Textmanuscripts

37 manuscripts

		Portable Breviary (Franciscan use) In Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment Northern Italy (Genoa), c. 1320-1360 (after 1317)

		This Breviary follows the liturgy of the Papal Court, which was first adopted by the Franciscans in 1247. The Franciscans popularized small portable breviaries such as this one that enabled a wandering Friar to say the Office during his travels. The worn outer corners of the manuscripts and soiled margins speak eloquently of a long period of devout use. The manuscript is a fine example of this genre, with beautifully executed pen initials and skillful illumination. Both localizable and datable, it is a valuable witness to northern Italian fourteenth-century manuscript production.

		Calendar for Calculating Easter In Latin, manuscript on paper [France (Auxerre?), c. 1400]

		A very rare astronomical manuscript containing the tables and computational data for the calculation of Easter for the period between 1400 and 1440 based on solar and lunar cycles prior to the sixteenth-century reform of calendar calculation under Pope Gregory XII. The importance of this manuscript also lies in the fact that it contains one of the earliest known French examples of the mnemonic device known as Cisioianus.

		Miniature Prayer Book In Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment Germany, c. 1400-1450

		This tiny portable prayer book is an eloquent witness to late medieval spirituality. It includes numerous prayers promising indulgences, as well as prayers offering protection from evils, both spiritual and temporal, and two forms of devotion to the Rosary. Although speaking to an unsophisticated theology, the text and its charming illustrations are evidence of a strong devotion and feeling for the Divine presence each hour of the day. The presence of a prayer before preaching suggests that the original owner was a priest.

		Saint Benedict, Regula sancti Benedicti and Saint Augustine, Regula sancti Augustini episcopi In Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment Italy, Venice(?), late 14th century with 15th century additions

		This charming, attractively written pocket-sized manuscript contains an extremely rare pairing of texts: the two greatest foundation documents of early Western monasticism. Monks were not allowed to own personal property such as books, and this suggests that the present manuscript was perhaps written for a wealthy layperson. Yet, there is clear evidence that a Benedictine monk or abbot owned the volume in the fifteenth century.

		ALBERTUS DE SAXONIA [ALBERT VON SACHSEN], Quaestiones super Libros Posteriorum Aristotelis [Commentary on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics] In Latin, manuscript on parchment and paper Italy, likely Tuscany [Siena?], c. 1400-1425

		Unedited commentary on one of Aristotle’s works on logic, originally written in the milieu of the University of Paris by a near-contemporary of John Buridan, here penned by an unrecorded scribe, Peter of Poland, and including the contemporary ex-libris of a Cistercian monk near Siena. There is no modern critical edition, nor is there an accurate recension of the extant manuscripts. None of the recorded copies is found in North American collections. Further study of the present manuscript in the manuscript tradition would shed new light on the reception of Aristotelian logic in monastic circles outside France.

		Breviary (Use of Utrecht) In Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment The Netherlands (Utrecht?), c. 1410-20

		An illuminated Breviary made for a private individual and for the use of Utrecht, this manuscript later belonged to the famed library of the Dukes of Arenberg. Its fine marginal illustration relates it to the earliest group of Utrecht illuminated codices, those illuminated in the style of the Masters of Margaret of Cleves.

		JEROME (Saint), [Vitae Patrum] Vita Pauli primi eremitae; Vita Malchi monachi captivi; Vita Hilarioni In Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy, c. 1425]

		Attractively written manuscript in pocket format and with clean wide margins of Saint Jerome’s lives of Paul, Malchus, and Hilarion, writings of considerable narrative charm which exercised an enormous impact on later hagiographic literature and which continued to be widely read throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance.

		PETRUS BRUNICHELLUS or DE RUPE MAURA, O.E.S.A., [Scriptural Excerpts from theLiber super historijs novi et veteris Testamenti iuxta ordinem alphabeti ordinatus] In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper Northern Italy (Veneto? Friuli?), c. 1425-1450

		This manuscript is composed of excerpts from a large fourteenth-century biblical commentary by a relatively little known author, who was an Augustinian friar. Organized alphabetically around themes from “abstinence” to “zeal,” the work most likely served as a tool for preachers and could even accompany the larger biblical commentary. Manuscripts of this still-unedited text are relatively rare (none in American collections) and other copies of the excerpted work are untraced.

		BERNARDINUS SENENSUS, Quadragesimale de Christiana Religione In Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy, Tuscany? c. 1430-1450]

		Early manuscript of the Latin sermons of Bernardino da Siena, evidently in a working copy (end lacking), of capital importance for the evolution of the sermon. Known as “the Apostle of Italy,” Bernardino was a renowned preacher and reformer, many of whose theological and political ideas are preserved in the Quadragesimale de Christiana Religione, which was one of his most important works. Most of the 45 extant copies are in Italian libraries (De Ricci cites only two copies in North America).

		PSEUDO-AUGUSTINUS [likely FRA AGOSTINO DA SCARPERIA], Soliloquia and [ECKBERTUS SCHONAUGIENSIS], Soliloquium seu Meditationes In Italian, manuscript on parchment and paper [Italy, perhaps Verona, c. 1440-50]

		Rare early manuscript of a translation in Italian of the Pseudo-Augustine Solilioquia accompanied by another Pseudo-Augustinian text on the Meditations, the latter now firmly attributed to Eckbertus Schonaugiensis and often found copied together with the Soliloquia, the two texts constituting a pair very early on. Likely transcribed in Verona at least a quarter century before the printed edition in a neat humanist hand.

		Domenico Cavalca, Excerpts from Vite dei santi padri In Italian, manuscript on paper Italy (Tuscany?), c. 1440-1460

		This is an unpretentious but well-organized copy of a very popular collection of the Lives of the early desert fathers in Italian. The particular sections of the text included here deserve further study, since they were likely a unique selection chosen by the original owner (and possibly writer) of the manuscript. Although the text itself survives in numerous manuscripts, most are in Italian libraries, and it has rarely been available for sale in recent decades.

		[Miscellany], including BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, Prayer; HENRICUS SUSO, Centum meditationes; THOMAS À KEMPIS, De disciplina claustralium; De vera compunctione cordis In Latin, manuscript on paper [The Netherlands, c. 1450 ?]

		Unrecorded paper manuscript, a fragment, of two works by Thomas à Kempis from the milieu of the Devotio Moderna and including writings by other authors favored by the reform movement such as the Cistercian Bernard of Clairvaux and the Dominican mystic Henricus Suso and dating close to the autograph manuscripts of the Imitation of Christ.

		Vernacular Breviary (part), and Prayerbook (part) In Low German, decorated manuscript on paper Belgium/ Germany (diocese of Liège, Lower Rhine), c. 1451-1500, and c. 1500

		Of distinct interest for the increasing use of vernacular in the late-medieval Church, this manuscript comprises two sections. The first is a fifteenth-century vernacular Breviary from a House of Franciscan Nuns. It is very uncommon to find a Breviary from the fifteenth-century written in the vernacular rather than Latin. The second part of the manuscript, which is slightly later, includes a series of vernacular prayers; the opening prayers to be said while visiting Churches in the area are of particular interest.

		Ferial Psalter and Breviary (use of the Franciscans?) In Latin, manuscript on paper [Austria/Northern Italy (Trieste?), c. 1450, with additions dated 1493]

		In its original wood boards, dated by the second scribe who added texts in 1493, and with a provenance that is relatively rare near Trieste, the present manuscript for use within a mendicant context also contains rare rubrics by Pope Boniface IX for the readings used at matins during the last months of the liturgical year.

		Portable Breviary (Augustinian Use) In Latin, manuscript on parchment Northern France, Paris?, c. 1460-80

		Only fragments of this Augustinian Breviary are preserved here. Included are parts of the Psalter, Hymns, parts of the Common of Saints, and the Office of the Dead and Hours of the Virgin. Originally it probably also included a calendar, and Offices for the Year, arranged according to the Temporale and Sanctorale. The two remaining illuminated initials indicate that this was likely once an illuminated manuscript of considerable elegance.

		Breviary (use of Autun) In Latin, manuscript on parchment Central France (Autun), c. 1460-80?

		This utilitarian manuscript was made for the use of Autun, one of the most important pilgrimage sites and thriving trading centers in the later Middle Ages. In addition to its textual importance for the history of liturgical usage in Autun, this manuscript is perfect for teaching and studying codicology. A portion of the original binding has been preserved and the parchment is especially evocative of its animal origins, with uneven edges, holes, evidence of veins, and discoloration in the skin. Prickings guide the ruling, and notes for the rubricators and guide-initials for the pen decoration are also preserved.

		Prayerbook (Use of Utrecht or Windesheim?) In Dutch with some Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment Eastern Netherlands, Arnhem?, c. 1460-1480

		Vernacular prayerbook that follows, in part, the Dutch translation of Geert Grote and that was most likely produced in the milieu of the Devotio Moderna, the heartland of which was in the Eastern Netherlands. The metallic borders and other features (hairy petals and tripetals) of the decoration relate the manuscript to works of an Arnhem provenance (Arnhem was the adopted home of Geert Grote).

		Dominican Breviary (Winter Portion) In Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment The Netherlands (Haarlem?), 1465-1475 (after 1462)

		This is an exceptionally small Breviary, with a clear, well-articulated text, complete with rubrics and liturgical directions for a Dominican House in North Holland. Small format prayer books and breviaries are not unknown in Middle Ages, but one cannot help admiring the skill that was used to make this small volume, doubtless the daily companion of a Dominican brother. Exuberant and skillful penwork borders, such as those found in this manuscript, are a hallmark of fifteenth-century Dutch manuscripts.

		Noted Breviary (Augustinian Use) In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper Northern Italy (Alessandria), 1469

		This attractive, small-format, paper Breviary was copied in 1469 for the use of Iustinianus or Iustinus de Bezozero, an Augustinian friar from the convent of St. Martin’s in Alessandria in northern Italy. Brother Iustinianus was probably also the manuscript’s main scribe. The unpublished readings for the Office of Nicholas of Tolentino (canonized in 1446) deserve further study, especially since they are here attributed to a certain “famous poet” Mafeo de Vechio.

		PLUTARCH, Pompei viri illustris vita [Life of Pompey] , Latin translation by Antonius Tudertinus Pacinus [or Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia] In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper Northern Italy, Lombardy, perhaps Ferrara or Mantova?, c. 1470-80

		Containing Plutarch’s life of Pompey the Great, the Roman republican hero often hailed as an antagonist of tyranny, this is one of about 50 recorded Renaissance manuscripts of the Latin translation from the Greek original completed by either Antonius Tudertinus Pacinus or Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia. The present manuscript provides testimony that the lives continued to circulate independently in manuscript form, even after their assembly into one common collection.

		JOHANNES CASSIANUS, De institutis coenobiorum et de octo principalium vitiorum remedies [The Institutes of the Cenobia and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Vices] In Latin, manuscript on paper Northern Italy, perhaps Piedmont, c. 1470-1480

		Copy realized for monastic use of a text absolutely central to the practical and spiritual tenets of monastic culture and one that sheds light on the Eastern origins of Western monasticism. Cassian’s Institutes provided the major source for the Rule of Saint Benedict; this and other extant manuscripts testify to the ongoing monastic practice of copying texts that relate directly to confinement and its requirements well into the fifteenth century. Although extant in a large number of manuscripts, published many times in the incunable era, and edited based on the early manuscript tradition, the text was surprisingly known by DeRicci in only one copy in North America.

		MICHAEL PACIS, Epistola responsiva [Letter on the Turkish Threat to Christendom] In Latin, manuscript on paper Northern Italy (Veneto?), letter dated Padua 1 May 1472

		Unpublished and unrecorded bellicose letter against the threat posed by the Ottoman Empire to the Italian peninsula, composed by a monk from Trieste and addressed to a jurist-rector at Padua. Belonging to a genre of letters for and against war with the Turks, this letter deserves further study within its greater historical and cultural context not only on the renewed Crusade but also for European attitudes toward the Turks (Muslims) in the centuries following Marco Polo.

		[Augustinian Canons Regular]. Constitutio in ordine canonicorum regularium ordinis sancti Augustini [Pontifical Constitution for Augustinian Canons Regular promulgated by Benedict XII in 1339] In Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment Northern France, likely Noyon, second half of 15th c., perhaps c. 1475

		This manuscript survives as a copy of a surprisingly rare text (four recorded manuscripts), elegantly written by a named French notary public. Its text regulated the daily lives and yearly routine of one of the most important medieval religious orders, detailing the profession of new canons, their singing of the Divine Office in choir, clothing, education within the community, studies at the universities, expenses and other details in the clerical life, and the general discipline in the cloister.

