The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This manuscript is a humanistic copy of Jacobus de Cessolis's De ludo scacchorum, a comparison of the relationships of a king with his subjects to the rules of chess. The names of classical and Christian authors cited in the text are written in the margins as part of the manuscript's rubrication. Readers' notes also appear in the margins. Gatherings are missing from the beginning of the volume, so that the extant text begins in the middle of the fifth chapter of the second treatise; three additional leaves have been torn out (fols. 2, 24, 37). A list of the Ten Commandments and a mnemonic verse about them (Walther 19669) are written after the end of the De ludo scacchorum (fol. 45r).
Support: Paper; Extent: 47; 235 x 165 mm bound to 248 x 175 mm; Collation: 1 (10, -2), 2 (10), 3 (8, -4), 4 (10, -9), 5 (9, +1); Catchwords: Decorated catchwords arranged on scrolls, lower center last verso
Written in one column of twenty-six lines; frame-ruled in drypoint with vertical bounding lines; author citations written in side margins
Humanistic
Four catchwords arranged and decorated as if on scrolls (fols. 10v, 20v, 28v, 38v); rubrication, marginal author citations, and paragraph marks in red ink throughout; occasional decorative descenders extended into the lower margin from letters in the last line; spaces for four- or five-line initials and illustrations at the beginning of chapters left blank
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Italy
15th century
Contemporary (fifteenth-century) doeskin with remnant of one metal clasp on back cover
Latin
Fifteenth-century genealogical notes are written in inside the back cover; formerly in the chess collection of George Allen (Philadelphia, 1808-1876); purchased from the heirs of George Allen by the Library Company of Philadelphia, no. 138 (1878; bookplate inside front cover)
Italy
15th century
Latin
Fifteenth-century genealogical notes are written in inside the back cover; formerly in the chess collection of George Allen
This manuscript is a humanistic copy of Jacobus de Cessolis's De ludo scacchorum, a comparison of the relationships of a king with his subjects to the rules of chess. The names of classical and Christian authors cited in the text are written in the margins as part of the manuscript's rubrication. Readers' notes also appear in the margins. Gatherings are missing from the beginning of the volume, so that the extant text begins in the middle of the fifth chapter of the second treatise; three additional leaves have been torn out (fols. 2, 24, 37). A list of the Ten Commandments and a mnemonic verse about them (Walther 19669) are written after the end of the De ludo scacchorum (fol. 45r).
Humanistic
Four catchwords arranged and decorated as if on scrolls (fols. 10v, 20v, 28v, 38v); rubrication, marginal author citations, and paragraph marks in red ink throughout; occasional decorative descenders extended into the lower margin from letters in the last line; spaces for four- or five-line initials and illustrations at the beginning of chapters left blank
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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