Manuscript, on parchment, in a single hand, of Chaucer's Treatise on the astrolabe
Description:
In Middle English., Layout: single columns, mostly of 28 lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: initials in blue with red penwork., Presentation inscription on verso of front flyleaf: Augustus W. Franks, the gift of Sir David Dundas., Ownership inscription on verso of front flyleaf: C. H. Read., Tipped in: autograph letter signed from D. D. to A. W. Franks, 1877 February 11., and Binding: nineteenth-century full calf; in case.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400.
Subject (Topic):
Astrolabes, English literature, English prose literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of a common-place book. The main texts of the manuscript, which are primarily devotional in nature, were written in East Anglia by an unidentified scribe toward the end of the 15th century; a second individual, identified as Robert Melton of Stuston in Suffolk, added numerous accounts and notes at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century
Description:
Robert Melton was the co-executor of the estate of John Cornwallis (d. 1506), Lord of the Manors of Brome, Stuston, Okley, and Thranston, whose family possessed Brome Hall from early in the 15th to the 19th century., In Middle English., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Armoiries 1038 for part of quire I and all of II; similar to Briquet Main 11399 for remainder of quire I, all of quires III and IV, part of V; similar to Briquet Navire 11971 on ff. 68, 79 only; similar to Briquet Lettre P 8586 on ff. 72, 75; similar to Briquet Main 11152 on ff. 73, 74; unidentified watermark on f. 81., Script: Written primarily by two persons: Scribe 1) ff. 1r-26v, 28r-44r, 68r-77r, 79v, 80v-81r. Written in small, well formed Anglicana script with first line of each text in formal bookhand. Scribe 2: ff. 27r-v, 45r-60r, 62v-67v, 77v-78v, 80r, 81v. Written in a large sprawling script; no ornamentation. A third person added art. 17 at a later time., Only scribe 1 included decoration. Initials in red, 4- to 2-line, with penwork flourishes in brown; initial strokes in red. Portions of text underlined in red; rhyming verses often bracketed, in red, at end of lines. On f. 14v, a fine half-page drawing in red and brown of the monogram IHS which incorporates both a heart pierced by a lance and vine patterns and tendrils. Art. 4 is illustrated with drawings of dice, in red, in outer margins., First leaves heavily stained; lower right corner waterstained ff. 1-43., and Binding: Between 1490 and 1500. Original sewing with long stitches through a thick rectangular piece of leather on the outside of a vellum wrapper. Contemporary scroll design added to upper cover with unidentified inscription, in red, mostly illegible.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Melton, Robert.
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, English (Middle)., English poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript, on parchment, of the "extended version" of the Brut Chronicle
Alternative Title:
Chronicles of England
Description:
In Middle English., First leaf and end of text lacking., Layout: single columns with varying numbers of lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: blue initials with red penwork., and Binding: sixteenth-century blind-tooled calf over wooden boards. Later leather title tags on spine, gilt.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English prose literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript fragment, on parchment, containing portions of chapters 214 and 221 of the Middle English prose Brut
Description:
In Middle English., Marginal note indicates that these two leaves served as a wrapper for a copy of Gabriel Harvey's The trimming of Thomas Nashe., Layout: single-column, 29-32 lines., Script: secretary., and Decoration: initials in blue with red penwork.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Brutus the Trojan (Legendary character), English literature, English prose literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (thick) of 1) Notes on the baronial Clare family of Gloucester, in chart format, from a manuscript contemporary with or slightly earlier than the main text (art. 3). Name of the appropriate King of England appears on the left in a red circle [concludes with King Edward IV, 1327-77], and a short history of certain members of the Clare family are added on the right. 2) Genealogical tree, added between 1450 and 1500, establishing the claims of King Edward IV (1461-83) to the kingdoms of England, France, Castile and Leon. 3) Brut Chronicle, up to 1419, but the final leaf of text has been torn out
Description:
In Middle English., Script: Written by a single scribe in neat Anglicana formata. Running titles and marginal notes added by later hands., Illuminated initial, 6-line, on f. 1r, pink on gold ground, with blue, green, and pink acanthus leaves, and white highlights; full bar-border with swirling acanthus leaves in same colors as for initial; black hair-spray in outer margins. Heading and chapter numbers in red. Small initials, 2-line, blue with red flourishes, for most chapters. Paragraph marks alternate red and blue., Parchment is well thumbed and worn, especially f. 1r; some loss of text., and Binding: 17th-18th centuries. Covered in brown calf, blind-tooled, with a brick-colored, gold-tooled label, probably a later addition.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Clare family. and Edward IV, King of England, 1442-1483.
