Stony Brook University Libraries Digital Projects and Exhibits

Items

• 

  Breviary: Breviarium

  Leaf 18. "The Breviary is one of the six official books used by the Roman Catholic Church in its liturgy" (Ege). "The angular script of this lead is executed with great skill and precision. The small and vigorous black initials and the hair line details found in many of the ascenders and terminal letters indicate the work of a superior calligrapher."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Psalter: Psalterium

  Leaf 17. "Illuminated Psalters occur as early as the VIIIth century, and from the XIth to the beginning of the XIVth century they predominate among illuminated manuscripts." "At this time the pendant tails of the initial letters are rigid or only slightly wavy, with a few leaves springing from the ends" (Ege). "The blue and lake (orange-red) color scheme with accents of white is a carry-over from the Westminster tradition which prevailed in the previous century.The solid line-filling ornaments of the verses were a new feature added in the second half of the XIIIth century. Silver and alloys of gold are used on this leaf."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Breviary: Breviarium

  Leaf 16. "Brevaries were seldom owned by laymen. They were service books and contained the Psalter with the versicles, responses, collects and lections for Sundays, weekdays, and saints' days. Other texts could be included. A Breviary, therefore, was lengthy and usually bulky in format. Miniature copies like the one represented by this leaf were rare" (Ege). "This manuscript was written on a fine uterine vellum, i.e., the skin of an unborn calf."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Missal: Missale Bellovacense

  Leaf 15. "This manuscript, a special gift to a church in the city of Beauvais, was written for Robert de Hangest, a canon, about 1285 A.D." (Ege). "The ornament of this leaf shows the first flowering of Gothic interest in nature. The formal hieratic treatment is here giving way to graceful naturalism. The ivy branch has put forth its first leaves in the history of ornament. The writing, likewise, is departing from its previous rigid character and displays and ornamental pliancy which harmonizes with the decorative initials."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Bible: Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata

  Leaf 14. "This copy of the Latin version by St. Jerome was made during the period when France stood at the height of her medieval glory" (Ege). "The bar borders came to be exectued in rich opaque gouache pigments, with ultramarine made of powdered lapis lazuli predominating. The foliage scroll work inside the inital frame created a style that persisted with little or no change for nearly two hundred years."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Oxford Bible: Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata

  Leaf 13. "It is usually difficult to distinguish the miniature or portable Bibles by the young Dominican firars in England from those written in France" (Ege). "The original master text was carelessly transcribed again and again. It may even have been incorrectly copied from the Alcunian text written for Charlemagne. Therefore, "corrections" had to be made."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Psalter: Psalterium

  Leaf 12. "This small Psalter leaf illustrates the fact that, although skilled scribes were available in many monasteries in the XIIIth century, some of the monks who attempted to apply and burnish the gold leaf were still struggling with many problems of illumination. The famous treatise De Arte Illuminandi and Cennino Cennini's Trattato were both of a later date. These works gave directions on how to prepare and use the glair of egg, Armeninan bole, stag-horn glue, and hare's foot, and on how to burnish gold with a suitable wolf's tooth" (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Bible: Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata

  Leaf 11. "In the XIIIth century Italy was distraught by the long struggle between the papal and anti-imperialistic Guelphs and the autocratic and imperialistic Ghibellines. Little encouragment was given to either party by the arts. This leaf reveals, however, the skill and keen eyesight which were necessary for the writing of ten of those lines to the inch" (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Psalter: Psalterium

  Leaf 10. "The line endings of a fish, elongated or shortened as the space required, and the grinning expression of the fish emblem have in some book circles given these German Psalters the nickname "Laughing Carp" Psalters" (Ege). "The lozenge heads on top of many of the vertical pen strokes are characteristic of German manuscripts."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Bible: Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata

  Leaf 9. "These minature or portable manuscript copies of the Jerome version of the Bible were nearly all written by the young wandering friars of the newly founded order of Dominicans" (Ege). "They were used sparingly, as is evidenced by their still fine condition." "The precision and beauty of the text letters and initials executed in so small a scale, twelve lines to an inch, with letters less than one-sixteenth of an inch high, are among the wonders in book history."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Gradual: Graduale

  Leaf 8. "Graduals are the books containing the chants for celebration of the mass. Engish manuscripts of this early date are rare. This volume, with the uncertain strokes in the script, seems to indicate that the transcriber was unaccostomed to writing in this small scale. There are four and five line staves, and the "F" and "C" lines are indicated. Most of the various forms of written notes can be found on each leaf of this book.Those occuring more frequently are punctum (L. punctum, prick), a single note; virga (L. virga, rod), a square note with a thin line attached; podatus (L. pes, foot), two square notes, one above the other; climacus (L. climax, ladder), a virga note with two or more diamond shaped notes"(Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Aurora: Aurora

  Leaf 7. This famous paraphrase of the Bible in Latin verse was one of the most popular Latin books of poetry of the late XIIth and XIIIth century" (Ege). "The format of this page, twice as long as it is wide, demonstrates the English custom of folding the skins lengthwise. The practice of setting off by a space the initial letter of each line also helps to give the page an unusual appearance. It is written in a very small script, six lines to an inch, in a hand characteristic of Northern France and England at this period."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Cambridge Bible: Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata

  Leaf 6. "The only Bible known to Western Europe for the thousand years from 400 to 1400 was this version by St. Jerome" (Ege)."The decorative initials, color of ink, and texture of vellum are the clues which aid in assigning provenance, as in this instance. Not many fragments of this age and size are known to have survived the destruction and dispersal of English monastic libraries which was ordered by Henry VIII in the year 1539."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
• 

  Bible: Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata

  Leaf 5. "This translation of the Bible was made by Jerome at the request of Pope Damasus" (Ege). "The angular book hand, executed with amazing skill and precision, reflects the spirit of contemporary architecture of the early XIIIth century. Closely spaced perpendicular strokes and angular terminals have supplanted the open and round character of the preceding century."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.