YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Marston MS 1 Northeastern Italy, s. XV med
Aeneas Gazaeus, Theophrastus, Lat. tr. Ambrogio Traversari, etc.
1. ff. 2r-9v blank (first gathering; foliation begins on preceding
flyleaf); ff. 10r-52v Aenee Sophiste. V. CL. Dialogus qui Theophrastus
inscribitur Incipit. Collocutores Egyptus Alexandrinus. Euxitheus Syrus.
Theophrastus Atheniensis. [in margin: Egyptus] Quo tu Euxithee uel unde.
Euxith. E Syria Athenas ferebar o egypte...Taeoph. Satis oratum est sed
proficiscamur. .ΤΕΛΟΣ.
Aeneas Gazaeus, Theophrastus, translated into Latin by Ambrogio
Traversari; the names of the interlocutors occur in red throughout the
text. Aeneas Gazaeus et Zacharias Mitylenaeus de immortalitate animae...
Accedit Aeneae interpretatio ab Ambrosio camaldi facta (Paris, 1836)
pp. 469-510, reprinted from the Paganini edition (Venice) of 1513.
2. f. 53r-v Diui integerrimique Viri Beati Helennij vita incipit
foeliciter. Fuit alius vir sanctus Helennius nomine a puericia hic in
seruitio dei omni cum continentia et castissimis institutionibus
enutritus...nihil ei deerat eorumque poscebat a domino. Finis. ff.
54r-59v blank
Life of St. Helenus, monk in Egypt. Text is an extract (incomplete)
taken from the Latin translation by Rufinus of the Historia monachorum,
ch. 11; PL 21.429-30.
Paper (watermarks: Briquet Fleur 6306, and unidentified shrub, ff.
i-viii, in gutter; Briquet Tete humaine 15617), ff. i (contemporary
parchment) + viii (contemporary paper) + 60 (two series of modern
foliation) + i (contemporary parchment, stub only), 202 x 143 (133 x 79)
mm. 22 long lines. Single vertical and horizontal bounding lines, full
length and full width, ruled in lead. Guide lines for text in pale brown
ink (Derolez 13.13). Remains of prickings in upper,
lower, and outer margins.
I 8 (ff. i-viii, all blank), II 10 (ff. 1 and 10 parchment), III-IV 10,
(last six leaves blank). Catchwords perpendicular to text on inner vertical
bounding line in lower margin, verso (Derolez 12.6).
Written in humanistic script by a single scribe, above top line.
One large illuminated initial, 5-line, of modest quality, in gold with
black accents on a multicolored ground of red, blue and green with white
vine-stem ornament and white dots. One smaller initial (unfinished),
parchment color on blue ground with white vine-stem ornament. On f. 1r, in
lower border an unidentified coat of arms: vert a chief sable [?], overall
a lion [?] rampant gules (or purpre?) on the main field and or in chief
and with bend (tincture undetermined) overall; the whole shield overpainted
in black. Headings in red.
Binding: Italy, s. xv. Vellum stays are adhered in and outside the
paper gatherings. Original sewing on three tawed skin, kermes pink, slit
straps which go through tunnels in the edges of wooden boards to channels
on the outside where they are pegged. The primary endband, sewn on a
tawed skin core, is gilt with traces of a red secondary endband. A design
is scratched on the gilt edges.
Covered in brown sheepskin with corner tongues and blind-tooled with
progressively taller concentric frames alternately decorated with five
small tools. Five flower-shaped bosses on each board, some wanting, and
four fastenings, leaf-shaped catches on the lower board, the upper board
cut in for the clasp straps which are attached with star-headed nails.
Rebacked.
Written in Northeastern Italy in the middle of the 15th century; owned by an
unidentified person whose mutilated arms appear on f. 1r.
Inscription, s. xvi, on f. 59v: "frater bonaventura minorum [?]." Inscription,
s. xviii, on front pastedown: "Ex libris B.
Brunati." Inscription, s. xviii, erased but visible under ultra-violet
light on front pastedown: "Iohannis Jacobi Dugatiis di Thomarijs liber."
Signature, s. xviii 2, on front pastedown: "Alberti Bonetti." Unidentified
circular white paper tag on spine with handwritten shelf-mark in ink:
"Aeneas/ 4o. 72806 [portion of tag missing]/ L III O." In pencil on front
pastedown: "279" and on recto of front flyleaf: "30." Acquired from C.
A. Stonehill in 1949 by Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).
secundo folio: humanitatis
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 64, no. 1.
Barbara A. shailor