Manuscript on parchment of Leonardo Bruni, De bello italico adversus gothos, in the Italian version by Ludovico Petroni made in 1456. Preceded by the letter of Leonardo Bruni to Giuliano Cardinal Cesarini (1398-1444).
Description:
Binding: 18th-19th centuries, Italy. "Alla rustica" with grey-green paper added over the spine and part of the boards. Edges yellow., Partial border in inner margin of white vine-stem ornament, f. 1r, on blue, green and pink ground with white and blue dots. In lower border terminals extending in ink hair spray with green, pink and blue flowers and gold balls frame central medallion with a crude outline drawing of a head in profile (later addition?). Two decorated initials, 4- to 3-line, gold on blue, pink and green grounds with white vine-stem ornament. On f. 1r initial joined to partial border. Heading on f. 1r in red., and Script: Written by a single scribe in fere-gothic script, above top line.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome--History
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature--15th century, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae.
Description:
Binding: Date? Original sewing on two thick, slit leather straps, the endbands sewn on leather cores. Flush beech boards with straps laced through tunnels in the edge to channels slanted up to the outer face. The ends of the straps therefore protrude well above the face. Straps nailed and endband cores laid in V shaped grooves and nailed. The spine and about one quarter of the boards covered by brown calf with a nailed parchment strip at the edge, fragments only remaining. No adhesive on the spine. Channels for straps cut in the upper board. Holes for pins in the lower, but no marks of pin plates. This binding could be contemporary or 19th-20th century. It is interesting to note that the manuscript was bought because of the binding and not because of the text., Historiated initial with partial border contains the portrait of Boethius (f. 14r); four illuminated initials of similar design and colors (dark red, red-orange, green, blue, gold) on ff. 6r, 12v, 22r, 29v (beginning of Books II-V). Small initials and paragraph marks in red throughout., and Script: Written in round gothic bookhand by one scribe.
Subject (Topic):
Consolation--Early works to 1800, Dialogues, Latin, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of Boccaccio, De mulieribus claris, with dedication to Andrea Acciaiuoli.
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Parchment stays from contemporary document adhered to inner and outer conjugate leaves of quires. Original wound sewing on three tawed skin, slit straps fastened in channels in flush wooden boards. A primary endband, caught up on the spine, is sewn on tawed skin cores. Remains of red secondary embroidery. The spine is square and lined with tawed skin between central supports. Covered in kermes pink, tawed skin with corner tongues, the sides divided into triangles with right angled and diagonal fillets. Three fastenings, the catches on the lower board and stubs of green fabric straps on the upper board which is cut in to accomodate them. Eight star-shaped bosses on the upper board (one wanting) and five on the lower, each board with four bosses on their spine edges. Inscription on upper cover: "de mulieribus claris". Written in ink on fore edge: "LXXXVIII" with a helmet on each side. Label on lower board wanting., Folio 3r, partial border, of poor quality: in lower margin, a patch of green grass with two women seated, one dressed in red, the other in green and white, supporting a shield with unidentified arms (gules, 3 helmets sable [in outline only]), a later addition. From the patch of grass oak branches with leaves and acorns extend into inner and upper margins. In inner margin, a fox chasing a hare. Folio 80r, a medallion framed in red and pink and four small gold flowers, with an unidentified monogram in gold against blue ground. One pen-and-ink initial, 8-line, blue with pale red penwork. Plain initials alternate in red and blue. Headings in red (ff. 1r-7r only). Many initials touched with red. Guide letters for decorator throughout., Purchased in 1954 from C. A. Stonehill by Thomas E. Marston., Script: Text written in a well spaced gothic bookhand with humanistic features by a single scribe, below top line. Art. 1 and rubrics added in similar script by another hand., Unidentified arms, with "Cretulia" and "Thurj" added on either side, and inscription in the lower margin of f. 2v: "Quid spectas Thurum [with 3 helmets] sunt hec insignia. Thuris/ Donarunt Sacre Iuno Minerua Venus/ Cretulia., and Watermarks: Briquet Tete de boeuf 14717 and similar to Piccard Ochsenkopf XII.123.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Boethius, De topicis differentiis.
Description:
Binding: Date? Limp vellum case with title, in ink, on spine: "Topica boetij"., One historiated initial, f. 1v, blue with white filigree and highlights against a square reddish brown ground with white filigree, showing Boethius as a monk in a blue robe seated on a chair and holding a scroll inscribed with his name, and a disciple, dressed in a red robe and holding a book inscribed with the opening words of the text proper, both figures against a grey ground with white filigree. Three illuminated initials, ff. 7v, 16v, 23r, 6- to 4-line (without ascenders or descenders), blue with white filigree against reddish brown ground with white filigree or reddish brown against blue ground with white filigree. The initials are filled with scrolling vines blue or reddish brown with white highlights, with stylized leaves, ending in dragons' heads against reddish brown or blue grounds. Descender, f. 16v, in form of a dragon, reddish brown against blue ground. Flourished initials, 2-line, and paragraph marks alternate red and blue., and Script: Written in compact gothic bookhand by a single scribe, below top line.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment (hairside yellow and speckled) of Cicero, Epistolae ad familiares. With Extract from Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae III.8.8: Epistula Fabricii et Aemilii consulum ad Pyrrhum regem. The text was copied ca. 1400 and the border decoration added between ca. 1415 and 1431.
Description:
14 elegant illuminated initials and partial borders at the beginning of each of the 16 books (the opening pages of Books XII and XV have been excised). Initials, 5- to 3-line, blue with white filigree or red with gold filigree on cusped grounds of gold. Most of the illuminated initials filled with bust-length portraits, presumably of Cicero's correspondents, on red, blue or diapered ground. Some initials filled with vine scrolls with trilobe leaves in red with white highlights against gold ground. Partial borders, scrolling vine with trilobe leaves or acanthus in blue, pink, red and gold with white highlights and green, red and blue with gold highlights. Small figures of angels, dressed in green with gold wings in borders or margins, some playing musical instruments, one holding an open book, one holding the cloth of Veronica. Other marginal figures include the "Agnus Dei" and a pelican piercing its breast. The figures are all characterized by white faces, small angled black eyes, and a preference for green and gold, the green with contour lines in gold. Plain initials alternate red and blue. Rubrics throughout., Binding: Nineteenth century, France (?). Red velvet case with a dark green gold-tooled label: "M. T. Ciceronis Epistolae Ad Familiares MS. in Membranis". Gilt edges., Imperfect: incomplete, some leaves wanting with loss of text., and Script: Written in a neat fere-humanistic hand by a single scribe, below top line.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, d. 397 Jerome, Saint, d. 419 or 20
Published / Created:
1439-1440.
Call Number:
Beinecke MS 766
Image Count:
620
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on parchment of St. Jermone, Epistulae et tractatus. With Ambrosius Mediolanensis (St. Ambrose, 339-397), De excessu fratris.
Description:
Binding: Sixteenth century. Brown leather over cardboard boards, the covers blind-tooled with a triple fillet lozenge inside a floral roll frame, the center and the corners gold-tooled with two different floral tools. Spine with four raised bands and remnants of gold-tooled lilies in the compartments. Edges painted blue. Marks of two pairs of ties., Headings in red. Red heightening (stroking) of the majuscules. 2-3-line flourished initials (with guide letters) in red with penwork varying from pale red to purple. A large (10 lines) decorated flourished initial in red, with developed purple penwork (“R” instead of “D”) in littera duplex style on f. 229v. Two Gothic historiated initials on gold background with floral marginal extensions: f. 1r: St. Jerome with lion and boy holding open a book (damaged); f. 25v: a monk copying., Script: Apparently four scribes: A, Iohannes de Carnago, is the main scribe and copied ff. 1r-260v (with the exception of 8 lines at the bottom) in Gothico-Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria; B copied from the bottom lines of f. 260v to f. 270v, in Humanistica Textualis Libraria; C copied ff. 271r-275v in Gothico-Humanistica Textualis Libraria; and D copied ff. 276r-304v in Gothico-Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria., and The codex belonged to the Diocesan Library of Dunedin, New Zealand. Sotheby sale, London, 27 March 1950 (catalogue, no. 35).
Subject (Name):
Jerome,--Saint,--d. 419 or 20
Subject (Topic):
Christian literature, Latin, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
The offset on f. 53v of an elaborately decorated border for the opening leaf of the office of St. Felicitas suggests that the codex was originally produced for an institution associated with this saint.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church--Liturgy
Subject (Topic):
Graduals (Liturgical books), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library