Manuscript on parchment (thin, good quality) of 1) Tacitus, Annales XI-XVI. 2) Tacitus, Historiae I-V. Written for King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-90), perhaps by Italians at his palace of Buda
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by a single scribe in a well formed humanistic script., Twelve initials, 7- to 2-line, at beginning of each book (2 at the beginning of the Annales), gold edged in black, with white vine ornament, against a panelled ground of blue, green and mauve, with white dots, outlined with one or two thin white and one black line; ivy, drawn or pen, with triangular gold leaves or dots, projecting from corners into margins. On f. 1r, the initial includes a putto in the vinework; in the lower margin, coat of arms of Corvinus, type A (quarterly, first and fourth barry of 8 gules and argent [Hungary]; second and third gules, a lion rampant and queue-fourche argent [Bohemia]; an inescutcheon azur with raven sable holding an annulet or, with bordure or [Hunyadi family]. Workmanship of fair quality; style Northern Italian (?)., and Binding: Fifteenth century. Sewn on three tawed, slit straps laid in channels in beech boards. The straps are pegged and the channels filled in with plaster as are the endband grooves and the edge channels cut out for the clasps. The primary endband is plain, wound, and sewn on a tawed core and the secondary is beaded and colored. The core is laid in a groove and pegged. The square spine is given a slightly round shape by the bevelling of the boards and is lined with a tawed skin. Covered in dark, brick-red goatskin with a cusped shield azur, charged with a crow sable (Hunyadi family), in the center of each board; blind-tooled rope work, punch dots and other ornamentation gilt, gold-tooled or painted. "Cornelius Tacitus" is tooled along the head of the lower cover and is also written down the fore-edge with black ink. There are four fastenings, the brass catches on the lower board, with three of them covered over with added leather. The clasps are the same color as the cover and are reinforced with parchment. They are pegged in channels at the edges of the board, underneath the cover. The clasps and a little leather of the spine and the upper board are wanting.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Rome
Subject (Name):
Matthias I, King of Hungary, 1443-1490. and Tacitus, Cornelius.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin prose literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on goatskin parchment of 1) St Basil of Ancyra, De vera integritate virginitatis. Translated into Latin by Ambrogio Traversari between 1423-1424; 2) St John Chrysostom, Adversus oppugnatores vitae monasticae. Translated into Latin by Ambrogio Traversari in 1420
Description:
In Latin., Script: Copied by one scribe, writing in Humanistica Semitextualis with a few Gothic features., Pale red rubrics. Text undecorated, with the following exceptions: plain 2-4-line initials (Capitalis) in red or blue on pp. 1, 152, 155, 188; 5-line white vinestem initial integrated in a three-margins-left border in the same style on p. 3; the initial and border have been attributed by Albinia C. de la Mare to Giovanni d'Antonio Varnucci (1416-1457)., and Binding: 19th-20th centuries; brown morocco over cardboard. Both covers are blind-tooled with frames of fillets and four different flower tools. Five raised bands are on the spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Traversari, Ambrogio, 1386-1439.
Subject (Topic):
Fathers of the church, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Monastic and religious life
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 Jacopo Zeno, Vita Caroli Zeni. With a dedicatory preface to Pope Pius II. This manuscript is of special importance because it contains the complete work
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in humanistic script by Franciscus de Tianis of Pistoia., On f. 1r, a foliage border which includes hares, stork, vase, and arms of the Piccolomini family (argent, a cross azur with 5 crescents or; surmounted by keys in saltire argent and a papal tiara; supported by a pair of angels). Eleven elaborate initials, 11- to 7-line, in gold, red, blue, and green entwined with foliage. The style of decoration is decidedly Roman., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Brownish-red goatskin, gold-tooled; pale green and gold, Dutch gilt paper boards.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Zeno, Carlo, 1334-1418. and Zeno, Jacopo, 1417-1481.
