Subject (Topic): Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval

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379. World chronicle

Published / Created:: [ca. 1450]
Call Number:: Beinecke MS 495
Container / Volume:: Box
Image Count:: 832
Resource Type:: unspecified
Abstract:: Manuscript on paper. The compiler of this unidentified world chronicle cites as sources Sallust, Suetonius, Josephus, Orosius, Macrobius, Eusebius, Origen, Eutropius, Sigebertus, Hugh of Fleury, and many others. The chronicle concludes at the end of the twelfth century; the date of composition is given in the final section as 1183 in the reign of Frederick Barbarossa (1155-90). The text of the manuscript is continuous, with no book and few chapter notations
Description:: Written in the middle of the 15th century, perhaps ca. 1456 when the codex was given to John Capgrave by Jacobus de Oppenheim. Capgrave was elected in August of 1455 to another 2-year term as head of the English Augustinian Province. In 1457 he resumed his literary interests, including work on a universal chronicle from the beginning of the world until the year 1417; this endeavor resulted in the Chronicle of England produced ca. 1462., In Latin., Script: Written by three scribes. Scribe 1) ff. 1r-105v, 60 lines of text written in a small and even, slightly rounded gothic bookhand. Scribe 2) ff. 105v-110v (end of quire XI), 112r-114r, 40 lines of text in a small notarial hand with some shading of descenders. Scribe 3) ff. 111r-v, 114r-405r, 55-58 lines of text in a dark gothic script characterized by fine hair-lines and curved flourishes over the letter i., Decoration changes according to scribe. Scribe 1: Guide-letters for initials never supplied. Rubrics (in upright gothic), paragraph marks and initial strokes in red. Scribe 2: Rubrics (ff. 105v-110v only) in same hand as preceding section; rubrics for ff. 112r-114r as for Scribe 3. Paragraph marks and initial strokes in red. Guide-letters for initials never supplied. Scribe 3: Decorative initials (signalled by guide-letters), in red, with protruberances and hair-lines. Notes to rubricator in inner and outer margins. Rubrics (beginning f. 111r) in same hand as text; paragraph marks, often exaggerated, in red., and Binding: Fifteenth century (Italian?). Sewn on four tawed slit straps laced into wooden boards. Covered in brown goatskin, blind-tooled with concentric frames of alternating fillets and rope interlace, the central panel filled with interlace. Four fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the straps, now wanting, attached with seven star-headed nails. Parchment strips from unidentified manuscripts reinforce center of each gathering. Remains of a paper or vellum label with lettering in ink near head of lower board and trace of a chain base at the tail. Heavily restored.
Subject (Geographic):: Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):: Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, and World history
Found in:: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library > World chronicle