User:Dsmdgold/Manuscript articles under construction

Cotton Troper

here

Caligula, A. XIV.

Codex membran. in 8vo. longiori, ex foliis constans 130.

1. Liber antiquus troporum, seu hymnorum, in celebrioribus festis anni; musicis notis insignitorum: eleganter scriptus, cum picturis. Sec. XII. et XIV. 1.

2. Fragmentum libri Homiliarum Saxonicarum, cujus nunc tantum restat partiuncula vitae S. Martini. Notandum vero quod, foliis hujusce fragmenti errore bibliopegi transpositis, sex folia priora quae ordine praecedebant, nunc librum claudunt. Sec. XI. 93.

Incipit fragmentum in medio sectionis IX. fol. 127.

"<FOREIGN LA="Saxon">& þa baermen sona stete faeste." Folium quo continebantur sectionum XXI et XXII. partiunculae, hodie desideratur. [Aelfric] [ff. 125-130, 93-111b. Capp. 9-55.]

3. Passio S. Thomae Apostoli. (Saxon.) praemittitur excusatio Aelfrici. (Lat.) [Aelfric] 111. b.

4. Natale S&cmacron;ae. Mildrythae virginis. (Saxon.) 121. b.

Codice truncato, desiderantur plura.

Made up of fragments from a late Anglo-Saxon liturgical chant book, the Caligula Troper's illuminations introduce songs which would be inserted into the mass on special feast days and sung by a soloist, hence the book's small scale. The pictures' geometric abstraction of form and use of vibrant colours embellished with gold give an opulence that speaks of manufacture for use by an important figure. It is named for its 17th-century position in a bookcase supporting a bust of Caligula in the Cotton rare books library. Its selection of tropes (songs) and where it was in the Middle Ages suggest origins at Winchester or Worcester.

Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium (British Library, MS Arundel 7)

British Library, MS Arundel 7 is an illuminated copy of Factorum et dictorum memorabilium by Valerius Maximus produced in northern Italy in the last half of the fourteenth century. The text is written in Latin in a Gothic script.

Author Valerius Maximus

Title Factorum et dictorum memorabilium, with glosses

Origin Italy, N. (Lombardy?)

Date 2nd half of the 14th century

Language Latin

Script Gothic, written above top line

Decoration: 1 large historiated initial, in colours and gold (f. 1). 9 large decorated initials, in colours and gold, at the beginning of the remaining books (ff. 10v, 20, 28v, 37, 46, 53v, 60v, 68v, 77), the first one with a three-sided foliate border. Smaller initials in red with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Small initials in plain red or blue.

Dimensions in mm 320 x 210 (215 x 110)

Official foliation ff. 78 (+ 2 modern paper and 1 medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning, and 1 medieval parchment and 2 modern paper flyleaves at the end)

Form Parchment codex

Binding BM/BL in-house.

Provenance Unidentified owner, last quarter of the 14th century: with his arms azure, two cowls proper on a fess or, below three fleurs-de-lys or (f. 1). Willibald Pirckheimer (b. 1470, d. 1530), son of Johann Pirckheimer, Nuremberg patrician, diplomat, and humanist: his armorial bookplate, with a birchtree, the arms of Pirckheimer, and a crowned mermaid with two tails, the arms of his wife, Crescentia Rieter (inside upper cover). ? Thomas Howard (b. 1585, d. 1646), 2nd earl of Arundel, 4th earl of Surrey, and 1st earl of Norfolk, art collector and politician. Henry Howard (b. 1628, d. 1684), 6th duke of Norfolk, presented to the Royal Society in 1667. The Royal Society, London (its ink stamp: 'Soc. Reg. Lond / ex dono HENR. HOWARD / Norfolciensis.', f. 1v; its book-plate, inside upper cover). Purchased by the British Museum from the Royal Society of London together with 549 other Arundel manuscripts in 1831. Notes At the end of the manuscript, epigram and the name of M. P(etrus) de Mulio who died in 1382 (f. 78).

