Manuscript on parchment of 1) Curtius Rufus, Historia Alexandri Magni, translated into Italian and supplemented with material from Plutarch by Pier Candido Decembrio. 2) Pier Candido Decembrio, Comparazione di Cesare e d'Alessandro Magno.
Description:
Binding: 15th-16th centuries, Italy. Sewn on four tawed skin, slit straps laid in channels on the outside of wooden boards and pegged. Gilt edges. Covered in brown goatskin with corner tongues, and blind-tooled with a ropework star inside painted (red) and blind-tooled circles inside a floral border, all with metallic annular dots. There are traces of four leaf-shaped fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the upper one cut in for fabric straps attached with star-headed nails. Rebacked twice., One illuminated intial, 6-line, gold against blue, green and pink ground with white vine-stem ornament, extending into inner margin to form a partial border; terminating at top and bottom in pen inkspray with buds in green and pink and gold balls with hair-line extensions. Plain initials, 3- to 2-line, in blue, mark text divisions; headings in pale red., Purchased from Lathrop C. Harper in 1949 by Thomas E. Marston., and Script: Written by a single scribe in a slightly rounded humanistic bookhand with many cursive elements, below top line.
Subject (Name):
Caesar, Julius, Decembrio, Pier Candido,--1399-1477, Plutarch, and Rufus, Curtius
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature--15th century, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, Satirae. With a Survey of the Satires copied in Satirae, with their incipits and subjects and Quotations and proverbs, added by a later hand.
Description:
Binding: Original Italian brown leather over thin wooden boards, the covers blind-tooled and decorated with gold dots. Spine with three raised bands. Remnants of two clasps, attached to the front cover by means of brass nails with engraved heads; palmette-shaped thin brass catches fixed to the rear cover with three nails each. The pastedowns and flyleaves are covered with carefully written notes and quotations on grammar, morals, education, etymology and meaning of rare words, variant readings in classical texts, etc., Script: Copied by one hand in careful Humanistica Textualis., and Space for headings was provided at the head of each Satire, but the headings were not executed. Satt. 2-16 open with a 3-line (6-line Satt. 6 and 7) plain initial (Capitalis) in blue. On f. 1r (Sat. 1) 6-line white vinestem initial integrated in a three-margins left border in the same style and colours; in the lower section of the latter, between two birds, there is a damaged coat of arms in a wreath. Guide letters.
Subject (Name):
Juvenal
Subject (Topic):
Classical education, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Satire, Latin
Manuscript on paper containing letters by or related to Lapo da Castiglionchio (d. 1381), and his family: 1) Lapo da Castiglionchio, Letter, written in 1377, to his son Bernardo, canon of the cathedral of Florence, then 14 years old, containing an elaborate treatise in three parts dealing with political and historical questions. 2) Bernardo da Castiglionchio (1363-1383), Letter to his father Lapo, in which he thanks him for the education and protection his father has provided and in particular for the extensive letter he has written in reply to his questions. 3) Bernardo da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Lapo, of about the same time, in which he resumes the theme of the nobility of the Castiglionchio family and provides a panegyric of his father with details about his career. 4) Francesco da Castiglionchio (second half of the fourteenth century), Letter to his father Alberto, brother of Lapo, written 8 June 1381 or slightly later. Describes the coronation of Charles III, King of Naples and Sicily (1381-1386) by Pope Urban VI in the church of St. Peter in Rome on 2 June 1381, an event in the preparation of which Lapo had an important role. 5) Francesco da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Alberto staying at Verona, dated 17 July 1381 and relating the death of Alberto's brother Lapo, which happened in Rome on 27 June of the same year after a short illness, a couple of weeks after the coronation of Charles III, which had been so important for the improvement of the Castiglionchio family. 6) Niccolò Acciaiuoli (1310-1365), Extracts from a letter, dated 26 Dec. 1364, to the Florentine merchant Angelo Soderini (d. 1377) established in Avignon.
Description:
Binding: Seventeenth century (?). Brown leather with artificial cross grain over cardboard. Blind-tooled spine with four raised bands and gold-tooled inscription in the second compartment: “CASTIGLIONCHIO / EPISTOLE”. Below a small oval paper label with the number “7” in red ink. Yellow spine., Headings and explicit formulas in pale red ink; marginal captions and notes in the same colour or in black; paragraph marks in pale red ink. 4-line initials (Capitalis) in blue (missing f. 2v), at the opening of each art. and of the subdivisions of art. 1. On f. 1r 7-line white vinestem initial integrated into left margin border of the same style. In the lower margin, in a wreath, the Volognano-Castiglionchio coat of arms: silver, with four chains azure in saltire and castle azure. Running headlines in pale red Capitalis in art. 1 only., On the author, a Florentine poet, friend of Petrarch, professor of Canon Law, lawyer, diplomat, politician, see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, v. 22 (1979), pp. 40-44., and Script: Copied by one hand in careful Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. The first line of each text and some headings are in Capitalis.
