Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, active 1230.

Algorismus ; Tractatum de sphaera.

[Italy, between 1225 and 1275]

30 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 182 x 128-130 (128 x 85) mm. bound to 188 x 138 mm.

Treatise on the fundamentals of arithmetic (Algorismus), followed by a treatise on cosmography that describes and illustrates the Ptolemaic model of a spherical earth divided into climactic zones at the center of the concentric spheres of the universe. The second treatise has marginal notes in the same ink and possibly hand as the text, as well as notes in a later cursive hand in faint ink and a bifolium written in this later hand bound in (f. 23-24).

Ms. codex.

Title for manuscript from caption title of first work and incipit of second work (f. 1r, 9v); second work is also known as Sphaera mundi.

Foliation: Parchment, 30; [1-30] ; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Layout: Written in 25-26 lines; prickings visible on many leaves.

Script: Written in Gothic script.

Decoration: 7 astronomical diagrams in black and red ink (f. 10r, 12r, 12v, 25v, 28r, 28v, 29r), 2 astronomical diagrams in black ink (f. 29v, 30r), and 2 illustrations in red and black ink (f. 13r), all in second work; 2-line initial in red and blue with faded penwork extensions (f. 1r); 5-line divided initial in red (f. 9v); caption title (f. 1r) and marginal rubrics in first work (f. 1r-9v) in red, 2-line initials and paragraph marks throughout in red.

Binding: 20th-century morocco with gilt (rebound in 1997).

Origin: Written in Italy in the mid-13th century.

LJS 26

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania LJS 26