Details

Subjects:

Astronomy -- Early works to 1800.
Astronomy.
Astronomical instruments -- Early works to 1800.
Sundials -- Early works to 1800.
Sundials.
Time measurements -- Early works to 1800.
Time measurements.
Astronomical instruments.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Treatises.
Tables (documents)
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Latin.

Summary:

Anonymous treatise on constructing and using a horologium diei et noctis (combined sun dial and nocturnal), perhaps missing its first leaf, with 4 small tables (f. 4v, 6r, 6v, 8r). The uses include telling time of day and night, determining the times of sunrise and sunset and the precession of equinoxes and solstices, and measuring the height of stars. The first pages of an incomplete treatise on constructing a instrument for measuring angles called a baculus Jacob (called cross-staff or Jacob's staff in English, arbalestrille in French) follow.

Contents:

1. f.1r-11r: [On the composition and uses of a horologium diei et noctis (combined sun dial and nocturnal)]
2. f.11v-12v: Baculus Jacob.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, ii (modern) + 12 + ii (modern); 1¹²; 1-12, later foliation in ink, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 22-29 long lines. Some recto text affected by trimming at the right edge of the page.
Script: Written in Gothic cursive script.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet, Lettres soudées 9755 (Luxueil, 1518-1519; Dole, 1522-1530; Luxueil, 1531; Hamburg, 1533).
Binding: Modern quarter calf with marbled boards and endleaves; modern calligraphic Gothic inscription, Cy est manuscript de Astronomie, on flyleaf.
Origin: Written in eastern France in the 16th century, perhaps Franche-Comté or Lyonnais in the first half of the 16th century (based on script and watermarks).

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2021.

Cited as:

LJS 487

Contributor:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

782064154

Web link:

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