Manuscript on paper (sturdy; various unidentified watermarks) of Virgil, Aeneis. Some lines lacking; most were presumably on leaves that became detached and have fallen out. Prefaced to each book are ten or eleven lines in verse. The text of Vergil is accompanied on ff. 1r-5v by marginal and interlinear glosses, the greater portion of which are derived from or an adaptation of Servius. The commentary does, however, include notes (some in Greek) independent of Servius
Description:
In Latin., Script: Part I (ff. 1-6): Written in humanistic cursive by a single scribe; apparently added later to replace lost leaves. Part II (ff. 7-57): Written in fere-humanistic script by one scribe. Spaces left for initials. A large gap in the text occurs between Parts II and III (6.587 to 7.744). Part III (ff. 58-112): Written by a single scribe in a script similar to that in Part II., Spaces left for initials., Many pages unattached due to the brittle binding., and Binding: 16th-17th centuries (?). Sewn on three slit leather straps. There is no indication of an earlier sewing, but the book was extensively mended before it was sewn. Tawed cores of plain wound endbands laid in grooves. Beech boards with rectangular channels on the outside in which the straps are nailed. The spine is lined with brown leather and the book covered in dark brown sheepskin faintly blind-tooled with a central diamond made up of arches with small ornaments scattered in and around it. Tongue turn-ins. There are two catches on the lower board and traces of red and cream silk ribbons nailed to the upper one with star-headed nails. The title is painted in red on the spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Servius, active 4th century. and Virgil.
Subject (Topic):
Epic poetry, Latin, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Scholia
Manuscript on parchment (poor quality) of 1) Herman de Valenciennes, Bible. 2) Herman de Valenciennes, L'Assomption de Notre Dame. Often found, as here, following the poem on the Bible by the same author. 3) Petrus Alphonsus, Disciplina clericalis, followed by three moral precepts. 4) Poem in Anglo-Norman on Genesis. 5) Robert de Ho, Les Enseignements de Robert de Ho. 6) Extract from the romance Partenopeus de Blois. 7) Vie de saint Eustache. 8) Letter of Prester John to Emperor Manuel Comnenus, tr. into Anglo-Norman verse by Raoul d'Arundel; this is the earliest translation of the letter (ante A.D. 1200), and the only one known in French verse. 9) Guillaume le Clerc, Bestiaire. 10) Notes on the influence of the moon. 11) Le voyage du Chevalier Owen au purgatoire de saint Patrice. 12) Wace, Roman de Brut. Some 15th-century glosses, in Middle English and Latin, occur in the text
Description:
In Anglo-Norman and Latin., Script: Written by 6 scribes in large gothic bookhand. Scribe 1: ff. 1r-75r, 111r-130v, 153r-183v (characterized by decorative descenders in final line of text); Scribe 2: ff. 75r-97v (z with small horizontal crossbar); Scribe 3: ff. 98r-110r, 131r-152v, 189r-201v, 212v-216v (exaggerated ascenders in top line of text); Scribe 4: ff. 184r-188v; Scribe 5: second column of f. 201v (crude script); Scribe 6: ff. 202r-212r, 216v-224v (poorly formed)., 4-line initials, divided blue and red (ff. 111r, 153r, 189r), with penwork in red and blue or red only. 3- and 2-line initials, red with blue penwork or vice versa (quire VI lacks flourishes on initials). Paragraph marks in red or blue; some rubrics at beginning of articles. 1-line initials stroked with yellow or red. Ink drawings in margins include King Arthur (f. 189r)., Early repairs with parchment throughout; no loss of text. Waterstains, ff. 221v-224r. Rubbing on f. 224v has caused some loss of text in col. a., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Diced red/brown calf, gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Anglo-Norman poetry, Bestiaries, Christian poetry, French, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Romances, Anglo-Norman
Manuscript fragment on parchment of an antiphonary containing St. Paul (30 June).
