Manuscript on paper (trimmed), with parchment bifolios interspersed, of Julius Caesar, Commentary on the Gallic Wars, translated into French by Jean Duchesne. Written for Jacques Donche, counselor of Charles the Bold of Burgundy
Description:
In French., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Armoires: Trois fleurs de lis 1741., Script: Written in neat batarde script by Hellin de Burchgrave., Ten half-page miniatures, each in an arched frame composed of two thin bands, gold and red highlighted with white, edged in black, the arch with tiny cusps; beneath, initials, 6-, 4-, or 3-line, blue or blue and red with white highlights on a gold ground of irregular shape conforming to the letter, edged in black, with serifs protruding into the left margin; filled with green and/or red and crimson trilobe leaves on curling stems with white and/or yellow highlights, or with a blue, green, crimson, and gold diapered ground with white highlights. Three smaller miniatures, 12- or 14-line, occasionally cut off at the upper edge so as to fill only part of a line of text; frames rectilinear, otherwise identical to those described above, Beneath, 2-line initials, blue, with white highlights, filled with trilobe leaves, as above, once (f. 25r) with one leaf of spiky acanthus added, and once (f. 256r) with a pink ground with gold filigree. There is a blank space on f. 27r for another miniature of this type. Other decoration consists of 2-line calligraphic initials, paragraph marks, line fillers (spirals and heraldic dragons), page and chapter headings, all executed in red. The first one or two lines of some books (as well as occasional lines within the text) are underlined in red., A few folios have tears in the margins., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Spattered and gilt edges. Red goatskin, gold-tooled, with the arms of Eugene of Savoy on cover and his monogram on spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Gaul
Subject (Name):
Caesar, Julius.
Subject (Topic):
French literature, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Curtius Rufus, Historia Alexandri Magni, translated into Italian and supplemented with material from Plutarch by Pier Candido Decembrio. 2) Pier Candido Decembrio, Comparazione di Cesare e d'Alessandro Magno
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written by a single scribe in a slightly rounded humanistic bookhand with many cursive elements, below top line., One illuminated intial, 6-line, gold against blue, green and pink ground with white vine-stem ornament, extending into inner margin to form a partial border; terminating at top and bottom in pen inkspray with buds in green and pink and gold balls with hair-line extensions. Plain initials, 3- to 2-line, in blue, mark text divisions; headings in pale red., and Binding: 15th-16th centuries, Italy. Sewn on four tawed skin, slit straps laid in channels on the outside of wooden boards and pegged. Gilt edges. Covered in brown goatskin with corner tongues, and blind-tooled with a ropework star inside painted (red) and blind-tooled circles inside a floral border, all with metallic annular dots. There are traces of four leaf-shaped fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the upper one cut in for fabric straps attached with star-headed nails. Rebacked twice.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Alexander, the Great, 356-323 B.C., Caesar, Julius., Decembrio, Pier Candido, 1399-1477., Plutarch., and Rufus, Curtius.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Literature, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
