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:
In Latin and English., 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., 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 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.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, English poetry, Formulas, recipes, etc, Latin poetry, Medieval and modern, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of a common-place book. The main texts of the manuscript, which are primarily devotional in nature, were written in East Anglia by an unidentified scribe toward the end of the 15th century; a second individual, identified as Robert Melton of Stuston in Suffolk, added numerous accounts and notes at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century
Description:
Robert Melton was the co-executor of the estate of John Cornwallis (d. 1506), Lord of the Manors of Brome, Stuston, Okley, and Thranston, whose family possessed Brome Hall from early in the 15th to the 19th century., In Middle English., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Armoiries 1038 for part of quire I and all of II; similar to Briquet Main 11399 for remainder of quire I, all of quires III and IV, part of V; similar to Briquet Navire 11971 on ff. 68, 79 only; similar to Briquet Lettre P 8586 on ff. 72, 75; similar to Briquet Main 11152 on ff. 73, 74; unidentified watermark on f. 81., Script: Written primarily by two persons: Scribe 1) ff. 1r-26v, 28r-44r, 68r-77r, 79v, 80v-81r. Written in small, well formed Anglicana script with first line of each text in formal bookhand. Scribe 2: ff. 27r-v, 45r-60r, 62v-67v, 77v-78v, 80r, 81v. Written in a large sprawling script; no ornamentation. A third person added art. 17 at a later time., Only scribe 1 included decoration. Initials in red, 4- to 2-line, with penwork flourishes in brown; initial strokes in red. Portions of text underlined in red; rhyming verses often bracketed, in red, at end of lines. On f. 14v, a fine half-page drawing in red and brown of the monogram IHS which incorporates both a heart pierced by a lance and vine patterns and tendrils. Art. 4 is illustrated with drawings of dice, in red, in outer margins., First leaves heavily stained; lower right corner waterstained ff. 1-43., and Binding: Between 1490 and 1500. Original sewing with long stitches through a thick rectangular piece of leather on the outside of a vellum wrapper. Contemporary scroll design added to upper cover with unidentified inscription, in red, mostly illegible.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Melton, Robert.
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, English (Middle)., English poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript, on vellum, in a single hand, containing the text of Chaucer's Canterbury tales; selections from the Confessio amantis of John Gower; and the anonymous poems Speculum misericordis, The adulterous Falmouth squire, Partenope of Blois, The vision of Tundale, and The gast of Guy
Alternative Title:
Delamere Chaucer
Description:
In Middle English., Layout: double columns of 39-44 lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: blue and red penwork initials., and Binding: nineteenth-century full red morocco.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400. and Gower, John, 1325?-1408.
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Narrative poetry, English (Middle)
Manuscript, on vellum, in a single hand, of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. John Lydgate's Life of St. Margaret follows the Chaucer text
Alternative Title:
Devonshire Chaucer
Description:
In Middle English., Layout: single columns of 39-42 lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: full illuminated border on first page of text, including large portrait initial of author; other illuminated initials with decorated borders and elaborate penwork initials., Bookplate: Chatsworth., and Binding: nineteenth-century full brown morocco.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400. and Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment, in a single hand, of the complete text of this anonymous verse chronicle. This version includes a brief chronicle in Latin prose
Description:
In Middle English, with a small addition in Latin., Layout: single column., Script: English cursive bookhand., Decoration: numerous roundels containing crowns., and Binding: modern case.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Kings and rulers
Manuscript chronicle roll, on parchment, in two hands. The first three membranes contain a late thirteenth-century chronicle in Latin prose on the kings of England from Atheldred to Henry III. The last two membranes contain John Lydgate's Middle English Verses on the kings of England
Description:
In Latin and Middle English., Layout: single column., Script: two gothic bookhands., Decoration: decorative frames around names of kings and families., and Binding: modern case.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Kings and rulers
Manuscript on parchment, in a single hand, of the "second version" of John Hardyng's Chronicle. While the manuscript has lost perhaps 36 leaves from the beginning of the work, it is textually complete from the reign of Vortigern on. There is a final entry referring to Elizabeth Woodville as the queen of Edward IV. The final leaves of the volume contain an anonymous sixteenth-century poem, A lamentable complaint of our saviour Christ; an eighteen-line carol in Middle English which begins "By resone of ii and power of one;" and a page of notes in a single sixteenth-century hand on executions at Smithfield in London between 1531 and 1534
Description:
In Middle English., Ownership inscription of "John Ravell" at the end of the Chronicles text, along with other notes., Layout: single columns of approximately 42 lines., Script: English bookhand., Binding: seventeenth-century full calf. Red leather spine tag, gilt: "M. S. Hist: of England / From Vortvmrk to Edw. 4.", and Previous shelfmark: MS. L. J. I. 10.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Hardyng, John, 1378-1465?
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Narrative poetry, English (Middle)
Manuscript fragment, on vellum, in a single hand, of text from Book IV of Gower's Confessio Amantis
Description:
In Middle English., Taken from the Stafford Gower (Huntington Library MS EL 26 A 17) and used as binding waste., Layout: double columns of 36 lines (complete columns are of 46 lines), Script: formal bastard anglicana., Decoration: initials in gold, red, blue and purple., and Byname: Stafford Gower (fragment)
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Gower, John, 1325?-1408.
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper roll of George Ripley (?), Alchemy, in English verse, with additional verses attributed to Richard Carpenter. With Arnold of Villanova, Visio mystica, anonymously translated into English
Alternative Title:
Ripley Scroll
Description:
In English., Watermark: coat of arms (a bend) surmounted by a large fleur-de-lys, the type of Briquet 995 and Heawood 58-118, but not identical with any of these., Script: Written by an accomplished secretary hand using various forms and sizes of letter, some headings in roman capitals in epigraphic style., Large drawings in ink and watercolor. One large and fine drawing of an alchemist who holds a vessel, in which are eight roundels with brief Latin inscriptions and containing drawings symbolizing alchemical processes, all joined together by chain-links and surrounding a larger roundel to which they are connected by chains emanating from the bosses of a large book in the central roundel, the book being held by two individuals, the one on the left in monk's dress, the one on the right in richer (kingly?) garb. A toad, feathers, and drops of blood arise from the vessel. Another drawing of a tree growing from a well, its leafy top extending upward into the text, its leaves with the legend "Spiritus Anima"; against the tree trunk are a female anthropomorphic figure with the toes of a toad, labeled "Spiritus", and below, a male child labeled "Anima"; vines with grapes twine around the tree trunk, and two nude human figures, male and female, standing in the water grasp the vines and eat the grapes. Around the well are seven towers, in each of which is a robed alchemist holding a flask; the towers have the legend "Prima (-Septima) Imbibissio". In a third large drawing, the sun breaks through clouds and droplets of water fall on an anthropomorphic, crowned human-headed bird (the Phoenix?) which reposes on a brownish ball with a pattern of waves (the sea, as the verses below state); feathers surround the ball. Below is a sort of sunburst with a sphere at center inside of which are three smaller spheres, red, blue, and gray, linked together by chains. Below this is a triple crescent moon of the same colors, with the inscription "Luna cressens" (sic). Below, the snout of a very large dragon intrudes on (bites?) the crescent moon; the dragon is flanked by the legend at the foot of f. 11: The Serpent of Arrabia. The dragon occupies all of f. 12 and reposes on an orb divided into three parts onto which its blood drips. At left of the final folio, there is an excellent drawing of a man, his mouth agape, his left hand raised in a gesture of astonishment. He appears to be dressed in humble attire; he carries a bag over his shoulder, and a sack over his right arm; under the same arm is a curious pole with a shod horse's hoof at one end, a scroll at the pointed upper end, a portion of the scroll streaming out behind him., Paper roll consisted originally of thirteen folio sheets and half-sheets of differing lengths glued together, averaging 540 mm. in width (lateral margins and broad bordering line in black ink partly trimmed away); now cut into thirteen sections measuring about 435 x 540 each, except for the last which measures 625 x 540, each of the sections glued down to a linen backing and the whole folded in-leporello., and Binding: Modern brown suede leather, back and corners of brown niger, gold rules setting off the two leathers on each cover, the upper cover with title lettered in gold, "ASTROLOGICAL SCROLL", probably English, early 20th century.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Ripley, George, d. 1490?
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, English poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, English, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper containing 1) Anthony Jenkinson (1529-1610/11), Relation of a travel to Russia and Persia. 2) Anonymous sonnet in praise of Queen Elizabeth I. Probably an autograph. 3) Anonymous treatise in four parts attacking the apology which Cardinal William Allen (1532-1594) published in 1587 for Sir William Stanley's action in the Netherlands in the preceding year. 4) Accounts regarding tenements; one is headed "Lambeth". 5) Account of a journey through the Middle East, made in 1578 and attributed by another hand to an unrecorded Sir Anthony Standen. 6) Definition of terms related to the Turkish empire encountered in art. 5. 7) Description of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany under Francesco Maria de' Medici (1541-1587). 8) Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva (1508-1582), Proposal addressed to King Philip II of Spain regarding the conquest of Portugal, made 25 May 1579, in English translation. 9) Description of the Benedictine convent of Camaldoli near Arezzo. 10) Short description of England and Scotland. 11) Accounts signed William Garnett; the last one is dated from the 33d year of Queen Elizabeth (1591/1592). The upper outer corner of the page is missing, with loss of text. 12) Collection of state letters. 13) Estate accounts partly dating from 1586/1587 and addressed to unknown person
Description:
In English., Script: Part I (between 1550 and 1600): Art. 1, 3 and the group 5-10 are each written by a different scribe, all writing Gothica Cursiva Libraria (Secretary). The quotations and headings in art. 3 are in Humanistica Cursiva. Art. 2 is also written in Humanistica Cursiva. Art. 4 is in Gothica Cursiva Currens (Secretary)., Script: Part II (between 1600 and 1625): Written by one hand in Gothica Cursiva Currens (Secretary), some quotations and headings in Humanistica Cursiva., Script: Part III (between 1575 and 1600): Written by one hand in Gothica Cursiva Formata (Secretary)., and Binding: Seventeenth century (?). Brown (?) sheepskin over pasteboard, rebacked. On the spine the gold-tooled titles (s. XIX-XX) "JENKINSON RELATION 1561" and "STATE PAPERS?? MS.".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., England, Middle East, Russia, and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Allen, William, 1532-1594., Jenkinson, Anthony., and Standen, Anthony, Sir.
Subject (Topic):
English poetry, English prose literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Description and travel, History, and Politics and government
