Prenosticatio.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Lichtenberger, Johannes, active 15th century.

Contributor:

Holtzschuher, Veit Georg, 1573-1606, former owner.

Holtzschuher, Veit Engelhardt, 1581-1656, former owner.

Wilczek, Johann Nepomuk, Graf von, former owner.

Burg Kreuzenstein (Austria), former owner.

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Standardized Title:

Prognosticatio

Language:

German, Middle High (ca. 1050-1500)

Latin

Subjects (All):

Astrology--Early works to 1800.

Astrology.

Astronomy--Early works to 1800.

Astronomy.

Prophecies--Early works to 1800.

Prophecies.

Zodiac in art.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

diagrams

pen and wash drawings

tables (documents)

Finding tabs.

Manuscripts, German.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned in the late 16th century by the Holtzschuher family of Nuremberg (inscriptions, Veit Georg Holtzschuher, dated 1582, f. 125r; his brother Veit Engelhardt Holtzschuher, Nuremberg shoemaker, dated 1589, f. 95v-96r; same name written in a later hand, f. 3v).

Formerly owned by Johann Nepomuk Graf Wilczek (1835-1922), held by that family in the library of Burg Kreuzenstein probably until 1945, no. 22170 (= 82, possibly written in pencil, f. 227v) (Regina Cermann).

Appears in Jörn Günther and Bruce Ferrini's Overlooking the ages: a private exhibition of illuminated manuscripts, miniatures and printed books (1999), no. 21.

Appears in the catalog The art of the book from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance: a journey through a thousand years, accompanying an exhibition organized by Jörn Günther and the John J. Burns Library, Boston College, 2000, no. 53.

Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Dec. 2002.

Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2012.

Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2021.

Physical Description:

227 leaves : paper ; 218 x 150 (158-162 x 110-114) mm bound to 230 x 165 mm

Production:

[Nuremberg?, Germany], [after 1488]

Language Note:

Middle High German, with some headings and sections in Latin.

Summary:

German anthology of astrological and astronomical works, including material copied from three incunables: Johannes Lichtenberger's Prognosticatio (Heidelberg, 1488), astrological predictions about the fate of the Church, the Holy Roman Empire, and the laity; and two editions of the calendar of Regiomontanus (Nuremberg, 1474; Venice, 1478). Later pen trials on blank leaves before, in the midst of, and following the manuscript text. Modern finding tabs.

Contents:

1. f.9r-61v: Prenosticatio zu Theutsch / [Johannes Lichtenberger]

2. f.62r-74v: [Deutscher Kalender (1474)] / [Joannes Regiomontanus]

3. f.75r-95r: [Augsburger Kalender]

4. f. 97r-122r: [Deutscher Kalender (1478)] / [Joannes Regiomontanus]

5. f.132r-146r: [Mond- und Sonnenkalender für den Gebrauch der Diözese Augsburg]

6. f.147r-151v: [Von den zwölf Tierkreiszeichen und ihrem Einfluss auf die Menschen]

7. f.152r-176v: [Vom Einfluss der Monate auf den Menschen]

8. f.178r-183r: [Von den 35 Sternzeichen nach Michael Scotus] / [Kaspar Engelsüss]

9. f.183v-190r: Von den siben Planeten

10. f.190r: Von den vier Complexien

11. f.198r-209v: [Gesundheitsregimen]

12. f.210r: Tabula regionum.

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title from spine label.

Collation: Paper, 227; several gatherings bound out of order (f. 62-74 should follow f. 97-121); [1-227], modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Layout: Most sections written in 29-32 long lines; a few written in 2 columns of 29-34 lines (f. 147r-151v, 178r-183r, 198r-209v); frame-ruled in ink.

Script: Written in Gothic cursive script, with some Latin headings in display capitals.

Decoration: Diagrams and tables in red and black ink; diagrams of eclipses in yellow and brown wash (f. 110r-113v); pen-and-wash drawings of the signs of the zodiac (f. 148r-151r; some zodiac illustrations cut out) and other images, including monsters (f. 178r-182v); rubrication, 2-line initials, paragraph marks, and underlining in red.

Binding: Original (late 15th-century) quarter pigskin over wooden boards, blind-stamped, clasp; 17th-century (?) spine label Prenosticatio, was di. groß Coniunction und d. Eclipsis bedeuten etc.; restored in 1999.

Origin: Copied in or after 1488 (manuscript copy of colophon of edition of Lichtenberger's work printed in Heidelberg in 1488, f. 61v); copied in Germany, possibly Nuremberg (based on binding (Nuremberg named in document used as flyleaf) and inscriptions of 16th-century owners (Cermann)), although a few of the works are intended for an Augsburg audience (f. 75-95r, 132r-146r, 210r).

A detailed description written in 1997 by Regina Cermann (Institut für Mittelalterforschung der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna) is available online, linked to the entry for LJS 445 on the Handschriftencensus site at http://www.handschriftencensus.de/25402.

Local Notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Cited in:

Component texts listed (as from Kreuz. 22170) in Zinner, E. Verzeichnis der astronomischen Handschriften des deutschen Kulturgebietes (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1925), p. 257 (no. 8269, Work 9), p. 294 (no. 9476, Work 8), p. 365 (no. 11902, Work 7), p. 366 (no. 11941, Work 6).

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 74-75 (LJS 445).

Cited as:

LJS 445

Contains:

Regiomontanus, Joannes, 1436-1476. Calendarium.

OCLC:

1005536413

Online:

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