Manuscript on parchment of a Liturgical Psalter (Pss. 1-108) with hymns, canticles, and antiphons. Capitals A and B in outer margins every two Psalms, perhaps to denote change in reader. With Hymns for Matins and Lauds
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in a large round gothic bookhand., One crude historiated initial, 6-line (Ps. 1): David seated on ground with both hands raised in prayer, against a blue ground, the letter-form tan, orange, and red with white filigree; large blue, green, pink, and red acanthus leaves at the corners, against a gold ground, edged with two thick black bands, penwork, gold dots, and hair-spray. In bottom margin a "YHS" monogram, against a blue ground, inside sunburst and green, pink, and blue wreath, supported by large bud from which sprout two large acanthus leaves, red berries, gold dots and hair-spray, as above. 6- or 5-line initials red and/or blue, with large green or red dots, elaborate purple calligraphic decoration, portions filled with green and tan. 2-line initials, red or blue, with calligraphic ornament and flourishes, as above. 1-line initials, blue or red, with guide-letters throughout. On f. 160v a large pen drawing of a hand pointing to text., and Binding: 16th-17th centuries. Sewn on five tawed skin straps. Plain, wound endbands on cores laced into tunnels in the edges of heavy wooden boards. Covered with three separate pieces of dark brown leather (cowskin?) with leather straps extending across the spine and nailed to the boards over the sewing straps. Each board has four corner pieces, a central boss and a strip of metal, probably iron, nailed around the four edges. Strap and pin fastening, the pin on the lower board, stubs of pink, tawed straps attached to the upper one. Fragments from several parchment manuscripts and early printed texts used as binding reinforcements.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Liturgy, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Psalters
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 paper of 1) Juvenal, Satirae I-XVI. 2) Persius, Prologue followed by Satirae I-VI.
Description:
In Latin., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Tete de boeuf 14873., Script: Written in humanistic script by a single scribe., Six illuminated initials in blue or green, 6- to 5-line on gold rectangular grounds (ff. 1r, 20r, 32v, 45v, 59r, 76r); smaller initials, in blue, for the remaining satires., and Binding: Sixteenth century (?). Vellum stays and vellum reinforcement of own end leaves. Resewn on three slit straps bound in wooden boards covered in brown leather, blind-tooled, with two catches on the upper board. Too heavily restored to tell much about the binding.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Juvenal.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Satire, Latin
Manuscript on parchment (hair side quite yellow) of Paulus de Sancta Maria (of Burgos; 1353-1435), Scrutinium Scripturarum. With Passages concerning the conversion of Jews to Christianity; (a) unidentified; (b) Letter of Pope Gregory I to Pascasius, bishop of Naples
Description:
In Latin., Script: Arts. 1 and 3 written below top line in fere-humanistic script by a single scribe who frequently erased and rewrote the text; art. 2 added in another hand. Some later marginalia., Crudely executed initial and full border on f. 9r: gold initial, 11-line, on blue rectangular ground, with white vine-stem ornamentation highlighted in green; border in gold, blue, pale pink, mauve and green, consisting of swirling acanthus leaves, flowers, birds, gold dots and leaves around bar border in upper and outer margin, and with putti supporting laurel wreath (arms effaced) in lower margin. One penwork initial of pathetic quality, 8-line, red and blue divided body accompanied by red and blue penwork designs, on f. 125v. Table of contents (art. 1) and headings throughout, in bright red. Remains of notes to rubricator., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Red goatskin, with green, gold-tooled labels. Yellow edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Naples (Italy)
Subject (Name):
Paulus de Sancta Maria.
Subject (Topic):
Conversion, Christianity, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Judaism, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (goatskin) of Nicolaus de Osimo (Auximo) OFM (d. after 1453), Supplementum Summae Pisanellae, an alphabetically arranged supplement to the Summa de casibus conscientiae of Bartholomew of Pisa (Bartholomaeus de Sancto Concordio, d. 1347). Produced at the Franciscan convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli near Milan
Description:
In Latin., Script: Apparently 8 scribes, all writing Southern Gothica., Decoration: The decoration of artt. 1-4 consists of heightening of the majuscules in yellow; blue or red paragraph marks. In art. 3 the chapters normally open with a 2-line (rarely 3-line) flourished initial with penwork extensions in the left margin or in the intercolumnar space, alternately red with purple or blue penwork and blue with red penwork; the first lemma of each letter opens with a 3- or 4-line flourished initial filled with foliage and with more developed marginal extensions. The text opens on f. 5v with a 5-line dentelle initial with green and blue background heightened with gold and white, followed by 5 lines of text mostly in majuscules. The decoration of art. 7 is similar to that of art. 3 but less carefully executed., and Binding: Eighteenth century (?). White parchment over pasteboard, with two modern brass clasps fixed to the front cover. On the spine green leather label with gold-tooled title "SUMA MAGISTRA". On the bottom edge the title "Summa Pisa****" is written.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Nicholas, of Osimo, -1453. and Franciscans
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Canon law, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (thin, good quality) of 1) Tacitus, Annales XI-XVI. 2) Tacitus, Historiae I-V. Written for King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-90), perhaps by Italians at his palace of Buda
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by a single scribe in a well formed humanistic script., Twelve initials, 7- to 2-line, at beginning of each book (2 at the beginning of the Annales), gold edged in black, with white vine ornament, against a panelled ground of blue, green and mauve, with white dots, outlined with one or two thin white and one black line; ivy, drawn or pen, with triangular gold leaves or dots, projecting from corners into margins. On f. 1r, the initial includes a putto in the vinework; in the lower margin, coat of arms of Corvinus, type A (quarterly, first and fourth barry of 8 gules and argent [Hungary]; second and third gules, a lion rampant and queue-fourche argent [Bohemia]; an inescutcheon azur with raven sable holding an annulet or, with bordure or [Hunyadi family]. Workmanship of fair quality; style Northern Italian (?)., and Binding: Fifteenth century. Sewn on three tawed, slit straps laid in channels in beech boards. The straps are pegged and the channels filled in with plaster as are the endband grooves and the edge channels cut out for the clasps. The primary endband is plain, wound, and sewn on a tawed core and the secondary is beaded and colored. The core is laid in a groove and pegged. The square spine is given a slightly round shape by the bevelling of the boards and is lined with a tawed skin. Covered in dark, brick-red goatskin with a cusped shield azur, charged with a crow sable (Hunyadi family), in the center of each board; blind-tooled rope work, punch dots and other ornamentation gilt, gold-tooled or painted. "Cornelius Tacitus" is tooled along the head of the lower cover and is also written down the fore-edge with black ink. There are four fastenings, the brass catches on the lower board, with three of them covered over with added leather. The clasps are the same color as the cover and are reinforced with parchment. They are pegged in channels at the edges of the board, underneath the cover. The clasps and a little leather of the spine and the upper board are wanting.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Rome
Subject (Name):
Matthias I, King of Hungary, 1443-1490. and Tacitus, Cornelius.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin prose literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on goatskin parchment of 1) St Basil of Ancyra, De vera integritate virginitatis. Translated into Latin by Ambrogio Traversari between 1423-1424; 2) St John Chrysostom, Adversus oppugnatores vitae monasticae. Translated into Latin by Ambrogio Traversari in 1420
Description:
In Latin., Script: Copied by one scribe, writing in Humanistica Semitextualis with a few Gothic features., Pale red rubrics. Text undecorated, with the following exceptions: plain 2-4-line initials (Capitalis) in red or blue on pp. 1, 152, 155, 188; 5-line white vinestem initial integrated in a three-margins-left border in the same style on p. 3; the initial and border have been attributed by Albinia C. de la Mare to Giovanni d'Antonio Varnucci (1416-1457)., and Binding: 19th-20th centuries; brown morocco over cardboard. Both covers are blind-tooled with frames of fillets and four different flower tools. Five raised bands are on the spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Traversari, Ambrogio, 1386-1439.
Subject (Topic):
Fathers of the church, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Monastic and religious life
Manuscript on paper (sturdy) of what is probably the first version of the treatise, finished ca. 1476-77. The order of contents is as follows: fortresses; temples, churches and theaters; columns and other architectural details; plans for palaces; aqueducts; measuring and surveying; instruments of war
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: anchor and star similar to Briquet Ancre 478, Bergamo 1502., Script: Written in italic script by a single scribe who left blank spaces for illuminated initials., Outer and lower margins of almost every page filled with architectural or mechanical sketches drawn either directly on the leaves (ff. 1r-5v) or on small strips of paper pasted onto the margins of the leaves (ff. 6r-57v), in brown ink, sometimes with green or pink washes. The drawings illustrate every section of the text; many have explanatory inscriptions., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Red edges. Mottled, brown calf, streaked on the turn-ins. Blind-tooled, with a gold-tooled spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Italy., Connecticut, and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Martini, Francesco di Giorgio, 1439-1502.
Subject (Topic):
Architecture, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Military art and science
Manuscript on parchment of Jacopo Zeno, Vita Caroli Zeni. With a dedicatory preface to Pope Pius II. This manuscript is of special importance because it contains the complete work
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in humanistic script by Franciscus de Tianis of Pistoia., On f. 1r, a foliage border which includes hares, stork, vase, and arms of the Piccolomini family (argent, a cross azur with 5 crescents or; surmounted by keys in saltire argent and a papal tiara; supported by a pair of angels). Eleven elaborate initials, 11- to 7-line, in gold, red, blue, and green entwined with foliage. The style of decoration is decidedly Roman., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Brownish-red goatskin, gold-tooled; pale green and gold, Dutch gilt paper boards.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Zeno, Carlo, 1334-1418. and Zeno, Jacopo, 1417-1481.
Subject (Topic):
Biography, Crusades, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval