Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

[Medical and astronomical miscellany] [manuscript].

[Germany, circa 1446]

36 leaves : paper, col. ill. ; 294 x 210 (205 x 132-142) mm. bound to 300 x 220 mm.

Compilation of Latin and German texts concerning astronomy, astrology (including resources for the determination of favorable and unfavorable days and a brief treatise on the astrological properties of precious stones attributed in the manuscript to the 8th/9th-century Jewish astrologer Zaël, but also known as the lapidary of Techel), and medicine (including a brief treatise on wine used for medical purposes, attributed in another manuscript to Albertus Magnus).

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Foliation: Paper, i (later paper) + 36 + i (later paper); [1-36]; 1¹²(-12) 2-3¹² 4²(-2); modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Layout: Written in 36-42 long lines (f. 2r-23v, 26v-28r) or lines in 2 columns (f. 24r-26r, 28v-36v); frame-ruled in faint ink.

Script: Written in bâtarde script.

Decoration: 36 miniatures in ink with colored washes, 8 to 30 lines in height, including calendar miniatures of the labors of the months (f. 2r-7v), astrological images (f. 12r-21v), and medical illustrations (f. 23v, 26v-28r); 13 circular diagrams (f. 1r-1v, 9r-11v), some with color; 1 7-line initial in red ink with flourishing in green (f. 12r); rubrics and paragraph marks in red, initials touched with red.

Watermark: Similar to Briquet Tête de boeuf 14964 (1444) and 15054 (1441).

Binding: Contemporary parchment, restored.

Origin: Written in southwestern Germany, ca. 1446.

Oversize LJS 449

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania Oversize LJS 449