Manuscript on paper of C. Iulius Caesar (100-44 B.C.), De bello Gallico; De bello civili; De bello Alexandrino; De bello Africo; De bello Hispaniensi.
Description:
Binding: ca. 1700 (repaired in 1993 by P. Dusel). Brown sprinkled calf over cardboard, gold-tooled: the covers decorated with a double fillet frame, the spine, with seven raised bands, richly decorated. In the second compartment a red title label with gold-tooled inscription “CESARIS / COMMENT/ARII .Ms.” Red edges., Collection of Bernard M. Rosenthal, Berkeley (MS 174). Purchased from Rosenthal on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund., Pale red headings in Humanistica Textualis, sometimes missing, especially towards the end of the codex. Running headlines in the same colour and by the same hand, “L” in the middle of the verso page, the number in the middle and the title at right on the recto page. Gothic initials at the head of the subdivisions of the text as sketched above (including f. 69r): (1) foliate initials in Lombard style in red and green, filled with blue heightened with white penwork, on a square gold background, up to f. 51r; the opening one (f. 1r) is 9 lines high and has penwork extensions ending in leaves in the left and upper margin (the latter interfering with the heading); the others are 4-5 lines high and have similar sprays in the left margin only; (2) Starting f. 68v (art. 2) blue flourished initials (4-6 lines) with red penwork, the latter extending in the margin., and Script: Copied by one scribe writing a small Gothico-Humanistica with features close to Gothica Semitextualis Libraria.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome--History, Military--265-30 B.C
Subject (Name):
Caesar, Julius
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Curtius Rufus, Historia Alexandri Magni, translated into Italian and supplemented with material from Plutarch by Pier Candido Decembrio. 2) Pier Candido Decembrio, Comparazione di Cesare e d'Alessandro Magno.
Description:
Binding: 15th-16th centuries, Italy. Sewn on four tawed skin, slit straps laid in channels on the outside of wooden boards and pegged. Gilt edges. Covered in brown goatskin with corner tongues, and blind-tooled with a ropework star inside painted (red) and blind-tooled circles inside a floral border, all with metallic annular dots. There are traces of four leaf-shaped fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the upper one cut in for fabric straps attached with star-headed nails. Rebacked twice., One illuminated intial, 6-line, gold against blue, green and pink ground with white vine-stem ornament, extending into inner margin to form a partial border; terminating at top and bottom in pen inkspray with buds in green and pink and gold balls with hair-line extensions. Plain initials, 3- to 2-line, in blue, mark text divisions; headings in pale red., Purchased from Lathrop C. Harper in 1949 by Thomas E. Marston., and Script: Written by a single scribe in a slightly rounded humanistic bookhand with many cursive elements, below top line.
Subject (Name):
Caesar, Julius, Decembrio, Pier Candido,--1399-1477, Plutarch, and Rufus, Curtius
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature--15th century, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library