Manuscript on paper of a private compilation. The two well known works entered into the codex deal with magical properties ascribed to certain gems and the supernatural significance of the carving of stones. Together with these formal texts are found other extremely varied materials: procedures for restoring wine which has suffered various accidents, for making glass of different colors, for the early ripening of grapes, for making an ass bray loudly, for frightening dogs, and so forth
Description:
In Latin and Italian., Watermark: unidentified flower-petal., Script: Probably written by a single hand, employing a Gothico antiqua on ff. 1-11r, with a less formal treatment of the same elsewhere, and more cursive writing for the passages in Italian; the writing relatively careful at the beginning, progressively less so until the end., Red ink for most headings, red capitals and paragraph marks, except on f. 11v-12r and 16v-17r, which are without color., Lower margins affected by damp throughout and partly repaired with blank paper., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Paper boards, more recent gilt-stamped label on backstrip.
Ballatette del magnifico Lorenzo de Medici & di messere Agnolo Politiani & di Bernardo Giamburlari & di molti altri and Se intender uuoi della storia leffecto
Description:
Contemporary ms. notes, corrections and pagination., Most sources identify the printer of this work as Bartolomeo di Libri, printing for Piero Pacini. Libri was active as a printer in Florence from ca. 1482-1511. Pacini was active from 1495-1514. BM STC Italian gives the date of printing as 1505?; Proctor, BMC and Sander all list it as undated., Printer statement from colophon., Signatures: a-c⁸ d⁶., Title from caption on recto of leaf a2., Woodcut hand-colored., and Woodcut on recto of leaf a1.
Publisher:
Finite lecanzone aballo a petitione di ser Piero Pacini da Pescia,
Manuscript on parchment of Caesar, Bellum Gallicum, translated into Italian by Pier Candido Decembrio in 1438. With Dedication of the translation to Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan.
Description:
Binding: Date? Italy. Vellum case with title in ink on spine: "Cesare Comment". Gilt, gauffered edges and gold and cream silk endbands. Fragments of a printed service book with musical notation partially visible under pastedowns., Elegant illuminated title page (f. 2v) with the title, written in blue over an erasure, in a circular wreath, green with gold flowers, and framed by narrow gold bands with fillets and inkspray issuing from the top and bottom with blue and deep red flowers, green leaves and gold balls. Full border, f. 1r, white vine-stem ornament on blue, green, deep red and gold ground between thin gold frames. In lower border, medallion, blank, framed by wreath, green with yellow highlights and narrow deep red frame. Partial border, f. 3r, white vine-stem ornament on blue, green and deep red ground between narrow gold frames, enlarged to elongated dots at terminals; white vine-stem ornament extends into upper (trimmed) and lower margins, with single gold balls with hair-line strokes. 8 large initials, 11- to 3-line, gold on blue, green, gold and deep red ground with white vine-stem ornament shaded with pale pink. First few words of each book in gold; incipits, explicits and marginalia in red., and Script: Written below top line in a bold round humanistic hand by a single scribe who added extra rulings in outer margins for headings, annotations, etc., in red. Additional annotations in humanistic cursive, in a brighter shade of red.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome--History, Military--265-30 B.C
Subject (Name):
Caesar, Julius
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Books I (parts 1 and 2)-II, in an unidentified and freely adapted Italian translation (e.g., the opening portion of Book II is greatly abbreviated).
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Sewn on four tawed skin, slit straps nailed in channels on the outside of wooden boards. Yellow edges. Pink, green and cream endbands sewn on five cores. Covered in dark red goatskin with corner tongues, blind-tooled with a central ornament in a panel bordered with rope interlace in concentric frames. Two fastenings, leaf-shaped catches on the lower board and the upper board cut in for the clasp straps. Rebacked twice., Purchased from L. C. Witten in 1955 by Thomas E. Marston., Script: Written in an elegant, upright mercantesca script by a single scribe, below top line., and Spaces for headings and decorative initials remain unfilled. Initial on f. 1r later addition.
Subject (Geographic):
Egypt--History--To 640 A.D
Subject (Name):
Diodorus,--Siculus
Subject (Topic):
History, Ancient, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library