Subject (Geographic):
Florence (Italy)--History
Subject (Name):
Castiglionchio, Lapo da,--d. 1381
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Nobility--Italy
Illuminated frontispiece picturing the coats-of-arms of Spinelli, of the city of Florence, and of Pope Eugenius IV.
Subject (Geographic):
Florence (Italy)
Subject (Name):
Eugene--IV,--Pope,--1383-1447
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of 1) Prologue by the translator, addressed to Henry of Lusignan, Prince of Galilee (d. 1427). 2) Plutarchus (c. 46-120), Vita Luculli, Latin translation by Leonardus Iustinianus (Leonardo Giustiniani, 1388-1446). 3) Plutarchus, Comparatio vitarum Cimonis atque Luculli, Latin translation by Leonardus Iustinianus.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century. Quarter brown leather (with corners) and reddish brown marbled paper over cardboard. Gold-tooled flat spine with inscription: “PLUTARCHI VITA LUCULLI LATINE M.S.”., Headings in pale red. Art. 1 opens with a 6-line initial in red with the pen drawing for unexecuted white vinestem decoration. The 6-line initial at the head of art. 2 is purplish red on a blue background delicately heightened with silver arabesques, extended in the margin with red and green acanthus leaves. At the bottom of the same f. 387r there was a coat of arms flanked by two fleur-de-lys and four balls in purplish red and blue and red ribbons; the coat of arms has been cut out and the page has been repaired with a piece of paper; on it a modern coat of arms accompanied by the initials W and S (Walter Sneyd) is drawn in pencil., and Script: Copied by one scribe in a broad Humanistica Textualis Formata of "typographic" character and marked by unusual features such as the occasional use of round s in medial position and long i in final position, and inconsistencies in the use of ae/ẹ, the form of final s and m, etc. Majuscules at the beginning of lines protrude into the margin. Line fillers in the shape of expunged i.
Subject (Name):
Lucullus,--ca. 117 B.C.-ca. 56 B.C and Plutarch
Subject (Topic):
Biography--To 500, 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 Naldo Naldi, Oratio ad Andream Vendraminium (doge of Venice 1476-78).
Description:
Binding: 15th-16th centuries, Italy. Sewn on three tawed skin, slit straps laced through tunnels in the edge of beech boards to channels on the outside and nailed. Gilt edges. Fragment of head endband. The spine is lined with tawed skin between supports. Covered in red silk with traces of four fastenings on each board., One illuminated initial of average quality, 3-line, gold against blue ground with gold filigree. Filled with half-length portrait of the doge dressed in red robes and a red hat against green ground. Dedication, 5 lines, in alternating lines of gold and blue majuscules followed by the first three lines of text in red majuscules., Script: Written in a round humanistic hand, below top line, by the poet Tommaso Baldinotti of Pistoia (1451-1511)., and The margins of f. 1 have been trimmed away from the written space, which was then mounted on another piece of parchment conjugate to the front pastedown; hence, any marginal decoration, which may have included a coat of arms, is now lost.
Subject (Geographic):
Venice (Italy)
Subject (Name):
Naldi, Naldo,--1439-ca. 1520 and Vendramin, Andrea,--1392-1478
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Speeches, addresses, etc., Latin (Medieval and modern)
Manuscript on paper of 1) Ps.-Cyprianus Carthaginensis (Pseudo-Cyprian of Carthage or Pseudo-Augustine), De singularitate clericorum. 2) Ps.-Augustinus Hipponensis (Pseudo-Augustine), De incarnatione Verbi ad Ianuarium. 3) Pseudo-Augustine, De essentia divinitatis. 4) Letter from the bishops assembled at the council of Carthage, A.D. 416, to pope Innocentius I. 5) Letter of pope Innocentius I to the bishops at the council of Carthage A.D. 416. 6) Letter from the bishops assembled at the council of Mileve A.D. 416 to pope Innocent I. 7) Innocentius I, letter to the bishops assembled at the council of Mileve A.D. 416. 8) Prayer to be said before the image of Corpus Christi. 9) Prayer to Jesus Christ. 10) Prayer to Jesus Christ ascribed to Thomas Aquinas.
