Manuscript on parchment. One of a number of Books of Hours almost certainly made in Flanders for the English market. During the 16th century, some references to Thomas of Canterbury were erased or altered, and the word "pape" in the Calendar was changed to "ape".
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in liturgical gothic bookhand., Decoration: Twenty-three fine miniatures (originally twenty-five) tipped in, in red, blue and gold frames, with gold quatrefoils in the corners; each with a 3/4 bar border, red and blue, with a full border of English-style acanthus, red, blue, pink and gold against cusped gold grounds, especially at corners and centers, surrounded by green, red, blue and pink flowers and berries, and ivy in black pen with gold and blue leaves, some with birds, in red bounding lines. Twenty-three historiated initials, 6-line, pink and blue with white highlights on gold grounds with black cusping. 6-line initials, pink and blue, with white highlights, filled with acanthus on gold, against pink and blue grounds, framed in gold and edged with black cusping. 3-line initials, gold, edged in black, on pink and blue grounds with white filigree. 1-line initials and line endings in the same manner. Calendar with 3-line KL monograms, as above, with hair-spray extensions and bar border, outer margin, and with hair-spray terminals. Kalends, Ides in blue and gold; important feasts in red., Shows signs of use (water stains, rubbing), but no serious damage to text or illumination., and Binding: 16th-17th centuries. Wound sewing on five large, tawed-skin supports, the backs of the gatherings cut in about 3 mm. on either side of the supports and at the kettle stitches. Dull gilt edges and traces of blue endband tie-downs. Covered in gold, striped velvet with two ribbon ties.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
In Latin., Script: Written in two sizes of liturgical gothic by two scribes. Scribe 1) ff. 1r-22v and 28r-130r; Scribe 2) ff. 22v-26v. Many later marginal notes throughout, including titles at the top of each page., One very crude full-page miniature on f. 71v (Office of the Dead): mourners at a bier. Set in a narrow arched frame of gold edged in black, in a border of pink, blue, and green acanthus leaves (concentrated at corners), flowers in same colors, infilled with black ink hair-spray with gold dots; the whole rather carelessly done. 6- and 5-line initials (ff. 57r and 72r): blue with white highlights, on gold ground, infilled with blue, green, and pink trilobe leaves, with segmented bar border (strapwork corners) in blue, white, pink, black, and gold; full border as for miniature. Other illuminated initials (5- to 2-line, as above) with segmented bar borders without strapwork, and full borders as for full-page miniature. 5-line initials (ff. 35r and 38r) gold, on pink and blue ground with white highlights; in inner margin, a simple bar border sprouting black hair-spray with gold leaves at top and bottom. 2-line initials: gold on pink and blue grounds with white highlights. 1-line initials within text sometimes marked with a red stroke. Line fillers: occasionally a red cable after a rubric or, in the litany, oblique red and blue strokes with dots attached (perhaps added later, as colors do not match those of 1-line initials). Rubrics in orange-tinted red., Mold at bottom of ff. 122-130; text not damaged., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Brown calf, blind- and gold-tooled.
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
Manuscript on paper, composed of two independant sections. Part I (ff. 1r-121v): Sermons, excerpts and treatises. With works by Thomas de Hibernia and Albertus de Padua. Part II (ff.122r-180v): Works by St. John Chrysostom; with a treatise on temptations and special Mass prayers
Description:
In Latin., Script: Part I: Copied by one hand in small Gothica Hybrida Currens. Some additions in a larger and more formal handwriting. Marginal captions. The scribe is Iohannes de Lovanio (John of Louvain), called (de) Dynen, lector in the convent of the Hermits of St. Augustine in Venice. Part II: Copied by the priest Jean Frassent in Gothica Cursiva Formata (Bastarda), which is less carefully executed on the final pages. Calligraphic extensions at the ascenders on the top line., Part I: Underlining and plain initials. Headings underlined or framed or written in red. Framed running headlines on the pages where a new article begins. Part II: Headings, heightening of the majuscules, and red 2-line plain initials in art. 41. The heightening is continued up to f. 137v, but the initials have not been executed from art. 42 onwards. Guide letters for all initials., and Binding: Contemporary Northern French or Flemish binding, which no doubt was made for Part II and rebacked when Part I was added: blind-tooled brown calfskin over bevelled wooden boards; the decoration consists of frames and a lozenge pattern traced in triple fillets, the lozenges filled with three tools: a rose, an acorn motif and a standing figure (?). Remnants of two clasps attached to the rear cover, with engraved brass catches on the front cover. On the 19th-century (?) spine the gold-tooled inscriptions "SERMONES" / and "IOANNES / CHRYSOSTOMUS".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Albertus, de Padua, d. 1328., John Chrysostom, Saint, -407., and Thomas, of Ireland, approximately 1265-approximately 1329.
Subject (Topic):
Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Manuscripts, Medieval, and Sermons, Latin
Manuscript on paper of an unidentified dissertation on dispensation from prescriptions of natural or divine law; an unidentified dissertation on the worldly possessions of the clergy and their legitimate employment; Iohannes de Lisura, anonymous opinion in response to a consultation by the city of Lille on the legality of investing the money of minors at interest; and fragments of several texts by Pierre d'Ailly and Nicholas Oresme
Description:
In Latin., Watermark: similar to Briquet 1474 (?)., Script: Copied by 3 hands: Scribe 1 copied ff. 1r-54r in Gothica Hybrida Libraria marked by the use of looped d and one-stroke x; scribe 2 copied ff. 54v-57r in Gothica Cursiva Currens; scribe 3 copied ff. 61r-143r in Gothica Hybrida Libraria under slight Humanistic influence., Headings in red or underlined in red. Heightening of majuscules in red. Red paragraph marks. Plain initials in red (2- or 3-lines, not executed on f. 100r); on f. 1r blank foliage has been spared in the initial's body. Guide-letters in the space reserved for the initials., and Binding: Original brown calf over wooden boards, blind-tooled with fillets and the following small stamps: a square two-headed eagle, a square lion rampant, a square bird and a floweret. At the top of the front cover the title in ink (ca. 1500) "Contra novos Hebreos". Remains of two decorated brass clasps, attached to the rear cover. Spine with four raised bands. White parchment paste-downs. Parchment tabs pasted on the outer edge of ff. 54 and 94; others are lost.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Canon law, Dispensations (Canon law), Dissertations, Academic, and Manuscripts, Medieval
