Manuscript on parchment (goatskin) of Prudentius (beginning of the fifth century), Psychomachia, with interlinear and marginal glosses by various hands in Latin and Italian, variant readings and corrections
Description:
In Latin, with Italian glosses., Script: Copied by one hand writing an uneven Southern Semitextualis Libraria with some two-compartment a's. The scribe Ciutus is not recorded., Red stroking of the majuscules. 2-line red plain initials. Larger and more elaborate initial in red and black at the opening of the text. Numerous pointing hands., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Yellow parchment over pasteboard, both covers framed with a gilt running scroll. On the spine gold-tooled inscription "PRUDENTII PSYCHOMACHIA . COD. SEC. XV (?)".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Prudentius, 348-
Subject (Topic):
Allegory, Christian poetry, Latin, Fathers of the church, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of a miscellany including texts by Leonardo Bruni, Petrarch, Stefano Porcari, Matteo Palmieri, and Giovanni Boccaccio
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Fleur 6651, Briquet Echelle 5910, Briquet Etoile 6070 and one unidentified., Script: Written in a mercantile script (mercantesca) by one hand., Calligraphic initials, 4- to 2-line, in red with purple or blue with red. Rubrics in brownish-red., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Paper binding "alla rustica". On spine, "Miscella di belle lettere".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Italian literature, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Jacopo Ariani (?), 200 Sonnets addressed to a lady called Laura. With Alberto Maffei, Colophon in the form of a sonnet addressed to the readers
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written by Alberto Maffei in a small calligraphic Humanistica Semitextualis Formata., Each sonnet opens with a Capital in gold ink, the three subsequent stanzas with alternating red and blue Capitals. On the opening page (f. 2r), however, the opening Capitals are in gold on a square blue background dotted with gold, above each of the two sonnets floral ornaments have been painted in red and gold ink and in the lower margin there is a medallion within a gold wreath adorned with ribbons and containing the coat of arms of the Ariani family flanked by the initials "I.A.". ff. 1 and 52 are stained purple and the text of artt. 1 and 3 is written in gold ink, the headings being executed in silver ink. On both pages silver and gold floral ornaments in three margins. The ones in the lower margins end in Capital "A" (for "Albertus")., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Blue velvet over cardboard with blue watered-silk doublure. Gilt edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Ariani, Jacopo.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Autograph manuscript notes and translations from chiefly Italian sources on the subject of tarot probably compiled by Abner Doubleday, circa 1870-1886, including extensive discussion of tarot in relation to the Cabala, The volume includes material about tarot attributed to Alliette, Jean Belot, Thomas H. Burgoyne, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, Antoine Court de Gébelin, Éliphas Lévi, R. Palmer-Thomas, Moreau de Dammartin, M. Le C. de M. (Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, Comte de Mellet), Ramon Llull (cited as Raymond Lulli), Thomas Moore Johnson, Papus, Guillaume Postel (cited as William Postel), and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, as well as extracts from the Journal of the Theosophical Society, which later became The Theosophist, and The Platonist, The volume includes astrological charts and a group of 78 hand-drawn and colored copies of Italian tarot cards, including examples made by Farinone Battista in Varallo, and Typescript front matter tipped in the volume by Stuart R. Kaplan includes an index and page notes, and a description of the volume from Charles Hamilton, Auction No. 77, May 2, 1974, Lot 283, as well as a photocopy of an entry for Doubleday from Charles Lincoln Van Doren and Robert McHenry, Webster's American Biographies (Springfield, Mass: G. & C. Merriam Co, 1974).
Description:
Abner Doubleday (1819-1893) was a United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War, as well as a prominent member of the Theosophical Society., In English and Italian., and Title from cover.
Subject (Name):
Alliette, 1738-1791., Battista, Farinone., Belot, Jean., Burgoyne, Thomas H., Cagliostro, Alessandro, conte di, 1743-1795., Court de Gébelin, Antoine, 1725-1784., Doubleday, Abner, 1819-1893., Fayolle, Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de, Comte de Mellet, 1727-1804., Johnson, Thomas Moore, 1851-1919., Kaplan, Stuart R., Lévi, Éliphas, 1810-1875., Llull, Ramon, 1232?-1316., Moreau de Dammartin., Palmer-Thomas, R., Papus, 1865-1916., Postel, Guillaume, 1510-1581., and Saint-Martin, Louis-Claude de, 1743-1803.
Manuscript on paper (one leaf) of Three poems. MS 352, f. 88 from a larger volume, may be Benivieni's working copy, since words and verses have been added and deleted throughout; all three columns on both recto and verso have been struck out. The three poems were once thought to be the autograph works of Lorenzo de' Medici
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written in a vigorous notarial script., Leaf is mutilated and has been repaired extensively., and Boxed.