Subject (Topic):
English literature, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on parchment of Brut Chronicle to 1333, the earliest stage of the Middle English text
Description:
In English., Script: Written by at least two scribes in neat Anglicana formata., Plain initials, 9- to 2-line, in blue, throughout text. Headings and chapter numbers in red, with blue spiral line-fillers. Paragraph marks for headings in blue, for text in blue or red. Remains of guide-letters for rubricator., Parchment is stained and worn; some portions of text illegible., and Binding: Fifteenth century. Original wound, caught up sewing on four tawed, slit straps. Boards made of bifolios of vellum with a piece of leather wrapped around them, but not covering the spine. Sewing breaking.
Manuscript on parchment of a collection of laws governing hunting and forestry
Description:
In Latin, with passages in English and French., Script: Arts. 4-14 written in a neat chancery script with Anglicana influence; arts. 1 and 15 in similar, but less elegant hands; arts. 2-3 are in gothic textura., Plain initial, in red, with crude ink penwork flourishes on f. 1v; KL monograms and portions of calendar also on red., Some stains on ff. 2r-7v render text illegible., and Binding: 19th-20th centuries. Rebinding in quarter pigskin, tanned, not tawed, with a strap and pin fastening. The oak boards, cambered on all four outer edges and with rectangular pegs, are probably contemporary with the manuscript. Front pastedown composed of a small fragment of prayers in Latin (15th century).
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Topic):
Forests and forestry, Hunting, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Politics and government
Manuscript on parchment, in a single hand, of the "second version" of John Hardyng's Chronicle. While the manuscript has lost perhaps 36 leaves from the beginning of the work, it is textually complete from the reign of Vortigern on. There is a final entry referring to Elizabeth Woodville as the queen of Edward IV. The final leaves of the volume contain an anonymous sixteenth-century poem, A lamentable complaint of our saviour Christ; an eighteen-line carol in Middle English which begins "By resone of ii and power of one;" and a page of notes in a single sixteenth-century hand on executions at Smithfield in London between 1531 and 1534
Description:
In Middle English., Ownership inscription of "John Ravell" at the end of the Chronicles text, along with other notes., Layout: single columns of approximately 42 lines., Script: English bookhand., Binding: seventeenth-century full calf. Red leather spine tag, gilt: "M. S. Hist: of England / From Vortvmrk to Edw. 4.", and Previous shelfmark: MS. L. J. I. 10.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Hardyng, John, 1378-1465?
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Narrative poetry, English (Middle)
Manuscript on paper. Includes passages from the Lay Folks' Catechism; The Virtues of the Mass; and Symon Wynter's Amplification of the Life of St. Jerome, drawn from the Legenda aurea and from the apocryphal correspondence between Sts. Cyril and Augustine, and supplemented with revelations of St. Birgitta. Also contains excerpts concerning the Virgin Mary and confession
Description:
In English and Latin., Watermarks: unidentified bull's head, small in size, buried in gutter., Script: Written primarily by a single scribe in Secretary script, with additions and corrections added in the 16th century., Edges frayed and upper portion of most leaves stained, with loss of text., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Brown calf, blind-tooled. Title, in gold, on spine: "Life of St. Jerome. M. S.". Remains of early place mark on f. 22.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Jerome, Saint, -419 or 420.
Subject (Topic):
Catechisms, Confession, Devotional literature, English (Middle), Exempla, and Manuscripts, Medieval