Manuscript fragment on parchment of a Book of Hours (in Latin with rubrics partially in French), containing: an unidentified office; St. Laurence (10 August); St. Nicholas (6 November); and St. Catharine of Alexandria (25 November).
Description:
In Latin and French., Script: written in two sizes of gothic script (littera textualis formata)., and Decoration: 2-line initials in gold on a blue ground decorated with white filigree; initials filled with red and decorated with white filigree; 1-line initials are in black highlighted with yellow; rubrics written in red in the same script as the text; punctuated with the punctus; hyphenation is in the same ink as the text; the outer margin is modestly decorated with vine tendrils in black with green and gold leaves and blue, red, and pink flowers and berries.
Manuscript fragment on parchment of a book of hours containing St. Nicholas (6 November) and St. Catharine of Alexandria (25 November).
Description:
In Latin., Script: written in gothic script (littera textualis)., and Decoration: two miniatures of mediocre quality, one for each saint; the miniature of St. Nicholas shows him in bishop's clothing, holding a staff and a book, and standing next to a tub with two children in it; St. Catharine is depicted as crowned, holding a book and a sword; on the floor behind her is the wheel upon which she was tortured; the antiphons and orations begin with a 2-line initial in gold on an alternating ground of blue with white filigree or red; punctuated with the punctus; hyphenation is in the same ink as the text; rubrics written in red minuscule; upper, lower, and outer borders decorated with blue and gold vines, red vines with blue and red or gold and blue with gold flowers in the inner margin on the recto only.
Manuscript fragment, on parchment, decorated, from a book of hours, containing text possibly from the Hours of the Virgin Mary
Alternative Title:
Book of hours
Description:
In Latin., Script: gothica textura., Decoration: rubricated. Recto contains two two-line decorated initials and a spiky floral border. Verso contains one small decorated initial., and Contemporary annotation (textural addition?) in margin of verso, partially effaced.
In Latin with some Dutch headings., Script: Copied by one Northern scribe writing Southern Textualis Formata (Rotunda) with some Humanistic features (Capital A, straight d alternating with Gothic d)., Headings in red. Lavish decoration in Ghent-Bruges style. Rectangular line-fillers in red, blue, green and gold. Trompe-l'oeil initials (1 line, 2 lines, 3 lines (rarely), 5 lines) consist of twisted branches in mat gold projecting shadow on a square background in red, blue or green. Full-page miniatures are painted on the verso of inserted singletons and are framed by four-margin borders which have their counterpart on the facing text page. Text miniatures (height: 7-8 lines) are painted in regular quires and are accompanied by four-margins, mostly floral borders., and Binding: Partly original binding in blind-tooled brown calf by the Bruges binder Ludovicus Bloc (1484-1529). The original binding is inset in brown morocco by F. Bedford (?) On each cover a panel with eight animals in tendrils, surrounded by the inscription in Roman Capitals "Ob laudem Christi librum hunc recte ligavi Ludovicus Bloc", is stamped four times; between the upper and the lower panel imprints is a five-compartment frieze containing animals. On the modern blind-tooled spine gold-tooled modern inscriptions "HORAE / B.V.M. / TORNACENSIS" and "MS./ BRUGES / C. 1520". Gilt and gauffered edges. White parchment endleaves.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment a Book of Hours, use of Rome, notable for its elaborate cycle of illumination; with a full calendar in French
Description:
In Latin and French., Script: Written in a gothic book hand by a single scribe., Large miniatures, facing text pages, and Calendar pages are in architectural frames, gold with red and blue panels; the frames of the miniatures are inscribed with the opening words of the text along the lower edge. A few small miniatures (14- to 6-line) are inserted in the text. Historiated borders in outer and lower margins, framed by red and gold columns and/or a red and gold bounding line; upper border, a thin panel, either pink with gold filigree and gold foliage, or flowers and acanthus on gold and parchment grounds., The series of 12 Sibyls on ff. 51v-61v are accompanied by texts on scrolls in the lower border (except f. 56v), most of which correspond to the set used in the painted decoration of the Roman palace of Cardinal Giordano Orsini (d. 1438). The texts in MS 411 are often garbled and misspelled. On the page facing each Sibyl, or on the same page (f. 56v and f. 61v) are border scenes from the life of Christ, to which the prophecies are supposed to refer, and appropriate biblical passages on a scroll in the lower border., and Binding: Twentieth century. Dark blue velvet case. Bound by J. Greenfield in the Yale Conservation Studio, 1984-85.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
In Low German., Script: Written in a neat batarde by two scribes: Scribe 1, ff. 1r-17v; Scribe 2, ff. 19r-186r., Fourteen good full-page miniatures of typical Southern Netherlandish production of the late 15th century. The miniatures (except those on ff. 1v, 18v, 159r) are painted over ruling for a normal text page and are set in wide arched frames of gold and black, within a full border of blue, gold, pink, and pale orange acanthus leaves, with red, purple, and blue flowers. Illuminated initials, 7-, 5-, or 4-line, with full borders on ff. 1r, 96r, 127r, 146r, 158r, 166r, and 177r: blue with white highlights filled with red, blue, and green trilobe leaves on a gold ground, borders as for miniatures. The text is set off from the border by a narrow black, gold, white, and red frame not joined to the initial. Nine illuminated initials, 5- or 4-line, with three-quarter borders: gold on pink and blue, with white highlights, borders as for miniatures. 6-, 5-, 3-, and 2-line initials in gold on pink and blue, with white highlights; black ink hair-spray, with gold trilobe leaves and flowers, attached. 1-line initials in blue with red penwork or gold with black penwork; within the text, a black initial occasionally marked with a red stroke. Line-fillers in Litany only; leaves, cables, oblique lines with dots attached, etc., in blue or gold. Rubrics in orange-tinted red or crimson., and Binding: Seventeenth century. Resewn on three twisted vegetable fiber cores laced into wooden boards. The colored, beaded endbands are embroidered on a piece of material, probably parchment, which extends to the outside of the boards. The spine is round and lined with parchment; the edges gilt and with a faintly discernable honeycomb pattern. Covered in light brown calf, extensively gold-tooled. There are two fastenings, the catches on the upper board, brass clasps attached to leather straps which are nailed to the lower board through metal plates. The lower joint has cracked and all the spine leather is detached from the bookblock, giving the effect of a case binding.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of a Book of Hours with Calendar (rather empty) and headings in French
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in formal batarde script; ff. 238r-241v in a different hand than the preceding folios, but probably almost contemporary., Thirteen undistinguished historiated initials (6-, 4-, and 3-line), ca. 1460-70, blue or pink with white highlights on brown grounds with gold highlights. Six other initials (ff. 13r, 17r, 27r, 107r, 155r, and 195r) enclose carefully studied flowers. Scatter and compartmentalized borders of average quality added later, ca. 1480-1500, for the most part to pages with historiated or flower initials, similar to borders in manuscripts of the "Ghent Associates"; the majority with acanthus branches, flowers, and birds, or flowers alone scattered on backgrounds of pink, bright blue, slate blue, gold and/or black, or flowers set within a lattice of twigs, the diamonds so formed alternately pink and blue (f. 123r) or green, pink and blue (f. 238r). Three borders (ff. 27v, 69v, and 136v) with thistles, brown and blue or brown and green, touched with gold, arranged in a wallpaper-like pattern over grounds of slate-blue or red cross-hatched with lines in a darker shade of the same color. In the border on f. 107r, a grotesque with the torso of a man and the hind legs of a large cat; on f. 185r the same, holding a bow., 2-line initials in gold on pink and blue with white highlights, except on ff. 238r-241v, gold on blue and brown with white highlights. 1-line initials in blue with red penwork, or gold with black penwork, or black with a red stroke; a few spaces for such initials have not been filled. In the text, headings and marks for antiphons in red; in the calendar, headings for months, dates, and important feasts also in red. Line-fillers: two oblique lines, blue or gold, with dots attached., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Brown calf. Paste-decorated edges. Rebacked. Spine stamped with gold leaves and the words "GETEY BOEK".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval