Manuscripts
The Department collects manuscripts primarily for their texts and also, in the case of mediaeval manuscripts, for the information they convey about the way books were published before the invention of printing. Very few of our manuscripts can be considered works of art—the Vosper Hours and a few of the renaissance manuscripts—although many are illustrated. Their subject matter runs parallel to that of the entire printed holdings of the department—economic and political history, literature, religion and church history, natural history, law and legal records, family and institutional history, language (a number of glossaries and grammatical texts), travel and exploration—while their chronological scope is much greater. The few examples shown here show our interest in Italy and Britain, in the history of pharmacy (a natural extension of the library's longstanding interest in medicinal botany), in architecture, and in eastern Europe. The apparent disproportionate emphasis on manuscripts purchased from Bernard M. Rosenthal reflects the care which he has exercised in assisting us to build our collections over the years.
10. Cronaca di Venezia, by Raphain Caresini, Venice, around 1390.
A chronicle history of Venice, written in the Venetian vernacular. The portrait in the initial P is of the Venetian doge, Andrea Dandolo, who wrote the Latin "Chronicon Venetum" of which this text is a continuation. The shield at the foot of the page is undoubtedly the arms of a former owner, as yet unidentified.
Acquired from Bernard M. Rosenthal.
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11. Chronica regum Britanniae, England, circa 1250.
This is an unfinished or defective compilation of various chronicles of English history from Severus through Uther Pendragon. The irregularly shaped columns (some empty) appear to represent different sources; the only one so far identified is Geoffrey of Monmouth. The only illustrations are the pen sketches of dragons and fleurs-de-lys; presumably the finished product would have had portraits or names added to the empty roundels. At least one membrane is missing between the present first and second of the five membranes, pasted head to tail, which make up this chronicle roll.
Acquired in 1983 from Bernard M. Rosenthal through the Helen Foresman Spencer fund.
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12. Libro de i secreti e ricette, compiled by Giovanni Andrea di Farre, Lucca, mostly before 1562.
The Order of the Jesuati, of which the compiler of this manuscript was a member, was founded around 1366. Devoted entirely to caring for the sick, the Jesuati became the largest manufacturers of pharmaceuticals in Italy until their suppression by Clement IX in 1668. Little was known of their methods of manufacture or the actual medicines which they compounded until the discovery of this manuscript with its more than two thousand recipes and its working drawings and instructions for making and using distillation apparatus.
Acquired in 1980 from Lawrence Feinberg through the Helen Foresman Spencer fund.
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13. A proclamation from the building commissioner of Sabbioneta, ordering the final cleanup and rebuilding of houses damaged in a river flood of 1595, signed by Nicolo Dondi and issued on 16 July 1602.
In the 1550s, Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna, duke of Sabbioneta, near Mantua, began to turn the small village of Sabbioneta, which was the site of his summer palace, into a model city. The Sabbioneta Documents collection is a volume of 172 documents issued by or concerning this planned city from 1537 to 1778 but dating mainly from the 1570s through the early 17th century— proclamations, financial accounts, letters, contracts, payment orders, narratives, and official documents. They include a complete cost accounting of the Giardino della Fontana, a list of current expenses for the upkeep of the Church of the Incoronata, records of payments made to artists, stonemasons, freight-haulers, the Duke's German Guard and his courtiers. It is possible to determine from the records the source of materials for many public buildings in the city, the status of traveling players (housed at the same level of accommodation as carpenters), the administrative difficulties of extensive building in an occupied city (proclamations requesting people to keep off the streets which are under construction and forbidding them from stealing building materials), and a great many other details of this major project.
Acquired from Bernard M. Rosenthal.
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14. A devil in the mouth of Hell, in a 17th century Russian manuscript of St. John Chrysostom.
Written on paper and bound in blind-stamped leather over wooden boards, with one of its metal clasps still attached, this manuscript has been very heavily read through the centuries. Its many illustrations picture various events in the life of Christ, the conflict between Christ and the Devil, and the fate of sinners in Hell.
Acquired from Bernard M. Rosenthal around 1960 at the instance of Oswald P. Backus, III, professor of History and Russian.