In Latin., Script: Written in tiny gothic textura by a single scribe., Good initials for the beginning of each book and prologue, 10- to 4-line, blue or pink, with various shades combined in a single letter, with white highlights, often with prominent floral serifs in blue, pink, red, orange, and yellow, against pink and blue grounds; grounds for body of letter and serifs in opposite colors. Elaborate descenders, ascenders, as serifs, but often with biting dragons. Letters filled with curling floral motifs, often with dragon-head terminals, and biting dragons. The initials on f. 214r (Esther) and f. 220r (Job) are more elaborate than the others. 2-line initials for each chapter, blue or red, with red or blue flourishes. Running headings and chapter numbers in red and blue, with flourishes. Rubrics throughout., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Printed vellum fragment, in large gothic letters, with portion of John 4.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Versions, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
In Latin., Script: Text written in similar styles of gothic bookhand mostly by two scribes who may also have ruled the segments each copied. Scribe 1) ff. 7r-13v, 171v-296r, 307r-409r; running titles. Scribe 2) ff. 15r-171v, 297r-306v. A later hand of the 15th century wrote before and after Scriptural text in a less formal style of gothic; at least four other persons of the 14th-15th centuries have annotated the text in various styles of cursive., Decoration by two distinct hands whose division of work does not correspond precisely to that noted for the scribes. 1) ff. 7r-220v, 325r-340r. Large flourished initials, body divided red and blue, with interior designs primarily in red, and small blue circles added; first line of text in blue capitals decorated with simple red pen strokes. Many rubrics missing. 2) ff. 221r-324v, 341r-409r. Flourished initials similar in design to those by 1, but somewhat smaller in size and mostly without small blue circles; first line of text in blue and red capitals alternating; chapter divisions decorated with long herringbone pendants in red and blue. Running titles and marginal chapter divisions in alternating red and blue letters throughout codex. Notes to rubricator, some perpendicular in gutter., and Binding: 15th-16th centuries. Original sewing on five double, tawed supports laced straight and in V's into back-cornered wooden boards and pegged. The spine is square, the sewing supports prominent. Braided tawed skin (?) endbands. The first covering is brown calf with corner tongues. Next is a chemise of pink, tawed skin with an outer cover sewn to it with diagonal stitches of blue thread. Outer and inner covers are adhered to each other and to the boards with extending edges cut off. Two strap-and-pin fastenings with foliate pin bases on the lower board and stubs of kermes pink straps. Green discoloration on pastedowns. Trace of lettering in ink on the spine.
Manuscript on paper of a common-place book. The main texts of the manuscript, which are primarily devotional in nature, were written in East Anglia by an unidentified scribe toward the end of the 15th century; a second individual, identified as Robert Melton of Stuston in Suffolk, added numerous accounts and notes at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century
Description:
Robert Melton was the co-executor of the estate of John Cornwallis (d. 1506), Lord of the Manors of Brome, Stuston, Okley, and Thranston, whose family possessed Brome Hall from early in the 15th to the 19th century., In Middle English., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Armoiries 1038 for part of quire I and all of II; similar to Briquet Main 11399 for remainder of quire I, all of quires III and IV, part of V; similar to Briquet Navire 11971 on ff. 68, 79 only; similar to Briquet Lettre P 8586 on ff. 72, 75; similar to Briquet Main 11152 on ff. 73, 74; unidentified watermark on f. 81., Script: Written primarily by two persons: Scribe 1) ff. 1r-26v, 28r-44r, 68r-77r, 79v, 80v-81r. Written in small, well formed Anglicana script with first line of each text in formal bookhand. Scribe 2: ff. 27r-v, 45r-60r, 62v-67v, 77v-78v, 80r, 81v. Written in a large sprawling script; no ornamentation. A third person added art. 17 at a later time., Only scribe 1 included decoration. Initials in red, 4- to 2-line, with penwork flourishes in brown; initial strokes in red. Portions of text underlined in red; rhyming verses often bracketed, in red, at end of lines. On f. 14v, a fine half-page drawing in red and brown of the monogram IHS which incorporates both a heart pierced by a lance and vine patterns and tendrils. Art. 4 is illustrated with drawings of dice, in red, in outer margins., First leaves heavily stained; lower right corner waterstained ff. 1-43., and Binding: Between 1490 and 1500. Original sewing with long stitches through a thick rectangular piece of leather on the outside of a vellum wrapper. Contemporary scroll design added to upper cover with unidentified inscription, in red, mostly illegible.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Melton, Robert.
