Manuscript on parchment (thick), composed of two distinct parts, of 1) Calendar-obituary giving the names of nuns, lay sisters, and benefactors of the Benedictine abbey of Notre-Dame de Saintes in Charente Inferieure in Southwestern France. The main body of this section dates from the fourteenth century, but was still being supplemented in the sixteenth century. 2) A version of the Usuard Martyrology; the body of the text written in the 12th century. 3) Rule of St. Benedict, feminine version.
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century (?), France. An early resewing on three double, twisted, tawed skin supports laced into wide grooves in oak boards and pegged with rectangular or square pegs. Covered in brown sheepskin with corner tongues, blind-tooled with diagonals in an outer frame. Spine leather wanting. Leather on boards much worn., ff. 3, 46 excised., First part of the manuscript has been extensively patched and repaired., Part I: Initials, dates and headings in red. Part II: Two decorated initials, ff. 47r and 129r, 6-line, in red, green and blue. Decorative headings in brown ink touched with red and green, or red touched with blue. Small initials, 4- to 1-line in red, some with foliage scrolls in red or contrasting color. Headings in red., and Script: Part I (ff. 1-46): Written in a variety of scripts ranging from gothic bookhand to batarde. Part II (ff. 47-168): Written in elegant late caroline/early gothic bookhand.
Subject (Name):
Benedictines
Subject (Topic):
Benedictine nuns, Christian martyrs, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Monasticism and religious orders
Manuscript on parchment (thick, but good quality) of a Collection of Texts on St. Barbara. With a miscellany of texts including patristic works, moralistic poems, and prophecies.
Alternative Title:
Liber gloriose uirginis et martyris christi barbare
Description:
Binding: ca. 1500, Belgium. Covered in brown calf with corner tongues over wooden boards, a central panel diapered with blind-tooled triple fillets. Center and corner fittings and title written in a careful gothic bookhand under a brass-framed window on the upper board: "liber gloriose uirginis et martyris christi barbare". Lower board cut in for the straps which are attached with metal plates. Hasps of a chain on the lower board. Rebacked. and Script: Written in a regular heavy hybrida formata script with features of bastarda by a single scribe who placed small circular flourishes above the letter u.
Subject (Name):
Barbara, Saint
Subject (Topic):
Christian martyrs, Christian poetry, Latin (Medieval and modern), Fathers of the church, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval --Connecticut --New Haven, and Prophecies --Early works to 1800
Manuscript on paper (variety of watermarks) of Part I: Dionysius the Areopagite, De caelesti hierarchia with the Paraphrasis of George Pachymeres. Part II: Dionysius the Areopagite, De divinis nominibus I.1-II.9, with Paraphrasis of George Pachymeres. Part III: Nicetas of Serres, Commentarius in Gregorii Nazianzeni orationes. Part IV: Theophanes Cerameus, Homiliae (text of 13 sermons). Part V: Andrew of Crete, Encomium in Martyres X. Part VI: Nicephorus Blemmydes, De anima. Part VII: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De compositione verborum, extract (ch. 14-15).
Description:
Belonged to Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford (1766-1827). Belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 9480). Purchased from L. C. Witten with funds from the Jacob Ziskind Charitable Trust in 1957., Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Rigid vellum, rebacked., In Greek., Part I: Carefully executed woven headpieces in black and red on ff. 1r and 7r; beginning of each portion of the text marked by large initial in red, accompanied by flowers outlined in red and filled with pale yellow. Rubrics stop on f. 22v. Part II: Crude headpiece (in imitation of that on f. 7r?) occurs on f. 100r. Large painted initials, in red, with vine-leaf appendages, mark sections of the text. Part III: Delicate floral headpiece on f. 138r: each flower is outlined in red and painted with pale grey and red washes; details added in black. More modest headpiece in similar style, but painted with yellow, occurs on f. 148v; intricate initials in same colors on ff. 138v and 148v. Part IV: Simple woven headpieces, in red, on ff. 266r and 269r. Initials with floral motifs accompany rubricated titles for each sermon; decoration is incomplete (stops on f. 320r). Part V: One initial, in black, occurs at the beginning of the text (f. 330r). Part VII: Small decorative initial and heading, in red, at the beginning of the work., and Script: The codex is composed of several small manuscripts and booklets, each copied by a different scribe but all written in similar styles of minuscule, that were originally bound together in the 17th century shortly after being copied.
Subject (Name):
Andrew, of Crete, Saint, approximately 660-740, Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, Dionysius,--the Areopagite, Saint,--1st cent, Gregory, of Nazianzus, Saint, Nicephorus, Blemmydes, 1197-1272, and Pachymeres, George, 1242-ca. 1310
Subject (Topic):
Christian martyrs, Cosmology, Ancient, Fathers of the church, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Scholia, Sermons--Early works to 1800, and Theology--Early works to 1800