Correspondence, autograph manuscripts, and one printed broadside song documenting aspects of the social and creative life of the poet John Hall-Stevenson. Contents include manuscripts of verses by John Hall-Stevenson and Robert Lascelles; letters by members of his club and social circle, including a lengthy letter by Jean-Baptiste Tollot discussing Laurence Sterne's character and good nature (1762 April 4) and another describing events in Geneva immediately after the expulsion of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1764 January 8); and related correspondence, including a letter of advice from Hall-Stevenson to his grandson John Wharton and several business letters received by Wharton. The printed broadside song, "Trout Hall," is extensively annotated in Hall-Stevenson's hand.
Description:
Formerly owned by William Durrant Cooper. Purchased from Paul Grinke on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 1972., John Hall-Stevenson (1718-1785), was a poet, a country gentleman, and a close friend of Laurence Sterne, whom he met at Cambridge and who based the character of Eugenius in Tristram Shandy on him. Hall-Stevenson founded a club of "Demoniacks," which met at "Crazy Castle," his country seat, and was loosely modeled on Sir Francis Dashwood's Monks of Medmenham. His published works included Crazy Tales and Fables for Grown Gentlemen, both of which were reprinted several times during his lifetime. He died at home in March, 1785., and The collection also contains a photocopy of W. Durrant Cooper's "Seven Letters Written by Sterne and His Friends;" a copy of the bookseller's catalogue; and a handwritten finding aid for the collection.
Parchment and paper codex, ff. 87 of which f. 1-3 and 6-19 are of paper, the remainder of parchment, with modern pencil foliation throughout. and Personal commonplace book combining skillful drawings of apparatus, alchemical texts in German vernacular with noteworthy literary character--some of them in verse--and numerous practical procedures.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century. Straight-grained black morocco, gilt single-line perimetric border for each cover and spine, gilt dentelles, and border of the same tools at head and foot of spine, modern tan leather spine label, with legend: HARTUNG V. HOFF VADE MECUM MANUSCRIPT AUSTRIA 1557, Denis Duveen, acquired from Thomas Heller (bookseller), New York, 1949; Mellon MS 71, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., and Script: Written in a small, neat gothic cursive, additions in a neat italic hand and a rather irregular and sometimes scrawling cursive gothic, both perhaps about 1625.
Bound with printed work: F. Baptist[a]e Ma[n]tuani Carmelit[a]e theologi, Aureum contra impudice scribentes opusculum, familiariter explicatu[m] : quod ubi uenundetur finis indicat.
Subject (Name):
Tuberinus, Joannes Mathias
Subject (Topic):
Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of Nicolaus von Dinkelsbuehl (ca. 1360-1433), De Tribus partibus penitentie and other texts on virtues and vices.
Description:
2 loose leaves filed between ff. 77-78., 8 leaf quire excised at end. Several other possible excisions[?], Front cover loose., and Modern foliation employed. Flyleaf numbered as f. 1.
Subject (Name):
Nicolaus von Dinkelsbuehl
Subject (Topic):
Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Repentance, Vices--Early works to 1800, and Virtues--Early works to 1800
Manuscript on parchment (goatskin) of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Laelius de amicitia. With marginal corrections by the scribal hand and interlinear and marginal glosses and variants by various contemporary hands.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century. Greyish brown paper over cardboard. On the spine a black leather label with the gold-tooled title “CICERO DE AMICITIE. - MS.”., Script: Copied by one hand in Gothico-Humanistica Libraria., and The decoration is missing, but there are guideletters and spaces for 1-line initials (for the interlocuting personages) and 2-line initials (f. 1v). At the opening of the text space for a 7-line initial.
Subject (Topic):
Dialogues, Latin, Friendship, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment (poor quality; end pieces) of Boethius, De arithmetica. Text begins imperfectly in Bk. I, ch. 23.
Description:
Binding: 19th-20th centuries, Eastern Europe (?). The back pastedown consists of a portion of a Latin parchment document dated 1374. Front pastedown removed and preserved as Marston MS 89A. Sewn on three supports laced into thick oak boards and wedged. Plain wound endbands on alum-tawed cores originally laced into the boards. Covered with parchment with irregularly serrated turn-ins, with a strap-and-pin fastening, the pin on the upper board. The codex has been so tightly rebacked that it is difficult to open., Parchment stained and warped by damp., Plain intials, 6- to 2-line, red, blue or black, occasionally with modest pen design in red (e.g., ff. 27v-28r). Numerous diagrams and charts throughout., Purchased from G. Heilburn of Paris in 1951 by L. C. Witten who sold it in 1953 to Thomas E. Marston., and Script: Written by multiple scribes (some copying or correcting only brief portions of text) in late caroline minuscule.
Subject (Topic):
Arithmetic--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Mathematics, Medieval, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39-65), De bello civili (Pharsalia).
Description:
A series of illuminated leaves have been cut out; only the initials at the opening of Books 2, 5, 8, 9 and 10 are preserved. The initials are in Lombard style, pink letters on a blue square background, both decorated with white penwork, and have acanthus extensions of green, orange and yellow in the margin. The decoration is different in each initial; the one on f. 8v contains four yellow flowers. There is no space for a heading at the opening of Books 2 and 5; one line is left free for headings at the opening of Books 8-10, but headings have not been entered., Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Blind-tooled brown leather (worn) over slightly rounded beech boards, part of the front cover and the entire spine missing. Worm holes, especially in the rear board. Sewn on three split leather thongs. On the covers a triple frame of four double fillets; the space between the middle and the inner frame filled with interlace design; the four corners of the central panel are decorated with quarter circles of fillets filled with the same design; in the middle an oblong cartouche; on the front board part of the damaged original cover has been replaced by brown leather blind-tooled with a different interlace design. Marks of four clasps attached to the front board; two lily-shaped brass catches remain, fixed by means of three nails to the outer side of the rear board. On the blank wood of the front board there is a fragmentary inscription in ink and large script (upside down, 16th century?)., and Script: Copied by one hand writing Southern Gothica Semitextualis Libraria/Formata, using the two forms of d. The opening majuscule of each verse is placed in a separate column. The scribe sometimes adds hairline extensions in the upper margin to letters on the top line; the loops of these occasionally contain a sketchy human face.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome--History--Civil War, 43-31 B.C
Subject (Name):
Lucan, 39-65
Subject (Topic):
Epic poetry, Latin, Historical poetry, Latin, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Leonardo Bruni, De bello italico adversus gothos, in the Italian version by Ludovico Petroni made in 1456. Preceded by the letter of Leonardo Bruni to Giuliano Cardinal Cesarini (1398-1444).
Description:
Binding: 18th-19th centuries, Italy. "Alla rustica" with grey-green paper added over the spine and part of the boards. Edges yellow., Partial border in inner margin of white vine-stem ornament, f. 1r, on blue, green and pink ground with white and blue dots. In lower border terminals extending in ink hair spray with green, pink and blue flowers and gold balls frame central medallion with a crude outline drawing of a head in profile (later addition?). Two decorated initials, 4- to 3-line, gold on blue, pink and green grounds with white vine-stem ornament. On f. 1r initial joined to partial border. Heading on f. 1r in red., and Script: Written by a single scribe in fere-gothic script, above top line.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome--History
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature--15th century, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library