Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Shāhnāmah.
شاهنامه

Authors

• Firdawsī
  فردوسي
• Free Library of Philadelphia. Rare Book Department. John Frederick Lewis Collection of Oriental Manuscripts

Other related names

• Lewis, John Frederick, 1860-1932, former owner
• Lewis, Anne Baker, 1868-1937, donor

Call number

Lewis O 54
(Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 2515764
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1124678838
• http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_o_054.html
• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/2515764

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Persian

Origin

Date

between 1600 and 1799?

Summary

Complete, illustrated copy of the Shāhnāmah with 4 miniatures; textblock is written on darker paper that has been reset into lighter frames; catchwords have been trimmed around, but not pasted down; some section headings are missing.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title from introduction (f. 4r).
   
• Stamp (f. 266v); Kabīkaj invocations (f. 1r, 266v, 267r, 495v).
   

Extent

Xi, 499, xi leaves : 307 x 250 (200 x 120) mm bound to 317 x 235 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation added in pencil, upper left recto; catchwords every verso, lower left.

Support

Paper

Binding

Bound in modern cloth half binding; dark blue spine and corners, light blue sides; stamped on spine "Shāh-nāmah Firdausi Persian Manuscript 14th century" with gold tooling along the ribs and gold stamped vignettes between them.

Layout

25 lines in four columns; border-ruled and columns ruled.

Decoration

Illuminated headpiece in blue, red and gold (f. 1v, 267v) with illuminated floral marginal fill in gold, blue and red around the page-opening (f. 1v-2r, 267v-268r). A similar floral marginal fill is on each page-opening holding an illustration (f. 6v-7r, 48v-49r, 54v-55r, 57v-58r). Four illustrations with a full page miniature in polychrome and gold on one side (f. 6v, 48v, 55r, 58r) and on the reverse a large drawing of a flowering plant in gold with blue, red and green accents (f. 6r, 48r, 55v, 58v). A floral finispiece in gold, green and red (f. 266r)

Script

Written in nastaʻliq in black ink; pointed.

Provenance

• Sold at Sotheby's in November 1922, lot 230 (catalog entry with date written in pencil pasted in f. 499v).
   
• Formerly owned by John Frederick Lewis.
   

Subjects topical

• Epic poetry, Persian--Early works to 1800
• Persian poetry--747-1500
• Illumination of books and manuscripts, Iranian--Specimens

Genres

• Manuscripts, Persian
• Manuscripts, Oriental
• Manuscripts, 17th century
• Manuscripts, 18th century
• Codices (bound manuscripts)
• Epic poems
• Illuminations (painting)
• Manuscripts (documents)
• Miniatures (paintings)
• Full covers
• Stamps (Provenance)

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Rare Book Department Lewis O 54: Shāhnāmah. 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

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Rare Book Department Lewis O 54: Shāhnāmah.. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 3v — Shāhnāmah.

Decorations

• fol. 1r — Kabīkaj invocation
• fol. 3v — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 3v — Illuminated headpiece
• fol. 4r — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 6r — Floral illustration
• fol. 6v — Illustration
• fol. 6v — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 7r — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 48r — Floral illustration
• fol. 48v — Illustration
• fol. 48v — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 49r — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 54v — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 55r — Illustration
• fol. 55r — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 55v — Floral illustration
• fol. 57v — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 58r — Illustration
• fol. 58r — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 58v — Floral illustration
• fol. 266r — Floral finispiece
• fol. 266v — Kabīkaj invocation
• fol. 266v — Stamp
• fol. 267r — Kabīkaj invocation
• fol. 267v — Illuminated headpiece
• fol. 267v — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 268r — Dual-page illuminated borders
• fol. 495v — Kabīkaj invocation
• fol. 499v — Catalog entry