Manuscript on parchment (thick, furry) of Stimulus amoris, translated into English by Walter Hilton from a Latin devotional text often attributed to Bonaventure. Followed by an anonymous devotional treatise
Description:
In Middle English., Script: Written by a single scribe in bold, upright gothic textura; commentary added in an inelegant cursive (16th century)., One 4-line initial (f. 2v) gold, edged in black, against a blue and red cusped ground with white filigree, attached to a bar border in outer margin, gold, blue, and pink, with white highlights and leafy sprouts at divisions and terminals, orange, blue, red, and gold; the leaves with black hair-spray vines, both straight and in spirals, with small gold leaves and touches of green, filling upper, outer, and lower margins. Six initial I's (ff. 7v, 31v, 36v, 38v, 61v, 83v), 11- to 7-line, gold against blue and red grounds with white filigree and straight hair-spray vines, as above. 2-line gold initials, against blue and/or pink grounds, with white filigree and hair-spray, as above. Gold or blue paragraph marks with blue or red penwork and flourishes. Gold and blue line-fillers, straight, zig-zag, and wavy, some up to 3/4 of a line long. Headings, occasional underlining, and crossing out, in red., Trimming has affected some marginal commentary; f. 108 badly mutilated with loss of text. Leaves at beginning and end of codex stained and repaired., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Red edges. Brown goatskin, blind- and gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Jacobus, Mediolanensis, active 13th century.
Subject (Topic):
Devotional literature, English (Middle), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Gottofredo da Trani, Summa super titulis Decretalium. With medicinal recipes and a list of Roman emperors
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in a rounded gothic bookhand, below top line; marginal annotations and finding aids by a contemporary hand in less formal script., 5 fine illuminated initials, 30- to 7-line, in blue or pink with white filigree on blue and red grounds framed in blue or red accentuated at the corners by gold dots. Infilled with intertwining or angular vines, some with biting head terminals, mauve or blue with white highlights and gold dots. Ascenders and descenders, red, mauve and blue terminating in spiralling serifs with biting animal heads or grotesques against cusped grounds. Two initials with vines issuing from upper and left corners, blue with white highlights ending in grotesques. 3- and 2-line calligraphic initials, red and blue with blue and red penwork. Plain initials alternating in red and blue. Headings in red; running titles (chapter numbers) alternating red and blue. Instructions to rubricator in lower margins., and Binding: Nineteenth century, France. Early sewing on five supports with 19th-century boards covered in parchment. Title on spine: "Gofredo de Trano/ Manuscrit".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Goffredo, da Trani, d. 1245.
Subject (Topic):
Canon law, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Scholasticism
Manuscript on paper of Summulae naturalium, composed in 1408 by Paulus Nicolettus Venetus O.E.S.A. (1369/72-1429).
Description:
In Latin., Watermarks, obscured by text: similar to Harlfinger Chapeau 17 and unidentified ladder., Script: Written by several scribes in humanistic cursive script with gothic features, below top line; inital words of each section in gothic bookhand., Decorated title page, f. 1r, with border, in black and red ink composed of various decorative devices: in the upper margin a bar border with a central semicircle flanked by stylized scrolls in black and red. In the outer margin, a roundel, black with red and black frame, filled with a flower of 6 petals in red; the roundel flanked by stylized scrolls. In center of lower margin a medallion framed in narrow black and red bands containing a flaming heart pierced by an arrow and an open book, also flanked by stylized scrolls. Numerous decorated initials, 30- to 4-line, black and red with interior designs of lozenges, small flowers, and wavy lines of paper ground. Plain initials and paragraph marks in red. Guide letters for rubricator throughout., Worm-eaten; some minor loss of text., and Binding: Nineteenth century, England. Blind-tooled brown goatskin with the same gold-tooled title on the spine and both covers: "Summule Naturalium/ Paulus de Venetiis/ M. S. 1373". Bound by Riviere (London) before 1881. Red edges.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Aristotle., Venetus, Paulus., and Augustinians.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, Physics, and Scholia
Manuscript on parchment (poor quality), composed of two distinct parts. Part I: Thomas Aquinas, Super Metaphysicam. Part II: Thomas Aquinas, Super de causis
Description:
In Latin., Script: Part I (ff. 1-120): Written by a single scribe in small gothic book hand. Part II (ff. 121-132): Written in a less accomplished gothic script than that in Part I., Part I: One illuminated initial, rubbed, f. 1r: blue with white highlights on dark red ground with white highlights; terminals of ground extend up and down as modest border in blue, dark red and gold. Flourished initials of various sizes, styles and quality: blue with red penwork designs, red with blue, red with purple (ff. 75r-119r) and red and blue divided with penwork in purple (e.g., f. 88v); some flourished initials with border extensions (e.g., f. 110v). Running headlines in red and blue; paragraph marks alternate red and blue. Traces of guide letters for decorator. Part II: Spaces for decorative initials remain unfilled., and Binding: 14th-15th centuries, Spain. Original sewing on five tawed skin, double supports laced into beech boards. Plain, wound natural color endbands. Single parchment leaf (front) and bifolium (rear), from what appear to be two different Hebrew Bible manuscripts, serve as pastedowns and spine-lining; they have been cut out around the sewing supports. Yellow edges. Covered in what was originally blue tawed skin (now faded) with two fastenings, the catches on the lower board and the straps attached with star-headed nails. Traces of title (?) scratched onto skin of upper board.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Aristotle. and Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, Philosophy, Ancient, Scholasticism, and Scholia
Manuscript on parchment (goatskin) of Nicolaus de Osimo (Auximo) OFM (d. after 1453), Supplementum Summae Pisanellae, an alphabetically arranged supplement to the Summa de casibus conscientiae of Bartholomew of Pisa (Bartholomaeus de Sancto Concordio, d. 1347). Produced at the Franciscan convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli near Milan
Description:
In Latin., Script: Apparently 8 scribes, all writing Southern Gothica., Decoration: The decoration of artt. 1-4 consists of heightening of the majuscules in yellow; blue or red paragraph marks. In art. 3 the chapters normally open with a 2-line (rarely 3-line) flourished initial with penwork extensions in the left margin or in the intercolumnar space, alternately red with purple or blue penwork and blue with red penwork; the first lemma of each letter opens with a 3- or 4-line flourished initial filled with foliage and with more developed marginal extensions. The text opens on f. 5v with a 5-line dentelle initial with green and blue background heightened with gold and white, followed by 5 lines of text mostly in majuscules. The decoration of art. 7 is similar to that of art. 3 but less carefully executed., and Binding: Eighteenth century (?). White parchment over pasteboard, with two modern brass clasps fixed to the front cover. On the spine green leather label with gold-tooled title "SUMA MAGISTRA". On the bottom edge the title "Summa Pisa****" is written.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Nicholas, of Osimo, -1453. and Franciscans
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Canon law, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper and parchment containing texts on St. Jerome
Description:
In Italian., Script: copied by one hand in a peculiar form of Southern Gothica Textualis Libraria under Humanistic influence as visible in the total lack of compression; special features are: the sloping hairline at the top of the second stroke of e, parallelled by the sloping stroke on i; h with exceptionally long curved extension under the baseline; the forked lower ending of f and straight s on or under the baseline and the forked descender of p; and the very fancy majuscules., Headings in pale red, often difficult to read. Yellow heightening of the majuscules. Initials, with guide letters written in the space reserved for the initial: (1) flourished initials (3-4 lines) in red with pale red (or brown) penwork or in blue with red penwork, sometimes with marginal penwork extensions; (2) at the beginning of each text a larger initial; the letters following this type of initial are majuscules. F. 3r: 12-line blue initial of the littera duplex type with extensive penwork in red and some blue, with decorative border in the same colours in the inner and lower margin and tendrils in the other margins containing flowers and acorns; the border of the lower margin terminates in a medallion containing a coat of arms; ff. 8r, 41r: 9-line initial of the same type and in the same colours; f. 47v: 6-line, idem; f. 77v: 7-line black initial. The lower margin of f. 62 torn off., The manuscript contains: 1) Ownership inscription and note on the scribe, followed by a variant form of a Biblical quotation (Lamentations 3:27-28). 2) Legend of St. Jerome in Italian, with special attention for miraculous events, as an introduction to artt. 4-6. Quotes Iohannes Belet (12th century), St. Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine, Isidore of Seville, Sulpicius Severus. 3) Ps.-Eusebius, Epistula de morte Hieronymi (BHL 3866), Italian translation. 4) Ps. -Augustinus Hipponensis, Epistola de magnificentiis Hieronymi (BHL 3867), Italian translation. 5) Ps.-Cyrillus, Epistola de miraculis Hieronymi (BHL 3868), in Italian translation. 6) History of abbot Daniel living in Thebais and his disobedient servant, to whom he tells the life of a virtuous man they have met, called Eulogius, who eventually became patricius and praefectus praetorio in Constantinople at the time of emperor Justinus I (518-527); due to the loss of one or more quires the major part of the text, containing the intervention of the Virgin, is missing., and Binding: quarter binding of bevelled wooden boards (worm-eaten) and brown leather; spine with three raised bands and paper title label with handwritten 17th-century inscription: "Vita / di S. / Girola." On the boards marks of one clasp attached to the front board and on the front board the ca. 1800 inscription "JO." written in black ink. Possibly the binding once belonged to another manuscript.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Jerome, Saint, -419 or 420.
