The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at Penn brings manuscript culture, modern technology and people together.


by Leave a comment

Manuscript Monday: LJS 236 – Thesaurus pauperum…

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s LJS 236, by Arnaldus de Villanova. This manuscript, written in Italy, ca. 1450-1499, in Latin, is a medical miscellany with almost the first half of the volume devoted to a copy of Arnaldus de Villanova’s Thesaurus pauperum, a compilation of remedies for a variety of diseases. The remainder includes another work by Arnaldus de Villanova, works by other authors, and unattributed collections of remedies.

You can see the full online facsimile of this work in Penn in Hand and you can download all of the images and metadata from OPenn. You can also download a copy of this video from ScholarlyCommons, the University of Pennsylvania’s open access institutional repository.

 


by Leave a comment

Fifty-two discoveries from the BiblioPhilly project, No. 7/52 Book of Hours, Use of Paris, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1924‑19‑1, fol. 24r (miniature of the Annunciation from the Hours of the Virgin) 1,581 more words

via “Love and Humility are the sweet bonds of our marriage:” A Book of Hours owned by the wife of a French Catholic propagandist of the 16th century, and the Governor of Pennsylvania! — Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis


by Leave a comment

Sacred Texts: Codices Far, Far Away – Episode 6, LJS 384

On October 8, 2018, Dr. Brandon Hawk and curator Dot Porter met to talk about these ancient books, and to compare them with manuscripts from the collection of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania. This series is a record of those discussions.

LJS 384, an early astronomical text

In this section of our conversation we discuss LJS 384, a mid-12th century (c. 1150) copy of William of Conches De philosophia mundi, an early astronomical text, and we talk specifically about the astronomical systems being described by medieval thinkers and how they differ from the systems we think we see being described in the manuscripts in The Last Jedi. We also talk about one of our favorite topics, the use of manuscripts over time, and how the Star Wars manuscripts show (or don’t) this very important aspect of medieval manuscripts.

Online record and digital images of LJS 384: http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/9946262693503681

Video Facsimile of LJS 384 (pages turned front-to-back, no commentary): https://youtu.be/0BfGz4T2-3g

Phil Szostak, The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (https://www.amazon.com/Art-Star-Wars-Last-Jedi/dp/1419727052/)
Images of the “Tree Library” by Seth Engstrom & Rodolfo Damaggio
Mock-ups for six pages from the Jedi books by Chris Kitisakkul

Screenshots from the film and images from The Art of Star Wars are used under the Fair Use doctrine described in Section 107 of the Copyright Act (https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107)


by Leave a comment

Fifty-two discoveries from the BiblioPhilly project, No. 6/52 Georges Chastellain, c. 1402/1410–1475, L’outré d’amour pour amour morte, Philadelphia, The Rosenbach Museum and Library, MS 443/21, fol. 1r, with miniature showing The author dreaming While being attentive to the circumstances surrounding the genesis and production of a Medieval or Renaissance manuscript is often our primary concern…

via The earliest known French bookstamp, and a new addition to the library of a colorful bibliophile: Jacques Thiboust of Bourges — Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis


by Leave a comment

Manuscript Monday: LJS 235 – Kitāb al-Adwār

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s LJS 235, Kitāb al-Adwār, by ʻAbd al-Muʼmin ibn Yūsuf Urmawī. This manuscript was written in the Ottoman empire during the 16th century, in Arabic, and it is a treatise on the theory of music, including division of frets, ratio of intervals, consonance and dissonance, cycles, rhythmic and melodic modes, and the 5-string oud or lute, with an anonymous commentary.

You can see the full online facsimile of this work in Penn in Hand and you can download all of the images and metadata from OPenn. You can also download a copy of this video from ScholarlyCommons, the University of Pennsylvania’s open access institutional repository.

 


by Leave a comment

Fifty-two discoveries from the BiblioPhilly project, No. 5/52 Book of Hours, Use of Rome, Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E 107, fol. 100v (miniature of the Crowning of Thorns with instructions in left margin) Marginal directions for illuminators—be they in written or in sketch form—are relatively common in the thirteenth century, and though they…

via A helping hand: barely discernible instructions for a miniaturist — Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis


by Leave a comment

Manuscript Monday: LJS 483 – Questions on Aristotle’s Physics

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s LJS 484, Questions on Aristotle’s Physics. This manuscript was written in Ingolstadt, circa 1480, in Latin, and it is a commentary on Aristotle’s Physics in the form of questions and answers following the content of the 8 books of the Physics.

You can see the full online facsimile of this work in Penn in Hand and you can download all of the images and metadata from OPenn. You can also download a copy of this video from ScholarlyCommons, the University of Pennsylvania’s open access institutional repository.