Manuscript on paper of Flavius Blondus (Flavio Biondo, 1396-1463), Roma instaurata.
Description:
Binding: ca. 1500, Italy. Brown goatskin over wooden boards, both covers blind-tooled with frame and centre-piece, the latter in the shape of a cross composed of small rhomboid stamps showing some remnants of gold. Remnants of one clasp attached to the front cover, with a brass catch fixed with three nails to the rear cover., Rather carelessly written headings in purplish red ink, added posteriously at the beginning of the Prologue and of each Book, not corresponding to the instructions for the rubricator written in the margins by the scribe (no such instruction is visible on f. 3r). White vinestem initial (5 lines) and border in the same style in the upper and inner margins at the head of the Prologue (f. 3r). The Books open with 2-3-line plain initials (Capitalis) in blue; a similar 2-line initial was planned (and executed) at the beginning of what would be chapter 3 (“Ambitum”, f. 4v), but this practice was afterwards abandoned. Guide letters for the initials in the margin., Script: Copied by a single hand writing a rapid Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. The first line of the Prologue and the first word or second letter of the three Books are written in Capitalis., and Sold by Alberto Govi, Modena to Fred K. Schreiber, New York. Purchased from Schreiber on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome
Subject (Topic):
Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Boniface VIII, Sextus liber decretalium. 2) Commentary of Joannes Andreae on art. 1. 3) Clemens V, Constitutiones, with preface of John XXII. 4) John XXII, "Quia nonnunquam".
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century (?), Italy. Limp vellum case, restored., ff. 22 loose., Final leaf (now foliated 96) misbound between ff. 93-94., Script: Folios 1-96 written in littera bononiensis; ff. 1-22 written in a less formal Gothic bookhand. Numerous annotations in the margins by contemporary and later hands., and Two miniatures, f. 1r, an enthroned pope holding an open book and symmetrically flanked by ecclesiastical and secular parties, and f. 96r, a Franciscan monk presenting a book to an enthroned pope with clerical and lay attendants. Full border for text on f. 1r, constructed of solid panels, gold and red with white filigree, filled with two karyatid figures, a cleric, and a man in a blue robe. Partial border in lower margin, 3 medallions in blue, pink and red, with a papal portrait in half length, an angel, and a third subject now effaced. The medallions are connected by lozenges, green, blue and red with scrolling vines in blue, red, and green with white filigree and gold dots. 32 marginal figures in various costumes, among them several clerics, knights and an angel, often in animated poses. Numerous illuminated initials, 6- to 3-line in pink, blue or grey on blue, red, pink and gold grounds with white filigree. Foliage serifs in pink, red, grey and blue with white highlights. 39 initials with bust-length figures. Remaining initials in pink and red with white filigree. Calligraphic initials, alternating in red and blue with blue and red penwork scrolls. Plain initials and paragraph marks alternate in red and blue.
Subject (Name):
Boniface VIII, Pope, d. 1303, Boniface VIII, Pope, d. 1303|Clement V, Pope, ca. 1260-1314|Giovanni d’Andrea, ca. 1270-1348|John XXII, Pope, d. 1334, Clement V, Pope, ca. 1260-1314, and Giovanni d’Andrea, ca. 1270-1348
Subject (Topic):
Canon law, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Papal documents
Manuscript on parchment (poor quality), composed of two distinct parts. Part I: Thomas Aquinas, Super Metaphysicam. Part II: Thomas Aquinas, Super de causis.
Description:
Binding: 14th-15th centuries, Spain. Original sewing on five tawed skin, double supports laced into beech boards. Plain, wound natural color endbands. Single parchment leaf (front) and bifolium (rear), from what appear to be two different Hebrew Bible manuscripts, serve as pastedowns and spine-lining; they have been cut out around the sewing supports. Yellow edges. Covered in what was originally blue tawed skin (now faded) with two fastenings, the catches on the lower board and the straps attached with star-headed nails. Traces of title (?) scratched onto skin of upper board., Part I: One illuminated initial, rubbed, f. 1r: blue with white highlights on dark red ground with white highlights; terminals of ground extend up and down as modest border in blue, dark red and gold. Flourished initials of various sizes, styles and quality: blue with red penwork designs, red with blue, red with purple (ff. 75r-119r) and red and blue divided with penwork in purple (e.g., f. 88v); some flourished initials with border extensions (e.g., f. 110v). Running headlines in red and blue; paragraph marks alternate red and blue. Traces of guide letters for decorator. Part II: Spaces for decorative initials remain unfilled., and Script: Part I (ff. 1-120): Written by a single scribe in small gothic book hand. Part II (ff. 121-132): Written in a less accomplished gothic script than that in Part I.
Subject (Name):
Aristotle and Thomas,--Aquinas, Saint,--1225?-1274
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Philosophy, Ancient, Scholasticism, and Scholia
Double columns on single page with diagrams., Imperfect: mutilated with loss of text., Manuscript fragment on parchment., and With: In Timaeum Platonis, by Calcidius; manuscript on parchment.
Subject (Name):
Calcidius. In Platonis Timaeum commentarius, Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Topica, and Plato. Timaeus