Private Collection of Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts
Pages
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Tractate Menachot, 33-34
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Part of a very large 3-column manuscript of the Talmud, in Hebrew, Tractate Menachot, 33-34, Ashkenazi, presumably Germany, approximately thirteenth century, red stains., Measurements: 43.5 cm x 27 cm, Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439513/datastream/PDF/view
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Tractatus in Evangelarium Johannis [fragment]
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Two folios from Augustine's Tractatus in Evangelarium Johannis. Folio 1 contains Tractatus 19-18 (Corpus Christianorum edition line 22), "Qui bene" to 20:2 (line 15) "omnis," and folio 2 contains 21:3 (line 24) "nostrum" to 21:4 (line 35) "faceret" (Identified by Charles E. Murgia, University of California, Berkeley, 1980). Stored in binding from the Schoyen Collection, MS 62. Folio 1: 33.3 x 23 cm. Folio 2: 33.3 x 17.7 cm, ST AUGUSTINE, Tractatus in Iohannem, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Dalmatia, late 11th century]
A testament to the eastwards spread of Beneventan minuscule: a fine monastic production from a Dalmatian scriptorium of an important patristic text.
A bifolium, 335 x 231mm and 333 x 176mm, blind-ruled for 2 columns of 33 lines written in brown ink in a fine Bari-type Beneventan minuscule, ruled space 245 x 160mm (outer margin of the second leaf cropped close to the text, creased and stained from use in a binding, some fading to a few lines, a few wormholes, otherwise in excellent condition). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.
Provenance:
(1) On palaeographical grounds the present fragment comes from a manuscript that was produced in one of the monastic foundations on the Dalmatian coastline (modern Croatia) in the late 11th century.
(2) Bernard Rosenthal, his 'I/204'.
(3) Quaritch, Bookhands IV, cat.1128 (1990), no 6.
(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 62.
Sister-leaves:
Five sister-leaves from the parent codex survive, three of which are in Dubrovnik, thus providing additional confirmation of the Dalmatian origin of the manuscript. These are: Dubrovnik, Dominikanski samostan Sv. Dominika, fragments e (Tract. 11:4-5, 1 leaf) and f (Tract. 42:2-5, 43:12-16, 2 leaves, now apparently missing); Parma, Archivio di Stat, Frammenti di codici 3 (Tract. 50:11-12, 2 leaves).
Text:
The text of the fragment is St Augustine’s Tractatus in Iohannem 19:18 – 20:2 and 21:3-4. St Augustine wrote 124 Tractates on the Gospel of John, a text steeped in Trinitarian and Christological theology. He defends the orthodox position established at the councils of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381), and reveals much about the various ‘heresies’ to which his audience was exposed: Manichaeism, with its dualistic logic; Donatism, a schismatic, puritanical movement; and Pelagianism, with its doctrines of original sin, grace and free will. The Tractatus in Iohannem was the most popular of Augustine’s works in the areas of southern Italy and Dalmatia where Beneventan script was practised: the entire text or remains of approximately 15 separate copies in Beneventan survive.
Script:
This example of Beneventan script (recognizable by the typical formation of the ‘a’s [oc] and ‘t’s [oc], the various ligatures and non-standardized abbreviations etc.) has all the features of the ‘Bari type’: that is to say, among other things, a softer, rounder appearance occasioned by the absence of lozenges constituting the beginning and end of minims, a short final ‘r’, medial ‘r’ with straight shoulder, the rather large form of the ‘e’ with two almost equal curves, and the ligature fi with the stem almost resting on the line. But it lacks the distinctive slanting aspect of the script from Puglia, and may on this basis be attributed to Dalmatia.
Bibliography:
V. Brown, ‘A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts, I’, Mediaeval Studies, 40, 1978, p.71, no iii.
E. A. Lowe, The Beneventan Script. A History of the South Italian Minuscule, 2 vols., 1980.
V. Brown, ‘A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts, V’, Mediaeval Studies, 70, 2008, pp.275-355.
Rozana Vojvoda, ‘Dalmatian illuminated manuscripts written in Beneventan Script and Benedictine Scriptoria in Zadar, Dubrovnik and Trogir’, PhD dissertation, Budapest, 2011, pp.105-6., Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A443146/datastream/PDF/view
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Transcription of a document (power of attorney for Don Pedro Fernandez de Cuerva).
