Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library
Don C. Skemer|Adelaide Bennett
This two-volume catalogue is the first comprehensive scholarly description of Western medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in Princeton University Library, one finest collections America. The rich holdings comprise more than 420 Robert Garrett, Grenville Kane, Taylor, Cotsen collections; bound with incunables Rare Books Division; hundreds single leaves cuttings; about 5,000 original documents six other collections. offers full textual, paleographic, codicological, art-historical, iconographical descriptions; detailed provenance notes; bibliographies. About a third are illuminated manuscripts, which selectively illustrated catalogue's 128 color plates, contain nearly 400 images. Princeton's range date from Carolingian era to Italian Renaissance, particular strength late holdings. They come chiefly England, France, Italy, Germany deutscher Sprachraum, Low Countries, Iberian Peninsula. There thirty Middle English, equal number French (including Anglo-Norman), smaller numbers Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch or Flemish, Hebrew, Icelandic. Among highlights collection Hrabanus Maurus's Commentary on Matthew (Fulda, ca. 840-60); William Waddington's Manuel des peches (1280s); Chretien de Troyes miscellany (France, 1295); Tollemache Chaucer (ca. 1420-60); an copy Kyrillos's Fables German (1425-30); Suetonius sumptuous full-page miniatures (Milan, 1433); richly Giovanni Marcanova's Antiquitates (Bologna, 1473); Hours Marguerite Rohan, countess Angouleme 1480); Sanvito Virgil (Padua, 1507). Some twenty years making, this identifies virtually all manuscripts' texts encyclopedic subjects. Classical Latin authors, scholastic texts, scripture, liturgy, devotional books most prominent, but history, law, music, medicine, astronomy, magic, especially vernacular literature also represented. Medieval Manuscripts Library has fully integrated approach that gives emphasis text image their historical context, offering insights into countless aspects intellectual artistic life.