Manuscript on paper (thick) of Giovanni Battista Cortona, Libro di Abbaco, probably an autograph manuscript
Description:
In Italian., Watermark: anchor, var. Piccard, Ankerwasserzeichen?, V.102?., Script: Written by one hand in calligraphic Gothica Cursiva Libraria (Cancelleresca). The poem on f. A1r (art. 1) is in calligraphic Humanistica Cursiva Formata. A few titles in Capitalis., The decorative frames on ff. A1r and B1r are traced in brown ink. The upper half of the former contains a baroque cartouche in brown and red, containing a monogram apparently consisting of the letters A, K and M. Art. 2 opens with a flourished initial, art. 7 with a calligraphic initial, both in red., and No binding.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Cortona, Giovanni Battista.
Subject (Topic):
Abacus, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Mathematics, Medieval
Manuscript on goat parchment of Giordano Ruffo di Calabria's De medicina equorum (Mascalcia) in Sicilian dialect
Description:
Script: copied by one hand in Southern Gothica Textualis Libraria/Formata (Rotunda)., On folio 1r there is a 17-line historiated initial, showing the author presenting his work to Emperor Frederick II on horseback. The initial has been erased and the scene is hardly recognizable., Binding: 16th century light brown leather over wooden boards, both covers blind-tooled with a double frame of multiple fillets, the inner frame divided by two diagonals. Small engraved bronze bosses at the four corners of the inner frames. Remnants of two clasps attached to the front board, with decorated brass catches on the rear board. Rebacked., and In Sicilian.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Ruffo, Giordano.
Subject (Topic):
Horses, Italian literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Agogo Mago, Libro medesynal delli spariueri
Description:
In Italian., Script: Written by a single scribe in a neat humanistic bookhand., One gold initial (f. 1r), 7-line, filled and surrounded by white-vine ornament, on a dark blue, dark red, and dark green ground, with pale yellow dots; extends into inner and upper margins. In lower margin an unidentified coat of arms (or, on a chief azur a parrot vert beaked gules) in a laurel wreath; accompanied by gold balls, hair-sprays, and simple floral patterns. Four initials, 6- to 4-line, in blue with red penwork designs or red with purple; plain capitals alternating red and blue throughout., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Brown goatskin, gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Mago, Agogo.
Subject (Topic):
Game and game-birds, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Medicine, and Medicine, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of Anonymous biography of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, 1430-1503).
Description:
In Italian., Script: Copied by one hand in rapid Humanistica Cursiva., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Half parchment over pasteboard, covered with brown and blue marbled paper. On the spine brownish red leather label with the gold-tooled title "VITA D'ALESSAND. VI. / MS." and small paper label with the number of the Phillipps collection.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Alexander VI, Pope, 1431-1503.
Subject (Topic):
Biography, Italian literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper (thick) of Giordano Ruffo, Marescalcia equorum, translated into Italian
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: unidentified basilisk in gutter., Script: Written in fere-humanistic script., Crudely executed border design, in red, on f. 1r. Plain initials, 3- to 2-line, in red; some embellished with simple foliate ornamentation or with human and animal grotesques (e.g., ff. 24v, 44v). Headings in red., Upper portion of f. 55 (chs. 146, 149) cut out; ff. 63v-64r (chs. 189-95) crossed out. Some staining and wear affecting text., and Binding: 19th-20th centuries. Tan, "pasta espanola" paper case.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Ruffo, Giordano.
Subject (Topic):
Horses, Italian literature, Literature, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of Giordano Ruffo, Marescalcia equorum, in an anonymous Italian translation. With medicinal recipes and prayers
Description:
In Italian., Watermark: unidentified bull's head in gutter., Script: Written in a poorly formed Italian notarial script; notes in contemporary cursive hands., Plain initial, 5-line, in red and black, at beginning of art. 1; initial strokes and rubrics for ff. 1r-9v only., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Limp vellum case. Stamped on upper cover: "Medecine des chevaux/ manuscrit du XV siecle".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Ruffo, Giordano, fl. 1250-1260.
Subject (Topic):
Horses, Italian literature, Literature, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Medicine, Medieval
Manuscript on paper. Includes notes on arithmetic and accounting for merchandise; a romance of Tristan; list of spices; astronomical and astrological information; charms and prayers; recipes; extracts in Venetian; and poems
Description:
In Italian and Latin., Watermarks: similar to Briquet Fruit 7372-76, Briquet Cheval 3564, and Briquet Fruit 7341., Script: Written by a single scribe in a neat notarial hand, through f. 67v. Notes added by various hands of 14th-15th centuries., Drawings of ships, towers and merchants in ink, with added yellow, brown, green, red and blue; many diagrams. Crude 2- and 1-line initials in red, with guide-letters for rubricator showing beneath; headings in red., Repair of f. 1 with later paper; some loss of text. Repairs at outer edges on this and other folios do not affect text., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Rigid vellum case with paste paper back endleaf and pastedowns. Central fold of each bifolium has been reinforced with a strip of parchment.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Venice (Italy)
Subject (Topic):
Accounting, Arithmetic, Astrology, Astronomy, Medieval, Formulas, recipes, etc, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Merchants, Prayers, Tristan (Legendary character), and Economic conditions
Manuscript on paper of a Miscellany of vernacular humanistic prose texts, including works by Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch, Francesco Filelfo, and Leonardo Bruni
Description:
In Italian., Watermarks: Briquet Fleur 6655, Echelle 5908, 5910, and similar to Briquet Chapeau 3370., Script: Written in neat humanistic cursive by a single scribe, below top line., Three-quarter border, f. 5r, white vine-stem ornament on blue, red and green ground with grey and yellow dots. In lower border, vine-stem turning into a floral border and brown penwork scrolls with pink, blue and green flowers and gold dots. Illuminated initial, 6-line, gold on blue, green and red ground with white vine-stem ornament joined to inner border. Headings in red. Plain 3-line initials in blue mark text divisions. Guide letters in margins., and Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Vellum stays adhered inside the quires. Original sewing on four tawed skin, slit straps laid in channels on the outside of wooden boards and nailed. Edges yellow ochre. A green and natural color, beaded endband is sewn on five cores. The primary one laid in grooves on the outside of the boards. The spine is lined with tawed skin or vellum extending onto the edge of the boards between supports. Covered in tan leather blind-tooled with a potented cross in a central square with rope interlace panels above and below, and a border also filled with rope interlace. Spine: supports defined with double fillets and the panels diapered. Traces of five bosses on each board. Two ivy leaf fastenings, the catches on the lower board, the upper one cut in for green fabric straps attached with star-headed nails. Binding is heavily overoiled.
Subject (Geographic):
Italy., Connecticut, and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Humanism, Italian literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of an unidentified mystical treatise
Description:
In Italian., Script: Copied by one hand in Humanistica Cursiva Libraria under Gothic influence. The scribe often writes the last letters of the final word at the bottom line in vertical sense. Starting f. 40r the descenders at the bottom line frequently have enormous fanciful extensions (loop-shaped, in the shape of a bird [ff. 54v, 65r], etc.)., Alternately red and blue paragraph marks. Headings in red. Gothic plain initials in red or blue, normally 3 lines, sometimes 2 or 4 lines. The first page, now missing except for part of a stub, had a border decoration in ink., Numerous pages have been torn out after f. 84. The top inner section of f. 1 is missing. All pages water-stained, seriously affecting the lisibility of the text., and Binding: Original binding in bad condition, made at the time the manuscript had more than twice the thickness it has now: undecorated brown pigskin over wooden boards. Bound on three double cords. The binding was strengthened by means of strips of textile, now loose. These and the leather turn-ins show the offset of a page of a 12th-century Latin manuscript from Italy. Remnants of two clasps attached to the front cover, with two trapezoid brass catches on the rear cover. With the manuscript is kept a heart-shaped parchment bookmark of undetermined age, the sides respectively inscribed with “I” and “II”
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Italian literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Mysticism