Description:
In Latin., Script: written in gothic script (littera textualis)., and Decoration: initials of antiphons and responses are 1-line red capitals; 1-line initials for verses and Psalm incipits are in brown highlighted with red; rubrics written in red in the same script as the text; punctuated with the punctus; hyphenation in the same ink as the text; interlinear neumes in the St. Gall style, somewhat surprising in a manuscript of this date; differentiae in roman numerals with neumes in the St. Gall style are in the outer margins for antiphons with full text.
Manuscript fragment on parchment of an antiphonary containing: the Annunciation (25 March); Responsories from the book of Job and Psalms; and a computistical table for calculating the time between Christmas and Shrove Tuesday, with explicatory notes in German
Description:
In Latin and German., Script: written by three scribes in gothic script (littera textualis); one scribed copied fol. 1, another copied fol. 2r, and a third copies fol. 2v., and Decoration: 2-line initials at the beginning of the antiphon on fol. 1 are in red; the guide letters for these initials are still visible in light brown ink and some have been ornamented, including one with a crude figure of a person; 2-line initials at the beginning of verses on fol. 1 are in black with black penwork; fol. 2v begins with a very crude 2-line round D in red; rubrics written in red; musical notation is in black and on fol. 1 is on a 4-line staff in black; on fol. 2r it is on a 5-line staff in black; punctuated with the punctus.
Manuscript fragment on parchment of an antiphonary containing: Sts. Cosmas and Damian (27 September); Archangel Michael (29 September); St. Dionysius (9 October); and St. Gall (16 October).
Description:
In Latin., Script: written in gothic script (littera textualis formata)., and Decoration: The offices of Archangel Michael and of St. Gall begin with 2-line initials in red and blue; the insider of the letters is decorated with an animal on a red and green ground surrounded by red and blue penwork and white dots; the outside of the letters is surrounded by red and blue penwork; 2-line initials of antiphons and responses alternate red and blue; the 2-line initial of the verse is in brown highlighted with red; the left margins of both versos are decorated with red and blue designs, which are topped by an animal head in red on fol. 1v; musical notation is in black on a 5-line staff in black; punctuated with the punctus.
Manuscript fragment on parchment of an antiphonary containing the Assumption of Mary (15 August).
Description:
In Latin., Script: written in early Gothic script., and Decoration: initials of the first antiphons of lauds and of second vespers are 1-line red capitals; other 1-line initials are in brown rustic capitals; those for the antiphons and responses of matins are dotted or traced in red; rubrics are written in red rustic capitals; the name "maria" is sometimes written with uncial "M" and mostly with capital "R"; punctuated with the punctus; chants and marginal tonary letters have neumes in the St. Gall style.
Manuscript fragment on parchment of an antiphonary containing: Common of the Martyrs; Common of a Confessor
Description:
In Latin., Script: written in two sizes of gothic script (littera textualis)., and Decoration: 1- and 2-line initials at the beginning of chants are in brown highlighted with red; rubrics are written in red in the same script as the text; square musical notation in block on four-line red staff; punctuated with the punctus; hyphenation in the same ink as the text.
Manuscript fragment on parchment of an antiphonary containing the Common of Martyrs
Description:
In Latin., Script: written in gothic script (littera textualis)., and Decoration: 4-line initial "A" in red and blue ornamented with red and blue penwork; chant initials alternate as 2-line blue initials and 1-line red initials; other 1-line capitals in black; rubrics written in red minuscule; musical notation is in black on 4-line staves in red; punctuated with the punctus.
