Manuscript on parchment (poor quality; end pieces) of Boethius, De arithmetica. Text begins imperfectly in Bk. I, ch. 23.
Description:
Binding: 19th-20th centuries, Eastern Europe (?). The back pastedown consists of a portion of a Latin parchment document dated 1374. Front pastedown removed and preserved as Marston MS 89A. Sewn on three supports laced into thick oak boards and wedged. Plain wound endbands on alum-tawed cores originally laced into the boards. Covered with parchment with irregularly serrated turn-ins, with a strap-and-pin fastening, the pin on the upper board. The codex has been so tightly rebacked that it is difficult to open., Parchment stained and warped by damp., Plain intials, 6- to 2-line, red, blue or black, occasionally with modest pen design in red (e.g., ff. 27v-28r). Numerous diagrams and charts throughout., Purchased from G. Heilburn of Paris in 1951 by L. C. Witten who sold it in 1953 to Thomas E. Marston., and Script: Written by multiple scribes (some copying or correcting only brief portions of text) in late caroline minuscule.
Subject (Topic):
Arithmetic--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Mathematics, Medieval, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Boethius, De topicis differentiis.
Description:
Binding: Date? Limp vellum case with title, in ink, on spine: "Topica boetij"., One historiated initial, f. 1v, blue with white filigree and highlights against a square reddish brown ground with white filigree, showing Boethius as a monk in a blue robe seated on a chair and holding a scroll inscribed with his name, and a disciple, dressed in a red robe and holding a book inscribed with the opening words of the text proper, both figures against a grey ground with white filigree. Three illuminated initials, ff. 7v, 16v, 23r, 6- to 4-line (without ascenders or descenders), blue with white filigree against reddish brown ground with white filigree or reddish brown against blue ground with white filigree. The initials are filled with scrolling vines blue or reddish brown with white highlights, with stylized leaves, ending in dragons' heads against reddish brown or blue grounds. Descender, f. 16v, in form of a dragon, reddish brown against blue ground. Flourished initials, 2-line, and paragraph marks alternate red and blue., and Script: Written in compact gothic bookhand by a single scribe, below top line.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Double columns on single page with diagrams., Imperfect: mutilated with loss of text., Manuscript fragment on parchment., and With: In Timaeum Platonis, by Calcidius; manuscript on parchment.
Subject (Name):
Calcidius. In Platonis Timaeum commentarius, Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Topica, and Plato. Timaeus