Manuscript on parchment of Biondo Flavio, Italia Illustrata with the dedicatory preface to Pope Nicolas V (d. 1455).
Description:
Binding: Eighteenth century, England. Red goatskin gold-tooled, with the crest of Charles Chauncy on the sides. Gilt edges. Rebacked. The fine quality of the endleaves and leather, and the tool used on the edges of the boards and the turn-ins are similar to those in Marston MS 102 and Beinecke MS 497, both probably bound by Richard Wier, active in London and France in the 1770s; d. 1792)., Elaborately illuminated title page with historiated initial, 10-line, mauve with silver filigree against gold ground, edged in black, with a portrait of the author, seated and holding a book, against a hilly landscape and blue sky. Partial border of white vine-stem ornament against a predominantly gold ground with blue, green, and red patches with white and pale yellow dots in inner and upper margins, terminating in dense penwork scrolls with gold dots. In outer and lower margin, border of stylized flowers and foliage in red, purple, green, and blue, surrounded by dense penwork scrolls punctuated by gold dots. In center of lower margin, wreathed medallion with unidentified arms, supported by two purple winged putti outlined in blue and wearing red necklaces. 14 illuminated initials, 9- to 6-line, gold, on blue, green, and red ground with white vine-stem ornament, sometimes extending into the margins. Headings, running titles, and marginalia in red., and Script: Written in fine humanistic bookhand, below top line, by a single scribe who also wrote the running titles (epigraphic majuscules) and marginalia, in red.
Subject (Geographic):
Italy--Description and travel
Subject (Topic):
Geography, Medieval, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper containing letters by or related to Lapo da Castiglionchio (d. 1381), and his family: 1) Lapo da Castiglionchio, Letter, written in 1377, to his son Bernardo, canon of the cathedral of Florence, then 14 years old, containing an elaborate treatise in three parts dealing with political and historical questions. 2) Bernardo da Castiglionchio (1363-1383), Letter to his father Lapo, in which he thanks him for the education and protection his father has provided and in particular for the extensive letter he has written in reply to his questions. 3) Bernardo da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Lapo, of about the same time, in which he resumes the theme of the nobility of the Castiglionchio family and provides a panegyric of his father with details about his career. 4) Francesco da Castiglionchio (second half of the fourteenth century), Letter to his father Alberto, brother of Lapo, written 8 June 1381 or slightly later. Describes the coronation of Charles III, King of Naples and Sicily (1381-1386) by Pope Urban VI in the church of St. Peter in Rome on 2 June 1381, an event in the preparation of which Lapo had an important role. 5) Francesco da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Alberto staying at Verona, dated 17 July 1381 and relating the death of Alberto's brother Lapo, which happened in Rome on 27 June of the same year after a short illness, a couple of weeks after the coronation of Charles III, which had been so important for the improvement of the Castiglionchio family. 6) Niccolò Acciaiuoli (1310-1365), Extracts from a letter, dated 26 Dec. 1364, to the Florentine merchant Angelo Soderini (d. 1377) established in Avignon.
Description:
Binding: Seventeenth century (?). Brown leather with artificial cross grain over cardboard. Blind-tooled spine with four raised bands and gold-tooled inscription in the second compartment: “CASTIGLIONCHIO / EPISTOLE”. Below a small oval paper label with the number “7” in red ink. Yellow spine., Headings and explicit formulas in pale red ink; marginal captions and notes in the same colour or in black; paragraph marks in pale red ink. 4-line initials (Capitalis) in blue (missing f. 2v), at the opening of each art. and of the subdivisions of art. 1. On f. 1r 7-line white vinestem initial integrated into left margin border of the same style. In the lower margin, in a wreath, the Volognano-Castiglionchio coat of arms: silver, with four chains azure in saltire and castle azure. Running headlines in pale red Capitalis in art. 1 only., On the author, a Florentine poet, friend of Petrarch, professor of Canon Law, lawyer, diplomat, politician, see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, v. 22 (1979), pp. 40-44., and Script: Copied by one hand in careful Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. The first line of each text and some headings are in Capitalis.
Subject (Geographic):
Florence (Italy)--History
Subject (Name):
Castiglionchio, Lapo da,--d. 1381
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Nobility--Italy
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.
Subject (Name):
Gellius, Aulus
Subject (Topic):
Commonplace-books, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Pauline Epistles (Epistola ad Romanos 2.27 through Epistola ad Hebreos 11.34), with commentary of Gilbert de la Porree. With Argumenta, later additions, all attributed to Hugo de Sancto Caro or Peter Lombard.
Description:
Binding: Twentieth century, United States (?). Half bound in dark red goatskin with gold-tooled lettering on the spine ("St. Paul/ Epistulae cum commento/ MS. 12th Cent."), marbled paper sides, and yellow edges., Script: Written in fine early gothic bookhand in two sizes of script, above top line., and Three illuminated initials at beginning of first three Epistles of excellent quality, ff. 34v, 69v, 86v, 8- to 5-line, with descenders extending into margins, red, blue, green and beige against gold ground. Bodies of initials filled with stylized scrolling foliage, bright blue, red, green, orange, silver and yellow with white highlights against gold ground. Descenders serve as a trellis for similar scrolls, some ending in biting animal's heads or fantastic birds. Scrolling foliage, f. 86v, inhabited by beasts of a canine variety, white with red shading. The decoration of manuscript is unfinished; f. 99r pen and ink underdrawing for an initial as above, with only touches of red added; blank spaces left for initals for remaining Epistles. Small initials, 3-line, gold with red penwork, for beginning of commentary for each Epistle. Headings in red or alternating red and blue majuscules. Plain initials touched with red. Running titles, later addition, in red.
Subject (Name):
Gilbert, de La Porrée, Bishop, ca. 1075-1154, Hugh, of Saint-Cher, Cardinal, ca. 1200-1263, Paul, the Apostle, Saint, and Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, ca. 1100-1160
Subject (Topic):
Bible.--N.T.--Epistles of Paul, Bible--Commentaries, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of 1) Ps.-Cyprianus Carthaginensis (Pseudo-Cyprian of Carthage or Pseudo-Augustine), De singularitate clericorum. 2) Ps.-Augustinus Hipponensis (Pseudo-Augustine), De incarnatione Verbi ad Ianuarium. 3) Pseudo-Augustine, De essentia divinitatis. 4) Letter from the bishops assembled at the council of Carthage, A.D. 416, to pope Innocentius I. 5) Letter of pope Innocentius I to the bishops at the council of Carthage A.D. 416. 6) Letter from the bishops assembled at the council of Mileve A.D. 416 to pope Innocent I. 7) Innocentius I, letter to the bishops assembled at the council of Mileve A.D. 416. 8) Prayer to be said before the image of Corpus Christi. 9) Prayer to Jesus Christ. 10) Prayer to Jesus Christ ascribed to Thomas Aquinas.
Description:
Binding: Original Italian reddish brown leather over pasteboard with a flap at the rear cover closing over the front cover with leather ties. Covers and flap are blind-tooled with frames and lozenges of quadruple fillets, decorated with small circular tools either single or in clusters, and a full border consisting of a scroll motif. At the top of the front cover, in black ink, Capitalis ca. 1500: “Aur. (?) Augustini opus”. Parchment flyleaves. On the front flyleaf verso a Table of Content written in red by hand A, recording artt. 1-7 only, under the title “Que in hoc libello inserte sunt”., Headings in purplish red. Spaces for 1- or 2-line initials have been reserved throughout the codex (in artt. 1-3 with guide letters), but these have not been executed, except in artt. 8-10, where they have been clumsily written in black ink in the left margin. At the opening of art. 1, 3-line half inset Humanistic dentelle initial on a square background in green and blue decorated with silver and gold penwork. It has floral extensions with gold balls in the upper and inner margin. In the lower margin of the same f. 1r, between three similar floral decorations, a circular medallion containing the coat of arms of the Ugolini family of Florence (parti per bend, or on azure, with two lions passant counter changed, surmounting)., and Script: Two hands, both writing a very small Humanistica hesitating between Semitextualis Currens and Cursiva Currens. A, the main scribe, copied ff. 1r-60v; B, an inexperienced hand, marked by the use of d with ascender curving to the right, i longa and round s in all positions, added the prayers on ff. 61r-63r.
Subject (Name):
Council of Carthage--(411) and Pseudo-Augustinus
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Pelagianism, and Theology--History--Early church, ca. 30-600
Manuscript on paper (thick, coarse) of Lives of the Saints, preceded by accounts of events in the Bible from both the Old and New Testaments. Folios 51 and 61 interchanged in rebinding.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century, Italy. Rigid vellum case with two red labels on spine: "Trattati di storia sacra" and "Manuscritto 1360"., Crudely executed title page, f. 1r, consisting of floral and foliage motifs in upper margin, scroll around column in inner margin, and, in outer margin, scroll around column terminating in elongated arm with text on the scroll (much rubbed and stained). In lower margin a coat of arms (damaged; probably: or, two columns gules); the letters B and C on either side in the bases of columns in inner and outer margins. The decoration of title page in bright red and green. Plain initials (some with simple foliage designs), headings, paragraph marks, pointing hands, and hands holding crosses or symbols of passions of martyrs (e. g., gridiron for Laurence), all in bright red, green, and/or black., Folio 1 damaged; no loss of text., Script: Written by several scribes in unruly mercantesca script, above top line. Script becomes smaller and tighter toward end of codex., and Watermarks: similar in design to Briquet Ciseaux 3708 dated Genoa, 1465.
Subject (Topic):
Christian hagiography, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature--15th century, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of a collection of anonymous sermons, mostly drawn from the Italian Homiliary.
Description:
Attractive pen-and-ink drawings throughout the manuscript, in red, though much of manuscript now stained. Folio 1r with a partial border formed of fantastic beasts, dragons and grotesques. Other drawings in margins include a fantastic bird, f. 9r; a dragon with a human head issuing forth stylized scrolls, f. 40v; a scroll inhabited by a fantastic bird, f. 49r; a lizard-like creature, its tail forming a partial border, f. 53r; a grotesque, f. 73v. Several drawings in the lower margin have been trimmed. Plain initials in red, some with penwork scrolls or simple flourishing. Headings and underlining of Biblical passages in red., Binding: Nineteenth century (?), Italy (?). Brown leather case with title, in ink, on spine: "Homil. in Evangel". Fragment of an unidentified 13th-century Latin document (monastic register?) bound in as second front flyleaf., and Script: Written in a nice large early gothic script, above top line.
Subject (Topic):
Homiliaries, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Sermons, Latin, and Sermons--Early works to 1800
Manuscript on parchment of Gottofredo da Trani, Summa super titulis Decretalium. With medicinal recipes and a list of Roman emperors.
Description:
5 fine illuminated initials, 30- to 7-line, in blue or pink with white filigree on blue and red grounds framed in blue or red accentuated at the corners by gold dots. Infilled with intertwining or angular vines, some with biting head terminals, mauve or blue with white highlights and gold dots. Ascenders and descenders, red, mauve and blue terminating in spiralling serifs with biting animal heads or grotesques against cusped grounds. Two initials with vines issuing from upper and left corners, blue with white highlights ending in grotesques. 3- and 2-line calligraphic initials, red and blue with blue and red penwork. Plain initials alternating in red and blue. Headings in red; running titles (chapter numbers) alternating red and blue. Instructions to rubricator in lower margins., Binding: Nineteenth century, France. Early sewing on five supports with 19th-century boards covered in parchment. Title on spine: "Gofredo de Trano/ Manuscrit"., and Script: Written in a rounded gothic bookhand, below top line; marginal annotations and finding aids by a contemporary hand in less formal script.
Subject (Topic):
Canon law--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Scholasticism
Manuscript on paper of Summulae naturalium, composed in 1408 by Paulus Nicolettus Venetus O.E.S.A. (1369/72-1429).
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century, England. Blind-tooled brown goatskin with the same gold-tooled title on the spine and both covers: "Summule Naturalium/ Paulus de Venetiis/ M. S. 1373". Bound by Riviere (London) before 1881. Red edges., Brittle. Acidic ink damage with some loss of text., Decorated title page, f. 1r, with border, in black and red ink composed of various decorative devices: in the upper margin a bar border with a central semicircle flanked by stylized scrolls in black and red. In the outer margin, a roundel, black with red and black frame, filled with a flower of 6 petals in red; the roundel flanked by stylized scrolls. In center of lower margin a medallion framed in narrow black and red bands containing a flaming heart pierced by an arrow and an open book, also flanked by stylized scrolls. Numerous decorated initials, 30- to 4-line, black and red with interior designs of lozenges, small flowers, and wavy lines of paper ground. Plain initials and paragraph marks in red. Guide letters for rubricator throughout., Purchased from C. A. Stonehill in 1953 by Thomas E. Marston., Script: Written by several scribes in humanistic cursive script with gothic features, below top line; inital words of each section in gothic bookhand., Watermarks, obscured by text: similar to Harlfinger Chapeau 17 and unidentified ladder., and Worm-eaten; some minor loss of text.
Subject (Name):
Aristotle, Augustinians, and Venetus, Paulus
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Physics--Early works to 1800, and Scholia
Manuscript on paper of Iohannes de Sacrobosco (1000-1210), Tractatus de sphaera.
Description:
2-line plain initials alternately in red and blue at the beginning of the subdivisions of the text. They are placed almost entirely in the margin and are missing ff. 17v, 28r and 33r. Guide letters, written in the space reserved for the initials, are equally often missing. On f. 1r the Prologue opens with a 4-line foliate initial in red, green and blue with two flowers on a gold background and floral extensions in the inner margin, in Lombard style; in the lower margin of the same page a painted double-headed imperial eagle in black, its two heads with a golden crown and on its chest an oval shield with the coat of arms or, three bends azure., Binding: Original Italian, undecorated blue-stained leather over beech boards. Sewn on three double leather thongs. Remnants of three clasps attached to the front board (one at the upper, one at the lower and one at the right-hand side); thin brass engraved catches on the rear cover, decorated with a floweret and the Gothic majuscule “S”. The parchment pastedowns are now detached from the boards., Collection of Bernard M. Rosenthal, Berkeley (MS 149). Purchased from Rosenthal on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund., Parchment end leaves., Script: Copied by one hand in Humanistica Cursiva Libraria/Currens, widely spaced. The first letter after an initial is in Capitalis., and Watermark: two crossed arrows, similar to Briquet 6269-6275, especially to Briquet 6271 (attested 1462). The whole group and its variants are attested in Northeastern Italy 1448-1495.
Subject (Name):
Sacro Bosco, Joannes de,--fl. 1230
Subject (Topic):
Astronomy, Medieval, Geometry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library