Manuscript on parchment (uneven quality, severely trimmed) of a Florilegium comprised of a series of meditations and prayers. The text, apparently a unicum, is a cento of biblical, liturgical, and patristic citations, with some additional material spuriously attributed to St. Bernard. The most important sources are the Song of Songs, the other Wisdom books, the Prophets, and, in the Trinitarian section, Augustine's De Trinitate
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by three scribes. Art. 19 (ff. 189r-190r) written by Scribe 3 in an informal gothic bookhand, no later than ca. 1300. Scribes 1 and 2 collaborated on the rest of the manuscript: arts. 1, 3-5, 6 (ff. 124r-125r), 9-18 written by Scribe 1 in a neat, but somewhat irregular gothic bookhand, arts. 2, 6 (ff. 125v-132r), 7-8 written by Scribe 2 in an undisciplined gothic bookhand., The manuscript is outstanding for the quality and complexity of its program of illustration. In its original state it included at least fifty full-page miniatures, of which forty-six survive, one-hundred-and-sixty smaller miniatures, and forty-one historiated initials. Twenty-three tinted drawings were added on blank and added folios at a later date (between 1300 and 1350). The decoration is the work of at least three artists. The miniatures, initials, and marginal decoration are the work of two hands, one of whom contributed only two full-page miniatures (ff. 61r and 64r) that depend on the style usually associated with the name of Master Honore. The other, predominant hand works in a flatter, more linear style associated with Northeastern France. Full-page miniatures, in art. 1 only, some divided into two or three registers, in blue or orange frames, surrounded by a narrow gold band, with orange lozenges at the corners, each with an ivy spray, in black ink with five gold leaves; predominantly blue or vermilion tesselated or tooled gold grounds; two (ff. 25r and 55r) with fleurs-de-lis in lozenges. On each text page in art. 1 there is a smaller miniature, 9- to 5-line, with a witness who gesticulates towards the full-page miniature on the facing page; each miniature in a blue and/or pink frame with gold squares in the corners. Almost every folio in arts. 2-18 with at least one small miniature 10- to 5-line, framed as above. Arts. 11 and 14 illustrated almost exclusively with historiated initials, 6- to 4-line, blue, pink and/or orange against grounds of the same colors, with short ivy branches extending from the serifs, many with grotesque terminals., Illuminated initials, 2- to 1- line, in art. 1 only, gold against irregular blue or pink grounds, with white filigree, edged in black, some of the 2-line initials with ivy borders, as above. The borders, especially in arts. 2-18, are populated with grotesques and other marginal illustrations, the majority apparently non-narrative and without reference to the adjacent texts and miniatures, in the same style as the miniatures by the predominant hand. Names of Hebrew letters in art. 12 in red., Lower outer corners cut from ff. 167-192. Marginal decoration on many folios severely trimmed. Gold has flaked off considerably from the full-page miniatures on ff. 13r, 15r, 19r; some flaking of gold on ff. 6v, 18v, 25r, 34r, 44r, 51r., and Binding: ca. 1966. Bound in two volumes (I: ff. 1-96; II: ff. 97-192) in native tanned vermilion Nigerian goatskin, by J. Greenfield, without any adhesive touching the bookblock itself. Previously bound in brown leather in a single volume.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, Latin (Medieval and modern)., Exempla, Fathers of the church, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (greatly trimmed) of a fragment of a Book of Hours. The twenty-six folios are the only fragment known to remain of the Book of Hours of Blanche of Burgundy (d. 1348), Countess of Savoy and granddaughter of Saint Louis of France, which was executed in Paris in the atelier of Jean Pucelle. The manuscript received additional texts and miniatures in the third quarter of the fourteenth century, when it was owned by Charles V, King of France, 1364-80.
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in gothic bookhand; ff. 1r, 1v, 4r, and 4v added in the third quarter of the fourteenth century by Jean L'Avenant., Contains fifty of the original two hundred and fifty-five miniatures, the majority executed between Pucelle's death in 1334 and Blanche's death in 1348, the remainder between ca. 1370 and 1378, the terminus ante quem being the death of Charles's wife, Jeanne de Bourbon, represented on one of the destroyed leaves. All of the miniatures are in tricolor quatrefoils, the first, earlier set against pink or blue grounds with white filigree, gold frames and gold leaves on hair-line stems, the later miniatures with the grounds in pink or blue imitation relief., Each folio with a 3/4 bar border, detached from initial, pink, blue and gold with ivy terminals, or a single bar with ivy attached to initial, in inner margin; some with grotesque terminals, and birds and hunters in the margins and bas-de-page. 2-line initials, with heads, ivy, the arms of Savoy (ff. 2r, 14r, 18v, etc.) or the arms of Burgundy (f. 3v); blue or pink with white highlights on gold grounds. 1-line initials, blue or gold with red or black penwork. Line endings, red, blue and gold, on ff. 1 and 4 only. Rubrics throughout., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Red-brown sheepskin heavily gold-tooled with floral borders and corner fans, the center filled in with a circle made up of fan tools.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Pucelle, Jean, fl. 1320. and Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper, with parchment for outer and inner conjugate leaves of each quire, composed of four "booklets" or units of similar format. Part I: 1) William of St. Thierry, Epistola ad fratres de monte Dei, formerly attributed to Guigo and Bernard of Clairvaux. Part II: 2) Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermo in festo annuntiationis B. V. Mariae. 3) Bernard of Cluny [?], Sermo de villico iniquitatis, formerly attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux. 4) Bernard of Cluny, Preface to art. 3. Part III: 5) Bernard of Clairvaux, De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae. 6) Jean, l'Homme de Dieu, Tractatus de ordine vitae et morum institutione, formerly attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux. Part IV: 7) Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermo I pro Dom. VI post Pentecosten. 8) Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermo II pro Dom. VI post Pentecosten. 9) Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermo II pro Dom. VI post Pentecosten. 10) Anonymous sermon on the Virgin Mary. 11) Nicholas of Clairvaux, Sermo in natali S. Benedicti de euangelio. 12) Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermo in obitu Domini Humberti
Description:
In Latin., Watermarks: Part I: unidentified P in gutter. Parts II-IV: similar in design to Briquet Lettre Y 9182-84., Script: Part I (ff. 1-34): Written by a single scribe in well formed upright gothic script exhibiting batarde influence in the long descenders. Part II (ff. 35-46): Written in a script similar to that of Part I, but with less batarde shading. Part III (ff. 47-82): Written possibly by the same scribe as Part II. Part IV (ff. 83-99): Written in small cramped gothic script similar to those in I-III., Part I: Carefully executed red and blue divided initial, 8-line, on f. 1r; infilled and surrounded by delicate foliage designs in red and purple ink, on a green ground, with flourishes extending down inner border. Similar initial, f. 1v, without green ground and with blue scroll design for crossbar. Headings, paragraph marks, initial strokes, underlining, and Nota marks in red. Part II: Fine initial, 8-line, on f. 35r, divided red and blue, infilled and surrounded by six foliage designs in red penwork on green ground, with a central flower of six petals touched with yellow. Plain blue initial, 3-line, on f. 39v, with some floral designs in body in natural color of paper; red initials, 2-line, ff. 40r and 45v. Headings, initial strokes, underlining and corrections, in red. Paragraph marks in red or blue. Guide-letters for rubricator. Part III: Divided initial I, red and blue, 10-line, on f. 47r, with red and purple foliage designs on green ground surrounding initial, and with flourishes extending down inner margin. Blue initial, 4-line, on f. 68v, infilled and surrounded by penwork designs in red. Plain initials, 2-line, headings, initial strokes, paragraph marks, corrections, and some marginal notes, in red. Guide-letters and instructions for rubricator. Part IV: Blue initial, 5-line, on f. 83v, with interior floral designs in natural color of parchment; body infilled and surrounded by red penwork designs extending down inner margin. Initials, 5- to 2-line, headings, paragraph marks, in red., and Binding: 16th-17th centuries (?). Original sewing on four tawed, slit straps, the spine rounded and the supports prominent and defined. Plain, wound endbands on vegetable fiber cores, the covering leather saddle-stitched around them. Covered in dark brown calf with round and lozenge-shaped tools in diamonds and triangles formed by intersecting fillets in a central panel in a double outer frame. One fastening, the catch on the upper board and the strap wanting. Turk's head knot placemarks on the fore edge. Rectangular label removed from upper edge of front cover; two modern brown labels, stamped in gold, on spine: "Bernardi Varia" and "M. S." Original front pastedown: lower portion of a parchment bifolium (Germany, 15th century) of the Doctrinale of Alexander of Villa Dei with lines 1056-79 visible on verso and 1520-44 on recto. Ca. 5 mm. between lines of text. Binding restored.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint, 1090 or 1091-1153., Catholic Church, and Cistercians.
Subject (Topic):
Didactic literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, Monasticism and religious orders, Sermons, and Theology
Manuscript on parchment (trimmed) of Book of Hours with Full calendar, in French
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in batarde script., Miniatures and an extensive cycle of border vignettes by Jean and Jacquelin Montlucon who were active in Bourges between 1477 and 1492. The calendar pages are framed by gilt columns and entablatures in the antique manner with the occupations of the month and signs of the zodiac in the outer margin and a Creation cycle in the lower margin. Eleven half-page miniatures framed in magenta and gold with cusping at the top; fanciful architectural bases, surrounded by simulated grey-black marble with joined wings and foliage branches in gold. Twenty-three miniatures, 8-lines in height, in magenta and gold frames, each with a full border of flowers and acanthus, birds and grotesques on compartmented gold and white grounds. Text pages with full borders: columns in inner margin; panels with masks, shields, garlands, and wings in upper margin; flowers and acanthus, as above, in outer margin; and, in the lower margin, one of the fullest known cycles devoted to the wild man (sometimes extended to include outer margin as well). Other manuscripts from the same shop, the Monypenny Hours and Grenoble Bibliotheque Municipale MS 1011, also contain extensive cycles of wild-man imagery; the artists Jean and Jacquelin de Montlucon lived in Bourges in a house "at the sign of the Wild Man.", 5- and 4-line initials with leafy branches, gold with fruits, flowers, profile heads on pink or mauve grounds. 2- and 1-line initials, line-endings, and KL monograms in the same style. Rubrics in red. Calendar entries alternate red and blue. F. i verso added in 16th century: the arms of Gian Francesco di Montegnacco in a frame closely modelled on the decoration of the calendar pages., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Tan goatskin, gold-tooled with concentric frames, the central panel daubed with green and red. Red label.
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 (coarse, yellow) of about 40 selections from saints' lives
Description:
In Latin., Script: Copied by a single hand in careful Iberian Praegothica., Fine Romanesque initials (2-5 lines) with foliage penwork in red and blue. Some contain human heads (ff. 9r, 16v, 25r, 25v [two heads], 70r [two heads]). On ff. 64v, 125v and 135v initials of exceptional development, the latter two with animal decoration., Mutilated., and Binding: Twentieth century. Blind-tooled brown calf over....On the spine two labels with the hand-written inscriptions: "FLOS SANCTORUM MS" and "TOLEDO SAEC. XII".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Liturgy, Devotional literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval