Manuscript on parchment of the Iudicium astrologicum, or horoscope, for the year 1475. Prepared for the humanist condottiere Federigo da Montefeltro (1422-1482, lord of Urbino from 1444; named duke by Pope Sixtus IV in 1474), perhaps by his court astrologer Iacobus of Speyer.
Description:
Binding: Rebound ca. 1800 in England (?) in blind-paneled brown diced Russia with doublures of the same, flat back without title label, the original gilt edges now somewhat irregular due to the rebinding, two parchment guards and one of paper at beginning, one parchment guard at end. Preserved in a recent black cloth folding box with gilt-stamped black niger label., Script: Written by a very elegant and uniform humanistic hand., and The dedication on f. 1r written in very pale red. Capitals with guide-letters in plain burnished gold or blue at paragraph divisions set into the left margin, the letters of the final word or words in a paragraph often in capitals and spread to fill out the line. On f. 1r is an illuminated border in the upper, inner, and lower margins consisting of a triple band of narrow gold stripes, quadruple and broader at the bottom margin, containing a very complex "white-vine" pattern, the spaces of which are filled up with red, blue, and green pigment peppered with patterns of three small dots in white lead; set within the lower band of the border is a round wreath incorporating a shield with the arms of Federigo da Montefeltro lord of Urbino; the first capital of the text, f. 1r, 8, is in burnished gold within a square painted frame of blue, red, and green ornamented with white tracery. No illustration.
Subject (Name):
Federico,--da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino,--1422-1482 and Iacobus,--of Speyer
Subject (Topic):
Astrology--Early works to 1800, Horoscopes, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library