Beinecke MS 34 (olim Z111.0134m)                                    Spain, 1487, 1686
Carta Ejecutoria, etc. (in Sp.)

     I. 1. ff. 3v-13r    Carta ejecutoria, or letter of nobility, granted to
     Don Alfonso Rodriguez (Tinagero Rodriguez de la Escalera) by the
     authority of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel of Castile. Issued in
     Salamanca, 1487. Seal missing. ff. 13v-18v blank

          II. 2. ff. 19r-74v    Numerous documents (all dated 1686)
     concerning a lawsuit involving Don Diego Tinagero Rodriguez de la
     Escalera of Seville, a descendent of Alfonso Rodriguez.

          The codex is composed of two distinct sections bound together in
     the 18th [?] century, but with additional folios inserted: ff. iv
     (paper; watermarks similar in type to Heawood 743, with letters BL in
     central circle, heart in lower circle, and the number 4 below) + ii
     (parchment bifolium, s. xvii, with illumination) + 11 (Part I:
     parchment; ff. 3-13) + ii (parchment bifolium) + iii (paper; watermark
     similar in design to Heawood 743, with three circles in central circle
     and blank lower circle) + 56 (Part II: paper, several watermarks
     similar in design to Heawood 743 and 259-262; ff. 19-74) + iii (paper
     with same watermarks as first four flyleaves). The manuscript is too
     tightly bound to collate precisely.
          Part I: 292 x 209 (218 x 150) mm. Written in 52 long lines; single
     bounding lines; ruled in hard point or lead. Round gothic script by a
     single scribe. Crude decorative border on f. 3v and REY (in gold,
     outlined in black) may be later additions.
          Part II: 307 x 204 mm. This section has no uniform format. Written
     in various cursive hands. Many of the documents included appear to have
     once been folded. Some loss of text due to trimming.
          Folios 1v and 2r have crudely illuminated full-page miniatures, s.
     xvii. Folio 1v: members of the Rodriguez family offering prayers to the
     Madonna and Child. Folio 2r: arms of the Tinagero Rodriguez de la
     Escalera family. (per pale, vert, a tower argent, being climbed by a
     lion or holding a sword or in its teeth, on a ladder or, as a Moor [?]
     proper falls headlong from the top; or, 4 staves [?] palewise in fess,
     points to the base gules, hilted in brown [?]; border azur, with 8
     crosses potent argent).
          Binding: s. xviii? Thin wooden boards covered with dark brown
     leather, flesh side out. Vermilion and green ribbon fastenings.

          Part I was written in Salamanca in 1487; Part II in Seville in
     1686. Nineteenth-century ownership inscription of Juan Antonio Bula [?]
     on f. 77r. Presented to Yale University by Joseph M. Andreini in 1932.

     secundo folio: pagar

     Bibliography: De Ricci, v. 1, pp. 168-69, no. 34.

     Barbara A. Shailor