Description:
Binding: Original Italian reddish brown leather over pasteboard with a flap at the rear cover closing over the front cover with leather ties. Covers and flap are blind-tooled with frames and lozenges of quadruple fillets, decorated with small circular tools either single or in clusters, and a full border consisting of a scroll motif. At the top of the front cover, in black ink, Capitalis ca. 1500: “Aur. (?) Augustini opus”. Parchment flyleaves. On the front flyleaf verso a Table of Content written in red by hand A, recording artt. 1-7 only, under the title “Que in hoc libello inserte sunt”., Headings in purplish red. Spaces for 1- or 2-line initials have been reserved throughout the codex (in artt. 1-3 with guide letters), but these have not been executed, except in artt. 8-10, where they have been clumsily written in black ink in the left margin. At the opening of art. 1, 3-line half inset Humanistic dentelle initial on a square background in green and blue decorated with silver and gold penwork. It has floral extensions with gold balls in the upper and inner margin. In the lower margin of the same f. 1r, between three similar floral decorations, a circular medallion containing the coat of arms of the Ugolini family of Florence (parti per bend, or on azure, with two lions passant counter changed, surmounting)., and Script: Two hands, both writing a very small Humanistica hesitating between Semitextualis Currens and Cursiva Currens. A, the main scribe, copied ff. 1r-60v; B, an inexperienced hand, marked by the use of d with ascender curving to the right, i longa and round s in all positions, added the prayers on ff. 61r-63r.
Subject (Name):
Council of Carthage--(411) and Pseudo-Augustinus
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Pelagianism, and Theology--History--Early church, ca. 30-600
Manuscript on paper of Antoninus Pontus (Antonino Ponti from Cosenza, ca. 1600-1650), Rhomitypion. An allegorical treatise in three parts on the past and present state of Rome and Italy, topography, cosmography, geography, etc. Includes a dream vision of heaven and a dialogue between the author and Cato the Censor. Ends with a panegyric in praise of Giovanni Ruffo de' Teodoli, Archbishop of Cosenza (1511-1527), the author's patron. The manuscript is apparently unique and probably an autograph fair copy.
Description:
At many places the paper is damaged and the reading impaired by the acidity of the ink., Belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps, MS 887. Purchased on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund., Binding: Original presentation binding: light brown leather over pasteboard. Spine with three raised bands, gauffered and gilt edges. Both covers are decorated with two frames of blind-tooled quadruple fillets surrounding rich gold-tooled frames with in the centre on the front cover the coat of arms of the dedicatee (with six-spoked wheel), on the rear cover a large rosette. Remainders of two pairs of ties., On f. 2v, painted coat of arms of Giovanni Ruffo de' Teodoli, Archbishop of Cosenza, surmounted by a cross and placed in a floral wreath, above two distychs. At the head of each part a 6-line silver initial (Capitalis), outlined with black ink, on a square red or blue background with silver foliate decoration. A small purple initial in the space for a 4-line initial on f. 4r., and Script: Copied by one hand in a slightly uneven upright Humanistica Cursiva Formata. Headings and explicit-incipit formulas in capitals.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome (Italy)--Description and travel
Subject (Name):
Ponti, Antonino
Subject (Topic):
Allegory, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Laudatory poetry, Latin, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Visions
Manuscript on parchment of Gottofredo da Trani, Summa super titulis Decretalium. With medicinal recipes and a list of Roman emperors.
Description:
5 fine illuminated initials, 30- to 7-line, in blue or pink with white filigree on blue and red grounds framed in blue or red accentuated at the corners by gold dots. Infilled with intertwining or angular vines, some with biting head terminals, mauve or blue with white highlights and gold dots. Ascenders and descenders, red, mauve and blue terminating in spiralling serifs with biting animal heads or grotesques against cusped grounds. Two initials with vines issuing from upper and left corners, blue with white highlights ending in grotesques. 3- and 2-line calligraphic initials, red and blue with blue and red penwork. Plain initials alternating in red and blue. Headings in red; running titles (chapter numbers) alternating red and blue. Instructions to rubricator in lower margins., Binding: Nineteenth century, France. Early sewing on five supports with 19th-century boards covered in parchment. Title on spine: "Gofredo de Trano/ Manuscrit"., and Script: Written in a rounded gothic bookhand, below top line; marginal annotations and finding aids by a contemporary hand in less formal script.
Subject (Topic):
Canon law--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Scholasticism