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, English (Middle)., English poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript leaf, on parchment, containing prayers from before Matins. From the "Hungerford Hours."
Description:
In Anglo-Norman French., Layout: single-column; 17 lines., Script: Gothic., Decoration: 5 illuminated initials with decorative extensions and decorative line fillers, with gilt., and Byname: Hungerford Hours.
Manuscript on parchment (thick and furry) of Sir Gilbert Dethick, Book of Arms. Illustrations of coats of arms, in color, one per folio recto or verso; above each except the first, the name of the bearer, as given below. No mottoes given. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603).
Description:
In English., Script: Introduction and labels of illustrations in cursive with loops, by one scribe., Each shield enclosed in shaded pink border designed to look like worked metal, and surmounted by a jousting helm in profile, mantling gules doubled argent with gold tassels; wreath in colors from shield. Only shields (in up to 17 quarters) and crests vary. Slight variations from this scheme on f. 2r (royal arms) and f. 3r (mantling sable doubled argent). Fair quality of workmanship., Bookblock detached from the binding. Illustration badly smeared on f. 11r, slightly smeared f. 28r., and Binding: ca. 1873. Gold-stamped red goatskin case.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain., Connecticut, and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Dethick, Gilbert, Sir. and Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603.
Subject (Topic):
Devices (Heraldry), Heraldry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper. The documents in this archival register cover the period from King Henry VIII (1509-1547) through Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603).
Description:
In English., Script: Copied by a single hand in Gothica Cursiva Libraria (Secretary)., and Binding: Limp vellum with remains of leather ties. Preserved in a modern cardboard folder covered with paper decorated with vertical red and purple stripes. On the brown leather spine the gold-tooled inscription: "KING HENRY VIII'S OWN MS. BOUCH OF COURT".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Topic):
Courts and courtiers, Manuscripts, Medieval, Court and courtiers, and Politics and government
Manuscript, on parchment, of the "extended version" of the Brut Chronicle
Alternative Title:
Chronicles of England
Description:
In Middle English., First leaf and end of text lacking., Layout: single columns with varying numbers of lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: blue initials with red penwork., and Binding: sixteenth-century blind-tooled calf over wooden boards. Later leather title tags on spine, gilt.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English prose literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript fragment, on parchment, containing portions of chapters 214 and 221 of the Middle English prose Brut
Description:
In Middle English., Marginal note indicates that these two leaves served as a wrapper for a copy of Gabriel Harvey's The trimming of Thomas Nashe., Layout: single-column, 29-32 lines., Script: secretary., and Decoration: initials in blue with red penwork.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Brutus the Trojan (Legendary character), English literature, English prose literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Fragments of a Brut Chronicle. Begins imperfectly in chapter 36 (Constantine) and has several lacunae. The work ends in chapter 86 (beginning on f. 11r) with the thirty-first year of Edward III. With art. 3) A note (in Latin) stating that King Henry IV was consecrated in 1399 and documenting his descent from Adam. 4) A list (in Latin) of 86 kings (each numbered) from Brutus to Edward III. 5) Names of prisoners captured and killed at the battle of Poitiers (19 Sept. 1356). 6) Terms of the treaty of Bretigny (8 May 1360). 7) Parliamentary text
Description:
In Anglo-Norman., Script: Written in Anglicana bookhand by one scribe., Decorative initials, blue with red penwork, appear only on ff. 1-12; initial strokes and headings, in red, throughout., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Stab sewn to a vellum folder made up of a legal document (trimmed with some loss of text) dated 1766 and involving the manors of Whitechurch and Milbourne in Wiltshire. The outside has an inscription, 19th century, "Some leaves of early English History in Norman French supposed to have come from Malmesbury Abbey." A similar inscription occurs on f. i verso.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
England.
Subject (Topic):
Anglo-Norman literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History