Manuscript, on parchment, in at least seven hands, containing the text of the wills of Jankyn (or John) Smyth and his wife, Margaret Odeham, detailing their bequests to the Candlemas Guild of Bury St. Edmunds, as well as to other religious foundations, and the funeral expenses for Smyth. Also included are the grant of probate for Smyth's second will, dated 1481; and lists of lands donated by the couple, by name and location
Description:
In Middle English and Latin., Numerous marginal annotations in both contemporary and later hands., Layout: single columns, mostly of 32 lines., Script: manuscript is in at least seven hands., Decoration: Rubricated. Large blue initial with red penwork (f. 8)., and Binding: contemporary binding of tawed white leather over bevelled wooden boards, sewn on four leather thongs. Remains of clasp; brass pin and mount on lower cover.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Bury St. Edmunds (England)
Subject (Name):
Odeham, Margaret, 1492., Smyth, Jankyn, 1481., and Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Finance, Charitable bequests, Endowments, Catholic Church, Legacies, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript, on parchment, of the Bible, including prologues. The Old Testament omits 1 and 2 Chronicles and Psalms; Esther and Judith follow Nehemiah. New Testament is incomplete: Acts folllows the Pauline and Catholic epistles but ends in chapter 13; Revelations not present. Chapter divisions throughout often deviate from Langton arrangement. Numerous brief marginal annoations in several hands
Description:
In Latin., Numerous brief marginal annotations, in Latin, in several thirteenth and fourteenth century hands, apparently English. Ecclesiastes annotated in at least four different hands., Layout: double columns of 55 lines., Script: gothica textualis., Decoration: each prologue and book opens with a large initial in red and blue with red and blue penwork, often with bar extensions in red and blue., and Binding: seventeenth-century full dark blue English polished calf. with extensive gold tooling in cottage style. Six-compartmented spine; all compartments gold-tooled except for the second, which contains a handwritten paper label: "Latin Bible. Manuscript." Marbled endpapers.
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
In Latin., Script: Text written in similar styles of gothic bookhand mostly by two scribes who may also have ruled the segments each copied. Scribe 1) ff. 7r-13v, 171v-296r, 307r-409r; running titles. Scribe 2) ff. 15r-171v, 297r-306v. A later hand of the 15th century wrote before and after Scriptural text in a less formal style of gothic; at least four other persons of the 14th-15th centuries have annotated the text in various styles of cursive., Decoration by two distinct hands whose division of work does not correspond precisely to that noted for the scribes. 1) ff. 7r-220v, 325r-340r. Large flourished initials, body divided red and blue, with interior designs primarily in red, and small blue circles added; first line of text in blue capitals decorated with simple red pen strokes. Many rubrics missing. 2) ff. 221r-324v, 341r-409r. Flourished initials similar in design to those by 1, but somewhat smaller in size and mostly without small blue circles; first line of text in blue and red capitals alternating; chapter divisions decorated with long herringbone pendants in red and blue. Running titles and marginal chapter divisions in alternating red and blue letters throughout codex. Notes to rubricator, some perpendicular in gutter., and Binding: 15th-16th centuries. Original sewing on five double, tawed supports laced straight and in V's into back-cornered wooden boards and pegged. The spine is square, the sewing supports prominent. Braided tawed skin (?) endbands. The first covering is brown calf with corner tongues. Next is a chemise of pink, tawed skin with an outer cover sewn to it with diagonal stitches of blue thread. Outer and inner covers are adhered to each other and to the boards with extending edges cut off. Two strap-and-pin fastenings with foliate pin bases on the lower board and stubs of kermes pink straps. Green discoloration on pastedowns. Trace of lettering in ink on the spine.
Manuscript, on parchment, of the books of the Bible from Proverbs through the Apocalypse
Description:
In Latin., With an Oxford pledge note for the Selton Loan Chest dated 1469 and the mark of the stationer John More. There is also a note by M. Paris, possibly Master Thomas Paris of Oriel College., Layout: double columns of 49 lines., Script: small gothic script., Decoration: red and blue penwork initials., and Binding: modern goatskin.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
Oriel College. and University of Oxford.
Subject (Topic):
Versions, Vulgate, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Universities and colleges
Manuscript, on parchment, of two leaves of a Bible, containing Deuteronomy 30:9-32:6 and 32:12-34:12.
Description:
In Latin., Layout: two columns of 28 lines., Script: Anglo-Saxon minuscule., Decoration: well-formed initial 'a' embodying two animal heads, partially colored in red and blue., and With a thirteenth or fourteenth inscription on one of the leaves, "Iste liber est de armario Sarr".
Manuscript fragments, on parchment, of an English Bible. The bound volume consists of 75 leaves containing the complete texts of the Gospels, the Pauline Epistles and Hebrews. The disbound fragment consists of 62 leaves of Old Testament texts, including most of Jeremiah and Proverbs, most of Zachariah, and 1 and 2 Machabees
Description:
In Latin., Script: gothica textualis., Decoration: rubricated. The volume contains 39 illuminated marginal initials, many with long marginal extensions incorporating animals or monsters. The disbound leaves contain several smaller initials. Some illuminated initials, and some leaves that most likely contained illuminated initials, appear to have been cut out in the disbound leaves., and Binding: seventeenth-century Cambridge-style paneled calf, blind-tooled; rebacked.
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 leaf, on parchment, containing prayers from before Matins. From the "Hungerford Hours."
Description:
In Anglo-Norman French., Layout: single-column; 17 lines., Script: Gothic., Decoration: 5 illuminated initials with decorative extensions and decorative line fillers, with gilt., and Byname: Hungerford Hours.
Manuscript on parchment (thick and furry) of Sir Gilbert Dethick, Book of Arms. Illustrations of coats of arms, in color, one per folio recto or verso; above each except the first, the name of the bearer, as given below. No mottoes given. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603).
Description:
In English., Script: Introduction and labels of illustrations in cursive with loops, by one scribe., Each shield enclosed in shaded pink border designed to look like worked metal, and surmounted by a jousting helm in profile, mantling gules doubled argent with gold tassels; wreath in colors from shield. Only shields (in up to 17 quarters) and crests vary. Slight variations from this scheme on f. 2r (royal arms) and f. 3r (mantling sable doubled argent). Fair quality of workmanship., Bookblock detached from the binding. Illustration badly smeared on f. 11r, slightly smeared f. 28r., and Binding: ca. 1873. Gold-stamped red goatskin case.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain., Connecticut, and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Dethick, Gilbert, Sir. and Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603.
Subject (Topic):
Devices (Heraldry), Heraldry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval