Manuscript on parchment (goatskin) of Andrea Vendramin, Doge of Venice (1476-1478), Commission (dogale) to Girolamo Michiel as governor of Asolo, near Treviso.
Description:
On f. 1r white vinestem initial (6 lines) with long extensions in the upper and left margins; in the lower margin partial border in white vinestem, containing three medallions: the two outer ones feature the initials “I” and “M” in gold on a blue background; the larger, central one contains the coat of arms of Girolamo Michiel on a purplish red background in a green wreath., Script: Art. 1 is copied by one hand in a narrow Humanistica Cursiva Libraria, art. 2 by a hand writing Humanistica Cursiva Currens., and Unbound.
Subject (Geographic):
Asolo (Italy) and Venice (Italy)--Politics and government
Subject (Name):
Vendramin, Andrea,--1392-1478
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript roll, on parchment, in a single hand, illuminated, containing the "Arma Christi" poem and other prayers, in Dutch, including prayers ascribed to Popes Sixtus IV and Alexander VI. The prayers are preceded by a rubric instructing readers to kneel as they recite the prayers in order to obtain an indulgence.
Description:
Binding: section of leather sewn to top of scroll. Accompanied by seventeenth-century? fabric case with fabric and metal appliqués., Decoration: Rubricated. Initials in red or blue. Large miniature at head of roll containing a bust of Christ wearing a crown of thorns, displaying his stigmata, and surrounded by the "arma Christi" (also known as the Instruments of the Passion). On a blue ground in gold frame. One large decorated initial immediately below miniature. Text accompanied by decorated borders on both sides., Layout: single column of text., Purchased from Richard Linenthal (Sotheby's London sale, 2014 July 8, lot 48) on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2014., and Script: gothic.
Subject (Geographic):
Netherlands--Religious life and customs--Early works to 1800
Subject (Name):
Alexander VI, Pope, 1431-1503, Catholic Church--Prayers and devotions--Dutch, Jesus Christ--Passion--Art, Jesus Christ--Passion--Prayers and devotions, Jesus Christ--Passion--Prayers and devotions--Early works to 1800, and Sixtus IV, Pope, 1414-1484
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Indulgences--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Le livre de Lancelot du Lac, part III. 2) La queste del Saint Graal. 3) La mort au Roy Artus
Description:
In French., Script: Written in elegant gothic textura by one scribe, with a few interlinear corrections in later hands (14th and 15th centuries)., The decoration of this lavishly illuminated manuscript consists of seventy-seven large column miniatures, fifty-one smaller miniatures, and thirty-six historiated initials. Miniatures and historiated initials by at least two artists, the scale and quality of whose work distinguish the manuscript from contemporary and most fourteenth-century Arthurian manuscripts., Large miniatures, 12- to 11-lines, one column, framed and usually divided into two registers by thin bands, gold, red and/or blue with white highlights, edged in black, sometimes with arched canopies, often with architectural elements protruding (a few frames composed of thicker bands); figures in black pen against burnished gold (occasionally with painted gold diaperwork), blue or black grounds; chief colors: light blue, dark blue, grey, light brown, white, maroon, with some orange, green and gold. Borders on folios with large miniatures of a variety and inventiveness that defy strict classification: gold, red, and blue bands, edged in black, also running between, below and/or above text columns, terminating in dragons, dragon or human heads, groteques or, most commonly, floral spirals, some with frets, blue and red with white highlights and orange and green dots, against gold, blue and/or maroon cusped grounds, often with pinwheel-like projections. The borders are populated with magnificent grotesques and marginalia in the same style as the miniatures, many of them of a narrative or satirical character; some of these incorporate coats of arms., Small miniatures, 5- to 6-line, 1/2 text column, often with a 2-line initial inserted in upper right corner, otherwise as above, with border decoration on a smaller scale and unattached to miniature. Historiated initials, 5-line (letters without ascenders or descenders) to 13-line, red and/or blue, with geometric motifs in paler shades of red and blue, white, with touches of orange, against gold grounds, edged in black, with long dragon and floral serifs, as above, against cusped gold grounds; figures in same style as miniatures, against gold grounds., Illuminated initials, 3- to 1-line, gold, with globular serifs, edged thickly in black, against irregular red and blue grounds, also edged in black, with white floral filigree or heraldic birds, in white; flowers touched in with orange. On folios without miniatures (except ff. 2v-8v), a thin gold band runs along the left side of each text column, interrupted by initials, with a thin red pen-line on either side; adjacent, to the left, a column of I's each 3-line and blue and red alternately, with small spiral and curlicue flourishes, terminating in large flourishes in red or blue on alternate openings, each with pinwheel-like arms projecting from a central spiral with small petals and flourishes in blue and red; design of the terminal flourishes varies from one gathering to another; some with naturalistic leaves and flowers or fleurs-de-lis; terminals on ff. 1v-2r by the same hand as penwork initials on those folios. Line-fillers of varying design: two pairs of blue and red tapering bands, heraldically arranged and joined at center by red flower; undulating red line with red and/or blue balls under and over each crest and trough; red zigzag with blue infilling and spiral flourishes at terminals; alternating red and blue flowers; red and blue dots, etc., Some folios stained; f. 253 slashed in margin; f. 361 cut right across and glued together., and Binding: 2003. Full alum-tawed goatskin. See conservation treatment report for full description. Former binding stored in separate box: 18th century. Light brown calf blind- and gold-tooled. Sewing holes in inner margins.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Arthurian romances, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of astrological texts drawn largely from Arab astrology of the early Middle Ages, and transmitted in medieval Latin translations; in addition Ptolemy's Centiloquium is present, transmitted not in Greek but through the Arabic, along with a single contemporary component, the Astrolabium planum of Johann Engel.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century, English. Marbled paper boards, green calf back with six heavy (false?) bands, the compartments with patterns of small tools impressed in gold and with gold-stamped titles, a small rectangular label with the printed number 1037 and a small round label with the inked number 894 glued to the bottommost compartment. All edges gilt. Preserved in a modern green cloth folding box, probably French, with leather label., Collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps. Mellon MS 155, acquired from C. A. Stonehill, Inc. (bookseller), New Haven. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., Rubrics, and occasional headlines in red, diagrams in the text in brown and red inks. Full illuminated border, outlined in red, on f. 1r of leafy sprays in colors and gold, the white spaces filled up with black dots and small burnished gold circles each with three or four small tendrils; a large initial in burnished gold and colors at the beginning of the text in the first column, with gold band extending downward and then around three sides of the page forming an inner border, completed by a red line at top; a lozenge at the center of the lower band of the border containing a pattern of platelike discs, quatrefoils, and a leafy spray on a dull gold ground, this segment almost certainly a later replacement of an original coat of arms which has been erased. Elsewhere in the manuscript smaller illuminated initials in the style of the first frequently occur, and larger ones with descenders to partial borders at the foot of the page occur. Each of the ninety-six pages from f. 191r through 238v has four drawings in colors (six on those pages which open each of the signs of the Zodiac), placed within diagrams accompanied by slight text., and Script: Written by a single scribe in a large and clear hand in Gothica textualis formata and Bastarda.
Subject (Name):
Ptolemy,--2nd cent
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Arab, Astrology--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper made by an unknown Venetian mathematician, astronomer and cartographer. This manuscript is highly interesting for the excellent drawings of contemporary Mediterranean sailing-ships
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written by one hand in Gothico-Humanistic Cursive, which in the maps alternates with Capitalis. Headings in Capitalis inscribed on scrolls or tablets., Maps, borders and decorations in colours. Clumsily drawn human and animal figures., and Binding: Original limp vellum. On the spine is written "G***ctrica MSS". On the rear cover are a pen-drawing, upside-down, of the same decorative device as on f. 2r, and a sketch of city gates.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Islands of the Mediterranean.
Subject (Topic):
Atlases, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscript maps, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Sailing ships
Manuscript on paper of Pedro Lopez de Ayala, Aves de caça.
Description:
In Spanish., Script: Written by a single scribe in a careful italic script., Crude initial and heading (in gold and subdued water colors) on f. i recto and f. 1r; other small initials, 4- to 1-line, in similar colors throughout text. Headings in red; initials of each paragraph in blue or red., Waterstained throughout., and Binding: Seventeenth century. Black goatskin, blind-tooled. Fragments of manuscripts (covered by paper pastedowns) serve as binding reinforcements.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
López de Ayala, Pedro, 1332-1407.
Subject (Topic):
Falconry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Spanish literature
Manuscript on parchment (trimmed) of 1) Unidentified preface. 2) Sallust, Bellum Catilinae. 3) Unidentified scholia on Sallust, Bellum Catilinae. Although the commentary of Beinecke MS 358 belongs to the medieval school tradition rather than to the Renaissance tradition, neither the text of this article or of art. 5 below resembles closely any medieval texts currently known. 4) Sallust, Bellum Iugurthinum. 5) Unidentified scholia on Sallust, Bellum Iugurthinum
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in batarde, with scholia in a smaller version of the same hand., One miniature, 12-line, f. 74v, a T-O mappa mundi, in a red and gold frame, slightly waterstained at the edges. One 4-line initial, f. 3r (pink), and one 3-line initial, f. 57r (blue), both with white highlights, filled with red and blue ivy on gold against a gold ground. Twenty 2-line initials, gold, filled with pink and blue against pink and/or blue grounds, square or irregular, with white filigree. Capitals stroked in yellow, red or blue between ff. 1r and 26v; in yellow for the remainder of the text. Borders were perhaps added later (between 1425 and 1450) on folios with initials only; between ff. 1r and 57r, flowering vines, gold, green and blue with gold dots in lines above, below or in written space; blue and gold acanthus mixed with flowering vines, red, pink, blue, and green with gold ivy in line above written space and in inner margin within rulings for scholia; on a few folios, outer vertical bounding line reinforced in red with small acanthus terminals. Between ff. 57v and 162v pink, blue and/or green acanthus, with flowering vines, pink, blue and green, with gold ivy and dots, disposed as above; on f. 85v vertical bounding line repainted as a green stem with lopped off stalks. Lemmata underlined in red., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Limp vellum case with title in ink. Rodent damage.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catiline, approximately 108 B.C.-62 B.C. and Sallust, 86 B.C.-34 B.C.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Jugurthine War, 111-105 B.C., Latin literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Scholia
Manuscript on parchment of the Vulgate Bible, with interpretations of Hebrew names
Description:
In Latin., Script: Copied in small Northern Gothica Textualis (Pearl Script), Decoration: Historiated initials, with a normal height of 6 lines, at beginning of each book (further on this, see the catalog description); 4-line foliate initials, half inserted, at the beginning of each prologue; running headlines and chapter numbers alternately in red and blue majuscules or roman numerals., and Binding: 18th or 19th century romantic binding by François Bozerian (Bozerian Jeune): red morocco over cardboard; both covers gold- and blind-tooled with cruciform and floral motifs; gold-tooled spine with four raised bands and a gold-tooled title, "BIBLIA SACRA."
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Remigius, of Auxerre, approximately 841-908.
Subject (Topic):
Versions, Vulgate, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript fragment on parchment of Lamentations, 3.13-51 (52-56 obscured). Written at Luxeuil or one of its affiliated houses. Fifteen folios from the original codex survive, most of which may be traced to the Benedictine abbey of Admont in Austria. Most of the verses in the Beinecke fragment have received neumes, possibly added later (11th century?).
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in elegant Luxeuil minuscule, with headings in uncials., Large initial at beginning of each verse filled with yellow, red, and/or green; headings in green or red., and Removed from a bookbinding; text suffers from holes, stains, creases, and repairs.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Music
In Latin., Script: Written in tiny gothic textura by a single scribe., Good initials for the beginning of each book and prologue, 10- to 4-line, blue or pink, with various shades combined in a single letter, with white highlights, often with prominent floral serifs in blue, pink, red, orange, and yellow, against pink and blue grounds; grounds for body of letter and serifs in opposite colors. Elaborate descenders, ascenders, as serifs, but often with biting dragons. Letters filled with curling floral motifs, often with dragon-head terminals, and biting dragons. The initials on f. 214r (Esther) and f. 220r (Job) are more elaborate than the others. 2-line initials for each chapter, blue or red, with red or blue flourishes. Running headings and chapter numbers in red and blue, with flourishes. Rubrics throughout., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Printed vellum fragment, in large gothic letters, with portion of John 4.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Versions, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval