Written in 66 or 79 long lines; one side only, no rulings. Written in 2 different hands, both informal batarde. Stains and remnants of paste; used as pastedowns and binding reinforcements.
Description:
3 fragments, 70 x 80 mm., ca. 155 x 69 mm., and ca. 55 x 550 mm., the largest dated 1525., Parchment, and Subjects unidentified.
Manuscript, on parchment, containing copies of several treatises: 1) Tractatus de Sacramento Corpus Christi, by Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury (ff. 1-26); 2) De Vero Sapientia, Dialogus I and II, attributed here to Petrarch (now believed to be by Nicholas of Cusa) (ff. 27-50v); 3) De Invidia, Niccolò Perotti's translation of a sermon by Basil the Great, with a preface addressed to Pope Nicholas V (ff. 51-63); 4) De invidia et odio, Niccolò Perotti's translation of a work by Petrarch, with a preface addressed to Pope Nicholas V (ff. 63v-68v); 5) De fortuna virtute ve nominum: ad Nicolaum quintum pontificem maximum, by Niccolò Perotti (69-73v); 6) Epistle LXVII to Simplician, by St. Ambrose (ff. 74-79v); 7) Ex sermonibus quadragesimalibus: Sermone de correctione fraterna, by Leonardo di Utino, O.P. (80-86v); 8) Speculum regis Edwardii tercii, attributed here to Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury (now recognized as the work of William Pagula) (ff. 87-148, with skip from 89 to 100); 9) De tenenda obedientia et evitanda superbia, by St. Augustine (ff. 148-152).
Manuscript on parchment of a Middle English text of the Book of Sir John Mandeville, probably related to the "Defective Version." Biblical quotations in Middle English on f63v-f64v.
Alternative Title:
Itinerarium. English
Description:
Annotation, in a later hand, on f1r: Sir John Mandevile's Travails., Binding: 18th-century full mottled calf, gilt. Spine label reads: Mandevil's travails., From the collection of John Theyer; from the collection of John Barwick of Charing; ex libris Walter Sneyd; ex libris Sir Thomas Brooke; from the collection of Sir John Arthur Brooke (Sotheby's London sale 25 May 1921, lot 921); from the collection of Sir R. Leicester Harmsworth (Sotheby's London sale 15 October 1945, lot 2023). Purchased from Martayan Lan Rare Books on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Fund, 2011., Opening illuminated initial with ivy-leaf sprays into margins and 17 blue initials with extensive red penwork flourishing. Three contemporary or near-contemporary marginal drawings, one with color wash, of manicula., Script: cursive anglicana hand in brown ink; 32 lines per page., Side notes and notation marks in various hands, 15th-17th century., Sir John Mandeville is the suppositious author of the "travel" book known as the Book of Sir John Mandeville, or Mandeville's Travels. Written in the 14th century in Anglo-Norman French, it was widely popular and thought to be an accurate account of a knight's journey through Europe, the Middle East and Asia., and Title supplied by cataloger.
Subject (Name):
Harmsworth, R. Leicester--(Robert Leicester),--Sir,--1870-1937--Ownership, Mandeville, John,--Sir, Sneyd, Walter,--1809-1888--Bookplate, and Theyer, John,--1597-1673--Autograph
Subject (Topic):
English prose literature--Middle English, 1100-1500, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Voyages and travels--Early works to 1800