Manuscript on paper of Benedetto Cotrugli (Benedictus de Cotrullis, c. 1410-1469), De navigatione liber (Della navigazione). After the prologue in Latin addressed to the Doge and the Senate of Venice, the author, quoting countless Biblical, ancient, medieval and Renaissance authors and drawing largely on his own experience, discusses the oceans and seas, islands, ports, the history of ship-building and navigation, weather, and astronomy. At the end, he includes portolano maps and describes the coast of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea
Description:
The author, born in Ragusa (Dubrovnik), was a businessman and humanist, from 1451 onwards in favour at the Court of Naples. His Della mercatura e del mercante perfetto, written in 1458, was for a long time considered his only surviving work. Our manuscript, written during his lifetime and no doubt under his supervision or by his hand, is the only existing manuscript of Della navigazione and it is unfinished, missing most of its illustrations and the end of the text., In Italian., Script: Written by one hand in Humanistica Cursiva close to Humanistica Textualis. Headings and opening words of chapters in pale red capitals., Heightening of majuscules and paragraph marks in pale red up to f. 10r. Space for 2- or 3-line initials at the opening of all chapters, the initials not executed. Illustration largely missing; the few that have been executed are crudely drawn., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Yellowish parchment over cardboard. Marbled paste-downs.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Cotrugli, Benedetto, d. 1468.
Subject (Topic):
Astronomy, Medieval, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscript maps, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Navigation
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Joannes de Sacro Bosco, De sphaera. 2) Unidentified Cosmographicae libellus. 3) Nicolas Oresme, Traite de la sphere, in a Latin translation apparently extant only in this manuscript
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by one person in small fere-humanistic script bordering on cursive, verso., Simple decorative initials, 5- to 2-line, in red. Headings, paragraph marks, strokes on majuscules at beginning of sentences, and marginal notes, in red., Seventeen carefully executed astronomical drawings and two tables, in red, black, yellow and beige, accompany arts. 1 and 3., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Limp vellum case. "Tractatus spere" on tail edge.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, active 1230.
Subject (Topic):
Astronomy, Medieval, Cosmography, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of Joannes de Sacro Bosco, Sphaera, translated into English and supplemented by Anthony Ascham. With calendar for the years 1529-35; "The Complaynt Off Sanct Cipriane, The Grett Nigromancer," a poem by Anthony Ascham. Includes individual zodiac volvelles with descriptions in Latin (several volvelles attached to the incorrect month).
Description:
In English and Latin., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Lettres et Monogrammes 9890 and Pot 12863., Script: Text written in English secretary script., Numerous explanatory drawings and tables appear throughout the manuscript, including 40 drawings of constellations; nineteen maps, accompanied by tables of longitude and latitude; nine devices that explain the movement of the heavenly bodies. All drawings are carefully drawn in brown ink, tinted with washes of green, yellow, black, brown, pink, and labelled in red or brown ink., Many leaves pasted together, some of which have become unglued. Cropped, resulting in loss of some marginalia., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Brown sheepskin, blind-tooled with central panel and outer border colored dark brown. Pink spattered edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, fl. 1230.
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Astronomy, Medieval, Calendars, English poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Early maps
Manuscript on paper (watermarks buried in gutter) of Gregorio (or Leonardo?) Dati, La Sfera. This rhyming treatise (ottava rima) is divided into two parts: 1) a treatise on astronomy; 2) rules for navigation and the determination of the position of the sea
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written by one person in neat mercantile script., One 4-line initial, f. lr., gold capital with white-vine foliage against a blue, pink and green ground, connected to a 3/4 white-vine border with brown penwork and gold dots; a coat of arms in wreath at center of lower margin. Two 3-line initials, ff. 7r and 14v, gold, against pink and green grounds with yellow and white filigree. Folios 1r-14v illustrated in margins with astronomical and geographical diagrams, all of them circular, tinted drawings in brown pen with red, yellow, blue and green washes. Folios 15r-24v decorated with unframed maps and illustrations drawn in brown pen, and tinted green, brown and red. Most illustrations unlabeled., Some leaves repaired; the manuscript shows signs of heavy use., and Binding: 16th-17th centuries. Resewn on three vegetable fiber supports. Rounded spine. Covered in black/brown sheepskin over wooden boards with corner tongues. Blind-tooled with five line fillets forming diamonds. There are traces of four bosses on each board and two clasp-and-catch fastenings, the catches on the lower board. Fastenings and bosses are wanting. Concentric circles are scratched in the center of the lower board. Rebacked.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Dati, Gregorio, 1362-1436.
Subject (Topic):
Astronomy, Medieval, Italian poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, Early maps, and Navigation
Manuscript on parchment (goatskin) of 1) Iohannes de Sacrobosco, Algorismus. 2) Thebit ben Chorat, De recta imaginatione sphaerae. 3) Iohannes de Sacrobosco, De sphaera. 4) Iohannes Campanus of Novara (ascr.), Tractatus quadrantis. 5) Iohannes de Sacrobosco, Compotus. 6) Gerardus Sablonetanus (ascr.), Theorica planetarum (also attributed to other authors). 7) Alfraganus, Liber differentiarum, tr. John of Seville
Description:
In Latin., Script: Copied by a single scribe writing Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria. Numerous and often extensive marginal notes by various 13th and 14th century hands, mostly in small rapid cursive handwriting, some in Italian Gothica Hybrida Libraria., Red paragraph marks and 2-3-line plain initials with guide-letters; on f. 1r a larger flourished littera duplex inbrown and red; the other artt. open with larger plain initials. Numerous pointing hands. Pen-and-ink drawings and diagrams throughout., and Binding: Early, heavy wooden boards recovered with new brown sheepskin. Spine with three raised bands and gold-tooled inscription: "TRACTATUS ASTRONOMICI. MS A.D. 1281".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, fl. 1230.
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Astronomy, Medieval, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Mathematics, Medieval
Manuscript on paper. Includes notes on arithmetic and accounting for merchandise; a romance of Tristan; list of spices; astronomical and astrological information; charms and prayers; recipes; extracts in Venetian; and poems
Description:
In Italian and Latin., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Fruit 7372-76, Briquet Cheval 3564, and Briquet Fruit 7341., Script: Written by a single scribe in a neat notarial hand, through f. 67v. Notes added by various hands of 14th-15th centuries., Drawings of ships, towers and merchants in ink, with added yellow, brown, green, red and blue; many diagrams. Crude 2- and 1-line initials in red, with guide-letters for rubricator showing beneath; headings in red., Repair of f. 1 with later paper; some loss of text. Repairs at outer edges on this and other folios do not affect text., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Rigid vellum case with paste paper back endleaf and pastedowns. Central fold of each bifolium has been reinforced with a strip of parchment.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Venice (Italy)
Subject (Topic):
Accounting, Arithmetic, Astrology, Astronomy, Medieval, Formulas, recipes, etc, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Merchants, Prayers, Tristan (Legendary character), and Economic conditions
Manuscript on paper of Iohannes de Sacrobosco (1000-1210), Tractatus de sphaera
Description:
In Latin., Watermark: two crossed arrows, similar to Briquet 6269-6275, especially to Briquet 6271 (attested 1462). The whole group and its variants are attested in Northeastern Italy 1448-1495., Script: copied by one hand in Humanistica Cursiva Libraria/Currens, widely spaced. The first letter after an initial is in Capitalis., 2-line plain initials alternately in red and blue at the beginning of the subdivisions of the text. They are placed almost entirely in the margin and are missing ff. 17v, 28r and 33r. Guide letters, written in the space reserved for the initials, are equally often missing. On f. 1r the Prologue opens with a 4-line foliate initial in red, green and blue with two flowers on a gold background and floral extensions in the inner margin, in Lombard style; in the lower margin of the same page a painted double-headed imperial eagle in black, its two heads with a golden crown and on its chest an oval shield with the coat of arms or, three bends azure., and Binding: original Italian, undecorated blue-stained leather over beech boards. Sewn on three double leather thongs. Remnants of three clasps attached to the front board (one at the upper, one at the lower and one at the right-hand side); thin brass engraved catches on the rear cover, decorated with a floweret and the Gothic majuscule “S”. The parchment pastedowns are now detached from the boards.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, fl. 1230.
Subject (Topic):
Astronomy, Medieval, Geometry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
