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
Manuscript on parchment of Book of Hours printed in Paris, Thielman Kerver for Guillaume Eustace, 20 June 1500. The illuminated leaves, from a Book of Hours for the use of Rouen, between 1475 and 1500, were inserted into the printed Book of Hours before the present-day binding was made (ca. 1600).
Description:
In Latin., Script: Copied by one hand in Northern Gothica Textualis Formata., Decoration: Headings in red. Heightening of majuscules in yellow. Rectangular line-fillers decorated with red, blue and gold; 1-line dentelle initials; 2-line foliate initials; 4-5 line historiated initials (artt. 3 and 14); arch-topped miniatures (described above) above 3-4 lines of text, accompanied by 3- or 4-line foliate initials. The pages containing miniatures or historiated initials have full flower and acanthus borders, which may contain additional scenes or grotesques (see artt. 2, 4, 5, 11, 12). The woodcuts are coloured by hand throughout the book. Text pages containing a 2-line foliate initial have outer-margin or inner- and outer-margin borders (the latter on ff. 42 bis r and 64r)., and Binding: Red morocco similar to that of Beinecke MS 662.
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 Book of Hours, with Full calendar in French
Description:
In Latin and French., Script: Written in elegant batarde., Fourteen full-page miniatures in elaborate architectural frames, gold, with marbelized columns on plinths capped with a lintel or arched, scalloped or triangular pediments, with swags and putti. Twenty-five small miniatures, 13- or 12-line, in black and gold frames, one, f. 106v in a gold and magenta arched frame. Calendar with twenty-four small miniatures in upright rectangular brown and gold frames in outer margin; occupations of the months on rectos, signs of zodiac on versos. 6-line initials with full-page miniatures, blue curling scrolls filled with red, blue and green flowers against gold or gold flowers against red; red and gold grounds with gold filigree. 3- to 1-line initials, gold, against red or blue grounds. Line-fillers and KL monograms in the same manner. Feasts alternate red and blue, with important feasts in gold. Rubrics throughout., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Brown calf, gold-tooled, in a reddish-brown gold-tooled box lined with a paste paper. Traces of two fastenings.
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 Psalter, with astrological notes, a Calendar, and other litanies and prayers
Description:
In Latin., Written by two scribes in tiny gothic textura. Scribe 1: ff. 2v-91v; Scribe 2: ff. 91v (last folio of quire 8)-95v. Several later hands have added scribbles, prayers, and inscriptions on ff. 1r-2r, 10r, 95v, 96r, 97v, 98r, 99r., Small (6-line) and rather crude historiated initials. The initials for Ps. 52 (the Fool) and Ps. 109 (the Trinity) are missing. In each initial, the figure drawn in black and colored pink, green, and/or blue on a gold ground; the initials attached to cusped, tapering bar border, blue, red, and gold, with white highlights, with ivy terminal, black with red and green leaves. Gold and blue calligraphic initials (2-line), with blue and red penwork respectively; 1-line initials, alternating red and blue. KL monograms, gold on red and blue, with white highlights. Because the initial I was placed in the margin without an inset space in the text, the illuminator often missed it (e.g., for Ps. 70 on f. 42r; for Ps. 113 on f. 62r, and for Ps. 125 on f. 68v)., and Binding: 15th-16th centuries. Resewn on three two-layered tapes of tawed skin attached to wooden boards. The endband cores are of tawed skin with a tawed skin braid at the head, a new endband added at the tail. The spine is square and the cover adhered to it. Covered in tawed skin, originally pink, with corner tongues. Cover repaired at spine and two corners and two silver clasps added. In a flexible grey leather pouch.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Psalters
Manuscript fragment on parchment of a book of hours with an office for the dead
Description:
In Latin., Script: Copied by one hand writing in Gothica Cursiva Formata (Bastarda)., and Decoration: Purplish red rubrics. Yellow highlighting of the majuscules. 1-line versals and 2- or 3-line initials, all in liquid gold on purplish red or blue square background decorated with foliage or flowers in liquid gold. Initials in red, blue, and gold. On f. 1v, there is a rectangular picture, framed in black and gold and treated as an initial 11 lines high, of God the Father with tiara, sitting, one hand on the globe, the other hand blessing rows of Seraphim and Cherubim before him. Elsewhere yellow-colored fleur-de-lys, animals, archers and a giant insects.
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 (uneven quality, severely trimmed) of a Florilegium comprised of a series of meditations and prayers. The text, apparently a unicum, is a cento of biblical, liturgical, and patristic citations, with some additional material spuriously attributed to St. Bernard. The most important sources are the Song of Songs, the other Wisdom books, the Prophets, and, in the Trinitarian section, Augustine's De Trinitate
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by three scribes. Art. 19 (ff. 189r-190r) written by Scribe 3 in an informal gothic bookhand, no later than ca. 1300. Scribes 1 and 2 collaborated on the rest of the manuscript: arts. 1, 3-5, 6 (ff. 124r-125r), 9-18 written by Scribe 1 in a neat, but somewhat irregular gothic bookhand, arts. 2, 6 (ff. 125v-132r), 7-8 written by Scribe 2 in an undisciplined gothic bookhand., The manuscript is outstanding for the quality and complexity of its program of illustration. In its original state it included at least fifty full-page miniatures, of which forty-six survive, one-hundred-and-sixty smaller miniatures, and forty-one historiated initials. Twenty-three tinted drawings were added on blank and added folios at a later date (between 1300 and 1350). The decoration is the work of at least three artists. The miniatures, initials, and marginal decoration are the work of two hands, one of whom contributed only two full-page miniatures (ff. 61r and 64r) that depend on the style usually associated with the name of Master Honore. The other, predominant hand works in a flatter, more linear style associated with Northeastern France. Full-page miniatures, in art. 1 only, some divided into two or three registers, in blue or orange frames, surrounded by a narrow gold band, with orange lozenges at the corners, each with an ivy spray, in black ink with five gold leaves; predominantly blue or vermilion tesselated or tooled gold grounds; two (ff. 25r and 55r) with fleurs-de-lis in lozenges. On each text page in art. 1 there is a smaller miniature, 9- to 5-line, with a witness who gesticulates towards the full-page miniature on the facing page; each miniature in a blue and/or pink frame with gold squares in the corners. Almost every folio in arts. 2-18 with at least one small miniature 10- to 5-line, framed as above. Arts. 11 and 14 illustrated almost exclusively with historiated initials, 6- to 4-line, blue, pink and/or orange against grounds of the same colors, with short ivy branches extending from the serifs, many with grotesque terminals., Illuminated initials, 2- to 1- line, in art. 1 only, gold against irregular blue or pink grounds, with white filigree, edged in black, some of the 2-line initials with ivy borders, as above. The borders, especially in arts. 2-18, are populated with grotesques and other marginal illustrations, the majority apparently non-narrative and without reference to the adjacent texts and miniatures, in the same style as the miniatures by the predominant hand. Names of Hebrew letters in art. 12 in red., Lower outer corners cut from ff. 167-192. Marginal decoration on many folios severely trimmed. Gold has flaked off considerably from the full-page miniatures on ff. 13r, 15r, 19r; some flaking of gold on ff. 6v, 18v, 25r, 34r, 44r, 51r., and Binding: ca. 1966. Bound in two volumes (I: ff. 1-96; II: ff. 97-192) in native tanned vermilion Nigerian goatskin, by J. Greenfield, without any adhesive touching the bookblock itself. Previously bound in brown leather in a single volume.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, Latin (Medieval and modern)., Exempla, Fathers of the church, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval