Manuscript on paper of Boccaccio, De mulieribus claris, with dedication to Andrea Acciaiuoli
Description:
In Latin., Watermarks: Briquet Tete de boeuf 14717 and similar to Piccard Ochsenkopf XII.123., Script: Text written in a well spaced gothic bookhand with humanistic features by a single scribe, below top line. Art. 1 and rubrics added in similar script by another hand., Folio 3r, partial border, of poor quality: in lower margin, a patch of green grass with two women seated, one dressed in red, the other in green and white, supporting a shield with unidentified arms (gules, 3 helmets sable [in outline only]), a later addition. From the patch of grass oak branches with leaves and acorns extend into inner and upper margins. In inner margin, a fox chasing a hare. Folio 80r, a medallion framed in red and pink and four small gold flowers, with an unidentified monogram in gold against blue ground. One pen-and-ink initial, 8-line, blue with pale red penwork. Plain initials alternate in red and blue. Headings in red (ff. 1r-7r only). Many initials touched with red. Guide letters for decorator throughout., and Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. Parchment stays from contemporary document adhered to inner and outer conjugate leaves of quires. Original wound sewing on three tawed skin, slit straps fastened in channels in flush wooden boards. A primary endband, caught up on the spine, is sewn on tawed skin cores. Remains of red secondary embroidery. The spine is square and lined with tawed skin between central supports. Covered in kermes pink, tawed skin with corner tongues, the sides divided into triangles with right angled and diagonal fillets. Three fastenings, the catches on the lower board and stubs of green fabric straps on the upper board which is cut in to accomodate them. Eight star-shaped bosses on the upper board (one wanting) and five on the lower, each board with four bosses on their spine edges. Inscription on upper cover: "de mulieribus claris". Written in ink on fore edge: "LXXXVIII" with a helmet on each side. Label on lower board wanting.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (poor quality) of Leonardo Bruni, De primo bello punico, compiled largely from Polybius
Description:
In Latin., Script: Text written by a single scribe in humanistic cursive script, above top line. Marginal notes (mostly proper names and events) added by at least two hands, 15th-16th centuries, with one set added throughout in red by a scribe who also placed Roman numerals for each book in upper margin., One large illuminated initial, 4-line, gold on blue, light green and pink ground with white vine-stem ornament. Initial joined to partial border, white vine-stem ornament on blue, light green and pink ground with white dots and gold balls with penwork extensions in brown ink. Two smaller initials on ff. 23v and 38r, 4-line, gold, outlined in yellow on blue grounds with white highlights. Plain initial, f. 1v, and headings in pale red., and Binding: Nineteenth century, England (?). Quarter bound in red, hard-grained goatskin, gold-tooled, with printed marbled paper sides. Edges spattered yellow and black. Title on spine: "Leonardi Aretini, Commentarii. MS. in membranis".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Rome
Subject (Name):
Bruni, Leonardo, 1369-1444.
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Medieval, History, Military, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Latin literature, Medieval and modern
Manuscript on parchment (palimpsest) of 1) Francesco Barbaro, De re uxoria, with his dedicatory preface to Lorenzo di Giovanni de' Medici. 2) Leonardo Bruni, Oratio Heliogabali ad meretrices. 3) Plato, Crito, the first version of the Latin translation by Leonardo Bruni (1420s). 4) Xenophon, Apologia Socratis, translated into Latin by Leonardo Bruni. 5) The ps.-Virgilian Epistola Virgilii ad Maecenatem written by Pier Candido Decembrio as a young man in 1426; he had difficulty convincing his contemporaries that it was not genuine
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in humanistic bookhand by a single scribe, above top line., Illuminated initial of poor quality, f. 1r, 7-line, gold (almost completely rubbed), with red penwork filigree and small stylized leaves, with some touches of gold. At the top of the page, beneath rubric, arms of the Rustichelli family (per pale, or, a lion rampant sable; or, 4 bars nebuly sable), surrounded by red penwork. Plain initials in red and blue. Headings in red. Some small initials touched with yellow. Off-set impression of eyeglasses on ff. 33v-34r., and Binding: 19th-20th centuries, Germany (?). Case bound with leaves from a parchment manuscript (Breviary, France, 1250-1300). On the front pastedown: rubrics for the major feasts and their octaves occurring in late June (John the Baptist, 24 June) through mid-August (Assumption, 15 August), and the beginning of the lessons to be read within the octave of the feast of John the Baptist; on the back pastedown: end of the lessons for Hilarianus of Arezzo (7 August) and beginning of the second lesson for Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus (8 August).
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Barbaro, Francesco, 1390-1454.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Literature, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of Antonio de Ferrariis (called himself Galateo after his birthplace, d. 1517), De situ Iapygiae. His work is a geographical, historical, epigraphical and literary description of Iapygia, i.e. the Southeastern part of Italy (now Apulia).
Description:
In Latin., Script: Three scribes, all writing Humanistica Cursiva: hand A copied ff. 1r-20v, 24v-26v, 31r-36r line 10, 36v last three lines (Libraria); hand B copied ff. 21r-24r, 27r-30v (Currens); hand C copied f. 36r line 10-36v, except the last three lines (Currens under Gothic influence)., No decoration., Water stains. Some pages badly damaged by the acid ink., and Binding: The damaged covers of the original binding are mounted on the new binding in brown leather. Blind-tooled, featuring two square frames bordered by fillets and rolls.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., Italy, and Puglia (Italy)
Subject (Name):
Ferrari, Antonio de, 1444-1517.
Subject (Topic):
Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Description and travel
Manuscript on parchment of Boethius, De topicis differentiis
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in compact gothic bookhand by a single scribe, below top line., One historiated initial, f. 1v, blue with white filigree and highlights against a square reddish brown ground with white filigree, showing Boethius as a monk in a blue robe seated on a chair and holding a scroll inscribed with his name, and a disciple, dressed in a red robe and holding a book inscribed with the opening words of the text proper, both figures against a grey ground with white filigree. Three illuminated initials, ff. 7v, 16v, 23r, 6- to 4-line (without ascenders or descenders), blue with white filigree against reddish brown ground with white filigree or reddish brown against blue ground with white filigree. The initials are filled with scrolling vines blue or reddish brown with white highlights, with stylized leaves, ending in dragons' heads against reddish brown or blue grounds. Descender, f. 16v, in form of a dragon, reddish brown against blue ground. Flourished initials, 2-line, and paragraph marks alternate red and blue., and Binding: Date? Limp vellum case with title, in ink, on spine: "Topica boetij".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Boethius, -524.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript fragments, recovered from a binding, of this text from Saint Jerome's Epistolae
Description:
In Latin and Greek., Front flyleaf contains provenance annotation in pencil in the hand of Sir Thomas Phillipps., Layout: double columns, originally of 30 lines (now 28)., Script: Caroline minuscule (Turonian script)., Binding: Middle Hill boards., and Bound with: 5 leaves of a 13th-century manuscript of Averroes' commentary on Aristotle's Ethics.
Subject (Geographic):
France, Tours., Connecticut, and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Jerome, Saint, -419 or 420.
Subject (Topic):
Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript, on paper, of Walter (Gualterus) de Wervia, Expositio in Isagogen Porphyrii cum quaestionibus Iohannis Duns Scoti. Authorities quoted include Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, John Duns Scotus, the Moderni, and Giles of Rome
Description:
Walter (Gualterus) de Wervia was born at Rijswijk in the Netherlands and died after 1472., In Latin., Script: Small Gothica Semihybrida Currens, in a single hand, with many abbreviations., Layout: Double columns of approximately 47 lines., Decoration: Undecorated. Drawing of a bearded bishop's (?) head, with the caption "Albertus" (i.e. Albertus Magnus), in the margin of f. 27v., Binding: Brown pigskin over pasteboard, the covers framed with a gold-tooled fillet. Rebacked. Spine with five raised bands and 19th-century red leather label with gold-tooled inscription in Gothic letters "Gualt. Burley 1481"., The acid ink has on many pages faded and damaged the paper and made reading difficult., and Number 2 of 2 items bound together. Item extent: 1 item (ii + 119 + 48 + ii leaves).
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Porphyry, approximately 234-approximately 305. and Premonstratensians.
Subject (Topic):
Criticism and interpretation, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Scholasticism
Manuscript on parchment of Matthew of Westminster, Flores historiarum. Written presumably at the Cluniac priory of St. Saviour, Bermondsey, Surrey
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in bold gothic textura; x is crossed., Rubrics, often accompanied by notes to rubricator in well formed current Anglicana script. Decorative initials not filled in. Numerous pen trials and crude drawings in margins (e.g., ff. 28r, 46v, 47r, 63r)., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Blind-tooled brown calf with a gold-tooled title. Parchment flyleaves (formerly pastedowns) from a Missal (England, 15th century) much rubbed and worn, and with offset impression from original binding of corner tongues and four attachments. Gothic textura. Fine blue initials with intricate herringbone penwork designs in red. Headings in red; paragraph marks in blue.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Paris, Matthew, 1200-1259.
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, Missals, and History
Manuscript on parchment (many holes and repairs) of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by several hands of different appearances, perhaps by scribes of varying ages or at different dates. The scripts range from rounded to angular minuscule., Plain orange initial, 7- to 2-line; heading and chapter notations (in margins) in same shade. Guide-letters and notes for rubricator., and Binding: 16th-17th centuries (?). Sewn on three supports laced into wooden boards. The spine is slightly rounded and lined, the lining extending onto the inside of the boards. Covered with white pigskin, blind-tooled. Two fastenings, the catches on the upper board. On the fore-edge of the lower cover is a notation contemporary with binding: "Gesta anglorum bede." Appears to have been bound at the Benedictine abbey of St. Martin of Spanheim in the diocese of Mainz.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Bede, the Venerable, Saint, 673-735.
Subject (Topic):
Church history, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