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Transcription of a 15th century document (catalogued here as NOI 13) written on paper in which Alonso Pérez de Cuerva gives his power of attorney to his brother Pedro Fernández de Cuerva to sell a vineyard that he owns. The land's general location and its specific neighboring vineyards are given. Handwritten in two pieces of different paper (22 x 16 and 20.6 x 13 cm)., Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445722/datastream/PDF/view
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Two legal documents.
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"Paper. Folio. [14] pp., [50] pp. Don Alonso Ramírez was the past choir master of Popayán, Colombia, and his nephew Diego Ramírez Carrillo gave him power of attorney to his (Diego's) last will and testament and to compile the requisite inventory of the estate. María de la Puente, widow of Diego is appointed the tutor and guardian of Diego's and her minor children. The will is very standard with bequests for masses, etc. The inventory of possessions is lengthy and very detailed, showing Diego to have been a man of some wealth. Contemporaneous certified copy of the original document. Written in a clear notarial hand, but with bleed-through in the inventory, making reading slightly challenging — not, impossible. Very good condition. " Penafiel, Spain, Measurements: 31.25 cm x 22 cm, The top cover leaf is attached to the front of the next leaf.
The back of the second leaf has writing that is upside down.
Some of the text is too far in the gutter to be captured., Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A444547/datastream/PDF/view
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Two manuscript fragments.
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Two manuscript fragments, 32 x 5 cm (aprox.), cut from parchment folios of a text written in tiny Gothic textura (?) script, that included many long marginal notes by various hands. Some initials were decorated with penwork, in blue and red ink. The fragments were used in binding and are very frail, with many horizontal cuts., Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445736/datastream/PDF/view
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Vellum folio from a small manuscript.
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Vellum folio from a small manuscript. Text laid out in two columns of 27 lines (9.5 x 8 cm). On the verso, 5 initials in red and blue ink, some decorated with simple penwork. A passage from the text is rubricated. It seems that an initial from that section was cut out (or it might be a flaw from the parchment, although the borders are irregular). On the lower margin one can read the word: "mortui." Folio: 15 x 12 cm. (Mounted on a matte.), Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445744/datastream/PDF/view
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Writ addressed to the Sheriff of Derbyshire
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"ELIZABETH I (1533-1603, from 1558 Queen of England)] Writ addressed in her name to the Sheriff of Derbyshire (Thomas Griseley), in Latin with transcription and translation, to warn James, Thomas and Francis Barlow (‘Barley’ throughout the document), that they are bound by their concord with Gilbert [Talbot, 7th] Earl of SHREWSBURY (1553-1616), over “the manor of Barlow ... 50 messuages [dwellings], 20 cottages, three watermills for grain, 50 gardens, 50 orchards, 1000 acres of [arable] land, 500 acres of meadow, 1000 acres of pasture, 600 acres of wood, 1000 acres of heath and scrub, 1000 acres of moor, and lands worth £10 rent and common pasture”, in Barlow Lees, Dunston, Dronfield, Chesterfield and Stavely, (all rich in coal or iron), and unless they have performed it or given “triple security for his claim”, they are to be summoned to appear before the Justices [of the Common Pleas] at Westminster on the day after Trinity Sunday, the Sheriff to make sure this writ and the summons are in court, fee paid 20s to the farmer of fines, vellum, 1 x 11”, Westminster, 5th May 1592
The Earl’s step-mother was the famous ‘Bess of Hardwick’ (1518-1608), who inherited Hardwick from her father. At 14 she married John Barlow of Barlow, who died not long after. She persuaded her second husband, Sir Willam Cavendish, to sell his land in the South and buy Chatsworth. Her third was Sir William St. Loe, and her fourth, George, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, with whom she acted as keeper of Mary Queen of Scots. We see here her hand in securing her first husband’s estates, settled (like her second and third’s) on her and her heirs. (Gilbert married his stepsister Mary Cavendish but had no sons).
With on the verso the signatures of: Sir Edward Stanhope (c.1547-1608), Commissioner of the Fines Office from 1589 (signature a little rubbed). For his many offices, see P.W. Hasler, House of Commons, 1558-1603, III, 1981, pp. 437-439. For his signature see BL Egerton 2713, ff.303, 305 (1593).
Thomas Dudley (‘Duddeley’) and William Lambarde (1536-1601, the famous antiquary and topographer of Kent), two of the deputies in the Alienations Office, where fees such as the 20s were collected for writs of covenants and for licences to alienate land held of the Crown, etc.. See R.M. Warnicke, ‘William Lambarde’, 1973, pp. 87ff., and for his signature BL Lansdowne 54, f.172 (1587), and 65, f.191 (1590).
Thomas Griseley , Armiger (Esq.), the Sheriff of Derbyshire. [ref: 19513]", Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439518/datastream/PDF/view
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[Autograph document]
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(1493-1570, patriot of Geneva, 'the prisoner of Chillon'). Autograph signature and endorsement (7 lines) on a document signed by three of the Syndics of Geneva, 20 September 1545, an order for payment of Bonivard's allowance as 'pryeur de Sainct Victor' for the autumn quarter, with Bonivard's receipt written below, 'Je Francoys de Bonivard confesse par ceste presente avoir receu de Magnifiques et mes treshonores Messrs les Sindiqiues de Geneve la somme de xxxv escuz soleil...', one page, folio, papered seal, endorsement on verso.
Bonivard succeeded his uncle in 1510 as Prior of the Cluniac priory of St-Victor in Geneva, but resisted the Duke of Savoy's exercise of his rights over the city and was imprisoned several times, from 1530-36 at Chillon. On his release he became a protestant, and obtained a pension from the city.", Measurements: 33 cm x 22.5 cm, Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439238/datastream/PDF/view
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[Collection of documents for Thomas Wadilow].
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17 parchment documents of various sizes, with text on one side. They are sewn together. Most of them say on the back: “for tho wadilow/ Tho wadilowe/ This copie belongs to tho wadilow” or some variation of those words. They could be a series of receipts. The script looks like a 16th English century minuscule cursive, chancery hand or court hand. (all of them around 28 x 13 cm), Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445082/datastream/PDF/view
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[Extracts of a bible in Samaritan.]
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The MS consists of extracts from a Samaritan Version of the Hebrew Bible. Two parchment folios with text on both sides. Written on the first folio (in modern handwriting): "Part of a Samaritan Bible presented to Lord C. Paget, by the Samaritan High Priest at Shechean." Folio 1r: contains Exodus Ch. 1. 22 to CH.2 16 and relates the childhood and early years of Moses. Folio 1v: contains Exodus Ch.2, 22 to CH.2, 16, and recounts the story of God's call of Moses. Folio2r: contains Ch. 8, 2 to Ch. 9, 10 in which Moses informs Pharaoh of the plagues which Yahweh will bring on the Egyptians. After 9, 5 there is an insertion of some 6 lines, based on Ch. 10, 3f. Folio 2v: Covers Ch. 9, 10 to 9, 19 and continues the text from sheet 3, resuming the narrative of the plagues against the Egyptians. The MS itself is of uneven quality, and appears to bear the marks of more than one hand. Probable 7th century date. (This is short version of the text provided with the item, signed by Charles F. Whitley.) 24 x 20 cm (aprox. and incomplete), Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445142/datastream/PDF/view
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[Fragment of an English University text.]
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Fragment of a manuscript leaf on vellum, with text on Latin. 23 x 9 cm. Fragment from Peter Riga's Aurora, a verse paraphrase of the Bible including commentary composed near the end of the 12th century. Initials in red and blue, text in compact Gothic texture. One column of 51 lines on the recto and 49 on the verso. (Description by PRB&M stored with the item.), Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445147/datastream/PDF/view
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[Heraldic pedigree of François and Nicolas Damant].