		Processional (Use of the Cistercians) In Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment with later paper additions Germany, Lower Rhineland (?), c. 1475-1500 [after 1476]

		Typical Cistercian Processional from the area of the Lower Rhine, small in size, attractively illuminated with opening gold initials, and with neatly transcribed hofnagel notation, the latter regional and not Cistercian in origin. Internally conflicting evidence--text addressed to monks and an ownership inscription by a nun--suggests a possible provenance within a double or a multiple monastery. Further research on the choice of antiphons and comparison with other Germanic and Netherlandish Cistercian Processionals could yield a more precise localization to a specific abbey. Some vernacular notes in German and Dutch add to its interest.

		Commentary on PETER LOMBARD’S First Book of the Sentences, related to PAULUS VENETUS, Super primum sententiarum Johannis de Ripa Lecturae Abbreviatio In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper and parchment Northern Italy, 1479 (?)

		This is an important manuscript, one that opens up complex textual issues warranting further study. The manuscript presents an abbreviated version of the lengthy commentary on the Sentences of Peter the Lombard by the fourteenth-century Franciscan theologian, Johannes de Ripa. In fact, our text corresponds most closely with the version of Ripa by Paul of Venice, written shortly before 1402 at Padua and known in a single manuscript, which was the basis of the modern edition.

		Office Lectionary In Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment Southern Netherlands, Ghent or Bruges? c. 1500

		Deluxe professionally-made copy of a relatively uncommon monastic text, an Office Lectionary, of ample format with wide margins, expertly written in a beautiful calligraphic hand with much pen flourishing, and skillfully decorated with fine Ghent-Bruges initials in colors and liquid gold, most likely for an unknown patron in a monastery in the southern Netherlands of Augustinian obedience.

		Carthusian Rules and Sermons for Visitation In Latin and Italian, decorated manuscript on parchment Northern Italy (Venice?), ca. 1500-1525, with later additions c. 1534

		This intact manuscript its original binding includes the Carthusian Rules for the Visitation of Monasteries, together with sermons for Visitations. The formality of this copy of the Statutes reflects how fundamental the system of Visitations was to the success of the Carthusian Order. Historians of the Order will be particularly interested in the apparently unedited and uncommon Visitation sermons as well as by the record of a Visitation of the Charterhouse of St. John the Evangelist at Calci near Pisa in 1534. Such manuscripts survive as customized records of a particular moment in a foundation’s history.

		Prayer Book In Middle Dutch and Latin, illuminated manuscript on paper Belgium, Brabant, c. 1500-1550

		This Netherlandish Prayer Book presents several unusual features: it includes an uncommon cycle of prayers to Christ, distributed over an entire year, with many unusual and unedited texts; and it incorporates an image pasted to its inside cover that depicts the measured side wound of Christ surrounded by the hand and foot wounds. There are fewer than ten manuscripts from the Low Countries that contain such an image. An Augustinian nun or canoness in the Flemish province of Brabant probably owned and used the manuscript.

		Franciscan Papal Documents In Latin, manuscript on parchment Italy, Rome, dated 1504

		This collection of papal documents relating to the Franciscans, from 1283 to 1504, is an attractive manuscript, signed, and preserved in its original binding. The details of its origin and medieval provenance are well documented, and it boasts a distinguished modern provenance, owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps. The protracted struggle between the Observant and Conventual Franciscans resulted in frequent rulings by the Popes; the contemporary notes in the manuscript make this manuscript an interesting window into one aspect of Franciscan history.

		Ludovico Brunori, Life of Jerome of Ancona (Beati Jeronimi de Ancona laudum opusculum) In Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment Italy (Ancona), dated 25 May 1506

		This is the unique copy of the life of the hermit, Jerome of Ancona, by a Dominican monk, Ludovico Brunori. The manuscript also includes a list of notable citizens of Ancona at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The text was edited in 1963 by Dom Jean Leclercq and is an important witness to the hermitical movement in Renaissance Italy, as well as being a valuable source for the history of Ancona.

