Manuscript on paper of a collection of pseudo-Lullian alchemical writings, translated from the French and Catalan originals, with a little additional matter. The codex underwent a transformation in the early 16th century when considerable new matter was added by another English hand on different, thinner paper; leaves have been inserted throughout the original codex.
Description:
Binding: Eighteenth century, English. Dark calf, sides paneled in blind with a roll tool of vine pattern, leafy sprays at the corners, back with six plain compartments and five raised bands, probably original parchment label on second compartment from top bordered with ink rule and lettered in ink: "RAYM. LULLII | OPERA | MANUSCRIPTA". The binding considerably repaired and some leather renewed. Original plain edges, the top blackened., Original text: Headings in red, rubricated. Some pages with diagrams or drawings. The illustrations include Lullian alphabets and tables in the form of wheels, an Arbor philosophorum, a group of flasks, and a good, large drawing of a furnace. Inserted leaves: Red headings, and capitals with slight decoration., Script: The original portion written by a single English gothic cursive hand with heavy standard abbreviation. The inserted leaves (first 4 ff. now extant, ff. 88-96, 163-169, 268-274, and 307-319 [of which f. 167 is a blank and f. 315 is a parchment leaf]) written in another gothic cursive habitually employing writing of different sizes., and Watermarks: Original paper: 1) an extremely primitive-looking unicorn with very short horn and long tail somewhat like Briquet 9962 and 10176; 2) a less primitive unicorn rather similar to Briquet 9985; 3) bullshead with defined eyes and nostrils and with cross above, rather like Briquet 15054. Inserted leaves: a very elegant unicorn mark, more developed than Briquet 10104; and some leaves with a gothic "P" with cinquefoil above, rather like Briquet 8809.
Subject (Name):
Llull, Ramon,--1232?-1316
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript fragment on paper of extracts from Laudabile sanctum. There follows on ff. 1r-7v an extended series of longer and shorter alchemical recipes and procedures, probably including excerpts from standard sources, a passage on transmutation, a brief account of the planets, etc., often with marginal captions. With a poem in English.
Description:
Binding: Parchment wrapper made from a bifolium of a late 13th-century French (or possibly English?) canon law manuscript written by two hands, one of them using a classical Littera parisiensis, the other slightly more rounded, the writing partly scraped away on what is now the front cover of the wrapper, the outer side of the lower cover with an inscription in a very large hand which has not been read., Script: Written by a single hand, very small (sometimes minute) and mostly very neat, using a good cursive italic for the Latin passages, and a secretary hand for the English, both sloping somewhat to the right., and Watermark: an extended hand with a five-pointed star extending on a stem from the middle finger, a quatrefoil (?) at the wrist, which is sharply cut off, the fingers partly articulated, of the type of Briquet 11341 and following, but more refined.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, English poetry--Early modern, 1500-1700, Formulas, recipes, etc, Latin poetry, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
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:
Binding: seventeenth-century Cambridge-style paneled calf, blind-tooled; rebacked., 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., In volume: ownership inscription of Thomas Martin (1697-1771); ex libris Thomas Barber; ownership inscription of Emily Bagot. Purchased from Lux et Umbra on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2014., and Script: gothica textualis.
Subject (Name):
Bagot, Emily--Autograph, Barber, Thomas,---1785--Bookplate, and Martin, Thomas,--1697-1771
Subject (Topic):
Bible.--Latin--Versions, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Fragments of a Brut Chronicle. Begins imperfectly in chapter 36 (Constantine) and has several lacunae. The work ends in chapter 86 (beginning on f. 11r) with the thirty-first year of Edward III. With art. 3) A note (in Latin) stating that King Henry IV was consecrated in 1399 and documenting his descent from Adam. 4) A list (in Latin) of 86 kings (each numbered) from Brutus to Edward III. 5) Names of prisoners captured and killed at the battle of Poitiers (19 Sept. 1356). 6) Terms of the treaty of Bretigny (8 May 1360). 7) Parliamentary text.
Description:
Acquired from Henry Fletcher in 1950., Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Stab sewn to a vellum folder made up of a legal document (trimmed with some loss of text) dated 1766 and involving the manors of Whitechurch and Milbourne in Wiltshire. The outside has an inscription, 19th century, "Some leaves of early English History in Norman French supposed to have come from Malmesbury Abbey." A similar inscription occurs on f. i verso., Decorative initials, blue with red penwork, appear only on ff. 1-12; initial strokes and headings, in red, throughout., In Anglo-Norman., and Script: Written in Anglicana bookhand by one scribe.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain--History--14th century
Subject (Name):
England.--Treaties, etc.--France,--(1360 May 8)
Subject (Topic):
Anglo-Norman literature, Chronicles of England, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Imperfect: Water damaged with some loss of text. Mutilated at head. and Preliminary leaves (modern binder's blanks) not digitized.
Subject (Name):
Thomas,--Aquinas, Saint,--1225?-1274
Subject (Topic):
Bible.--N.T.--John, Bible--Commentaries, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Scholasticism
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