Manuscript on parchment of Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39-65), De bello civili (Pharsalia).
Description:
A series of illuminated leaves have been cut out; only the initials at the opening of Books 2, 5, 8, 9 and 10 are preserved. The initials are in Lombard style, pink letters on a blue square background, both decorated with white penwork, and have acanthus extensions of green, orange and yellow in the margin. The decoration is different in each initial; the one on f. 8v contains four yellow flowers. There is no space for a heading at the opening of Books 2 and 5; one line is left free for headings at the opening of Books 8-10, but headings have not been entered., Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Blind-tooled brown leather (worn) over slightly rounded beech boards, part of the front cover and the entire spine missing. Worm holes, especially in the rear board. Sewn on three split leather thongs. On the covers a triple frame of four double fillets; the space between the middle and the inner frame filled with interlace design; the four corners of the central panel are decorated with quarter circles of fillets filled with the same design; in the middle an oblong cartouche; on the front board part of the damaged original cover has been replaced by brown leather blind-tooled with a different interlace design. Marks of four clasps attached to the front board; two lily-shaped brass catches remain, fixed by means of three nails to the outer side of the rear board. On the blank wood of the front board there is a fragmentary inscription in ink and large script (upside down, 16th century?)., and Script: Copied by one hand writing Southern Gothica Semitextualis Libraria/Formata, using the two forms of d. The opening majuscule of each verse is placed in a separate column. The scribe sometimes adds hairline extensions in the upper margin to letters on the top line; the loops of these occasionally contain a sketchy human face.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome--History--Civil War, 43-31 B.C
Subject (Name):
Lucan, 39-65
Subject (Topic):
Epic poetry, Latin, Historical poetry, Latin, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae.
Description:
Binding: Date? Original sewing on two thick, slit leather straps, the endbands sewn on leather cores. Flush beech boards with straps laced through tunnels in the edge to channels slanted up to the outer face. The ends of the straps therefore protrude well above the face. Straps nailed and endband cores laid in V shaped grooves and nailed. The spine and about one quarter of the boards covered by brown calf with a nailed parchment strip at the edge, fragments only remaining. No adhesive on the spine. Channels for straps cut in the upper board. Holes for pins in the lower, but no marks of pin plates. This binding could be contemporary or 19th-20th century. It is interesting to note that the manuscript was bought because of the binding and not because of the text., Historiated initial with partial border contains the portrait of Boethius (f. 14r); four illuminated initials of similar design and colors (dark red, red-orange, green, blue, gold) on ff. 6r, 12v, 22r, 29v (beginning of Books II-V). Small initials and paragraph marks in red throughout., and Script: Written in round gothic bookhand by one scribe.
Subject (Topic):
Consolation--Early works to 1800, Dialogues, Latin, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of M. Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Cato Maior de senectute, with a List of the Seven Wise Men of Greece.
Description:
Binding: original Italian, repaired: brown leather over thin wooden boards, the covers blind-tooled and decorated with numerous small gold dots. Marks of two clasps; on the spine, now detached and kept separately, a gold-tooled reddish brown title label (17th century?) with the inscription “STR // DE // SEN”. Gilded edges., Pink headings. The names of the interlocutors and the colophon on f. 48r are written in pink Capitals. The first line of the various sections following the dentelle initial is written in alternately pink and black Capitals, except on f. 2r, where it is written in gold Capitals. The illuminated opening folio before f. 1 has been cut out. The smaller sections open with a pink Capital placed between the double bounding lines. 2-line Renaissance dentelle initials in gold on a divided and indented red and blue background, decorated with silvery penwork, at the beginning of the major subdivisions of the text., R.G. Babcock, T.N. Thomas, D.M. Kibbey, E.P. Archibald, A Book of Her Own. An Exhibition of Manuscripts and Printed Books in the Yale University Library that were Owned by Women before 1700 (New Haven, 2005), p. 66., Record created by Beinecke staff from catalog description by Albert Derolez., Script: copied by Giovanmarco Cinico from Parma in Humanistica Textualis Formata. This famous scribe was active in Naples from ca. 1458 to ca. 1498., and Written for the young Beatrice of Aragon (1457-1508), daughter of Ferrand of Aragon, King of Naples and future Queen of Hungary. Purchased 1994 from Bernard Quaritch (?) on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund.
