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Category Archives: Video


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Manuscript Monday: LJS 293 – Kitāb al-Bayān wa al-tidhkār fī sanʻat ʻamal al-ghubār

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s LJS 293, Kitāb al-Bayān wa al-tidhkār fī sanʻat ʻamal al-ghubār, written by Abū Bakr al-Ḥaṣṣār. This manuscript was written in Baghdad in A.H. 590 (1194), in Arabic, and it is a near-contemporary copy of the first volume of the Book of demonstration and recollection in the art of dust-board reckoning, a 12th-century treatise on arithmetic and algebra.

You can see the full online facsimile of this work in Penn in Hand and you can download all of the images and metadata at OPenn.

 


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Manuscript Monday: LJS 295 – Kitāb-i Advār

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s LJS 295, Kitāb-i Advār, written by Urmawī, ʻAbd al-Muʼmin ibn Yūsuf. This manuscript was written in Iran in A.H. 815 (1412) and it is a Persian translation of al-Urmawī’s 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.

You can see the full online facsimile of this work in Penn in Hand and you can download all of the images and metadata at OPenn.

 


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Manuscript Monday: LJS 296 – Īḍāḥ al-maqāṣid li-farāʼiḍ al-fawāʼid

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s LJS 296, Īḍāḥ al-maqāṣid li-farāʼiḍ al-fawāʼid. This manuscript was written in Iran in A.H. 720 (1320), in Arabic, by Kāshī, ʻImād al-Dīn Yaḥyá ibn Aḥmad and it is a mathematical treatise with frequent marginal notes by multiple hands.

You can see the full online facsimile of this work in Penn in Hand and you can download all of the images and metadata at OPenn.

 


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Manuscript Monday: Ms. Codex 236 – Latin Vulgate Bible

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s Ms. Codex 236, a Latin vulgate Bible from the Catholic Church. This manuscript was written in France in the early 13th century, in Latin, and it is a Vulgate Bible with prologues by Jerome and illuminations. The biblical text is prefaced by the Interpretationes nominum hebraicorum (f. 2r-27r), attributed to Jerome in the Middle Ages, and the apocryphal Prayer of Manasseh (f. 27v), attributed to Solomon in its rubric. The biblical text is followed by a calendar of the Church year (f. 400v-401v), a missal (f. 402v-420v), including the ordinary from the canon through the communion and propers for Sundays and feasts throughout the year, and a breviary (f. 421r-458v), with nine lessons for major feasts, so not for a monastic context. The manuscript also includes a table of Epistle and Gospel incipits (f. 460r-462v), which is a later addition..

You can see the full online facsimile of this work in Penn in Hand and you can download all of the images and metadata at OPenn.

 


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Manuscript Monday: Ms. Oversize 33 – Choir Psalter Gatherings

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s Ms. Oversize 33, choir psalter gatherings from the Catholic Church. This manuscript was written in Spain in the 16th century, in Latin, and it is a section (5 gatherings) from the middle of a choir psalter containing a number of psalms (part of 67 and all of 71, 74-75, 80, 83-86, 88, 90-91, 94-98, and 102-103) in order for liturgical use.

You can see the full online facsimile of this work in Penn in Hand and you can download all of the images and metadata at OPenn.

 


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Manuscript Monday: Ms. Coll 713, Breviary Collages

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s Ms. Coll 713,  Breviary Collages. This work features two collages of manuscript miniatures on vellum, probably from a breviary in Northern France, possibly Rouen, in the late 15th century. Both feature a centerpiece of 9 panels with mostly Biblical pictures on them, with a piece of text, in Latin, on each side of the outer frame, with strips of illuminated borders around the edges.

While it is difficult to tell the date these collages were assembled, this kind of specimen collecting reached its peak during the 19th century. The text comprises excerpts from the New Testament gospels, a calendar of feast days, and homilies of Pope Gregory I.

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.


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Manuscript Monday: LJS 444 – Ḥall al-Mūjiz

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to Penn Library’s LJS 444 – Ḥall al-Mūjiz, by Aqsarāʼī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. This manuscript was written in A.H. 884 (1480), in Arabic, and it a commentary on the epitome (Mūjiz) by Ibn al-Nafīs of Avicenna’s Canon on medicine (Qānūn fī al-ṭibb).

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.