Manuscript fragments on parchment (2 bifolia) of Decretals and letters, primarily of Pope John XXII, with a register of letters (1299) of Pope Boniface VIII
Description:
In Latin., Script: several scripts evident, from formal gothic bookhand to cursive., and Illuminated initials in red, blue, and violet. Paragraph marks in red and blue.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Boniface VIII, Pope, -1303. and John XXII, Pope, -1334.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Letters, Papal, Manuscripts, Medieval, Papacy, and History
Manuscript on sheepskin of Nicolaus de Byard (ca. 1250), Distinctiones, with alphabetical index
Description:
In Latin., Script: copied by several similar hands in small, highly abbreviated Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria (Semitextualis)., Decoration: initials in red and blue, some with ornamentations and extensions in red and blue tracery. Guide letters in the margins., and Binding: 19th century English blue leather with artificial cross grain over pasteboard. Gold-tooled inscriptions in the compartments of the spine. The damaged state of the final leaf of the manuscript shows that the original binding probably was chained at a staple fixed to the lower edge of the rear board.
Manuscript on parchment of Nicolaus de Byard (ca. 1250), Distinctiones, an alphabetical repertory in aid of preachers
Description:
In Latin., Script: Probably copied by a single hand writing a highly abbreviated small Gothica Semitextualis Libraria., Red headings. Alternately red and blue paragraph marks. Alternately red and blue flourished initials with marginal extensions, 2- or 3-line, sometimes 4-line; the larger initials are found at the beginning of each letter of the alphabet. Line-fillers (in black ink) in the first quire only., A large section of f. 157 is torn off, causing the loss of an important part of the text in both outer columns. Holes and parchment repairs before writing, e.g. ff. 22, 118., and Binding: Early. Undecorated brown calf over heavy rounded wooden boards (rebacked), sewn on five split leather thongs. Marks of four clasps attached to the front board. Front pastedown and flyleaf from a document on parchment, 1300-1350, written in Gothica Cursiva and dealing with sales of land (?), mentioning other documents dated 1245 and 1314 and the names of many persons. Rear flyleaf and pastedown are leaves of an alphabetical index to a moralistic treatise, written on parchment in Gothica Cursiva Libraria, 14th century. It contains part of the letter C, the full letter D and parts of the letters M and N and for each lemma refers to one or more numbers followed by one or more letters. Each new letter opens with a black plain initial.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Nicolas, de Byard.
Subject (Topic):
Alphabet books, Catholic preaching, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Script: written by multiple hands in Northern Gothica Textualis Formata., Binding: undecorated sheepskin over pasteboard. Rebacked in the eighteenth century. Spine with four raised bands, gold-tooled with a floweret. Remnants of a gold-tooled title label., and In Latin.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Carthusians. and Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Liturgy, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Monasticism and religious orders
Manuscript on parchment of Aristoteles, Ethica ad Nicomachum, in the Latin translation attributed to Robert Grosseteste
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by two scribes employing differing forms of Gothica textualis, the first having written the first quire, the second the remainder of the codex., Headlines throughout in alternating red and blue capitals, chapter numbers in margins also in alternating colors, and large capitals at beginnings of books and chapters of the text in red or blue, with extensive filiform decoration bordering the left margin in the contrasting color on leaves with such capitals, all the work of a rubricator, performed separately from the writing of the text. Book and chapter headings in red by the scribes throughout., and Binding: Modern European parchment-covered boards, backstrip calligraphically lettered in gothic script with the author's name and title.
Manuscript fragment, on parchment, from this Latin grammar text
Description:
In Latin., Layout: single columns of 24 lines, centered, with gloss in a much smaller script surrounding the central text., Script: gothica textualis semi-quadrata, with gloss in littera glossularis., and Decoration: paraph marks in alternating red and blue inks, in both the text and the gloss.
Manuscript fragment on parchment of Eberhardus Bethuniensis' Graecismus
Description:
In Latin., Script: written in gothic script (littera textualis)., and Decoration: 3-line initials at the top of each page in black decorated with black penwork and highlighted with red; 2-line initial "P" in red; 1-line verse initials are in black highlighted with red; the text is written in verse lines; red paragraph marks appear immediately to the left of some initials; punctuated very rarely with the punctus.
Manuscript, on parchment, incomplete, of the text of Peter Abelard's Historia calamitatum, followed by the seven epistolae exchanged between him and Héloïse.
Description:
In Latin., Script: compressed gothic book script., Decoration: 2-line initials in red or blue with penwork flourishing in red or purple. Medieval marginalia includes manicules and grotesques., Manuscript is incomplete (circa 50 leaves missing?). Text opens: id secreto fieret (Historia calamitatum). Text concludes: orationum instantiam confessio[ne]m lau[dis?] (Letter 7)., and Binding: modern blind-stamped white leather.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Abelard, Peter, 1079-1142. and Héloïse, approximately 1095-1163 or 1164.
Subject (Topic):
Autobiography, Women authors, Latin letters, Medieval and modern, Love-letters, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript fragment on parchment of the Penitential Psalms (incomplete), probably written as part of a Book of Hours
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by a single scribe in liturgical gothic script., Carefully executed initials, 3-line, on blue or pink rectangles outlined in black, mark the beginning of each psalm; partial cusped borders, also in blue and pink, attached to each. Initials infilled with intertwining vines, often on gold ground, sometimes with small animals; modest use of gold dots inside rectangular grounds and borders. 1-line initials of blue with red penwork with blue dots and of gold with blue penwork and red dots. Line-fillers in combinations of red, blue and gold (various linear and flower designs)., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Bound in a piece of blind-tooled brown calf, once part of a 17th-18th century binding. Front pastedown and flyleaf from a Bible concordance, version 3 (France, ca. 1300). Back pastedown from 15th-century antiphonal, with musical notation, containing a portion of the office for Nicolas (6 Dec.).
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Antiphonaries, Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
