Collection ID: 0001 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Authors

• Zopello, Michele
• Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Other related names

• Gioacchino, di Giovanni, illuminator
• Callistus III, Pope, 1378-1458, dedicatee

Call number

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9948179063503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/787857732
• https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0001/html/ljs225.html http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017.12/1338705 http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/4817906 http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017.12/366278 https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3q643

Publisher

Language

Origin

Date

between 1455 and 1458

Place

Rome?, Italy

Summary

Presentation copy for Pope Callistus III of a work on cryptography that describes two systems: in the first, Italian words beginning with one letter are all represented by Italian words beginning with another letter; in the second, signs or symbols represent letters or entire Italian words (titles, city names, and numbers).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title from opening rubric (f. 1r); alternate title, Liber litterarum simulationis et de zifris, from early note inside front cover.
   

Extent

Collation

Support

Binding

Layout

Decoration

1 full-page white vine-stem (bianchi girari) border with 3 birds in the outer border and 2 putti with necklaces holding the arms of Pope Callistus III in the lower border (f. 1r) and 1 7-line initial in gold on a white vine-stem ground (f. 1r), illuminated by Gioacchino di Giovanni di Gigantibus of Rothenberg, Germany, a professional illuminator for the papal court from 1448 onward; 2-line initials in gold filled with green and/or pink throughout; rubrics in faint red ink.

Script

Provenance

• Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 20 June 1989, lot 49.
   
• Illuminated for Pope Callistus III, between 1455 and 1458.
   
• Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle in honor of Tina Skov Cowan, Director, Development & External Affairs, Penn Libraries, 2013.
   
• Sold by Martin Breslauer, 1989.
   
• Sold at auction at Christie's, 26 June 1996, lot 19, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
   

Subjects topical

• Cryptography--Early works to 1800
• Ciphers--Early works to 1800

Genres

• illuminations (visual works)
• codices (bound manuscripts)
• Manuscripts, Renaissance
• treatises
• Manuscripts, Latin--15th century
• Manuscripts, Italian--15th century
• manuals (instructional materials)

Keywords

• 15th century
• Italy
• Italian
• Illumination
• Treatise

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts LJS 225: Litterarum simulationis liber are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is © and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Decorations

• fol. 1r — Illuminated border, Birds and coat of arms, f. 1r
• fol. 1r — Illuminated initial, Initial E, f. 1r
• fol. 3r — Illuminated initial, Initial I, f. 3r
• fol. 3r — Illuminated initial, Initial T, f. 3r
• fol. 4r — Illuminated initial, Initial S, f. 4r
• fol. 4v — Illuminated initial, Initial V, f. 4v
• fol. 5r — Illuminated initial, Initial E, f. 5r
• fol. 14v — Illuminated initial, Initial S, f. 14v
• fol. 15r — Illuminated initial, Initial P, f. 15r
• fol. 16r — Illuminated initial, Initial P, f. 16r
• fol. 17v — Illuminated initial, Initial H, f. 17v
• fol. 18r — Illuminated initial, Initial H, f. 18r