Manuscript on paper (sturdy) of what is probably the first version of the treatise, finished ca. 1476-77. The order of contents is as follows: fortresses; temples, churches and theaters; columns and other architectural details; plans for palaces; aqueducts; measuring and surveying; instruments of war
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: anchor and star similar to Briquet Ancre 478, Bergamo 1502., Script: Written in italic script by a single scribe who left blank spaces for illuminated initials., Outer and lower margins of almost every page filled with architectural or mechanical sketches drawn either directly on the leaves (ff. 1r-5v) or on small strips of paper pasted onto the margins of the leaves (ff. 6r-57v), in brown ink, sometimes with green or pink washes. The drawings illustrate every section of the text; many have explanatory inscriptions., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Red edges. Mottled, brown calf, streaked on the turn-ins. Blind-tooled, with a gold-tooled spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Italy., Connecticut, and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Martini, Francesco di Giorgio, 1439-1502.
Subject (Topic):
Architecture, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Military art and science
Manuscript on paper of Guglielmo Balzani, of Casale Monferrato, Treatise on Falconry
Description:
The 8th Marchese of Monferrato mentioned in the prologue is presumably Guglielmo (1550-1587)., In Italian., Watermarks: unidentified crossbow in circle, with countermark "B A B"., Script: Written by 2 hands in 17th-century cursive: Scribe 1) ff. 1r-177r; Scribe 2) ff. 177v-208r., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Spattered brown calf, blind-tooled. Edges spattered blue/green and red. Rebacked.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Balzani, Guglielmo.
Subject (Topic):
Falconry, Italian literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
In Italian., Script: Written by one scribe in humanistic bookhand., Six fine miniatures. Each miniature, 12- to 9-line, is rectangular, framed with a thin band of burnished gold (except on f. 39r, a square 14-line miniature in a purple frame edged on both sides with gold). On f. 3v, a full border: putti with swags in upper margin [trimmed], white-vine ornament in side and lower margins, the ground predominantly blue, with some green and pink and with white dots; in outer and lower margin, a gold trellis, with polygonal medallions at corners and midpoints, containing a capital I, and the busts of a child, youth, and young woman; finely drawn animals (stag, goat, panther, rabbit, and fox) superimposed over border. In the lower margin of f. 1r is a coat-of-arms (effaced), supported by four putti and with birds in surrounding vine ornament. For the other miniatures, partial borders with dark blue, green, pink and gold flowers and gold dots and hair-spray. Small medallions containing the letters I, A, C, O, P, O incorporated into successive borders form the name Iacopo (probably the man who commissioned the volume). 3-line initials of gold, infilled green and pink, with delicate white filigree, against blue grounds. Headings and initial of each tercet in gold., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Gilt, gauffered edges. Red calf, gold-tooled with a ribbon border, acorns in the corners and a diced central ornament.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of a Ducale issued in the name of Leonardo Loredan, doge of Venice (1438-1521), giving instructions to Andrea Marcello as Governor of Dulcigno (now Ulcinj, Yugoslavia). The document is dated 8 August 1513, and signed by "Victor Blanchus Secretarius," the same individual who signed Beinecke MS 104, a Venetian ducale dated 1515. On ff. 12v-13r is a directive from the Venetian Council of the X, signed by Rafael Iordannis, regarding Andrea Marcello, captain of Dulcingo, and the payment of custom duties; followed by a yearly and quarterly outline of salaries owed, in a different but contemporary hand, signed Zune (Giovanni) Spineli [?].
Description:
In Latin and Italian., Script: Written in elegant italic., One full border (f. 1r), flowers and swirling leaves extending from a vase in lower right corner, gold on a dark purple ground, executed in a style related to Benedetto Bordone; two inset panels at top of folio (framed by thick gold bands), the upper containing the lion of St. Mark stepping out of water and holding an open book, dolphins, and a castle on a cliff in the background, the lower an inscription in gold majuscules on blue ground. In lower margin the Marcello arms (azure a bend wavy or) against a landscape., 2-line initials, on f. 1r only, gold on green and on red grounds respectively. 1-line initials, red, for ff. 1v-10r., and Binding: 19th-20th centuries. Rigid vellum gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Venice (Italy)
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Politics and government
Manuscript on paper of Bernardo Giustiniani (Bernardus Iustiniani, 1408-1489), Vita Beati Laurentii Iustiniani, translated into Italian by the Venetian Niccolo Manerbi (Malherbi, 1422-81).
Description:
St. Laurence Giustiniani (1381-1456) was the first patriarch of Venice. The author of this biography was his nephew., In Italian., Watermark: anchor in circle, closest to Briquet 471 (1527)?., Script: Written by one scribe in an unusually bold, angular and decorated Southern Gothica Textualis Formata., Red headings. Heightening of the majuscules in dark yellow. Red plain initials, 2 lines, at the opening of the chapters. Flourished red paragraph marks. A flourished initial in red with blue penwork, with extension the height of the text area in the left margin, on f. 1r., Many pages are deteriorated by the acidity of the ink., and Binding: Original blind-tooled half brown leather over wooden boards; two clasps (?) attached to the front cover. Spine with three raised bands and gold-tooled title "VITA DI S. LOREN. IUSTI". Endpapers with coloured floral pattern.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Giustiniani, Bernardo, 1408 or 1409-1489. and Lawrence Justinian, Saint, 1381-1456.
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, Italian, Literature, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval