand in calligraphic Gothica Cursiva Libraria (Cancelleresca). The poem on f. A1r (art. 1) is in calligraphic Humanistica Cursiva Formata. A few titles in Capitalis., The decorative frames on ff. A1r and B1r are traced in brown ink. The upper half of the former contains a baroque cartouche in brown and red, containing a monogram apparently consisting of the letters A, K and M. Art. 2 opens with a flourished initial, art. 7 with a calligraphic initial, both in red., and No binding.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Cortona, Giovanni Battista.
Subject (Topic):
Abacus, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Mathematics, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Agogo Mago, Libro medesynal delli spariueri
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written by a single scribe in a neat humanistic bookhand., One gold initial (f. 1r), 7-line, filled and surrounded by white-vine ornament, on a dark blue, dark red, and dark green ground, with pale yellow dots; extends into inner and upper margins. In lower margin an unidentified coat of arms (or, on a chief azur a parrot vert beaked gules) in a laurel wreath; accompanied by gold balls, hair-sprays, and simple floral patterns. Four initials, 6- to 4-line, in blue with red penwork designs or red with purple; plain capitals alternating red and blue throughout., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Brown goatskin, gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Mago, Agogo.
Subject (Topic):
Game and game-birds, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Medicine, and Medicine, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of mercantile statutes of Florence in three Books, revised by a committee of experts and promulgated by Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici of Tuscany (1574-1587); the basis for the revision were the statutes of 1393 ("statuto vecchio") and those of 1496 ("statuto nuovo").
Description:
In Italian., Script: Copied by one scribe in sloping calligraphic Humanistica Cursiva., On the frontispiece f. r, a woodcut title-page with spaces for text (a handwritten title) left blank. The full-page woodcut represents the ruins and symbols of Rome with the god of the Tibre under a portico with five allegorical female figures., The paper of most pages is damaged by the corrosive ink., and Binding (repaired): ca. 1700. White parchment over pasteboard. Spine with four raised bands and handwritten title in ink: "Statut. / Florent. / M.S.". Bordeaux edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Florence (Italy)
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, Statutes, and Politics and government
Manuscript on paper. Includes notes on arithmetic and accounting for merchandise; a romance of Tristan; list of spices; astronomical and astrological information; charms and prayers; recipes; extracts in Venetian; and poems
Description:
In Italian and Latin., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Fruit 7372-76, Briquet Cheval 3564, and Briquet Fruit 7341., Script: Written by a single scribe in a neat notarial hand, through f. 67v. Notes added by various hands of 14th-15th centuries., Drawings of ships, towers and merchants in ink, with added yellow, brown, green, red and blue; many diagrams. Crude 2- and 1-line initials in red, with guide-letters for rubricator showing beneath; headings in red., Repair of f. 1 with later paper; some loss of text. Repairs at outer edges on this and other folios do not affect text., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Rigid vellum case with paste paper back endleaf and pastedowns. Central fold of each bifolium has been reinforced with a strip of parchment.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Venice (Italy)
Subject (Topic):
Accounting, Arithmetic, Astrology, Astronomy, Medieval, Formulas, recipes, etc, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Merchants, Prayers, Tristan (Legendary character), and Economic conditions
Manuscript on paper (trimmed) of Five Novelle. First novella about Valeria married against her will to Pietro Lombardo; Second: "Julia e Prunneo"; Third: "Lucretia e Hyeronimo"; Fourth: "Camilla e Estore"; Fifth: "Justa Victoria," by Felice Feliciano.
Description:
Binding: Eighteenth century. Gilt, gauffered edges. Brown sheepskin over wooden boards, blind-tooled. Floral woodblock paste paper pastedowns and endleaves. Two fastenings with shell-shaped clasps on the upper board and pins in the edge of the lower. Rebacked., Decorated with several miniatures and borders in water and body color: f. i verso, full-page miniature of tomb in a landscape, with an epigraphic inscription. Arms above inscription: azure, a fess or; an inescutcheon azure, a bend wavy or. On f. 1r, a full frame, outer, inner and upper margins with bucrania, trophies, swags, jewels, arms and armor (including two shields: azure, a fess or; and azure, a bend wavy [Marcello]), in blue, pink, green and gold, framed in gold; lower margin, a parapet with a cornice, enclosing a cartouche with bust, supported by putti and flanked by the letters "A. A.", background filled with spiral flowing vines, pink, blue, green and gold, with brown hair-spray. Cartouches bearing inscriptions on ff. 53v, 82v, 105v. On f. 145v a scroll, written in red and blue letters festooned on a tree in a landscape, the ends supported by two putti. At the beginning of each novel, a 3- or 2-line initial, gold, against a purple or crimson ground with gold floral filigree; followed by several words in text script, gold against a crimson or purple rectangular ground., Script: Written by one person in bold italic., and Watermarks: crossed arrows buried in gutter.
Subject (Name):
Feliciano, Felice,--15th cent
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature--16th century, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of 1) Sonnet by the Franciscan Alessandro de Ritiis, or by his compatriot from L'Aquila, Buccio di Ranallo, lamenting the loss of a loaned book. 2) Polistorio, attributed to the Dominican Bartolomeo da Ferrara (1308-1444).
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Parchment stays are adhered inside the quires. Rear pastedown (now lifted): parchment leaf from a lectionary, Italy (North?), 1050-1100; a parchment leaf, perhaps from the same manuscript, is concealed under front paper pastedown. Each leaf, with a stub, is folded around the front and back flyleaves, sewn, and glued down under the pastedowns. Original sewing on five tawed skin, slit straps laid in channels on the outside of beech boards and nailed. Yellow edges. Plain wound, natural color endbands are sewn on leather cores. Covered in brown calf with narrow corner tongues. There is a large, eight-petalled fitting in the central blind-tooled panel and four corner fittings have flower and agnus dei designs on them. The concentric outer frames are filled with rope interlace or small roses. The Marcello arms were stamped on each board on an inlaid leather shield which is wanting on the upper board. Spine: bands outlined with triple fillets, an X of three fillets in the panels. Four fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the upper one cut in for red fabric straps, attached with star-headed nails., Collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 3008). Purchased from H. P. Kraus in 1956 by Thomas E. Marston., Fully illuminated title page, f. 6r. Floral border in inner and upper margin, black inkspray with blossoms, green, blue and purple with white highlights and gold balls. Bar border between text columns, gold and red, extends from buds (mauve, green and blue with white highlights) with stylized foliage, purple, blue and green and gold with white highlights; surmounted in upper margin by half-length figure of Virgin with Child. In outer margin, elaborate partial border of stylized foliage and flowers, green, blue and purple with white and yellow highlights and gold balls, framing central wreathed medallion with triton blowing a curved horn, on gold ground with penwork filigree. In center of lower border, arms of the Marcello family of Venice (azure, a bend wavy or) on deep red ground within wreathed medallion, both with yellow highlights. Arms symmetrically flanked by 2 putti plucking fruit from wreathed medallion and holding rods, green, blue, and purple with scrolls bearing the mottoes "sola virtus" and "dulcia poma" in red, and two triton-putti, one playing a flute, the other a stringed musical instrument. One historiated initial, 6-line, of stylized foliage in green, purple, and blue with white filigree on gold ground, with a half-length figure of a crowned and bearded man, perhaps the Emperor Augustus. The design of the upper and inner border and of the historiated initial is conservative in style and close to the work of Leonardo Bellini., Script: Written in fere-humanistic script by a single scribe, above top line., and Watermarks: Briquet Arbalete 746.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature--15th century, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of an atlas produced by the Genoese cartographer Battista Agnese (1514-1564) in Venice
Description:
In Latin and Italian., Script: inscriptions in black or red ink in Humanistica Cursiva under Gothic influence, and in Capitalis (the latter sometimes in gold)., Shield in yellow and blue with "Cosmo-Grra-Phia" in red. The maps show varying degrees of colouring., An atlas produced by the Genoese cartographer Battista Agnese (1514-1564) in Venice. Includes 23 maps in various colors, with many representations of people, ships, and landmarks., and Binding: de luxe binding, 19th or 20th century, by Rivière & Son: gold-tooled red morocco over pasteboard; gold-tooled title on spine:"PORTOLANO / DA / BATTISTA / AGNESE", and at the bottom: "1559".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Agnese, Battista, active 16th century.
Subject (Topic):
Atlases, Cosmography, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscript maps, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper (watermarks obscured by binding and trimming) of prayers and hymns to the Virgin Mary.
Alternative Title:
Questa sie de madona felippa da thano
Description:
Early inscription on front cover.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church--Prayers and devotions and Mary,--Blessed Virgin, Saint--Devotion to
Subject (Topic):
Hymns, Italian, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library