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, on paper, in several hands, containing a collection of texts related to geomancy, divination, alchemy, and astrology. The principal work is a Latin translation of the Geomancia of Alkardianus, usually attributed to Bernard Silvester. This text is heavily annotated and surrounded by other notes and shorter works
Description:
In Latin. and Binding: contemporary limp parchment wallet-style wrapper binding, cockled and damaged. Effaced lettering on upper cover.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Alkardianus. and Bernard Silvestris, active 1136.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Astrology, Divination, Geomancy, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper. Includes notes on arithmetic and accounting for merchandise; a romance of Tristan; list of spices; astronomical and astrological information; charms and prayers; recipes; extracts in Venetian; and poems
Description:
In Italian and Latin., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Fruit 7372-76, Briquet Cheval 3564, and Briquet Fruit 7341., Script: Written by a single scribe in a neat notarial hand, through f. 67v. Notes added by various hands of 14th-15th centuries., Drawings of ships, towers and merchants in ink, with added yellow, brown, green, red and blue; many diagrams. Crude 2- and 1-line initials in red, with guide-letters for rubricator showing beneath; headings in red., Repair of f. 1 with later paper; some loss of text. Repairs at outer edges on this and other folios do not affect text., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Rigid vellum case with paste paper back endleaf and pastedowns. Central fold of each bifolium has been reinforced with a strip of parchment.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Venice (Italy)
Subject (Topic):
Accounting, Arithmetic, Astrology, Astronomy, Medieval, Formulas, recipes, etc, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Merchants, Prayers, Tristan (Legendary character), and Economic conditions
Manuscript, on vellum, in a single hand, of this unique English prose version of the twelfth-century Latin treatise Secretum secretorum, itself a translation of the Kitab sirr al-asrar. In addition to this text, the volume also includes a short astrological text in Middle English, headed "secreta." The opening leaf is not present; the introduction by the translator praises Sir Miles Stapleton as his patron
Alternative Title:
Secretum secretorum
Description:
In Middle English and Latin., Several verses and aphorisms in a sixteenth?-century cursive hand on blank leaves and in margins., Layout: single columns of 21-23 lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: numerous initials in gold or in blue with contrasting penwork., and Binding: fifteenth-century blind-stamped calf over wooden boards; remains of clasps.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Johannes, de Caritate.
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Astronomy, Astronomy, Medieval, Education of princes, English prose literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Medicine, and Medicine, Medieval
Manuscript compendium of astronomical and astrological texts, including a version of the Kalendarium of Regiomontanus, with lunar eclipse tables for the years 1475-1530 and a solar calendar for 1475-1513. Other contents include a number of astronomical and astrological tables and texts. including a poem on auspicious and inauspicious days (first line: "Fortunata dies operum disponere causas"); the Canon de aspectibus planetarum; the Cognitiones naturarum secundum nativtates; and a variety of prognostic texts based on zodiac signs and the day of the week on which January 1 falls in a given year. The volume also contains several quadrant diagrams and a working volvelle
Description:
In Latin., Bookseller description available., Inscribed at the head of 2r: S[an]c[t]i Cristofori Taurini Ad usu[m] fr[atr]is Anto[ni]i de lanteo., Signature of Joseff Gregri da Bologna? on back cover., Bookplate of Samuel Verplanck Hoffman on front pastedown., Tipped in before f1: printed catalog description of this volume, undated., Layout: main text in single columns of approximately 35 lines; wide margins., Script: gothica textualis italiana., Decoration: rubricated. Initials in red and blue ink, some with penwork flourishing; many blank spaces for initials. Illustrations of lunar eclipses. Charts, diagrams, and volvelles in red, blue and brown ink., and Binding: contemporary boards, rebacked.
Subject (Geographic):
Italy, Connecticut, and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Regiomontanus, Joannes, 1436-1476.
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Astrology, Italian, Astronomy, Calendars, Lunar eclipses, Quadrants (Astronomical instruments), Solar eclipses, Manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Renaissance, and Zodiac
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:
In Latin., Script: Written by a very elegant and uniform humanistic hand., 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., and 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.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Federico, da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, 1422-1482. and Iacobus, of Speyer.
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Horoscopes, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript, on vellum, incomplete, in a single hand, of John Lydgate's and Benedict Burgh's Middle English verse translation of the twelfth-century Latin treatise Secretum Secretorum, itself a translation of the Kitab sirr al-asrar. In addition to this text, the volume also contains several prose pieces in Middle English and Latin, including one with illustrated diagrams and a Latin tract on the interpretation of dreams
Description:
In Middle English and Latin., Several medical recipes added on blank leaves and portions of leaves in a sixteenth-century? cursive hand., Signature of John Bowen? in a seventeenth-century hand. Signature of Thomas Bowen in a seventeenth-century hand., Layout: various single-column., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: 15 illuminated borders; other decorated initials, some gilt., and Binding: disbound, but with some original sewing intact; modern case.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Astronomy, Astronomy, Medieval, Education of princes, English prose literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Medicine, and Medicine, Medieval
Manuscript, on paper, in a single hand, of a collection of astrological information and a treatise on the signs of the zodiac, including lists of activities appropriate for each sign, and descriptions of the characteristics of those born under the influence of different planets
Description:
In Middle English., Tipped in: astrological chart, on paper, for the years 1646-1664., Layout: single columns of 17-25 lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: some capitals and words rubricated., and Binding: nineteenth-century half calf over marbled boards.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Medieval, Astrology, and English prose literature
Manuscript on paper of Astrological tables for solar and lunar locations, probably for use in compiling calendars; tables of latitudes of cities; chronological tables for 1508-18. Most tables are accompanied by prose descriptions
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: trimmed, in upper margins; unidentified eagle enclosed by a circle similar in design to Briquet Aigle 204., Script: Written in Italian notarial script by a single scribe., Yellow added to initials and to astrological signs, and some numbers., Stained throughout; final folio repaired., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Blind-tooled brown sheepskin.
Manuscript on parchment of astrological texts drawn largely from Arab astrology of the early Middle Ages, and transmitted in medieval Latin translations; in addition Ptolemy's Centiloquium is present, transmitted not in Greek but through the Arabic, along with a single contemporary component, the Astrolabium planum of Johann Engel
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by a single scribe in a large and clear hand in Gothica textualis formata and Bastarda., Rubrics, and occasional headlines in red, diagrams in the text in brown and red inks. Full illuminated border, outlined in red, on f. 1r of leafy sprays in colors and gold, the white spaces filled up with black dots and small burnished gold circles each with three or four small tendrils; a large initial in burnished gold and colors at the beginning of the text in the first column, with gold band extending downward and then around three sides of the page forming an inner border, completed by a red line at top; a lozenge at the center of the lower band of the border containing a pattern of platelike discs, quatrefoils, and a leafy spray on a dull gold ground, this segment almost certainly a later replacement of an original coat of arms which has been erased. Elsewhere in the manuscript smaller illuminated initials in the style of the first frequently occur, and larger ones with descenders to partial borders at the foot of the page occur. Each of the ninety-six pages from f. 191r through 238v has four drawings in colors (six on those pages which open each of the signs of the Zodiac), placed within diagrams accompanied by slight text., and Binding: Nineteenth century, English. Marbled paper boards, green calf back with six heavy (false?) bands, the compartments with patterns of small tools impressed in gold and with gold-stamped titles, a small rectangular label with the printed number 1037 and a small round label with the inked number 894 glued to the bottommost compartment. All edges gilt. Preserved in a modern green cloth folding box, probably French, with leather label.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Ptolemy, active 2nd century.
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Astrology, Arab, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