Select bibliography

Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part 1: The Arundel Manuscripts, p. 2.

Alessandro Palma di Cesnola, Catalogo di manoscritti italiani esistenti nel Museo Britannico di Londra (Turin: Roux, 1890), p. 17 no. 247.

Niklas Holzberg, Willibald Pirckheimer: Griechischer Humanismus in Deutschland, Humanistische Bibliothek, ed. by Ernesto Grassi, series I: Abhandlungen, vol. 41 (Munich: Fink, 1981), p. 39.

Dorothy M. Schullian, A revised list of Manuscripts of Valerius Maximus (Padua: Antenore, 1981), 695-728 (p. 708).

Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), 126.

The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by James P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: British Library, 2000), p. 180 no. [H2]997.

King of Portugal's Bible

The King of Portugal's Bible (Lisbon, Arquivos Nacionais, Torre do Tombro, MS 161/2,4) is an eight volume illuminated glossed Bible made in the late fifteenth century in Florence for King Manuel I of Portugal.

• Set of 8 volumes
• Written in Florence
• 1494-97
• Sigismondo de'Sigismondi, Alessandro da Verrazzano and others scribes
• Attavante degli Attavanti, illunimator.
• Bible with Postillae of Nichals of Lyra
• Commisioned for Prince Manuel of Portgal (Manuel I of Portugal)
• Manuel succeded to throne before manuscript completed.
• Contract between his agent Chimenti di Cipriano di Sernigi and illuminator signed 23 April 1494.
• Bible to be seven volumes, plus one volume of Peter Lombard's Sentences
• Contract specified payments for each illumination
• 25 ducats for "principio"
• stipulations for time to complete project
• sysyem of fines if Attavante fails to deliver
• Provision for if scribes fall behind (shows ill and scribes work at same time) (Scribes not named)
• Volume I signed and dated Dec. 11 1495 by Sigismondo
• Volume II signeds and dated August 1495 by Allesandro
• Volumes III, IV, and VII appear to be in hand of Niccolò Mangona (priest)
• Niccolò's sig only appears in a manuscript of Boccacio's Ninfale fiesolano (1482)
• Volume V same hand as as Peter Lombard Sentences, ided in contract as frater Jacobus Carmelitanus
• Almost certainly same as scribe of another Peter Lombard manuscript (Florence, BML, 21,8) (signed by frater Jacobus Johannes Alamannus Crucenacensis)
• Florence BML 21,8 made for King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary
• Volume II (387 folios) (410 x 283 mm) Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth and I-IV Kings
• Volume II 1v Frontispiece "list of contents is written in gold on blue on a plaque eclosed by four columns. In front is an altar with a reclining female figure rendered as if carved on it. A number of male figures stand either side inside the portico. The arms of Manuel of Portugal are upheld by female figures in the centre of the border below and repeated on each side; at the top of the page are the arms of the Order of Christ, a silver and red cross on blue. The border to each side with gold acanthus, putti, simulated cameos and pearls on blue and red encloses six haloed but unidentifiable figures of Saints or Prohpets in roundels. The whole is enclosed by a gold filigree border."
• Volume II Folio 2r miniature of St. Jerome, adoring crucifix and kneeling outside of cave. Historiated initial "T", with seated figure. Page enclosed in border matching 1 verso. Oprning scriot written in gold.
• Other books in Volume II introduced with historiated intials: Judges "P", Judas as soldier; Ruth "I" Ruthe kneeling before Boaz; Prologue to Kings, "V" St, Jerome; 1 Kings "P", standing person, probably Samuel, 2 Kings "F" messenger before David; 3 Kings "E" King David and kneeling woman; 4 Kings "P", Hezekiah in bed with Elijah; Prologue to 1 Chronicles "T', St. Jerome; 1 Chronicles "A", Adam digging with spade; 2 Chronicles "C", Solomon kneeling before altar. Initals accompnied by borders