Franklin

Canones vel op[er]ationes in op[er]ando quadrante.

Format/Description:
Manuscript
28 leaves : paper, illustrations ; 207 x 145 (155 x 100) mm bound to 207 x 152 mm
Production:
[Italy], [circa 1502]
Status/Location:
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Details

Subjects:
Astronomy -- Early works to 1800.
Astronomy.
Quadrants (Astronomical instruments) -- Early works to 1800.
Quadrants (Astronomical instruments).
Form/Genre:
Codices (bound manuscripts)
Diagrams.
Pen and wash drawings.
Treatises.
Tables (Data)
Manuscripts, Renaissance.
Language:
Latin.
Summary:
Illustrated treatise on the use of the astrolabe quadrant, including locating and predicting the positions of stars; computing the 12 houses of the horoscope; and measuring altitude, latitude, and time.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Title from explicit (f. 25v).
Collation: Paper, 28; 1¹⁰ 2¹² 3⁸(-2); [1-28], modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto.
Layout: Written in 25-29 long lines; frame-ruled in lead.
Script: Written in humanistic cursive script.
Decoration: 2 detailed pen-and-wash drawings of the astrolabe quadrant in black and red ink (use of quadrant to locate a star, including position of astronomer's head, f. 4v-5r; back of quadrant, f. 5v); 2 small drawings of towers illustrating measurement of height (f. 21v, 23v); a square diagram in black and red ink and wash illustrating the computation of the 12 houses of the horoscope for 14 Nov. 1501 (f. 16v); 1 large geometric diagram (f. 2v), 7 small geometric diagrams in margins with measurements marked in red (f. 24v-25r); and 5 semicircular diagrams concerned with calculating time (f. 26r-26v). 9 tables in red and black (symbols and names for planets and zodiac signs, f. 4r; ascension of zodiac signs, f. 5r; fixed stars, f. 5r; position of the sun, f. 6r; hours of day and night, f. 9v; hours of night at the 45th latitude, f. 10r; general ascension of zodiac signs, f. 13v; ascension of zodiac signs at the 45th latitude, f. 14r-14v; sunrise and sunset at the 45th latitude, f. 15r-15v). 8-line red initial on a square ground partially infilled with penwork (f. 2r); 2-line red initial on pen-and-wash square ground (f. 13v); 1-line red initials in text for references to diagrams; rubrication and marginal chapter numerals and notes in red. Spaces left open for 2- and 3-line initials at the beginning of each chapter rubric.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet Aigle 93 (Florence and Naples, 1529).
Binding: Bifolium from a 12th-century southern Italian manuscript of Augustine's In Iohannis evangelium tractatus (text in 2 columns, in the Bari type of Beneventan script, with majuscule initials highlighted in red or red and green).
Origin: Written in southern Italy, ca. 1502. The geographical location is supported by textual references to the island of Diomedes (now Isole Tremiti), in Puglia, the binding from an earlier southern Italian manuscript, and the watermark similar to one used in Naples later, but some tables in the text give astronomical information for the 45th latitude, which passes through northern Italy. Dates in the text are 1501 (f. 16v, 19v) and 1502 (f. 6r).
Local notes:
Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.
Penn Provenance:
Sold by Les Enluminures (Paris and Chicago) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Sept. 2010.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2021.
Publications about:
Herman, Nicholas. Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries from Philadelphia Libraries (exh. cat.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Libraries, 2020. 284-85 (cat. 86).
Cited as:
LJS 497.
Contributor:
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)
OCLC:
1049531498