Subject (Topic):
Christian hagiography, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin letters, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (thin, good quality) of 1) Tacitus, Annales XI-XVI. 2) Tacitus, Historiae I-V. Written for King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-90), perhaps by Italians at his palace of Buda
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by a single scribe in a well formed humanistic script., Twelve initials, 7- to 2-line, at beginning of each book (2 at the beginning of the Annales), gold edged in black, with white vine ornament, against a panelled ground of blue, green and mauve, with white dots, outlined with one or two thin white and one black line; ivy, drawn or pen, with triangular gold leaves or dots, projecting from corners into margins. On f. 1r, the initial includes a putto in the vinework; in the lower margin, coat of arms of Corvinus, type A (quarterly, first and fourth barry of 8 gules and argent [Hungary]; second and third gules, a lion rampant and queue-fourche argent [Bohemia]; an inescutcheon azur with raven sable holding an annulet or, with bordure or [Hunyadi family]. Workmanship of fair quality; style Northern Italian (?)., and Binding: Fifteenth century. Sewn on three tawed, slit straps laid in channels in beech boards. The straps are pegged and the channels filled in with plaster as are the endband grooves and the edge channels cut out for the clasps. The primary endband is plain, wound, and sewn on a tawed core and the secondary is beaded and colored. The core is laid in a groove and pegged. The square spine is given a slightly round shape by the bevelling of the boards and is lined with a tawed skin. Covered in dark, brick-red goatskin with a cusped shield azur, charged with a crow sable (Hunyadi family), in the center of each board; blind-tooled rope work, punch dots and other ornamentation gilt, gold-tooled or painted. "Cornelius Tacitus" is tooled along the head of the lower cover and is also written down the fore-edge with black ink. There are four fastenings, the brass catches on the lower board, with three of them covered over with added leather. The clasps are the same color as the cover and are reinforced with parchment. They are pegged in channels at the edges of the board, underneath the cover. The clasps and a little leather of the spine and the upper board are wanting.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Rome
Subject (Name):
Matthias I, King of Hungary, 1443-1490. and Tacitus, Cornelius.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin prose literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on paper of The Life, Araignment, and Death, of the famous learned, Sir Thomas More Knight: Somtymes Lord Chauncellor of England. On f. iii verso, engraving of Sir Thomas More, half-length, to right, standing, pointing to scroll in right hand
Description:
In English., Watermarks: Heawood, Coat of Arms 481., Script: Written in neat chancery script., Illuminated title-page, f. iii recto: double blue frame with sprigs of berries and leaves on both sides and gilt designs above and below. Gold initial on f. 1r marks the beginning of text., and Binding: 17th-18th centuries. Part of a book rebound in limp vellum, gold-tooled, with holes for two ties.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
More, Thomas, Saint, 1478-1535. and Roper, William, 1496-1578.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on paper of George Waymouth (fl. 1587-1611), The jewell of artes, an unfinished technical handbook of navigation, inventions, fortifications, surveying, gunnery, etc., consisting of short textual parts and extremely numerous full-page technical drawings and diagrams of high quality
Description:
About the author, a somewhat mysterious navigator, scholar and engineer, see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, v. 51 (2004), pp. 777-778. He returned in 1602 from his unsuccesful expedition to discover the Northwest Passage, presented the King in 1604 with two versions of his treatise The Jewell of Artes and undertook in 1605 a new expedition to the American East coast, landing in Maine., In English., Script: Written by one hand in Gothica Cursiva Libraria (Secretary)., and Binding: Original armorial (rebacked). Brown calf over cardboard, both covers gold-tooled with a seme pattern of flowerets, corner pieces and a central piece with the arms of King James I. Spine with six raised bands and red title-label with inscription "JEWELL OF ARTES".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Waymouth, George.
Subject (Topic):
English literature, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, Military art and science, and Navigation