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Bookseller description:
"[MANUSCRIPT - HERALDRY - GENEALOGY - DAMMANT (DAMANT) FAMILY]. [Heraldic pedigree of François and Nicolas Damant].
[Southern Low Countries (Brussels or possibly Courtrai/Kortrijk?)], [ca. 1600/20?]. Folio (ca. 38 x 24.5 cm). Manuscript in French on paper, written in brown ink in a neat French secretary hand (a neatly upright gothic cursive), on both sides of the first 6 leaves, with the explanations of the coats of arms written in a finely executed italic. With 43 ink-drawn coats of arms, that of Louise de Sicleers (the wife of François Damant) and the same arms where it appears quartered in the arms of others, coloured in red and white by a contemporary hand. One coat is helmed and crested, with mantling added in pencil; another helmed, with crest, supporters and mantling added in pencil. Formerly sewn, apparently together with other items, but perhaps never bound.
Manuscript containing the narrative pedigree of the two brothers François (ca. 1535-1611) and Nicolas Damant (ca. 1531-1616), both members of the important Damant (written as "Dammant" in the manuscript) family, which held important positions in the Habsburg Netherlands. Their father, for example, Pierre Damant, was councillor and courtier to Charles IV. At least Nicolas was born in Brussels and also died there, but François died at Courtrai/Kortrijk, His son François Damant was councillor and garde joyaux (keeper of the library) to the dukes of Burgundy. He married Louise de Sicleers. François's brother, Nicolas, was magistrate and statesman in the Habsburg Netherlands. He became councillor to the Council of Brabant, appointed by the Duke of Alva in 1568, and master of requests of the Brussels Privy Council before he became Chancellor of Brabant in 1585. He also became garde des sceaux (keeper of the seals) and garde joyaux of Philips II. He married Barbara Brant. Like most members of the family, François, Nicolas and their father Pierre were all members of the Order of the Golden Fleece (Ordre de la Toison d’Or), then the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world. The present manuscript is in fact a genealogical family tree written in a narrative style, describing the several ancestors of Francois and Nicolas, as well as their children. It is illuminated with ink-drawn coat of arms of the Damant family members, together with the coat of arms of the families that are related to the Damant family by marriage. The arms that has been coloured is: gules, a lion rampant argent (the Sicleers arms and the 1st and 4th quarters of the Bidolte arms). The latest date mentioned in the text is 1598 and we find no reference to the deaths of François (1611) or Nicolas (1616) Damant, so the manuscript may have been written shortly before their deaths (the watermarks, noted below, would allow a date shortly before or shortly after).
The manuscript is written and drawn on a single quire of paper from a single stock, with a somewhat squarish sheet on the borderline between Crown and Demy (about 37.7 x 47.8 cm), collating: [A] 12 (- A12) = 11 ll, with A7-11 blank. The six written leaves are numbered [1], 2-6 in a contemporary hand, but the leaves were apparently later sewn together with other items, very likely a heraldic or genealogical collection, including a leaf inserted between leaves 5 and 6 (or an error in the numbering), so that the modern page numbers in pencil are irregular ([153-154?], 155-162,165-176). The paper is watermarked (from the mould side): horn on an uncrowned shield, the single-wire cord of the horn topped with a Saint Andrew's cross = -, with the wide end of the horn toward the centre of the sheet. The sheet shows 18 full-sized chain-spaces (average distance between chainlines 24.3 mm), a tranchefile about 11 mm beyond the last regular chainline at both ends and about 10 mm further to the deckle. The two twin wateermarks measure 44.5 x 41 mm (in the left half-sheet, centred on the 5th chain-space) and 48 x 50 mm (in the right half-sheet, centred on the 14th chain-space). We find no exact match to the watermarks in the literature, but the closest are Heawood 2640-2647 (Antwerp 1598-1612), particularly 2640 and 2646, and Piccard VII.X.121 (Mainz 1621).
The first (singleton) leaf and five bifolia are untrimmed, with all deckles intact, formerly sewn at 4(?) stations but never glued or pasted. With a few very small holes in the paper, mostly in the folds, a few leaves slightly darkened and frayed at the fore-edge, otherwise in very good condition. A very interesting early 17th-century heraldic pedigree of one of the most important noble families of the Habsburg Netherlands.
6, [5 blank], ll. For Francois and Nicolas Damant: Louis Galesloot, "Damant (Nicolas)" in: Biographic nationale (1873), pp. 647-649; Luc Jean Joseph Van der Vynckt, Nederlandsche beroerten onder Filips II, vol. 4, p. 522.", Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439372/datastream/PDF/view
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[Lace pattern book.]
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The book was captured in the reoriented direction done "shortly before 1700" (see details in notes below).
…with additions 1688–1701]. Oblong 2° (22 . 31 cm). An album of pre-printed red grids (printed on 1 side of each leaf ) mostly of 101 . 161 squares, each grid square measuring about 1.67 . 1.67 mm, with every 10th square marked the along the edges by 2 gridlines extending about 1 grid length into the margin, used as intended to make manuscript needlework patterns by putting a black ink dot in each square that is supposed to be filled. What was originally the first leaf (the only folding leaf ) has been constructed by pasting together about 2/3 of two different grid leaves before the pattern was filled in. Of the 50 grid leaves, 49 were probably printed ca. 1600, while the present leaf 1 along with 6 smaller pieces of grid paper mounted on the unprinted sides of leaves 1 and 2 were probably added ca. 1700. Half brown sheepskin with a morocco grain (England, ca. 1855/65). With the original ca. 1600 brown paper wrappers bound in
"A ca. 1600 pattern book, probably intended for lace, embroidery and perhaps weaving and other applica¬tions. It was produced as an album of grid paper, most leaves with a red grid of 101 . 161 squares, where the user could make patterns by filling in some squares with a black dot and leaving others blank.
In its original orientation, the album began with the folding leaf followed by 48 leaves. The first owner or user of the album probably filled most of the leaves with patterns soon after it was produced ca. 1600. The paper of the grid leaves and the white paper core of the brown paper wrappers was made in Augsburg around 1600 (see below) and the frequent use of pinecone motifs in the pattern designs suggests that the book was not only printed but also used in Augsburg.
Shortly before 1700, someone began using the album again, turning it over and pasting a pink label with the date “Ao 1699” to what had been the back wrapper, making it the front wrapper. This was probably Anna Catharina von Knoll, who inscribed her name twice on the inside of what had become the front wrapper.
With an inscription, probably an owner’s name, erased and illegible, on the inside of what was orig¬inally the front wrapper. The 1707 inscription by Anna Catharina von Knoll, noted above, gives her name twice.
With marginal restorations, 1 with the loss of the corner of the grid but apparently no loss to the pattern, minor and mostly marginal foxing, and an occasional small ink spot, abrasion or transparent stain. The binding has cracks in the hinges and some abrasions. Although the book certainly shows signs of use, most of the patterns survive complete and in good condition. A remarkably early Augsburg pattern book for lace and needlework, with the patterns rendered with a pen and black ink on preprinted red grids.
[50], [1 blank] ll. with 6 pieces mounted on leaves 1 & 2. Sotheby, Cat. of the first portion of the library of the late Edward Hailstone (4–14 February 1891), lot 1195? (not seen); for (mostly printed) pattern books in general: Early modern embroidery and lace pattern books; Arthur Lotz, Bibliographie der Modelbücher."
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A447498/datastream/PDF/view
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[Land sale document for Olkholt Manor, Bray, Berkshire]
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Vellum. Oblong (26 x 46.5 cm; 10.375 x 18.25"). [1] f.On 20 January 1583 Besils Ffetyplace sold Ockholt (a.k.a. Ockwell's) Manor to Robert Scrope, Thomas Ridley ,and Francis Pigott. In this present instrument they “enfeoff it with the lands known as Burnhams to William Cox, William Day, Robert Silitoe, and William Raynor, all of Eton, as trustees for Anne, wife of the Provost William Day, for her life, and afterwards for her son and heir William Day” (The Berkshire Archaeological Journal, p. 24).
The verso has two slightly later addenda.
A handsome Elizabethan-era manuscript on vellum, elegantly and legibly indited in sepia ink.
See: The Berkshire Archaeological Journal, Vol. 24. No. 1, pp. 19–27, for a full account of the history of Ockholt Manor. Top edge scalloped; old folds. One of the three wax seals still present. Overall, very good condition. (28111)", Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439401/datastream/PDF/view
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[Manuscript document in English on vellum.]
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Manuscript document on vellum. On the verso one can read: "12 April 1516, Obligation ... Lord (?)... to David Anderson." The word "Lord" is also legible in the signature. 25 lines of text. The document still has the tag where a seal would have been attached. The parchment is stained and has a flaw next to the 10th line, on the left margin. 16 x 24.5 cm, Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445584/datastream/PDF/view
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[Manuscript document signed "C. grapheus."]
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Manuscript document on vellum. 28 lines of writing. Signed "C. grapheus." 20.3 x 32 cm, Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445587/datastream/PDF/view
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[The Beginning of My Words] V. 1
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"ii (parchment) + iv + 41 folios on paper (unidentified watermark), modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-left corner of recto, folios after f. 36 and f. 39 skipped, complete (collation i-iii 10 iv-v 4 vi 2 [+1]), no catchwords, upper and outer margins only ruled in blind (justification 168 x 108 mm.), written in a compact Italian cursive script in brown ink in 26 to 33 long lines, new paragraphs indicated via indentation and/or triangular dot arrangements over the incipits, periodic vocalization, justification via abbreviation and use of anticipatory letters, marginalia in hand of primary scribe throughout, sometimes partially cropped, corrections and strikethroughs in hands of primary and secondary scribes, censors’s signatures on versos of ff. iii (Renato da Mod[en]a, 1621) and [40] (Gio[vanni] Dom[enico] Vistarini, 1610; Gir[olamo] da Dura[zza]no, 1641; Fra Luigi [da Bologna], febraro 1599), slight staining to parchment flyleaves, faint dampstaining radiating out from gutter at head and along lower edge throughout, gutters intermittently strengthened, episodic ink blotches or smudging, small hole in f. vi, light worming in lower margins of ff. 2-8 and outer edges of ff. 18-27. Bound in dark blue library buckram, Montefiore name lettered in gilt along spine, Halberstam (124) and Montefiore (409) shelf marks taped to spine, spine splitting along joints at head, light damage to tailcap, corners rounded, modern paper pastedowns and flyleaves. Dimensions 190 x 140 mm.
One of the most systematic, well organized Hebrew grammars of the thirteenth century, Petah devarai is a monument of Sephardic linguistic scholarship whose importance as an introduction to the topic is attested in part by its editio princeps of 1492; there is still no modern critical edition. The present volume survives as a neatly written, dated copy of this text, and it is one of only two currently in private hands.", Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A444649/datastream/PDF/view
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[The Beginning of My Words] V. 2
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"ii (parchment) + iv + 41 folios on paper (unidentified watermark), modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-left corner of recto, folios after f. 36 and f. 39 skipped, complete (collation i-iii 10 iv-v 4 vi 2 [+1]), no catchwords, upper and outer margins only ruled in blind (justification 168 x 108 mm.), written in a compact Italian cursive script in brown ink in 26 to 33 long lines, new paragraphs indicated via indentation and/or triangular dot arrangements over the incipits, periodic vocalization, justification via abbreviation and use of anticipatory letters, marginalia in hand of primary scribe throughout, sometimes partially cropped, corrections and strikethroughs in hands of primary and secondary scribes, censors’s signatures on versos of ff. iii (Renato da Mod[en]a, 1621) and [40] (Gio[vanni] Dom[enico] Vistarini, 1610; Gir[olamo] da Dura[zza]no, 1641; Fra Luigi [da Bologna], febraro 1599), slight staining to parchment flyleaves, faint dampstaining radiating out from gutter at head and along lower edge throughout, gutters intermittently strengthened, episodic ink blotches or smudging, small hole in f. vi, light worming in lower margins of ff. 2-8 and outer edges of ff. 18-27. Bound in dark blue library buckram, Montefiore name lettered in gilt along spine, Halberstam (124) and Montefiore (409) shelf marks taped to spine, spine splitting along joints at head, light damage to tailcap, corners rounded, modern paper pastedowns and flyleaves. Dimensions 190 x 140 mm.
One of the most systematic, well organized Hebrew grammars of the thirteenth century, Petah devarai is a monument of Sephardic linguistic scholarship whose importance as an introduction to the topic is attested in part by its editio princeps of 1492; there is still no modern critical edition. The present volume survives as a neatly written, dated copy of this text, and it is one of only two currently in private hands.", Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A444756/datastream/PDF/view
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[The golden legende]. [leaf]
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"This leaf is printed on English-made paper from the Hertford mill of John Tate the Younger and has his watermark, an 8-pointed star within a double circle, which is the earliest English watermark.
Provenance: From an offering of leaves from this edition of The Golden Legend by the Dauber & Pine Bookshops, New York City, in ca. 1928."
"The collection of saints' lives called the Legenda anctorum, or Golden Legend (Legenda aurea) — ""worth its weight in gold""! — was composed in the 13th century by the Dominican hagiologist Jacobus de Voragine (ca. 1230–98, elected Archbishop of Genoa in 1292), and first printed in Latin at Basle in 1470 with William Caxton printing the first English version in 1483. Set in double columns and in English gothic type, this is folio ccxlviii (i.e, 248) of the 1498 London (Westminster) edition printed by Wynkyn de Worde (a.k.a., Jan van Wynkyn), England's first typographer and successor to Caxton, whose press he formally took over in 1495 after a difficult three years of litigation following Caxton's death.
This leaf of The Golden Legend has on its recto, and continuing on the verso, the final portion of account of the nativity of the Virgin, which recounts episodes from her mature adulthood and shows the Mother of God as a powerful figure with a powerful sense of what is due her. She promises death within 30 days to a bishop who has removed from office an unsatisfactory priest that she appreciates as specially devoted to her (he is reinstated and the bishop lives); she intercedes in another vision with her ""debonayre sone"" to reverse the damnation of a ""vayne and ryotous"" cleric who, on the other hand, has been specially devoted to her and her Hours (he reforms). In a third case, she redeems from the grasp of hell a bishop's vicar who, disappointed of promotion in office, had engaged ""a Jewe [who was] a magycyan"" to facilitate his signing in his own blood a soul-sacrificing deal with ""the devyll"" (the vicar repented). The Marian section closes with an account of ""Saynt Jherom's"" devotion to her. All this is followed on the verso by the beginning of the life of St. Adrian of Nicomedia, who before his conversion to Christianity and subsequent martyrdom was a Herculian Guard of the Roman Emperor Galerius Maximian. He is the patron saint of soldiers, arms dealers, guards, butchers, victims of the plague, and epileptics.", Measurements: 28 cm x 20 cm, Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439505/datastream/PDF/view
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[Unidentified Spanish legal manuscript?]
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Limp vellum cover, one single gathering. Inscription on the back cover, in 2 different inks. ("De nombremont del feliz Don Domingo..."). 31.5 x 22 cm, Image capture note:
The pages were captured with a white paper behind them to reveal holes/tears.
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A449951/datastream/PDF/view
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[Unidentified manuscript fragment].
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Manuscript folio on parchment, with text on both sides. Text in two columns of 42 lines, with rubricated capital letters. The script is some type of rotunda hand. There are some marginal annotations. It was used in a binding. 43.5 x 31.5 cm, Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445741/datastream/PDF/view
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