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De sphaera mundi

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Accession number: 
MS M.426
Title: 
De sphaera mundi
Created: 
Naples, Italy, last quarter of 15th century.
Binding: 
Original 15th-century blind-tooled brown morocco over wooden boards, blind-tooled panel with four-petaled flower design, a braided rope surrounding an inside border; 4 hinges, lacking clasps.
Credit: 
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in July 1910.
Description: 
76 leaves (1 column, 16 lines), bound : vellum (some purple), ill. ; 190 x 130 mm
Provenance: 
Written for Diomede Carafa (ca. 1406-1487) at Naples in the last quarter of the 15th century; shopping list and annotation on fol. 4 in a 16th century hand; probably Marchese Taccone of Naples collection; purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Alexandre Imbert in July 1910; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).
Notes: 

Ms. astronomical treatise; written and illuminated in Naples, Italy, in the last quarter of the 15th century.
Scribe: Giovan Marco Cinico, who signed Ioannes Marcus Velox in the colophon on fol. 76v.
Decoration: prefatory page (fol. 4v) of purple vellum with Carafa emblem of a steelyard (balance) between two stretcher-circles; title page (fol. 6) with illuminated initial and white vine border containing the Carafa emblem and arms (gules 3 fesses argent on shield); 4 astronomical marginal illustrations.

Script: 
humanistic script
Language: 
Italian
Resources: 
Description/Bibliography
Century: 
15th century
Genres: 
Illuminated manuscripts
Illuminated initials (layout features)
Marginal illustrations
Vellum (parchment)
Purple vellum (parchment)
Catalog Link: 
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Classification: 
Manuscript
Department: 
Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts