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 Guido de Baysio, Rosarium decretorum, secunda pars. Missing leaves throughout.
Description:
Binding: Date? Brown leather over wooden boards, possibly early. Blind-tooled with concentric frames of fillets and a rectangular rope tool. Hearts in a central panel. Four fastenings, the catches on the upper board. Heavily restored., One fine miniature, f. 1r, 23-line, without frame, bishop enthroned under baldachin instructing the clergy; two trees at sides; two birds above. In lower margin, a roundel with a portrait of a student, in a blue, pink and white frame, surrounded by spiral foliage and large gold dots. At the end of the volume, f. 212v, a roundel with a portrait of an older man, with a thick red and blue frame with blue, green, and gold dots. Thirty initials, 16- to 12-line (ff. 1r, 15v, 36r, 45r, 47v, 52r, 59r, 64r, 68v, 81r, 92v, 96v, 100r, 103v, 123v, 127r, 129r, 131r, 137v, 156v, 163r, 163v, 166r, 166v, 172r, 174r, 190r, 190v, 193r, 194r), most with a single, some with as many as three figures, bishops, priests, monks, students, and women, either reading, instructing or debating; in one case, f. 194r, a priest celebrating mass (De consecratione). The figures set against navy blue grounds with white filigree; the initials shaded pink, orange, red, blue and green against square gold grounds with white filigree, framed in black, blue or green; curling foliate serifs attached to bar stems in inner or central margin, interrupted by initials in margin, blue, light blue, grey, pink, orange, red, and black, extending full length of margin; with large spiral foliate terminals with gold dots and flourishes in brown ink, often incorporating roundels, some with additional figures or birds. Numerous small, 4-line, flourished initials, red with blue flourishes and vice versa, as well as red and blue alternating paragraph marks throughout. Running titles added along upper edge., Script: Written in elegant round gothic bookhand secundum pecias., and Written probably in Bologna from a stationer's exemplar secundum pecias.
Subject (Name):
Guido,--de Baysio,--d. 1313
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 Pecia
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Rudimenta grammatices (Grammatica latina secundum Donatum). 2) Disticha Catonis.
Description:
Binding: Twentieth century, England (?). Quarter bound in brown, blind-tooled calf over wooden boards., Historiated initial, f. 1r, 11-line, pink against blue ground with a half-length portrait in profile of the author, dressed in red and green robes and a red hat against parchment ground with brown penwork. Foliage serifs, green, blue and red extending into inner and upper margin to form partial border. In center of lower margin, blank shield for coat of arms, flanked by stylized foliage, blue and red. In outer margin, small patch of green with boy or man sitting under a tree (visible under ultra-violet light). One illuminated initial on f. 11r, 8-line, pink against blue ground filled with stylized foliage, blue, green and red. Plain initials in red. Small initials touched with yellow., Purchased from H. P. Kraus in 1955 by Thomas E. Marston., Script: Written in round gothic bookhand by a single scribe., and The entire manuscript is well worn, affecting the text; f. 1r is badly rubbed and stained.
Subject (Name):
Donatus, Aelius
Subject (Topic):
Catonis disticha, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin language--Grammar, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Stoics
Manuscript on paper (thick, coarse) of Lives of the Saints, preceded by accounts of events in the Bible from both the Old and New Testaments. Folios 51 and 61 interchanged in rebinding.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century, Italy. Rigid vellum case with two red labels on spine: "Trattati di storia sacra" and "Manuscritto 1360"., Crudely executed title page, f. 1r, consisting of floral and foliage motifs in upper margin, scroll around column in inner margin, and, in outer margin, scroll around column terminating in elongated arm with text on the scroll (much rubbed and stained). In lower margin a coat of arms (damaged; probably: or, two columns gules); the letters B and C on either side in the bases of columns in inner and outer margins. The decoration of title page in bright red and green. Plain initials (some with simple foliage designs), headings, paragraph marks, pointing hands, and hands holding crosses or symbols of passions of martyrs (e. g., gridiron for Laurence), all in bright red, green, and/or black., Folio 1 damaged; no loss of text., Script: Written by several scribes in unruly mercantesca script, above top line. Script becomes smaller and tighter toward end of codex., and Watermarks: similar in design to Briquet Ciseaux 3708 dated Genoa, 1465.
Subject (Topic):
Christian hagiography, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature--15th century, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of John Chrysostom, Sermo de dignitate humanae originis, translated into Latin by Ambrogio Traversari. The text is preceded by a dedicatory letter, here directed to Rene d'Anjou (King of Sicily and Naples, 1435-42).
Description:
3 large initials of modest quality, 8- to 7-line, gold on blue or blue and red grounds with white dots and white vine-stem ornament. 1 smaller initial, 3-line, gold on red and blue ground with white dots. Plain initials in blue and red, one in gold, some with penwork flourishes in red. Rubrics throughout. Paragraph marks in red or blue. Guide letters for initials., Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Original sewing on three tawed skin, slit straps laced through tunnels in the edge to channels on the outside of beech boards and nailed. Beige and white chevron endbands are sewn on tawed skin cores laid in grooves on the outside of the boards. The spine is lined with green tawed skin between supports. Covered in brown, originally tan, calf with corner tongues, blind-tooled with a triple cross in a border of rope interlace. Spine: sewing bands defined and panels diapered with triple fillets. Two truncated diamond catches with a flower in a circle on the lower board, the upper one cut in for the red fabric straps attached with star-headed nails., Purchased from Giuseppe (Joseph) Martini of Lugano by H. P. Kraus, who sold it in 1957 to Thomas E. Marston., and Script: Written by a single scribe in humanistic cursive script, below top line.
Subject (Name):
John Chrysostom, Saint, -407 and Traversari, Ambrogio, 1386-1439
Subject (Topic):
Catechetical sermons, Fathers of the church, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Sermons--Early works to 1800
Manuscript on parchment of a collection of anonymous sermons, mostly drawn from the Italian Homiliary.
Description:
Attractive pen-and-ink drawings throughout the manuscript, in red, though much of manuscript now stained. Folio 1r with a partial border formed of fantastic beasts, dragons and grotesques. Other drawings in margins include a fantastic bird, f. 9r; a dragon with a human head issuing forth stylized scrolls, f. 40v; a scroll inhabited by a fantastic bird, f. 49r; a lizard-like creature, its tail forming a partial border, f. 53r; a grotesque, f. 73v. Several drawings in the lower margin have been trimmed. Plain initials in red, some with penwork scrolls or simple flourishing. Headings and underlining of Biblical passages in red., Binding: Nineteenth century (?), Italy (?). Brown leather case with title, in ink, on spine: "Homil. in Evangel". Fragment of an unidentified 13th-century Latin document (monastic register?) bound in as second front flyleaf., and Script: Written in a nice large early gothic script, above top line.
Subject (Topic):
Homiliaries, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Sermons, Latin, and Sermons--Early works to 1800
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
Manuscript on paper and parchment containing 1) Ownership inscription and note on the scribe, followed by a variant form of a Biblical quotation (Lamentations 3:27-28). 2) Legend of St. Jerome in Italian, with special attention for miraculous events, as an introduction to artt. 4-6. Quotes Iohannes Belet (12th century), St. Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine, Isidore of Seville, Sulpicius Severus. 3) Ps.-Eusebius, Epistula de morte Hieronymi (BHL 3866), Italian translation. 4) Ps. -Augustinus Hipponensis, Epistola de magnificentiis Hieronymi (BHL 3867), Italian translation. 5) Ps.-Cyrillus, Epistola de miraculis Hieronymi (BHL 3868), in Italian translation. 6) History of abbot Daniel living in Thebais and his disobedient servant, to whom he tells the life of a virtuous man they have met, called Eulogius, who eventually became patricius and praefectus praetorio in Constantinople at the time of emperor Justinus I (518-527); due to the loss of one or more quires the major part of the text, containing the intervention of the Virgin, is missing.
Description:
Binding: Quarter binding of bevelled wooden boards (worm-eaten) and brown leather; spine with three raised bands and paper title label with handwritten 17th-century inscription: “Vita / di S. / Girola.” On the boards marks of one clasp attached to the front board and on the front board the ca. 1800 inscription “JO.” written in black ink. Possibly the binding once belonged to another manuscript., Collection of Bernard M. Rosenthal (MS 38). Purchased from him on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund., Description follow modern foliation which includes two preliminary leaves.., Headings in pale red, often difficult to read. Yellow heightening of the majuscules. Initials, with guide letters written in the space reserved for the initial: (1) flourished initials (3-4 lines) in red with pale red (or brown) penwork or in blue with red penwork, sometimes with marginal penwork extensions; (2) at the beginning of each text a larger initial; the letters following this type of initial are majuscules. F. 3r: 12-line blue initial of the littera duplex type with extensive penwork in red and some blue, with decorative border in the same colours in the inner and lower margin and tendrils in the other margins containing flowers and acorns; the border of the lower margin terminates in a medallion containing a coat of arms; ff. 8r, 41r: 9-line initial of the same type and in the same colours; f. 47v: 6-line, idem; f. 77v: 7-line black initial., Script: Copied by one hand in a peculiar form of Southern Gothica Textualis Libraria under Humanistic influence as visible in the total lack of compression; special features are: the sloping hairline at the top of the second stroke of e, parallelled by the sloping stroke on i; h with exceptionally long curved extension under the baseline; the forked lower ending of f and straight s on or under the baseline and the forked descender of p; and the very fancy majuscules., and The lower margin of f. 62 torn off.
Subject (Name):
Jerome,--Saint,--d. 419 or 20
Subject (Topic):
Christian hagiography, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Gazaeus, Aeneas Rufinus, of Aquileia, 345-410 Traversari, Ambrogio, 1386-1439
Published / Created:
[ca. 1450]
Call Number:
Marston MS 1
Image Count:
127
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on paper of 1) Aeneas Gazaeus, Theophrastus, translated into Latin by Ambrogio Traversari. 2) Life of St. Helenus, monk in Egypt. Text is an extract (incomplete) taken from the Latin translation by Rufinus of the Historia monachorum, ch. 11.
Description:
Acquired from C. A. Stonehill in 1949 by Thomas E. Marston., Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Vellum stays are adhered in and outside the paper gatherings. Original sewing on three tawed skin, kermes pink, slit straps which go through tunnels in the edges of wooden boards to channels on the outside where they are pegged. The primary endband, sewn on a tawed skin core, is gilt with traces of a red secondary endband. A design is scratched on the gilt edges. Covered in brown sheepskin with corner tongues and blind-tooled with progressively taller concentric frames alternately decorated with five small tools. Five flower-shaped bosses on each board, some wanting, and four fastenings, leaf-shaped catches on the lower board, the upper board cut in for the clasp straps which are attached with star-headed nails. Rebacked., ff. 2r-9v blank (first gathering; foliation begins on preceding flyleaf), One large illuminated initial, 5-line, of modest quality, in gold with black accents on a multicolored ground of red, blue and green with white vine-stem ornament and white dots. One smaller initial (unfinished), parchment color on blue ground with white vine-stem ornament. On f. 1r, in lower border an unidentified coat of arms: vert a chief sable (?), overall a lion (?) rampant gules (or purpre?) on the main field and or in chief and with bend (tincture undetermined) overall; the whole shield overpainted in black. Headings in red., Script: Written in humanistic script by a single scribe, above top line., and Watermarks: Briquet Fleur 6306, and unidentified shrub, ff. i-viii, in gutter; Briquet Tete humaine 15617.
Subject (Name):
Gazaeus, Aeneas
Subject (Topic):
Biography--To 500, Desert Fathers, Dialogues, Greek, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Monks