Textmanuscripts

11 manuscripts

		HENRICUS HOSTIENSIS (DE SEGUSIO), Summa super titulis decretalium [Summa aurea or Summa Hostiensis] In Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment Italy, Bologna?, c. 1300-1325

		These surviving leaves come from what must have been quite a grand and refined manuscript, containing a copy of the very popular and well-respected Summa Hostiensis, the standard text for the study of canon law in the later Middle Ages. The present leaves include many special paleographic and codicological details, the study of which reveals some of the procedures of manuscript-making and using, including guide words, leaf signatures, and contemporary annotations.

		[POPE CLEMENT V] Papal Bull and Briefs confirming Pacts between Venice and Ferrara In Latin, manuscript on parchment Italy, Venice (?), slightly after 1313

		With early marginal annotations, this manuscript joins together the papal bulls and briefs issued by Pope Clement V in 1313, reinstating those economic rights and privileges withdrawn during the papal crusade against Venice from 1308 to 1310. The early provenance explains its unusual makeup--an inscription indicates that it survived the fire in Venice in 1385 of the archives of a member of the “Magistrato del Cattaver,” the office that advised the Doge on financial matters and for which the text would therefore have had special import.

		Frederick III of Hapsburg, Letters Patent for Hans Zscheggenbürlin In German, manuscript on parchment Austria, [Wiener] Neustadt, May 28, 1456

		This is an excellent example of a type of document that originates in the fourteenth century and became more common in later centuries, a letters patent, granting nobility or heraldry (in this case heraldry) to an individual favored by the imperial court. Not all such documents are as skillfully illuminated as the present example. The recipient of this document was an important and colorful personage at a critical moment in the history of Basel.

		Computistical Calendar; Prologue to PTOLEMY, Almagest (Latin translation of Gerard of Cremona) In Latin, manuscript on paper Italy, Tuscany?, c. 1475-1500

		An accomplished humanist scribe copied this small scientific manuscript that includes a calendar with information for calculating Easter and a complete record of the time of sunrise and the length of the day, together with the prologue to the classic work of astronomy, Ptolemy’s Almagest, in the Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona. The contents point to its ownership by a Renaissance scholar with an interest in practical astronomy.

		Terrier [Land-Holdings] of the Town of Karben (Hesse, Germany) In German, manuscript on parchment Germany, Karben, 1483

		This is an excellent example of a “terrier” or land record for the town of Karben, which was an important center near the Rhine in medieval Germany. The important Order of the Teutonic Knights, cited frequently in the manuscript, were based in Kloppenheim (modern-day Karben). In addition to facilitating the study of diplomatics, paleography, and seigniorial administration, the document is rich in local history, full of references to the geography and toponymy of the area and to the citizens living there.

		[Notarial Records of Pietro Gori Michelangelo] In Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy, Siena, 1510-1521]

		This manuscript contains a rich collection of the land-holdings, sales, and dowry records of the Sienese citizen Pietro Gori Michelangelo and his family. Composed by five different notaries, the documents provide extensive details on the history of the family’s holdings and how these holdings fared through sales and transfers during the early sixteenth century. Family history, legal history, women’s history, and notarial practices all merit further study through these entirely unpublished documents.

		AUTPERTUS PRESBITER (?),Vita seu Passio sancte Fortunatae; [ANONYMOUS], Vita seu Legenda beati Gaudiosi; Office for the Feast of Saint Gaudiosus In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper Italy, Campania, most likely Naples, c. 1565-1570

		These two saints lives of Fortunata and Gaudiosus, accompanied by a liturgical office, help situate the manuscript in a restricted Neapolitan milieu, specifically in a convent dedicated to Saint Gaudiosus. A decidedly small group of manuscripts and an exceedingly rare imprint associate the same texts with each other and testify to a popular devotion focused on these two local saints. A critical edition of the text and a comparison of the surviving manuscripts with the sixteenth-century imprint have yet to be undertaken.

		Monastic Ritual or Ceremonial; liturgy for the Clothing and the Profession of Nuns In Latin and Spanish, decorated manuscript on parchment Spain (Castile?), c. 1575-1625

		This is a fine example of a late sixteenth-century or early seventeenth-century liturgical manuscript from Spain from a monastery of Augustinian Nuns dedicated to Our Lady of the Incarnation. The text is a carefully written copy of the Clothing and Profession Rituals for Nuns entering the monastery, both liturgical occasions of considerable beauty and pathos. Liturgical manuscripts of this type are uncommon.

		[Monastic Ritual or Ceremonial] [Ordo ad novicias benedicendas (Ordo professionis religiosae)] [Ordo for the reception and clothing of novices] (Use of the Dominicans) In Latin with Italian rubrics, manuscript on parchment Northern Italy [Padua?], c. 1500-1525, with additions dated 1577

		A rare document preserving the consecration rituals (Benediction rites of vestments and veils) for novices admitted into a Dominican nunnery before their actual profession and consecration after a period of probation. Once part of a larger manuscript (most likely a Monastic Ritual or Ceremonial), this fragment was revised (corrected and amended) in 1577 by both a Dominican Brother and Sister, according to an added colophon. Particularly noteworthy are the extensive rubrics in the vernacular.

		[MARTIN DU BELLAY (1570-1637)], Aveu à Louis XIII pour la châtellenie d’Avrillé [Declaration of feudal holdings made to Louis XIII, king of France for the land of Avrillé] In French, illuminated manuscript on parchment France, Touraine [Château de Gizeux], 25-27 October 1610

		Unpublished and unedited, the present manuscript of local and family history is an example of a “deluxe” copy of a common type of archival document, an “aveu,” a statement made by a vassal (or feudatory) to his lord of feudal holdings. Illuminated copies such as this one are rare, because the transcription normally served a simple and practical purpose, but here the feudatory chose the lavish format no doubt because of the very special nature of his lord, none other than the king of France.

		Vaticinium Severi et Leonis Imperatorum [Oracles of Leo the Wise] In Latin and Spanish (title page only), illustrated manuscript on paper [Spain or Italy, dated 1701]

		Although a copy of a printed book, the present manuscript contains a series of 16 finely executed drawings and testifies besides to the persistent interest in the sibylline prophecies concerning Byzantium, reinterpreted here in the context of the fall of the Ottoman Empire to show that the reign of Muslim domination has effectively passed.