Subject (Name):
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Subject (Topic):
Dialogues, Latin, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Old age
Manuscript on parchment (hair side mottled) of Suetonius, De vita Caesarum.
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Resewn on four supports and rebacked. Edges yellow. Covered in brown leather over wooden boards, blind-tooled with concentric frames alternately filled with rope interlace. A triple cross in the central panel. Badly cut tools and impressions burned into the leather. Four fastenings, the catches on the lower board., Floral border in lower margin, pen inkspray with flowers in blue, red, green and pink, and gold balls, surrounding a wreathed medallion with unidentified arms (azure 3 bendlets argent, a chief or with 3 birds sable beaked and membered gules) and the initials VI and M (arms and initials are later additions), on a parchment ground. 12 illuminated initials, 8- to 6-line, gold. Some against green and red grounds with yellow and white highlights, filled with yellow shaded white vine-stem ornament against blue, green and red grounds with white and yellow dots. Other initials on blue, green and red grounds with yellow shaded white vine-stem ornament, yellow and white dots. Initials on ff. 1r, 26v, 83v, 119r, 140r, 170r are enclosed within faceted rectangular frames. Headings and marginal notes by original scribe in red., Illuminated title page with partial border in upper and inner margin, white vine-stem ornament against vibrant blue, green and red ground with white dots and gold balls, terminating in pen inkspray with gold balls and large blossoms, yellow and red with gold highlights in upper margin, blue with white highlights in inner margin. Inner margin interrupted by a scrolling banderole (no inscription) in blue and red with white highlights., and Script: Written by a single scribe in a round humanistic script that inclines slightly toward the left.
Subject (Name):
Caesar, Julius and Suetonius,--ca. 69-ca. 122
Subject (Topic):
Biography--To 500, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin prose literature, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Uguccione Pisano (d. 1210), Derivationes.
Description:
Part II written in Italy in the middle of the 13th century; Part I added in the 14th century when the two parts may have been bound together.
Subject (Name):
Uguccione,--da Pisa, Bishop of Ferrara,--d. 1210
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin language--Etymology, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Scholasticism
Manuscript on parchment (rough, poorly prepared) of Petrus Quesvel, Directorium iuris. With Eleven short blessings at Easter for meat, cheese, bread, salt, and lard, added in the 15th century.
Description:
Binding: Twentieth century. Brown calf over wooden boards, with the leather sewn around the endbands., Part of outer column of f. 189 cut off, no loss of text., Red and blue split initials, 18- and 16-line, with elaborate penwork designs and plain full border in red and blue mark beginning of Books 1 and 2 (ff. 1r, 91r); smaller initial with partial border at beginning of Books 3 and 4 (ff. 191r, 297r) and for the two parts of art. 3 (ff. 428r, 439r). Numerous initials, 5- to 2-line, alternate blue with red flourishes and vice versa. Running titles in red and blue, paragraph marks alternate red and blue. Notes to rubricator, but rubrics never supplied. Initial strokes and underlining, in red, for arts. 2 and 3., and Script: Written by a single scribe in a hasty cursive schoolhand.
Subject (Name):
Quesvel, Petrus
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Law, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Scholia
Manuscript on parchment (hairside yellow and speckled) of Cicero, Epistolae ad familiares. With Extract from Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae III.8.8: Epistula Fabricii et Aemilii consulum ad Pyrrhum regem. The text was copied ca. 1400 and the border decoration added between ca. 1415 and 1431.
Description:
14 elegant illuminated initials and partial borders at the beginning of each of the 16 books (the opening pages of Books XII and XV have been excised). Initials, 5- to 3-line, blue with white filigree or red with gold filigree on cusped grounds of gold. Most of the illuminated initials filled with bust-length portraits, presumably of Cicero's correspondents, on red, blue or diapered ground. Some initials filled with vine scrolls with trilobe leaves in red with white highlights against gold ground. Partial borders, scrolling vine with trilobe leaves or acanthus in blue, pink, red and gold with white highlights and green, red and blue with gold highlights. Small figures of angels, dressed in green with gold wings in borders or margins, some playing musical instruments, one holding an open book, one holding the cloth of Veronica. Other marginal figures include the "Agnus Dei" and a pelican piercing its breast. The figures are all characterized by white faces, small angled black eyes, and a preference for green and gold, the green with contour lines in gold. Plain initials alternate red and blue. Rubrics throughout., Binding: Nineteenth century, France (?). Red velvet case with a dark green gold-tooled label: "M. T. Ciceronis Epistolae Ad Familiares MS. in Membranis". Gilt edges., Imperfect: incomplete, some leaves wanting with loss of text., and Script: Written in a neat fere-humanistic hand by a single scribe, below top line.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, d. 397 Jerome, Saint, d. 419 or 20
Published / Created:
1439-1440.
Call Number:
Beinecke MS 766
Image Count:
620
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on parchment of St. Jermone, Epistulae et tractatus. With Ambrosius Mediolanensis (St. Ambrose, 339-397), De excessu fratris.
Description:
Binding: Sixteenth century. Brown leather over cardboard boards, the covers blind-tooled with a triple fillet lozenge inside a floral roll frame, the center and the corners gold-tooled with two different floral tools. Spine with four raised bands and remnants of gold-tooled lilies in the compartments. Edges painted blue. Marks of two pairs of ties., Headings in red. Red heightening (stroking) of the majuscules. 2-3-line flourished initials (with guide letters) in red with penwork varying from pale red to purple. A large (10 lines) decorated flourished initial in red, with developed purple penwork (“R” instead of “D”) in littera duplex style on f. 229v. Two Gothic historiated initials on gold background with floral marginal extensions: f. 1r: St. Jerome with lion and boy holding open a book (damaged); f. 25v: a monk copying., Script: Apparently four scribes: A, Iohannes de Carnago, is the main scribe and copied ff. 1r-260v (with the exception of 8 lines at the bottom) in Gothico-Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria; B copied from the bottom lines of f. 260v to f. 270v, in Humanistica Textualis Libraria; C copied ff. 271r-275v in Gothico-Humanistica Textualis Libraria; and D copied ff. 276r-304v in Gothico-Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria., and The codex belonged to the Diocesan Library of Dunedin, New Zealand. Sotheby sale, London, 27 March 1950 (catalogue, no. 35).
Subject (Name):
Jerome,--Saint,--d. 419 or 20
Subject (Topic):
Christian literature, Latin, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Anonymous grammatical treatise in prose (Grammatica Latina secundum Donatum). 2) Disticha Catonis.
Description:
1-line red versals and 2-line red plain initials. Two large initials: f. 1r, at the beginning of the text of art. 1, historiated 10- line initial in pink on a blue background, containing a half-length profile of a poet or teacher in outline with a yellow dress; f. 10r, at the beginning of art. 2, decorated 9-line initial in pinkon a blue background, filled with red, yellow and green leaves., Binding: Original half brown leather binding over heavy bevelled wooden boards; sewn on two split leather thongs; the spine damaged. Remnants of one strap attached to the front cover, with iron pin on the rear cover., Due to intensive use the pages are badly rubbed and the legibility is impaired; whole passages have been rewritten by a later hand. The corners of the leaves are worn off. Holes and sewings., and Script: Copied by one hand in large Southern Gothica Textualis Formata (Rotunda). The opening majuscule of each verse set off in a separate column.
Subject (Topic):
Didactic poetry, Latin, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin language--Grammar, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library