Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Regiomontanus, Joannes, 1436-1476.

[Calendarium and ephemerides] [manuscript].

[Lambach?, Austria, circa 1500]

377 leaves : paper and parchment, col. ill. ; 162 x 120 (123 x 92) mm. bound to 173 x 148 mm.

Latin.

Manuscript copy of the Calendarium and Ephemerides as published by Regiomontanus in 1474. The Calendarium, for 1475-1530, gives information on lunar and solar eclipses, the length of days, and the signs of the zodiac and planets. Also includes a table of time corrections (f. 11v) for cities in reference to a longitude of approximately 10 degrees east (thus making no correction for Braunschweig, Nuremberg, Ulm, or Milan). The Ephemerides, consisting only of tables updated to begin in 1480 and ending in 1506, provides positions for the sun, moon, and planets for each day of each year. The beginning of each year is marked with a finding tab of leather or parchment dyed pink. A liturgical calendar at the beginning of the manuscript (lacking November) includes additions to the printed version which customize the calendar for a Benedictine monastery (Saint Maurus, 15 Jan.; commemoration of Adalbero, 6 Oct.) in southern Germany or Austria (Valentinus, bishop of Passau, 7 Jan.; Rupert, bishop of Salzburg, 27 Mar.; Ulrich of Augsburg, 4 July; Koloman, patron saint of Austria, 13 Oct.), and more specifically the Benedictine abbey in Lambach, Austria (feast and translation of Kilian, patron saint of the abbey, 7 and 14 Jul.).

1. f.1r-11v: [Liturgical calendar]

2. f.12r-20r: [Calendarium]

3. f.22r-377r: Almanach [Ephemerides]

Originally owned by the Benedictine abbey of Lambach.

Formerly owned by Duke Gabor Festetics von Tolna (Keszthely, Hungary; armorial bookplate, inside upper cover; stamp, "Bibliotheca in Keszthely," f. 1r).

Appears in V. A. Heck's cat. IV (Vienna, ca. 1922).

Sold by Laurence Witten to Harrison D. Horblit, 1957.

Sold by H. P. Kraus to Irene and Peter Ludwig (Aachen, Germany; bookplates by Hans Erni inside lower cover; ms. XII.9).

Purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu, Calif.), 1983.

Appears in Jörn Günther's catalog 5 (1997), no. 29; also his Recent Acquisitions (with Bruce Ferrini, Autumn 1997), p. 23.

Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, April 1999.

Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.

Festetics von Tolna, Gabor, Graf, former owner.

Horblit, Harrison D., former owner.

Ludwig, Peter, 1925-1996, former owner.

Ludwig, Irene, former owner.

Benediktinerstift Lambach, former owner.

J. Paul Getty Museum, former owner.

Astronomy - Early works to 1800.

Astronomy - Tables.

Ephemerides - Early works to 1800.

Monastic libraries - Austria - Lambach (Upper Austria)

Codices.

Almanacs.

Devotional calendars.

Ephemerides.

Tables (documents)

Finding tabs.

Manuscripts, Latin - 15th century.

Manuscripts, Latin - 16th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Collation: Paper and parchment, 377 + v; 1¹⁰ 2¹²⁻¹ 3¹⁴ 4-5¹⁴⁻¹ 6-8¹⁴ 9-11¹⁴⁻¹ 12¹⁶⁻² 13¹⁴ 14-24¹⁴⁻¹ 25¹⁴⁻² 26-29¹⁴⁻¹; 3 parchment bifolia (f. 54-55, 68-69, 240-241); [1-237, 237-376], modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Layout: Written in 35 lines, in varying numbers of columns; ruled in faint ink, with vertical bounding lines; pricking visible on 3 sides of leaves throughout.

Script: Written in Gothic script.

Decoration: Illustrations of eclipses in brown and yellow, 6 per page (f. 12r-16v), and 1 or 2 illustrations of eclipses on the opening page of most years in the Ephemerides, (for example, 37r, 49r, 63r, and 103r); rubrication in red; tables in black and red throughout.

Watermark: Briquet Balance 2450 and/or Piccard, Group IV (170-206) and Group V (299-300), in use in Austria and southern Germany, 1467-1475.

Binding: Original leather over wooden boards, blind-stamped with cornerpieces, bosses, and 2 clasps; bound at the Benedictine abbey in Lambach (K. Holter, Die Buchbinderwerksatt des Stiftes Lambach); spine restored.

Origin: Written in Upper Austria, probably Lambach, ca. 1500.

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 74 (LJS 300).

Ephemerides.

LJS 300

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania LJS 300