[Collection of alphabets and encoded correspondence].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Contributor:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

Arabic

Subjects (All):

Alphabets--Specimens.

Alphabets.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

alphabets (symbols)

Manuscripts, Arabic.

Manuscripts, Medieval.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Specimens.

Penn Provenance:

Sold at auction at Christie's, 1996.

Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, June 1996.

Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2015.

Physical Description:

106 leaves : paper ; 180 x 124 (119 x 82) mm bound to 180 x 135 mm

Place of Publication:

[Syria?], [14--]

Language Note:

Arabic.

Summary:

Collection of encrypted correspondence between the compiler and various correspondents, in approximately 150 alphabets, accompanied by transcriptions of the letters in Arabic. The compiler cites Shihāb al-Dīn al-Jindī al-ʻAlāʼī, Burhān al-Dīn al-Qudsī, and Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Jaʻfar al-Ḥusaynī as authorities for some of the alphabets. The manuscript is incomplete, lacking its beginning and end. Occasional marginal notes. Some worm damage in margins.

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Collation: Paper, 106; 1² 2¹⁰ 3-4⁸ 5¹⁰ 6⁴ 7⁶ 8-12¹⁰ 13⁸. Catchwords on each page, lower left verso.

Layout: Written in 13 long lines.

Script: Written in naskh script.

Decoration: Arabic equivalents written above some alphabets in red.

Binding: Modern quarter leather, wood covers.

Origin: Possibly written in Syria, in the 15th century.

Local Notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 43 (LJS 51).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 51.

OCLC:

808642012

Online:

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