Manuscript on paper (trimmed), with parchment bifolios interspersed, of Julius Caesar, Commentary on the Gallic Wars, translated into French by Jean Duchesne. Written for Jacques Donche, counselor of Charles the Bold of Burgundy
Description:
In French., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Armoires: Trois fleurs de lis 1741., Script: Written in neat batarde script by Hellin de Burchgrave., Ten half-page miniatures, each in an arched frame composed of two thin bands, gold and red highlighted with white, edged in black, the arch with tiny cusps; beneath, initials, 6-, 4-, or 3-line, blue or blue and red with white highlights on a gold ground of irregular shape conforming to the letter, edged in black, with serifs protruding into the left margin; filled with green and/or red and crimson trilobe leaves on curling stems with white and/or yellow highlights, or with a blue, green, crimson, and gold diapered ground with white highlights. Three smaller miniatures, 12- or 14-line, occasionally cut off at the upper edge so as to fill only part of a line of text; frames rectilinear, otherwise identical to those described above, Beneath, 2-line initials, blue, with white highlights, filled with trilobe leaves, as above, once (f. 25r) with one leaf of spiky acanthus added, and once (f. 256r) with a pink ground with gold filigree. There is a blank space on f. 27r for another miniature of this type. Other decoration consists of 2-line calligraphic initials, paragraph marks, line fillers (spirals and heraldic dragons), page and chapter headings, all executed in red. The first one or two lines of some books (as well as occasional lines within the text) are underlined in red., A few folios have tears in the margins., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Spattered and gilt edges. Red goatskin, gold-tooled, with the arms of Eugene of Savoy on cover and his monogram on spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Gaul
Subject (Name):
Caesar, Julius.
Subject (Topic):
French literature, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on paper of Jean Faucket (or Faucquet), Commonplace Book: Holograph. Completed 1497 or later
Description:
In French., Four distinct watermarks: one resembles Piccard, vol. 2, IX 96 (Xanten, 1452), one resembles Piccard vol. 2, IX 182 or 190 (Rhine valley, 1470-1480 or Flanders, 1463-70), one closely resembles Briquet 9196 (St. Omer, 1491), and a fourth closely resembles Briquet 8992 or 8993 (Vaudrevange, 1499 and 1493, respectively)., Script: written by the author in a gothic bastarda script., Numerous full color illuminations of coats of arms. Ornate initials in black and red throughout. Rubricated., and Binding: heavy black cloth over boards made of early printed material. Several parchment manuscript fragments which were used in binding are visible in the spine. One contains 12th-century Caroline minuscule and the other contains a gothic bookhand of the 13th-14th century. Damaged, front board detached.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Faucket, Jean, fl. 1488-1497.
Subject (Topic):
Commonplace-books, Heraldry, French literature, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment. Includes Calendar, Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, and Seven Requests to the Lord, all in French
Description:
In Latin and French., Script: Written in Northern Gothica Textualis Formata by two hands, marked by a different use of the two forms of a. Hand A, the main scribe, using almost only double-bow a, copied ff. 1r-21v11; 33r-108v11; 125r-144v. Hand B, who normally writes box-a, copied ff. 21v12-32v; 108v12-124v., Illuminated leaves have been excised after ff. 14, 58, 86, 94, 137., Headings in blue or red ink. The majuscules are heightened in yellow. The decoration consists of line-fillers in gold and blue and red paint and the following initial types: (1) dentelle initials, 1 line; (2) foliate initials, 2 lines; (3) foliate initials, 4 lines, always accompanied by full acanthus borders and, except on f. 142r, by a picture in an arched compartment above 5 lines of text. Seven of these miniatures remain. The borders are framed in gold ink. All ordinary text pages, including the Calendar, have unframed outer margin borders the height of the text area, with patterns traced from rectos to versos., and Binding: Nineteenth century (?). Red velvet over cardboard boards, on which the original decorated gilt brass bosses (4 corner pieces and a central piece) and one decorated clasp in the same material, fixed to the rear cover, have been mounted. Yellow silk pastedowns. Gilt edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of a Book of Hours. With Calendar, Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, and Seven Requests, all in French
Description:
In Latin and French., Script: Written in liturgical gothic bookhand in two sizes, by a single scribe. Prayers (ff. 1r-2v, 49r-v, 101r-103r) added in an informal batarde script, apparently by a single person., The manuscript originally contained the full complement of miniatures; their removal (following ff. 8, 13, 22, 33, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 49, 61, 64, and 87) is indicated by stubs, missing bifolios and breaks in the text. The remaining decoration consists of compartmentalized borders typical of late 15th-century Rouen manuscripts. One full border (f. 3r) in red bounding lines with pink and blue acanthus leaves on a gold ground, alternating with flowers and strawberries on parchment ground, filled in with black and gold dots; three borders (ff. 4r, 6r, 7r) in outer margin only. 3/4 band borders (with 5- and 4- line initials); single bands in outer margin (with 2-line initials); additional small bands occur when 2-line initial is on a recto. Borders are traced whenever they occur on recto and verso of same leaf; all with blue and gold acanthus leaves, flowers on parchment ground, filler as for full border. Many pages have no border. Initials, 5-, 4-, 2-, and 1-line, gold, on blue and red grounds with white highlights; 4-line initials, blue on a gold ground, filled with red and blue trilobe leaves in lattices; the 2-line initials occasionally with a narrow border in inner margin with flowers, black hair-spray, and gold dots (red bounding lines). Ribbon and quatrelobe line-fillers in gold, blue, and red, highlighted in white. Rubrics in orange-tinted red. Calendar has months, dates, and important feasts in gold; other feasts alternately in blue and red. Most spaces for initials within the added prayers have not been filled., and Binding: Seventeenth century. Dark red goatskin, gold-tooled, with a smooth spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
In French., Script: Written in gothic bastarda script., and Initials in red, blue, and gold. Illuminated marginal miniatures, one with a man threshing wheat in a town and the other with a mythological goat/serpent hybrid. Text in red, brown, and blue inks.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript fragment, on parchment, containing an illustration of the execution of the general Vitruvius, as described in Book 8, chapter 20 of Livy's Ab urbe condita (History of Rome). The verso contains 18 incomplete lines of text in French
Description:
In Middle French., Tipped onto a cardboard mount. Bookseller description pasted to the reverse of the mount., Script: bâtarde script., and Decoration: the miniature is full-color with shading in gold, edged with a narrow burnished gold frame.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Livy.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment. The book is not so much a guide to the pilgrimage churches of Rome, as a set of instructions on how to obtain the same spiritual benefits without making the actual pilgrimage. The seven letters designating the seven Roman basilicas serve as references throughout the manuscript. The latest indulgence to be mentioned (f. 14r) was awarded by Pope Pius II (1458-1464). After the description of the indulgences to be obtained in the seven principal churches, the manuscript mentions the station days and indulgences for the Temporale and for the Sanctorale and the visits to make during the non-station days
Description:
In French., Script: Copied by one hand in Gothica Cursiva Formata (Bastarda)., Headings in red ink. Liquid gold paragraph marks on square alternately red and brown background. Liquid gold 1-line initials on similar background. 2-line silver trompe-l'oeil initials decorated with foliage on coloured background. Similar 2- or 3-line gold or silver initials containing a flower on indented coloured background in art. 1. In art. 1 seven three-quarter page square arch-topped miniatures above 3 lines of text., and Binding: Seventeenth century. Richly gold-tooled red morocco over cardboard; gold-tooled spine with four raised bands and title "PRI* MANUSCR." Pastedowns decorated with green and gold arabesques.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Margaret, of York, Duchess, consort of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, 1446-1503.
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, French, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Indulgences, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of Honore Bovet (often erroneously named Bonet, c. 1345-1405), L'arbre des batailles, composed between 1386 and 1389
Description:
In French., Accompanied by: Typescript of an English translation by G. W. Coopland: The Tree of battles of Honore Bonet (sic). With a hitherto unpublished historical interpolation translated by G. A. Knowlson ... Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1949. Catalogued as Beinecke MS 605a., Watermark: similar to Briquet 389 (?)., Script: Probably copied by one hand, writing Gothica Cursiva Libraria (Bastarda)., In art. 1 red heightening of the majuscules. In art. 2 paragraph marks and underlining in red; red 2-line plain initials; at the opening of the text (f. 5r) 4-line red and blue littera duplex without penwork. Guide-letters., and Binding: ca. 1900 by Chambolle-Duru. Crimson morocco over cardboard, preserved in fleece-lined folder. Spine with five raised bands and gold-tooled title: "L'ARBRE DES BATAILLES PAR HONORE BONNET - MANUSCRIT DU QUINZIEME SIECLE". Gilt edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Bovet, Honore.
Subject (Topic):
French literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Military art and science, and Schism, The Great Western, 1378-1417
Manuscript of Honore Bonet, L'Arbre des Batailles. With Diego de Valera, Espejo de verdadera nobleza, translated into French by Hugues de Salve; and other treatises on arms
Description:
In French., Script: Written in formal batarde script. Folios 7r-9r, also in formal batarde, but in a different hand., The fine miniatures, by the Master of Bruges of 1482, are in arched frames composed of thin gold and pink bands. Between ff. 147r and 152r there are sixty-three painted armorial bearings, perhaps a later addition (16th century?) as indicated by the type of pigment, the occasional lack of correspondence with the original preparatory drawings, and the fact that some drawings were never overpainted. 5-, 4-, 3-, and 2-line initials, gold, edged in black, against irregular blue and red grounds with white highlights. 1-line initials in the table of contents, red and blue, with guide-letters to illuminator; ff. 7r-9r (the section for the L'Arbre des batailles) in darker shades and without notes, suggesting, as does the change of hand, that this section of the table as well as the portion of the text to which it refers were added to the manuscript in a second stage of its production. Paragraph marks, 1-line, red and blue. Pages foliated in red, upper right recto. Headings in red throughout., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Edges gilt. Purple goatskin case with brilliant gold tooling and elaborate doublures.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., Burgundy (France), and France
Subject (Name):
Bonet, Honoré, fl. 1378-1398.
Subject (Topic):
Chivalry, Heraldry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History