Details

Subjects:

Artillery -- Early works to 1800.
Artillery.
Explosives -- Early works to 1800.
Military art and science -- Early works to 1800.
Military art and science.
Explosives.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Paintings (visual works)
Treatises.
Manuscripts, German.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

German.

Summary:

Illustrated treatise on gunpowder and artillery; probably a copy of an early recension of Franz Helm's work Buch von den probierten Kü̈̈nsten that first appeared between 1527 and 1535. The title page includes language similar to that title and a date of 1562 (f. ii). The date is echoed in a note added at the end of the manuscript in another hand; this note also attributes the copying of the manuscript to Georg Ganser of Cham and suggests that it was translated from French into German (f. 265r).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Paper, 285; 1¹⁰(-2) 2¹⁰ 3⁸ 4-8¹⁰ 9¹⁰(-8) 10¹⁰(-1) 11¹⁰ 12¹⁰(-4) 13¹⁰(-2) 14¹⁰ 15¹⁰(-1) 16¹⁰(-1) 17¹⁰(-4) 18-20¹⁰ 21¹⁰(-2) 22¹⁰(-2) 23-26¹⁰ 27¹⁰(-1) 28¹⁰ 29¹⁰(-3) 30¹⁰(-1) 31⁸ 32¹⁰(-6?); [i-xxvi], 1-52, 61-83, 88-92, 94, 96-111, 113-129, 131-133, 138-174, 177-186, 188-189, 191-238, 240-252, 254-255, 258-262, 264-270, [271-282]; contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto; gatherings 4-29 signed A-I, K-T, V-Z, Z, a; catchwords on the last lower left verso of each gathering except for gatherings 3-4, 9 (leaf missing), 16 (leaf missing), 22 (leaf missing), and 29-32 (blank). Link to collation model at end of record.
Layout: Written in 22-25 long lines; left vertical bounding line made by folding (giving each leaf 2 folds, with only one being used on each side as the left margin).
Script: Written in German cursive script, with headings in German Gothic script, perhaps in the hand of Georg Ganser of Cham (added note, f. 265r).
Decoration: Approximately 40 half- to full-page painted color illustrations of explosives and equipment for launching them or calculating trajectories (f. 49r-143r, 211v-246v); 4 double-page painted illustrations, 1 showing a large piece of equipment (f. 50v-51r) and 3 being of men operating cannons (f. 241v-242r, 242v-243r, 244v-245r); and 2 foldout painted illustrations of encampments surrounded by carts (f. 260r, 266r); one ornamented initial in penwork at the beginning of the foreword (f. iii recto).
Watermarks: Briquet Armoiries 1242 (Vienna, 1566, with variations in southern Germany 1573-1599); Briquet Lettre P 8880 (Prague, 1558, with variations in Austria and southern Germany, 1543-1576), and a coat of arms containing a turret, supported by griffins rampant.
Binding: Limp parchment.
Origin: Written in southeast Germany, perhaps Cham, after 1562 (later note, f. i recto; title page, f. ii recto; added note, f. 265r).

Penn Provenance:

Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 21 May 1998, lot 40, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2019.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 123 (LJS 254).

Cited as:

Oversize UPenn LJS 254.

Contributor:

Gänser, Georg, scribe.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

791454879

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page

Unique at Penn blog post
Collation model