Showing papers in "Quaerendo in 1990"

Using astronomy as an aid to dating manuscripts The example of the Leiden Aratea planetarium

Abstract: Using tables of planetary, lunar and solar positions, the planetary configuration of the Leiden Aratea-manuscript (MS Leiden, UB Voss. lat. Q 79, fo. 93v) can be dated as 18 March 816, in preference to an earlier calculation, which gave 28 March 579. This new date accords very well with the date of the manuscript itself. The authors suggest that the manuscript was produced at the imperial court at Aachen. The method used might prove useful to date other manuscripts with similar illustrations which are otherwise undatable.

Deux lettres en français de Marie de Reigersberg, veuve de Hugo Grotius

Abstract: [The correspondence of Maria van Reigersberch (1589-1653), wife of Hugo de Groot, was published in 1902. It contains eighty-one of her letters, all of them in Dutch. Another two letters by her are known; these are in French and have hitherto remained unpublished. Both these letters are reproduced in the present article, accompanied by a transcription in modern spelling. The first letter, dated 15 June 1650 and addressed to Jacques Dupuy in Paris deals i.a. with the polemic Claude Saumaise carried on against Grotius after the latter's death. It is preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Collection Dupuy 803, fos. 354r.-355v. The other letter is kept in the British Library, MS Harleian 7012, fo. 186r. It is an aide-memoire intended for Isaac Vossius, then residing at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden. In it Maria van Reigersberch repeats some questions that had remained unanswered. Reference is made i.a. to Grotius's Historia Gotthorum, edited by Isaac Vossius and only published posthumously-probably not without reason in 1655 by Louis Elsevier., The correspondence of Maria van Reigersberch (1589-1653), wife of Hugo de Groot, was published in 1902. It contains eighty-one of her letters, all of them in Dutch. Another two letters by her are known; these are in French and have hitherto remained unpublished. Both these letters are reproduced in the present article, accompanied by a transcription in modern spelling. The first letter, dated 15 June 1650 and addressed to Jacques Dupuy in Paris deals i.a. with the polemic Claude Saumaise carried on against Grotius after the latter's death. It is preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Collection Dupuy 803, fos. 354r.-355v. The other letter is kept in the British Library, MS Harleian 7012, fo. 186r. It is an aide-memoire intended for Isaac Vossius, then residing at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden. In it Maria van Reigersberch repeats some questions that had remained unanswered. Reference is made i.a. to Grotius's Historia Gotthorum, edited by Isaac Vossius and only published posthumously-probably not without reason in 1655 by Louis Elsevier.]

Ploos van Amstel's description of type founding

Abstract: The Amsterdam type foundry of the Brothers Ploos van Amstel was founded in 1763. It took over three other foundries and part of a fourth in the first four years of its existence, and produced an extensive type specimen in 1767. No wonder that in 1765 this ambitious firm conceived the plan of publishing an extensive manual of punch cutting, type founding, type setting and printing. But of this manual, only about forty pages and two engravings were actually published, in 1767 or 1768,