Christian hagiography, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper containing letters by or related to Lapo da Castiglionchio (d. 1381), and his family: 1) Lapo da Castiglionchio, Letter, written in 1377, to his son Bernardo, canon of the cathedral of Florence, then 14 years old, containing an elaborate treatise in three parts dealing with political and historical questions. 2) Bernardo da Castiglionchio (1363-1383), Letter to his father Lapo, in which he thanks him for the education and protection his father has provided and in particular for the extensive letter he has written in reply to his questions. 3) Bernardo da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Lapo, of about the same time, in which he resumes the theme of the nobility of the Castiglionchio family and provides a panegyric of his father with details about his career. 4) Francesco da Castiglionchio (second half of the fourteenth century), Letter to his father Alberto, brother of Lapo, written 8 June 1381 or slightly later. Describes the coronation of Charles III, King of Naples and Sicily (1381-1386) by Pope Urban VI in the church of St. Peter in Rome on 2 June 1381, an event in the preparation of which Lapo had an important role. 5) Francesco da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Alberto staying at Verona, dated 17 July 1381 and relating the death of Alberto's brother Lapo, which happened in Rome on 27 June of the same year after a short illness, a couple of weeks after the coronation of Charles III, which had been so important for the improvement of the Castiglionchio family. 6) Niccolò Acciaiuoli (1310-1365), Extracts from a letter, dated 26 Dec. 1364, to the Florentine merchant Angelo Soderini (d. 1377) established in Avignon.
Description:
Binding: Seventeenth century (?). Brown leather with artificial cross grain over cardboard. Blind-tooled spine with four raised bands and gold-tooled inscription in the second compartment: “CASTIGLIONCHIO / EPISTOLE”. Below a small oval paper label with the number “7” in red ink. Yellow spine., Headings and explicit formulas in pale red ink; marginal captions and notes in the same colour or in black; paragraph marks in pale red ink. 4-line initials (Capitalis) in blue (missing f. 2v), at the opening of each art. and of the subdivisions of art. 1. On f. 1r 7-line white vinestem initial integrated into left margin border of the same style. In the lower margin, in a wreath, the Volognano-Castiglionchio coat of arms: silver, with four chains azure in saltire and castle azure. Running headlines in pale red Capitalis in art. 1 only., On the author, a Florentine poet, friend of Petrarch, professor of Canon Law, lawyer, diplomat, politician, see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, v. 22 (1979), pp. 40-44., and Script: Copied by one hand in careful Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. The first line of each text and some headings are in Capitalis.
Subject (Geographic):
Florence (Italy)--History
Subject (Name):
Castiglionchio, Lapo da,--d. 1381
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Nobility--Italy
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Unidentified Greek-Latin lexicon. 2) Anonymous treatise on breathing marks in Greek. 3) De formationibus temporum uerborum graecorum. 4) De praepositionum significatione et constructione. 4) De numeris.
Description:
Belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 3384). Purchased in 1956 from L. C. Witten by Thomas E. Marston., Binding: ca. 1500, Italy. Original sewing on three tawed skin, slit straps laid in channels on the outside of wooden boards. Gilt edges. The secondary, beaded endband is cream and green. Covered in reddish brown goatskin, blind-tooled with a floral border and fleurons in a central panel. Name of owner is gold-tooled on side in Roman letters that have been modified to form Greek letters. Spine: triple fillets at head and tail; single fillet diapering in the panels. Gold tooling added later. Traces of two fastenings, the catches on the lower board; the upper board heavily cut in for clasps. Modern title on spine: "Guarini Lexicon Ineditum. MS. in membranis"., and The decoration consists of an illuminated title page, with full border, thin white vine-stem ornament with stylized foliage in red, pink, blue against blue, green and pink ground with white dots and gold balls. In outer border two vases, blue with white highlights, and three roundels framed in red, green or pink with Roman profile heads wearing fillets against blue or gold ground. In inner border foliage curling around a thin gold bar. The upper border consists of a garland, green with gold highlights, tied with red ribbons against a blue and gold ground with two masks, one spouting water. Unidentified arms (palm? tree on red ground) in center of lower border. Large illuminated initial, 12-line, gold against a predominately blue ground with some green, pink, red and gold, and sprouting vine-stem ornament, white with pale brown shading and stylized foliage in red, pink and light brown. 25 illuminated initials for letters of Greek alphabet, 6- to 5-line, gold, against blue, green and dark pink grounds with stylized white vine-stem ornament or white stylized foliage. 2 small illuminated initials (ff. 205v and 206r), 3-line, gold against blue, red and green ground with pale yellow and white dots and white filigree. Heading on f. 1r in blue; others in red. Plain initials in red.
