Manuscript on paper of a miscellany of alchemical texts including corrupt copies (which are typical of the compiler) of traditional Latin alchemies with practical procedures and vernacular poems on alchemy. Compiled by one Johannes Baptista F., along with Mellon MSS 34 and 35.
Description:
In Latin, Italian, and Spanish., Script: Written by one, perhaps two, hands in mid-16th-century italic, sometimes of excellent, professional quality, but often ranging from fairly good to extremely bad and careless., Extensive series of small ink drawings of alchemical vessels and equipment on the front flyleaves, mostly flasks and other glasswork on the left page, with similar equipment, as well as a "Bain-Marie" and a large furnace on the facing right page, each drawing labeled., and Binding: Original parchment over pasteboards with remains of thong ties; probably a home-made binding utilizing used parchment (show-through of writing and earlier folding visible) from a document; plain edges. Labeled in ink in the hand of the compiler on the backstrip: "Lapis philosophalis". Loose in cover and badly wormed.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Drawing, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of a collection of extracts from various alchemical and medical writers. Includes John of Rupescissa, Liber de confectione veri lapidis; and Arnold of Villanova, De perfectione operis alkimie. Compiled by one Johannes Baptista F., along with Mellon MSS 34 and 36.
Description:
In Latin, Italian, and Spanish., Script: Written by one or perhaps two hands in mid-16th-century italic, sometimes of excellent, professional quality, but often ranging from fairly good to extremely bad and careless., and Binding: Original parchment over pasteboards with remains of thong ties; probably a home-made binding utilizing used parchment (show-through of writing visible) from a document, plain edges. Labeled in ink in the hand of the compiler on the backstrip: "Medicina | astrologia." Loose in cover and wormed.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of 1) John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie. 2) Rhemigius Burgensis, Quaestio de medio demonstrationis termino. 3) Simone Porzio, De animae immortalitate quaestio. 4) Francesco Petrarca, Dialogus de coniugii claritate. 5) Alchemy and recipes, in Latin. 6) Properties of various fruits and nuts, in Italian verse, and Seasons for planting, in Italian prose. 7) Notes on logic, provenance of elements of this manuscript, and a game of divination
Description:
In Latin, Greek, and Italian., Watermarks: 1) crossed arrows surmounted by a six-pointed star; 2) crossed keys in a cartouche, neither identified with certainty., Script: Written in several different italic cursive hands., and Binding: Original, north Italian. Black leather, the sides outlined in blind rules, a rectangular panel on each cover ruled in gold with a square Arab knot tool gold-stamped outside each corner of the panel, traces of holes for four thong ties on each cover, the backstrip divided into five compartments by raised bands, a gold-stamped cinquefoil in each compartment, the back and sides repaired, edges stained black. Front and back pastedowns: parchment fragments of a 12th-century Italian codex, probably a Gospel Lectionary, containing an extract from the Gospel of St. John written in Latin in a Rotunda antiquior hand.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Divination, Italian poetry, Logic, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper (trimmed) of 1) Alphabetical index. 2) Extract from Petrarca, Africa, VI, 885-918. 3) Petrarca, Canzoniere. 366 poems. 4) Transcription of a note on the front flyleaf of the Virgil manuscript copied by Petrarch, Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS S.P. Arm. 10, scaf. 27. 5) Petrarca, Trionfi
Description:
In Italian., Script: Copied by one hand writing an unusual and upright form of Humanistica Cursiva Libraria, marked by a conspicuous shape of r; a second hand copied the replacement leaves 108 and 109, and a third hand copied f. 149r-v; both using the same type of script., Pale red headings (the one on f. 9r in Capitalis), subscriptions and plain initials (Capitalis). On f. 9r (beginning of art. 3) splendid 5-line trompe-l'oeil initial in Veneto-Paduan style in the shape of a square purple stone slab showing the letter V and plants in relief, slightly damaged., A section in the middle of ff. 85 and 86 is missing and has been replaced by pieces of paper written by a contemporary hand, and Binding: Seventeenth century. Limp parchment with two modern leather ties. On the spine the inscription in ink: "Petrar** Manuss***".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of Michele Bettini (16th century), Commedia ovvero storia del Crocefisso
Description:
In Italian., Script: copied by one hand in a careful Humanistica Libraria/Formata under Gothic influence., No decoration., Michele Bettini, an unrecorded author, was warden of the "Company of the Evangelist" in Rome, which used to stage edifying plays. The present play in verse (the Prologue only is in prose) was performed in1541 and in 1563. It deals with charity., Original foliation in Roman numerals. Corners and edges defective; the leaves waterstained., and Binding: contemporary paper cover, which is too small for the manuscript.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Bettini, Michele.
Subject (Topic):
Christian drama, Italian, Italian drama (Comedy), Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on goatskin parchment of Antonio Cornazzano, Della vera nobilità, a poem in terzine in honor of the condottiere Antonio Martinengo (d. 1473, Brescia). This is probably the presentation copy of the poem
Description:
Script: Copied by one hand in Humanistica Textualis; the first majuscule of each terzine placed between the double bounding-lines at left of the text., Decoration: The Latin headings in front of each of the seven sections of the poem seem to have been deleted. Each section opens with a 2-line gold initial on a square coloured background heightened with white, yellow or gold penwork. The initial is accompanied by three gold balls in black penwork flourishes in the margin. Marginal annotations throughout appear in pale red ink., Binding: The original parchment covers and spine are pasted onto new boards; the covers are gold-tooled with a fillet and a floweret in each corner., and In Italian.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Italy.
Subject (Name):
Cornazzano, Antonio, 1429-1484.
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Medieval, Nobility, and Italian poetry
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Dante Alighieri, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata. 2) Bosone de' Raffaelli da Gubbio, "Capitolo" on the Divine Comedy, in 64 terzine. 3) Iacopo Alighieri, "Divisione" of the Divine Comedy in 50 terzine (thus of the B group).
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written in round gothic script., Very fine initials and borders. Three historiated initials, each with a personification with attributes. Each initial with a full border of fleshy acanthus, blue, orange, olive green, pink, grey and gold, with tooling; birds in lower margin of ff. 1r and 54r; on f. 1r a coat-of-arms, in lower margin: azure, a chevron or, between two roses in chief argent, a mount of 6 in base argent, probably of the Bini family, Florence. 3-line initials, red or blue, with mauve or red penwork with long intricate flourishes often extending the length of the page. Opening text of Inferno adjacent to the initial of f. 1r in display capitals with penwork panels in brown ink. Capitals on the beginning of each stanza stroked in yellow. Rubrics throughout., and Binding: Sixteenth century. Sewn on five double supports attached to wooden boards. The spine is square with well defined bands and red and green endbands. Covered in dark brown goatskin, blind-tooled in mudejar style in two sets of concentric frames; DO.IOAN.DE gold-tooled in the center of one, BORGA in the other. Trace of two fastenings. Gilt edges. Restored.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321. and Dominicans
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian poetry, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Scholia
Manuscript on paper, written in two stages. Part II was copied in the mid-14th century (before 1369) in Tuscany, possibly in Pisa. Part I was copied by Niccolo di Giovanni Cinuzi da Siena in Ferrara, Italy, by 1 Sept. 1415. Part I: Boccaccio, Filostrato. Part II: Articles 2-35 and 38-39 consist of a collection of Italian canzoni by various authors as well as anonymous poems. Artt. 36 and 37 are fragments of Petrarch, Rerum vulgarum
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: Part I: similar to Briquet Monts 11678. Part II: similar to Briquet Ciseaux 3737., Script: Part I (ff. 1r-78v): Written by a single scribe in a bold upright notarial script. Part II (ff. 91r-110v): Written in a clear notarial script by a single scribe; later writers have added the initials, offset in margins, for the major sections of text (sometimes inaccurately) and the notes on ff. 109v-110v., Crude drawings include a falconer with birds, f. 103v, and a ghost (?), f. 103r., The pattern of stains suggests the two parts were originally bound separately. Stained throughout; some ink blotches affect text., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Brown calf over wooden boards, blind-tooled. Red-brown, gold-tooled label. Parchment reinforcements between quires.
Manuscript on paper containing Leonardo Dati O.P. (1360-1425), or Gregorio Dati (1362-1435), La Sfera; a Libro di ricordi (1480-1501); sermons; extracts from Brunetto Latini, Il Tesoro; magical treatise; a "Portolano"; three sonnets; and 10 maps or views in watercolor and 18 colored circular diagrams
Description:
In Italian., Script: Art. 1 in Gothica Cursiva Libraria; art. 2, in two hands, same script as art. 1; artt. 3-9, one hand, writing in Gothica Cursiva Currens (Mercantesca), and Decoration: only from f. 25r onwards: red stroking of majuscules; illustrations (watercolor diagrams and maps) to art. 6 include: sky scenes (stars; sun illuminating the earth; eclipse of the moon); maps of the earth (diagram with the equator; earth among the other elements; the horizon; the four regions, or plagae; directions of the winds); Ptolemaic system; T-O map; seas and geographic regions (unidentified sea; Black Sea and Caspian Sea; Tyrrhenian Sea; Dardanelles; Sea of Azov and Don; coast of North Africa; Mesopotamia, Arabia, Palestine; Tower of Babel; view of Tunis; western coast of Asia Minor, with burning Troy)
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Dati, Leonardo, 1408-1472., Dati, Gregorio, 1362-1435., Latini, Brunetto, 1220-1295., and Giamboni, Bono, ca. 1292.
Subject (Topic):
Astronomy, Medieval, Charts, diagrams, etc, Early maps, Italian poetry, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Sermons, Italian
Manuscript on paper (polished) of Cecco d'Ascoli (Francesco Stabili), L'Acerba, Bks. 1-4 with the final 214 lines of Bk. 4 and all of the fragmentary Bk. 5 missing
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: unidentified cherries (?) in upper margin, trimmed., Script: Written by a single scribe in mercantesca script, above top line., Blue initial, 6-line, with nice penwork designs, f. 1r. Smaller initials, 2-line, red with purple designs or blue with red designs, alternate throughout. Headings in pale red. Paragraph marks alternate red and blue. Later addition of arms in lower margin, f. 1r, effaced and covered with mending strips., and Binding: Nineteenth century, Italy. Vellum stays adhered inside and outside of quires. Backs of quires cut in for original sewing. Bookblock tacketed to a semi-limp paper case, reinforced at the spine. Handwritten paper label with title and a printed medallion with Flora (?) standing on an anchor and globe (?), both on spine.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Cecco, d'Ascoli, 1269-1327.
Subject (Topic):
Encyclopedias and dictionaries, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
