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.
Guilds -- Germany.
Guilds.
Explosives.
Germany.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Pen and wash drawings.
Treatises.
Manuscripts, German.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

German.

Summary:

Manual concerning the manufacture and use of gunpowder, ammunition, mines, grenades, flares, smokescreens, and traps, as well as the loading and firing of cannons. Concludes with a copy of the privileges of the guild of cannon-masters (Buchsenmaister) as granted by Frederick III in 1444 (f. 126r-133v).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, ii + 132; 2-76, [i], 77-130, 132-133; contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 27-28 long lines; vertical bounding lines ruled in drypoint.
Script: Written in German cursive script.
Decoration: 30 illustrations in colored ink or colored washes over ink drawings, most being of types of weapons and explosives, with 2 illustrations of cannon-masters framed in red ink (f. 2r, 105r) and a landscape showing the use of animals to carry explosives into a city, also framed in red ink (f. 60r); headings in red and black.
Watermark: Cross in circle belonging to Piccard Three Mounts, Class X, nos. 2879-3059 (mainly Munich and Augsburg, also Donauwörth and the Tyrol, 1555-1635).
Binding: Contemporary leather, stamped and gold-tooled (but varnished and blackened), over late-18th or early-19th-century-leather over wooden boards.
Origin: Probably written in Bavaria, in the late 16th century.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Girard Dupeireux (no. 124), perhaps a gift from his brother-in-law (Schwager), Baron Valentin von E[??], 1731 (inscription, f. 2v).
Formerly owned by Franz Ludwig, Graf von Holnstein aus Bayrn (armorial bookplate, inside upper cover).
Formerly owned by the Furstl. Ysenburg und Büdingen'sche Bibliothek zu Büdingen (library stamps, f. 2v, 3r)
Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Nov. 2002.
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. 124 (LJS 442).

Cited as:

Oversize UPenn LJS 442.

Contributor:

Dupeireux, Girard, former owner.
Holnstein aus Bayern, Franz Ludwig, Graf von, former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

793013416

Web link:

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

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