Manuscript on parchment of John Lydgate (1375?-1449?), Siege of Thebes
Description:
In Middle English., Script: Copied by one hand in Gothica Cursiva Antiquior Libraria/Formata (Anglicana). The scribe has been identified as being Stephen Doddesham, a Carthusian monk, first in Witham Priory, afterwards in the Charterhouse at Sheen, near London, d. 1481/1482., Red headings and running titles. The latter are preceded by alternately blue paragraph-marks with red penwork and golden paragraph-marks with blue penwork. 6-line foliate initials in pale blue and pink with left-margin floral borders extending into the upper and lower margins, at the beginning of Parts II and III (ff. 13v and 33v); the same type of initial with similar but four-margins border at the opening of the Prologue (f. 1r). There were only two 3-line dentelle initials with short marginal extensions, namely on f. 20v (now cut out, v. 1569, speech of Adrastus) and 25r (v. 1901, speech of Tideus)., and Binding: Nineteenth century. White parchment over pasteboard by Edward Parry. On the gold-tooled spine two bordeaux leather labels with gold-tooled inscriptions: "DESTRUCTION / OF / THEBES / BY/ LYDGATE" and "MANUSCRIPT".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451? and Carthusians.
Subject (Topic):
English poetry |y Middle English, 1100-1500, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Narrative poetry, English (Middle)
Manuscript on parchment of Jacopo Ariani (?), 200 Sonnets addressed to a lady called Laura. With Alberto Maffei, Colophon in the form of a sonnet addressed to the readers
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written by Alberto Maffei in a small calligraphic Humanistica Semitextualis Formata., Each sonnet opens with a Capital in gold ink, the three subsequent stanzas with alternating red and blue Capitals. On the opening page (f. 2r), however, the opening Capitals are in gold on a square blue background dotted with gold, above each of the two sonnets floral ornaments have been painted in red and gold ink and in the lower margin there is a medallion within a gold wreath adorned with ribbons and containing the coat of arms of the Ariani family flanked by the initials "I.A.". ff. 1 and 52 are stained purple and the text of artt. 1 and 3 is written in gold ink, the headings being executed in silver ink. On both pages silver and gold floral ornaments in three margins. The ones in the lower margins end in Capital "A" (for "Albertus")., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Blue velvet over cardboard with blue watered-silk doublure. Gilt edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Ariani, Jacopo.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (thick, furry) of Speculum humane salvationis. With Pseudo-Bonaventura, Meditationes de passione Christi
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by two scribes in similar gothic textura bookhands. Scribe 1 (ff. 1r-90v) in brown ink. Scribe 2 (ff. 91r-104v) in a darker ink and more compressed script. A few marginal comments and corrections of 15th-16th centuries., The manuscript originally contained 192 miniatures, of which 29 have been entirely and 1 (f. 53r) partially removed. Those remaining are drawn in light brown ink and tinted in brown and yellow washes with touches of red. The miniatures on ff. 7r-38v have been redrawn in black ink by a second hand. A dirty tan ground has been added to miniatures on ff. 67v and 68r., 2-line calligraphic initials, blue, at the beginning of each chapter and "figura" or type (I-initials, 6-10 lines; at the bottom of the page, e.g., f. 29v, the I breaks and runs beneath the lowest line of text), with elaborate, angular penwork and flourishes, in red (some, e. g., ff. 17r and 21r, with faces). On ff. 91r-104v 2-line blue initials, plain; spaces for some initials, including a 6-line initial on f. 91r, left blank. 1-line red or blue initials, some of the blue with red penwork. Capital A's in each Amen alternate red and blue. Guide-letters for initials throughout. Paragraph marks, blue. Tituli, inscriptions in miniatures, chapter numbers, and pagination in red throughout. Guide-numbers for pagination still visible, especially on ff. 58v-60r., The parchment is worn and dirty, with many torn and slashed folios. Apart from the folios which are missing entirely, the upper portions (with miniatures) on ff. 47, 53 and 57 have been removed., and Binding: Fifteenth century. Dutch or German? Sewn on six double, tawed cords laced into beech boards and pegged in three holes. Endband cores laid in grooves and pegged. There is an inner cover of pink, tawed skin. Over this is a chemise of thin, white tawed skin stitched to a heavy outer, tawed pigskin cover which extends about 25 mm. at the head, 70 mm. at the fore-edge, and was whip-stitched at the edges. The tail edge has been cut down. Two straps are attached to the upper cover and tacked to the extending skin at the fore-edge with a narrow, tawed thong. There are two square marks where pins were attached to the lower cover. The original sewing cords have broken and have been replaced, a part of the book resewn, and part of the chemise pocket cut away. The ends of the fastening straps and the endbands are wanting.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (leaves are very uneven due to irregular trimming) originally composed of roughly executed full-page illustrations and diagrams that constitute the Speculum theologie
Description:
In Latin., Script: Inscriptions written in gothic bookhand, additions in either textura or running scripts (ff. 2r. 7v)., The illustrations on ff. 1r-7v are drawn in red ink, heightened with green, orange, and yellow. The diagram on f. 8r is drawn in brown and red, touched with blue, red, yellow and gold., Folio 8r darkened and rubbed with some loss of text., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Half bound in mottled brown goatskin, gold-tooled, with a red label. Marbled paper sides.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Didactic literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Theology
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Statuta capituli generalis, with the years 1158 and 1180-1190 mentioned in red. 2) Liber usuum. 3) Super instituta generalis capituli apud Cistercium. 4) Liber usuum conuersorum. 5) Carta caritatis
Description:
Probably produced at the abbey of Fontaine-Jean in Northern France, to which it belonged in the late 16th century. The Cistercian abbey of Fontaine-Jean, near Montargis, between Sens and Orleans, was a daughter house of Pontigny founded in 1124., In Latin., Script: Written by one scribe in large, even bookhand. Additions by various hands, 13th-17th centuries; some lost due to trimming., Four large initials, ff. 1v, 38r, 86r, and 93r (12-, 29-, 8-, and 9-line), light brown with crude running pattern of clover-leaf-like forms in brown ink, filled with brown, green and red spiral foliage with flowers and dragon-head terminals, on blue and red grounds decorated with triplets of white dots. One elaborate, but crude, calligraphic initial, f. 118v, 9-line, divided red and green, accompanied by red and green foliate motifs, framed in green. Numerous initials throughout, 7- to 2-line, red or blue, and occasionally green, with blue, red or green foliate penwork, some extensive. 1-line initials, red or blue, alternating. Rubrics throughout, some in text, others in margins. Wavy red line-fillers., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Brown calf, blind- and gold-tooled, with mottled, mauve paper sides. On spine: "Constitutions du monastre de Fontaine-Jehan".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Cistercians.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Monasticism and religious orders
Manuscript on parchment of the Statutes of the Confraternity of Corpus Christi, Our Lady of Peace and St. Ildefons at Toledo, under the patronage of the King of Castile and the Archbishop of Toledo, renewed during the reign of Henry IV, King of Castile (1454-1474), with an addition dated 11 July 1461. The latest date in the earlier statutes is 24 January 1417
Description:
In Spanish., Script: Written by one hand in bold Southern Gothica Textualis Formata with Spanish features; the addition on f. 17rb-va is by another hand in the same script., In art. 2 red paragraph marks. In art. 3 fine 2-line flourished initials with marginal extensions, alternately in red with blue penwork and blue with red penwork. Large littera duplex of the same type and in the same colours on f. 6r. Art. 4 is not decorated. On f. 1v, full-page miniature depicting the King of Castile and four noble members of the Confraternity in adoration of the Resurrection. On f. 2r, full-page miniature showing the Archbishop of Toledo and five clerics in adoration of the Virgin, who hands the chasuble to St. Ildefons Archbishop of Toledo. Both miniatures are set in a courtyard and are framed at the outer and lower side with a border of large acanths in gold and colours. The slight smudge in the middle of the paintings is probably caused by the noble and clerical members swearing an oath of fidelity to the Confraternity and touching the appropriate page., and Binding: ca. 1600. Blind-tooled light brown leather over pasteboard made from waste paper. The covers are decorated with fillets making a double lozenge in a rectangular frame, decorated with impressions of a star-shaped tool. Traces of two leather ties.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Spain
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Confraternities, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Religious life and customs
Manuscript on parchment (thick, furry) of Stimulus amoris, translated into English by Walter Hilton from a Latin devotional text often attributed to Bonaventure. Followed by an anonymous devotional treatise
Description:
In Middle English., Script: Written by a single scribe in bold, upright gothic textura; commentary added in an inelegant cursive (16th century)., One 4-line initial (f. 2v) gold, edged in black, against a blue and red cusped ground with white filigree, attached to a bar border in outer margin, gold, blue, and pink, with white highlights and leafy sprouts at divisions and terminals, orange, blue, red, and gold; the leaves with black hair-spray vines, both straight and in spirals, with small gold leaves and touches of green, filling upper, outer, and lower margins. Six initial I's (ff. 7v, 31v, 36v, 38v, 61v, 83v), 11- to 7-line, gold against blue and red grounds with white filigree and straight hair-spray vines, as above. 2-line gold initials, against blue and/or pink grounds, with white filigree and hair-spray, as above. Gold or blue paragraph marks with blue or red penwork and flourishes. Gold and blue line-fillers, straight, zig-zag, and wavy, some up to 3/4 of a line long. Headings, occasional underlining, and crossing out, in red., Trimming has affected some marginal commentary; f. 108 badly mutilated with loss of text. Leaves at beginning and end of codex stained and repaired., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Red edges. Brown goatskin, blind- and gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Jacobus, Mediolanensis, active 13th century.
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, English (Middle), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
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
Manuscript on paper of Summulae naturalium, composed in 1408 by Paulus Nicolettus Venetus O.E.S.A. (1369/72-1429).
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century, England. Blind-tooled brown goatskin with the same gold-tooled title on the spine and both covers: "Summule Naturalium/ Paulus de Venetiis/ M. S. 1373". Bound by Riviere (London) before 1881. Red edges., Brittle. Acidic ink damage with some loss of text., Decorated title page, f. 1r, with border, in black and red ink composed of various decorative devices: in the upper margin a bar border with a central semicircle flanked by stylized scrolls in black and red. In the outer margin, a roundel, black with red and black frame, filled with a flower of 6 petals in red; the roundel flanked by stylized scrolls. In center of lower margin a medallion framed in narrow black and red bands containing a flaming heart pierced by an arrow and an open book, also flanked by stylized scrolls. Numerous decorated initials, 30- to 4-line, black and red with interior designs of lozenges, small flowers, and wavy lines of paper ground. Plain initials and paragraph marks in red. Guide letters for rubricator throughout., Purchased from C. A. Stonehill in 1953 by Thomas E. Marston., Script: Written by several scribes in humanistic cursive script with gothic features, below top line; inital words of each section in gothic bookhand., Watermarks, obscured by text: similar to Harlfinger Chapeau 17 and unidentified ladder., and Worm-eaten; some minor loss of text.
Subject (Name):
Aristotle, Augustinians, and Venetus, Paulus
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Physics--Early works to 1800, and Scholia