Manuscript on paper of Apocryphal Gospel Books and Miracles of the Virgin, including 1) Evangelium infantiae; 2) Liber passionis et resurrectionis Iesu Christi; 3) miracle legends about the Virgin
Description:
In Italian., Script: Copied by two scribes. Hand 1, the notary Franciscus Salvator (Francesco Salvatore) from Ventimiglia, copied artt. 1-4 in Gothica Semihybrida Libraria (Mercantesca). Hand 2 copied artt. 5-6 in Gothica Hybrida Libraria/Currens (Mercantesca)., Decoration: Long red headings up to f. 29r (artt. 1-2). In artt. 3-4, space for headings was provided, but they were not executed. Space was reserved for 2-line initials, but these were not executed. Artt. 4 and 5 are undecorated; there are no guide letters for the 1-line initials at the opening of each of these articles, for which space was reserved., and Binding: 20th century, brown leather and wooden boards. Spine has three raised bands.
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Le livre de Lancelot du Lac, part III. 2) La queste del Saint Graal. 3) La mort au Roy Artus
Description:
In French., Script: Written in elegant gothic textura by one scribe, with a few interlinear corrections in later hands (14th and 15th centuries)., The decoration of this lavishly illuminated manuscript consists of seventy-seven large column miniatures, fifty-one smaller miniatures, and thirty-six historiated initials. Miniatures and historiated initials by at least two artists, the scale and quality of whose work distinguish the manuscript from contemporary and most fourteenth-century Arthurian manuscripts., Large miniatures, 12- to 11-lines, one column, framed and usually divided into two registers by thin bands, gold, red and/or blue with white highlights, edged in black, sometimes with arched canopies, often with architectural elements protruding (a few frames composed of thicker bands); figures in black pen against burnished gold (occasionally with painted gold diaperwork), blue or black grounds; chief colors: light blue, dark blue, grey, light brown, white, maroon, with some orange, green and gold. Borders on folios with large miniatures of a variety and inventiveness that defy strict classification: gold, red, and blue bands, edged in black, also running between, below and/or above text columns, terminating in dragons, dragon or human heads, groteques or, most commonly, floral spirals, some with frets, blue and red with white highlights and orange and green dots, against gold, blue and/or maroon cusped grounds, often with pinwheel-like projections. The borders are populated with magnificent grotesques and marginalia in the same style as the miniatures, many of them of a narrative or satirical character; some of these incorporate coats of arms., Small miniatures, 5- to 6-line, 1/2 text column, often with a 2-line initial inserted in upper right corner, otherwise as above, with border decoration on a smaller scale and unattached to miniature. Historiated initials, 5-line (letters without ascenders or descenders) to 13-line, red and/or blue, with geometric motifs in paler shades of red and blue, white, with touches of orange, against gold grounds, edged in black, with long dragon and floral serifs, as above, against cusped gold grounds; figures in same style as miniatures, against gold grounds., Illuminated initials, 3- to 1-line, gold, with globular serifs, edged thickly in black, against irregular red and blue grounds, also edged in black, with white floral filigree or heraldic birds, in white; flowers touched in with orange. On folios without miniatures (except ff. 2v-8v), a thin gold band runs along the left side of each text column, interrupted by initials, with a thin red pen-line on either side; adjacent, to the left, a column of I's each 3-line and blue and red alternately, with small spiral and curlicue flourishes, terminating in large flourishes in red or blue on alternate openings, each with pinwheel-like arms projecting from a central spiral with small petals and flourishes in blue and red; design of the terminal flourishes varies from one gathering to another; some with naturalistic leaves and flowers or fleurs-de-lis; terminals on ff. 1v-2r by the same hand as penwork initials on those folios. Line-fillers of varying design: two pairs of blue and red tapering bands, heraldically arranged and joined at center by red flower; undulating red line with red and/or blue balls under and over each crest and trough; red zigzag with blue infilling and spiral flourishes at terminals; alternating red and blue flowers; red and blue dots, etc., Some folios stained; f. 253 slashed in margin; f. 361 cut right across and glued together., and Binding: 2003. Full alum-tawed goatskin. See conservation treatment report for full description. Former binding stored in separate box: 18th century. Light brown calf blind- and gold-tooled. Sewing holes in inner margins.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Arthurian romances, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval