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 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 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 (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
Manuscript on paper of an unidentified treatise, incomplete, on the Cardinal Virtues; material taken mostly from Valerius Maximus, with additional material from Augustine, the Bible, Cicero, Seneca, Macrobius, Aristotle, and Vegetius. and Unidentified treatise, incomplete, on the Cardinal Virtues; material taken mostly from Valerius Maximus, with additional material from Augustine (De civitate Dei, De beata vita, Epistolae), Bible (Proverbs), Cicero (De officiis, etc.), Seneca (Epistolae morales, De ira, De constantia), Macrobius, Aristotle, Vegetius, the "Storie Romane" of "Arineo" (f. 6r), and "Salino" (f. 23v). The presence of the "versificatore" (f. 11r), cited in Latin (Walther, Sprichwoerter 33507), and a similar constellation of sources suggest that Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Doctrinale was a major (though not exclusive) source for this author.
Description:
Imperfect: incomplete manuscript; leaves 42-43 also wanting. and Written by a single scribe in humanistic cursive script.
Subject (Name):
Valerius Maximus
Subject (Topic):
Cardinal virtues, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Ps.-Joachim da Fiore, Vaticinia Pontificum. With additional prophetic texts including a Sibylline tract entitled De imperatore; and a Version of the "Tripoli" prophecy, added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand, here recorded as a vision in a Cistercian monastery in 1346.
Description:
15 small miniatures, 12-line, within narrow ochre frames inserted into text column, one for each prophecy in art. 3, ff. 15r-22r. The miniatures depict a cycle of Popes and city scapes with emblematic attributes against pink, blue and ochre grounds with small white filigree designs along the edges. Numerous flourished initials, 2-line, alternate in red and blue with purple or red penwork designs. Headings in red. Paragraph marks alternate red and blue., Binding: Fifteenth century (?). Tacketed through a limp vellum (palimpsest?) wrapper to thick leather pads with a basket weave around the sewing threads. Contemporary title in ink, on front: "De imperatore." Backs of quires cut in for sewing., Binding: Place uncertain, s. xv [?]. Tacketed through a limp vellum (palimpsest?) wrapper to thick leather pads with a basket weave around the sewing threads., Contemporary title in ink, on front: "De imperatore., Purchased from L. C. Witten in 1959 by Thomas E. Marston., and Script: Arts. 2-4 written in neat gothic bookhand. Art. 1 in a less formal bookhand and art. 5 in a notarial hand with various flourishes.
Subject (Name):
Joachim,--of Fiore,--ca. 1132-1202
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Papacy--History, Prophecies--Early works to 1800, and Visions--Early works to 1800