		Devotional Miscellany on the Passio Christi, including HENRICUS SUSO, Centum meditationes; JEAN GERSON, Officium sacrum in festivitate conjugio sancti Joseph et virginis Marie, etc. In Latin and French, manuscript on paper [France, Champagne-Ardenne, likely Reims or Châlons-sur-Marne, c. 1500-1510, before 1515]

		In an original early sixteenth-century binding in excellent condition, signed and dated by an unrecorded scribe, this manuscript includes, in addition to the popular meditations by Suso, a rare mass for Saint Jouvin, especially venerated in Reims and Châlons-sur-Marne, and a mass by Gerson on the Espousal of Joseph and Mary, attesting to the growing importance of the cult of Joseph and also pointing to a localizable provenance in the Champagne.

		RICHERIUS SENONIENSIS [RICHER DE SENONES], Gesta Senoniensis Ecclesiae [Chronicle of the Abbey of Senones (Vosges)]; JEAN HERQUEL or HERCULANUS, Anthonii illustrissimi Lotharingie ducis vita [History of Antoine le Bon, Duke of Lorraine] In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper France, Lorraine [Vosges, Abbey of Moyenmoutier], dated 1539-1545 and 1599

		Sixteenth-century copy of two rare Chronicles of local importance to the Benedictine Abbeys of Senones and Moyenmoutier in the Vosges, copied by a recorded scribe, and owned by a sequence of prominent canons of Saint-Dié. These abbeys were renowned for their important intellectual and scholarly activities, where the practice of copying and commentating local chronicles was maintained throughout the sixteenth and into the seventeenth centuries as a means of affirming and defending their identity.

		ABRAHAM IBN EZRA, et al, attributed to, [Miscellany on Geomancy] In Hebrew, illustrated manuscript on paper Italy (northern?), c. 1550-75

		This is a small, neatly written manuscript on divination, or geomancy, including three texts often attributed to the great poet, philosopher, and astronomer, Abraham Ibn Ezra. Although treatises on divination in Hebrew are not rare (300 to 350 manuscripts are extant), none of the works in the present manuscript are published, and they appear to relate to the early manuscript tradition that predates the occasional printed editions and are also preserved in three manuscripts all in institutions.

		Rules and Homilies accompanying the ceremony for the entrance of postulants at a Dominican Convent In German, manuscript on paper Southwestern Germany, likely Baden-Württenberg, 1583-1587

		Written down and signed by a female scribe, the nun Anna, and intact in an early, likely contemporary binding, this manuscript contains a remarkable series of homilies delivered by the Prioress of a German Dominican Convent between 1583 and 1587, when the Convent accepted new postulants. Almost certainly unpublished, these texts offer a fascinating glimpse into the life of the convent. They reveal the Prioress as a very well educated woman, well equipped to lead the convent spiritually.

		SCHENCKENBERG, MATTAEUS [compiler]. Hübscher Lustiger newer Deutscher und Lateinischer Stücklein... In Latin and German, manuscript on paper with music Germany, Saxony [Dresden?], 1599

		Interesting compilation of Protestant and secular hymns and motets by some of the most renowned German and Flemish composers of the late sixteenth century, including Jakob Regnart, Philippe de Monte, Antonio Scandellus (Kapellmeister in Dresden from 1568 until his death in 1580), and Orlando de Lassus. Many are unpublished, most are rare in manuscript form.

		MARTINUS BOSCHMAN, Paradisus precum … In Latin, illustrated manuscript on paper, with 221 engravings Poland, Pelplin, 1610

		Illustrated by 220 engravings, this ex-Rothschild manuscript forms a remarkable collection of engravings by artists specializing in engravings of religious subjects in the early seventeenth century. The majority of the engravings (115) are by the Wierix brothers, who were among the most productive engravers in Antwerp c. 1600, and about 10% of the prints are unrecorded. The engravings are an integral part of the text, which is a carefully thought-out collection of prayers and spiritual exercises, designed to enrich the interior spiritual life of a devout monk.

		[ANONYMOUS]. [JESUITS]. Exercitium passionis domini nostri Iesu Christi pro tempore quadragesimae et maxime hebdomadae sanctae [Spiritual Exercise on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ during Lent and the Holy Week] In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper and parchment Italy, Tuscany, Lucca (?), c. 1619-1630, most likely around 1622

		With fine calligraphy and expert decoration, this manuscript was apparently made for Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and his second spouse Eleonora Gonzaga of Mantua, perhaps commissioned for them by the Cardinal Francesco Boncompagni, a famous collector and patron of arts (whose binding is preserved). Both Emperor and Cardinal had strong Jesuit ties, and the manuscript - in line with the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola - in unpublished.