Subject (Topic):
Biography, Crusades, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper (with various watermarks), composed of five separate manuscripts bound together. Parts I and II were written in the 15th century and III-V in the 17th century. Part I: Vita di San Petronio. Part II: Tommaso Nacci Caffarini, Tractatus de stigmatibus extractus, the second part of the book De supplemento legende beate Katerine de senis. Part III: Federico Borromeo, Vita S. Caroli Borromei. Part IV: Pope Pius II, De morte eugenij Quarti creationeque et coronatione Niccolai V oratio. Part V: Thomas Obicinus, Motiuo Celeste diretto in questo segnato tempo
Description:
In Latin and Italian., Script: Part I: Round humanistic by a single scribe. Part II: Small neat round textura in a single hand. Part III: Written by one scribe in a calligraphic italic hand. Part IV: Written in italic hand by a single scribe. Part V: Written in a small italic hand by one scribe., Part I: Simple penwork initials in red or blue, some with penwork designs of the other color. Part II: Uninspired and badly rubbed historiated initial (Christ [?] displaying stigmata) on gold background with three gold dots, f. 19r; small decorative initials in red with black penwork designs, or blue with red. Paragraph marks in red or blue., The manuscript has been damaged and repaired extensively. Parts I and III: Waterstained and mended throughout. Part II: Folios have been trimmed with some loss of marginalia., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Vellum and paste paper case.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Petronius, Saint, Bishop of Bologna, d. ca. 445.
Subject (Topic):
Christian hagiography, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, Papal documents, and Stigmatization
Manuscript on parchment of Plutarch, Vitae, translated into Latin by Leonardo Bruni
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in an upright italic by a single scribe., Small, 4-line, white vine initials, one to commence each work, gold, infilled with pink and green with white dots, all on a blue ground; gold dots and hairsprays., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Green goatskin with red labels on spine. Delicately gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Rome
Subject (Name):
Plutarch.
Subject (Topic):
Biography, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on paper. The compiler of this unidentified world chronicle cites as sources Sallust, Suetonius, Josephus, Orosius, Macrobius, Eusebius, Origen, Eutropius, Sigebertus, Hugh of Fleury, and many others. The chronicle concludes at the end of the twelfth century; the date of composition is given in the final section as 1183 in the reign of Frederick Barbarossa (1155-90). The text of the manuscript is continuous, with no book and few chapter notations
Description:
Written in the middle of the 15th century, perhaps ca. 1456 when the codex was given to John Capgrave by Jacobus de Oppenheim. Capgrave was elected in August of 1455 to another 2-year term as head of the English Augustinian Province. In 1457 he resumed his literary interests, including work on a universal chronicle from the beginning of the world until the year 1417; this endeavor resulted in the Chronicle of England produced ca. 1462., In Latin., Script: Written by three scribes. Scribe 1) ff. 1r-105v, 60 lines of text written in a small and even, slightly rounded gothic bookhand. Scribe 2) ff. 105v-110v (end of quire XI), 112r-114r, 40 lines of text in a small notarial hand with some shading of descenders. Scribe 3) ff. 111r-v, 114r-405r, 55-58 lines of text in a dark gothic script characterized by fine hair-lines and curved flourishes over the letter i., Decoration changes according to scribe. Scribe 1: Guide-letters for initials never supplied. Rubrics (in upright gothic), paragraph marks and initial strokes in red. Scribe 2: Rubrics (ff. 105v-110v only) in same hand as preceding section; rubrics for ff. 112r-114r as for Scribe 3. Paragraph marks and initial strokes in red. Guide-letters for initials never supplied. Scribe 3: Decorative initials (signalled by guide-letters), in red, with protruberances and hair-lines. Notes to rubricator in inner and outer margins. Rubrics (beginning f. 111r) in same hand as text; paragraph marks, often exaggerated, in red., and Binding: Fifteenth century (Italian?). Sewn on four tawed slit straps laced into wooden boards. Covered in brown goatskin, blind-tooled with concentric frames of alternating fillets and rope interlace, the central panel filled with interlace. Four fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the straps, now wanting, attached with seven star-headed nails. Parchment strips from unidentified manuscripts reinforce center of each gathering. Remains of a paper or vellum label with lettering in ink near head of lower board and trace of a chain base at the tail. Heavily restored.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, and World history