Manuscript on parchment of Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae (abridged).
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Sewn on three tawed skin, kermes pink slit straps nailed in channels on the outside of the wooden boards. Yellow edges. The plain wound endbands may have been resewn. The spine is lined with cloth. Covered in brown, originally tan, sheepskin with corner tongues. Blind-tooled with two rope interlace stars in a central panel bordered with concentric frames. Spine: bands outlined with double fillets; panels diapered with triple fillets. Two truncated diamond fastenings, the catches on the lower board (one wanting), the upper board cut in for straps attached with star-headed nails., Folio 1r with partial border in inner and lower margin (rubbed). Inner margin has scrolling vine, yellow, on parchment ground with red dots, with stylized foliage, flowers and fruit in green, red, purple and dove grey. Illuminated initial, 3-line, purple on dark green ground, is incorporated into border. In lower margin, wreathed medallion (unidentified mutilated arms: per pale, or and sable?) on pink ground, supported by two heraldic dragons, parchment colored (unfinished) against red ground. All of this decoration appears to be a later addition. Plain initials and headings in red., and Script: Written in fere-humanistic script by a single scribe, below top line.
Binding: contemporary full parchment; extensive later 17th century annotations on covers, containing excerpts from Robert Wild's Iter Borealis and verses on the Popish Plot., In English and Latin., Inscribed on front endpaper: "Liber Richardi Fitzherbert," accompanied by other extensive annotations in a variety of hands., Purchased from Bernard Quaritch, Ltd. on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Fund, 2008., and Richard Fitzherbert (d. 1653?) received his M.A. from New College, Oxford in 1605 and was appointed rector of Cucklington in Somerset in 1607. He was also rector of Stoke Tristor and Gussage All Saints from 1621, as well as Archdeacon of Dorset. In his later years in Cucklington he was "often plundered and imprisoned," and died circa 1653, leaving at least one daughter, Elizabeth.
Subject (Topic):
Aphorisms and apothegms, Classical literature--Quotations, Conduct of life--Quotations, maxims, etc, English prose literature--17th century, and Fathers of the church--Quotations
Binding: original, worn velvet over wooden boards., Decoration: heraldic illumination on f. 1v of two angels holding a coat of arms, overpainted to that of the Totewhill family (sable, three covered cups argent); the mitre associated with the abbacy of St. Albans floats above. Borderwork around the miniature consists of gold leaf and alternating red and blue flowers. 1 four-line gilt initial "M" on 2r with accompanying blue and red design and gold borderwork with blue and red background. Between 1 and 3 two to three-line gilt initials per page with blue and red background. Rubrics in red., Ex libris St. Albans Abbey. Ex libris the Totewhill family of Cornwall. Purchased from Christie's London sale (2017 July 12, lot 13) on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Fund, 2017., Layout: single column of 14 lines., Script: main text in a humanist hand, possibly that of George Hermonymus. Later English and Latin verses in three early modern hands., and The manuscript contains a dedicatory preface from George Hermonymus to "Gulielmum," the Abbot of St. Albans, either William Albon (1465-1475) or William of Wallingford (1476-1492); this manuscript was probably presented while Hermonymus was on a diplomatic mission to England between 1475 and 1476. The coat of arms of the Totewhill family of Cornwall have been overpainted in the heraldic miniature.
Subject (Name):
Albon, William,---1476., Hermōnymos, Geōrgios,--15th cent., St. Albans Abbey, and Wallingford, William,---1488?
Subject (Topic):
Classical philosophy, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Aegidius Beneventanus, Collection of extracts on moral subjects (Part I), historical, genealogical and geographical subjects (Parts II and III) drawn from classical, Biblical and medieval texts. With Extracts from Isidore, Etymologiae.
Description:
Script: Written by several scribes in an uneven gothic bookhand.
Binding: Nineteenth century. Straight-grained black morocco, gilt single-line perimetric border for each cover and spine, gilt dentelles, and border of the same tools at head and foot of spine, modern tan leather spine label, with legend: HARTUNG V. HOFF VADE MECUM MANUSCRIPT AUSTRIA 1557, Denis Duveen, acquired from Thomas Heller (bookseller), New York, 1949; Mellon MS 71, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., and Script: Written in a small, neat gothic cursive, additions in a neat italic hand and a rather irregular and sometimes scrawling cursive gothic, both perhaps about 1625.