Manuscript on paper of assorted works by Cicero with additional texts
Description:
In Latin., Watermarks: 1) Human bust, var. Briquet 15599?. 2) Balance, var. Piccard, Waage 1.78?. (3) Crown, unidentified?., Script: Written by two scribes, one writing in Italian Gothica Hybrida or Semihybrida Libraria and the other in a bold Southern Gothica Textualis Libraria/Formata with numerous decorative hairlines., Red paragraph marks. Art. 3 has yellow heightening of the majuscules, a 2-line and a 3-line flourished initial in red, blue and yellow. In art. 1 the majuscules are heightened in red; there are plain red initials in art. 5, but its decoration is not consistent., and Binding: Damaged original binding in deerskin over heavy almost unbevelled wooden boards. Parchment pastedowns, the front one detached from the board. On the front cover inscription in large Southern Gothica Textualis Formata, worn and difficult to decipher. On the spine a 17th-century paper label with the number "2760" and the title "Huma (?)......Marci Tulii de amicitia manu scripta". Marks of two leather straps fixed to the front cover, the pin holes visible in the rear cover.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Subject (Topic):
Didactic literature, Latin and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript fragment on parchment of Cicero's Orationes Philippicae
Description:
In Latin., Script: written in a round humanistic bookhand., and Decoration: 1-line initials are in brown square capitals; punctuated with the punctus, punctus elevatus, and punctus interrogativus; hyphenation is in the same ink as the text.
Manuscript on paper of Pier Candido Decembrio (Petrus Candidus Decembrius, 1392/1399-1477), 1) Peregrina historia. 2) Grammaticon, a Latin grammar in two Books, dedicated to the Milanese lawyer Guarniero Castiglione
Description:
In Latin., Watermark: var. Briquet 6654 (?)., Script: Copied by one hand in Humanistica Cursiva Libraria under some Gothic influence (occasionally uncial d)., Pale red headings and explicit formulas. The scribe wrote guide-letters but the initials (height: 2 lines) are wanting., and Binding: Fifteenth century. Italian brown morocco over wooden boards bevelled at the inside, blind-tooled with rope interlace and other tools, with some gold. Remnants of two brass clasps attached to the rear cover. Rebacked. On the spine a paper label with the handwritten title "Historia di Publio [sic] Candido". Parchment pastedowns. On the yellow-coloured fore-edge the title "P. Candid*" is inscribed.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Decembrio, Pier Candido, 1399-1477.
Subject (Topic):
Cosmography, Grammar, Comparative and general, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, Language and languages, and Grammars
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Dedicatory epistle of Leonardo Bruni to Niccolo Niccoli. 2) Plutarch, Vita Ciceronis. 3) Plutarch, Vita Demosthenis. 4) Dedicatory epistle to Niccolo Niccoli. 5) Xenophon, Hiero. All translated into Latin by Leonardo Bruni. In this manuscript the treatises are not identified, nor is the translator, but the dedicatory epistles to Niccolo Niccoli serve to indicate both author and translator
Description:
In Latin., Written in humanistic script by a single scribe., No headings or ornamentation; the manuscript was apparently never finished., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Straight-grained black goatskin, gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Cicero, Marcus Tullius., Demosthenes., Niccoli, Niccolò, ca. 1364-1437., and Plutarch.
Subject (Topic):
Biography, Dialogues, Latin, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of 1) Sonnet by the Franciscan Alessandro de Ritiis, or by his compatriot from L'Aquila, Buccio di Ranallo, lamenting the loss of a loaned book. 2) Polistorio, attributed to the Dominican Bartolomeo da Ferrara (1308-1444).
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: Briquet Arbalete 746., Script: Written in fere-humanistic script by a single scribe, above top line., Fully illuminated title page, f. 6r. Floral border in inner and upper margin, black inkspray with blossoms, green, blue and purple with white highlights and gold balls. Bar border between text columns, gold and red, extends from buds (mauve, green and blue with white highlights) with stylized foliage, purple, blue and green and gold with white highlights; surmounted in upper margin by half-length figure of Virgin with Child. In outer margin, elaborate partial border of stylized foliage and flowers, green, blue and purple with white and yellow highlights and gold balls, framing central wreathed medallion with triton blowing a curved horn, on gold ground with penwork filigree. In center of lower border, arms of the Marcello family of Venice (azure, a bend wavy or) on deep red ground within wreathed medallion, both with yellow highlights. Arms symmetrically flanked by 2 putti plucking fruit from wreathed medallion and holding rods, green, blue, and purple with scrolls bearing the mottoes "sola virtus" and "dulcia poma" in red, and two triton-putti, one playing a flute, the other a stringed musical instrument. One historiated initial, 6-line, of stylized foliage in green, purple, and blue with white filigree on gold ground, with a half-length figure of a crowned and bearded man, perhaps the Emperor Augustus. The design of the upper and inner border and of the historiated initial is conservative in style and close to the work of Leonardo Bellini., and Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Parchment stays are adhered inside the quires. Rear pastedown (now lifted): parchment leaf from a lectionary, Italy (North?), 1050-1100; a parchment leaf, perhaps from the same manuscript, is concealed under front paper pastedown. Each leaf, with a stub, is folded around the front and back flyleaves, sewn, and glued down under the pastedowns. Original sewing on five tawed skin, slit straps laid in channels on the outside of beech boards and nailed. Yellow edges. Plain wound, natural color endbands are sewn on leather cores. Covered in brown calf with narrow corner tongues. There is a large, eight-petalled fitting in the central blind-tooled panel and four corner fittings have flower and agnus dei designs on them. The concentric outer frames are filled with rope interlace or small roses. The Marcello arms were stamped on each board on an inlaid leather shield which is wanting on the upper board. Spine: bands outlined with triple fillets, an X of three fillets in the panels. Four fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the upper one cut in for red fabric straps, attached with star-headed nails.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Bartolomeo, da Ferrara.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper (various watermarks) of a Collection of the letters and papal bulls of Pope Pius II. With other texts concerning the Pope's life and prayers for him after his death. The manuscript section of the codex is divided into 13 sections. Articles 1-3 are printed texts that were bound together with the manuscripts (arts. 4-21) in the 16th century
Description:
In Latin., Script: Each of the 13 sections written by a different scribe, usually in a cursive hand. Format and decoration differs from section to section. Rubrication throughout., Stains throughout suggest that the sections were once bound separately., and Binding: Sixteenth century. There are vellum stays from a 15th-century humanistic manuscript in the center of the quires. Original sewing on three double, twisted, vegetable fiber cords laced into square wooden boards. Plain wound endbands, also laced, and covered with the covering leather which is back-stitched around them. Covered in brown leather with corner tongues, blind-tooled with six-petalled flowers at the intersections of diamonds within a linear border. Brass clasp-and-catch fastening, the catch on the upper board. Rebacked, clasp and strap wanting.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Pius II, Pope, 1405-1464.
Subject (Topic):
Bulls, Papal, Epitaphs, Letters, Papal, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment roll, consisting of five skins pasted together, of an untitled list of 267 courses mentioning distances between two places and the bearing according to a 32-point compass, in Venetian dialect
Description:
In Italian (Venetian dialect)., Script: Written by one scribe in black ink except for five lines in red; of these lines 145 and 171 are no entries, but rubrics introducing the sections dealing with the Sea of Azov and the islands of the Aegean Sea respectively. The handwriting is a small Southern Gothica Textualis Libraria under Cancelleresca influence; the latter is most apparent in the shape of the letter g and in the horizontal approach strokes at the top of the ascenders., The majuscules are heightened in red., and Damp stains have damaged and even obliterated some parts of the text, especially in its first section.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Italy
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Medieval, Description and travel, and Manuscript maps
Manuscript on paper of records of the notary Branca de Bagnaria, dealing with the heritage of Giovanni Doria ("de Auria") claimed by Catarineta Doria, daughter of the late Dorino Doria, represented by her husband Araonus (or Alaonus) Marocellus. The court met on an almost daily basis from 22 Jan. to 23 Oct. 1444, less frequently from 18 March 1445 to 17 Nov. 1446, and at long intervals up to 17 June 1465
Description:
In Latin., Script: Various scribes, writing various forms of Gothica Semihybrida Currens generally difficult to decipher., No decoration., and Binding: Original limp parchment register with flap and wrapping band (partly replaced by cord) closing over the front cover, badly damaged (the upper part of the front cover torn away and a large hole in the rear cover and flap).
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Genoa (Italy)
Subject (Topic):
Court records, Manuscripts, Medieval, Probate records, and Politics and government
Manuscript on parchment (trimmed) of Hebrew Scripture. Written for Jacob, son of Rabbi Benjamin of Montalcino
Description:
In Hebrew., Script: Written in cursive Italian Hebrew script, with square initial letters., The extremely fine decoration is in the Florentine style of the third quarter of the 15th century. Two full-page miniatures: f. 2v David beheading Goliath (Psalms) and f. 110v Job on the dunghill, with the three tempters. Miniatures accompanied by elegantly illuminated full borders of pink and blue flowers with green stems and yellow fruit issuing from yellow vases; gold dots and hair-spray. Putti and brightly colored birds appear among foliate ornamentation. Polylobed and circular medallions with miniatures in borders. Other borders, without miniatures, contain medallions of busts of prophets, some holding scrolls. One border f. 30v without medallions. Borders of ff. 30v, 80r, 111r are less carefully executed than rest of illumination and may be by another artist. The opening word of Psalms 42, 73, 90 and 107, as well as of Job and Proverbs, occurs in a panel with foliate borders in burnished gold. First letter in each chapter of Psalms, and first word in each chapter of Job and Proverbs framed in red or blue (one in gold, f. 111r) with purple or red penwork flourishes., and Binding: Seventeenth century. Red calf over beech boards, gold-tooled with a floral border and flower vases and arabesques in the center. Gilt, gauffered edges and woodblock paste paper endleaves and pastedowns.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval and Manuscripts, Medieval