Subject (Topic):
Greek language--Dictionaries--Latin--Early works to 1800, Greek language--Grammar, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Illuminated frontispiece picturing the coats-of-arms of Spinelli, of the city of Florence, and of Pope Eugenius IV.
Subject (Geographic):
Florence (Italy)
Subject (Name):
Eugene--IV,--Pope,--1383-1447
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of 1) Prologue by the translator, addressed to Henry of Lusignan, Prince of Galilee (d. 1427). 2) Plutarchus (c. 46-120), Vita Luculli, Latin translation by Leonardus Iustinianus (Leonardo Giustiniani, 1388-1446). 3) Plutarchus, Comparatio vitarum Cimonis atque Luculli, Latin translation by Leonardus Iustinianus.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century. Quarter brown leather (with corners) and reddish brown marbled paper over cardboard. Gold-tooled flat spine with inscription: “PLUTARCHI VITA LUCULLI LATINE M.S.”., Headings in pale red. Art. 1 opens with a 6-line initial in red with the pen drawing for unexecuted white vinestem decoration. The 6-line initial at the head of art. 2 is purplish red on a blue background delicately heightened with silver arabesques, extended in the margin with red and green acanthus leaves. At the bottom of the same f. 387r there was a coat of arms flanked by two fleur-de-lys and four balls in purplish red and blue and red ribbons; the coat of arms has been cut out and the page has been repaired with a piece of paper; on it a modern coat of arms accompanied by the initials W and S (Walter Sneyd) is drawn in pencil., and Script: Copied by one scribe in a broad Humanistica Textualis Formata of "typographic" character and marked by unusual features such as the occasional use of round s in medial position and long i in final position, and inconsistencies in the use of ae/ẹ, the form of final s and m, etc. Majuscules at the beginning of lines protrude into the margin. Line fillers in the shape of expunged i.
Subject (Name):
Lucullus,--ca. 117 B.C.-ca. 56 B.C and Plutarch
Subject (Topic):
Biography--To 500, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Most widely known today for his studies of Near Eastern languages Guillaume Postel was a pioneer in the study of Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Aramaic in Western Europe. He was better known in his own time as a prophet, millennialist, and Utopiast. His writings deal largely with his effort to promote world peace, but he was condemned as a heretic for his belief that he was divinely inspired; he claimed, in fact, that he was the reincarnation of the Virgin of Venice. As a scholar he was instrumental in promoting the teaching of Arabic and Syriac, and participated in editing and publishing a number of early Christian works. His theories of language origin (he thought all languages were derived from Hebrew) are no longer considered valid, but his work in comparative linguistics earned him the reputation as the founder of that discipline.
Alternative Title:
Lingvarvm duodecim characteribvs differentivm alphabetvm introdvctio and Lord’s prayer. Polyglot
Description:
Imperfect: leaf H2 (signed ’G’) misbound after H3. and Originally intended to form part of a projected treatise De affinitate linguarum et Hebraicae excellentia.
Publisher:
Apud Dionysium Lescuier ...
Subject (Name):
Lord’s prayer. Polyglot
Subject (Topic):
Alphabets --Early works to 1800, Aramaic language --Early works to 1800, Armenian language --Early works to 1800, Grammar, Comparative and general --Early works to 1800, Language and languages --Grammars --Early works to 1800, Samaritan Aramaic language --Early works to 1800, and Syriac language --Early works to 1800
Manuscript on parchment, composed in two parts of different age and origin, of 1) Macer Floridus (Odo of Meung, c. 1070), De viribus herbarum. 2) Fragments of a Missal: (a) Third Sunday of Lent. (b) Saturday after the first Sunday of Lent. (c) Second Sunday of Lent.
Description:
Binding: Twentieth century. Wooden boards and brown calf spine. Endleaves are fragments of a Missal (Italy, 15th century)., Part I: Red (?) chapter headings in larger script written at the right of the text. Red paragraph marks. Red heightening of majuscules on ff. 1r and 10 v only. 2-line (exceptionally 1- or 3-line) early flourished initials in red with red flourishing (red filling on f. 10r). 5-line red, blue and white initial with strapwork decoration on f. 1r. Part II: Chapter headings in red, centered. Red 2-line plain initials (Capitalis)., Part II adapted to the size of part I by pasting strips of parchment to the bottom of the bifolios. The five outer bifolios (ff. 11-15 and 18-22) are palimpsest: leaves from a manuscript in two columns, the text transversal to the textus rescriptus; the inner bifolium (ff. 16-17) is of bad quality; the upper corners of ff. 11 and 22 are missing with loss of text and have been repaired with blank parchment., and Script: Part I (ff. 1-10): Copied by one hand writing Praegothica with wide distance between the lines. Part II (ff. 11-22): Copied by one hand in Gothico-Humanistica Libraria.
Subject (Name):
Macer,--Floridus
Subject (Topic):
Herbs, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Science, Medieval