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901

A Curated Gathering

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,400.00 USD Estimated At:2,800.00 - 3,600.00 USD
A Curated Gathering
of twenty-three leaves and fragments from a wide range of Western European countries, regions, scriptoria, and hands. Comprising the essence of Christian life in the Middle Ages to Renaissance and beyond, including representatives of antiphonals, Books of Hours, graduals, hymnals, missals, psalms, and other liturgical artifacts. Most on vellum. Varied sizes, from modest cuttings to full leaves, with uses of black, brown, red, orange, pink, yellow, the rare blue, and other pigments, together with burnished gold. Each item has been attributed. Demonstrating a variety of eccentricities, oddities, and curiosities, including differences between weights of parchment, clues to ink and sizing formulation, shades of colors, including proprietary mixes of reds, blues, and browns, ruling conventions, intended uses from miniatures to tomes of massive proportions, and more. The proximate dating of some items allows interesting comparisons, for both scholars and students alike. Including:

- Manuscript fragment executed at the famed Monastery of Citeaux, Burgundy, France, mother house of the Cistercian Order, c. 1150. Two lines on each side, in a fine Cistercian Romanesque script. From patristic text, Florus of Lyons' Expositio in Epistolas Pauli. Known as the "White Monks," for their habits of undyed wool made from their flocks of sheep. One of the Monastery's members was St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who entered in 1112; the Order followed strict rules on silence and manual labor, emphasizing solitude and simplicity of life. Cistercian scribes were noted for the quality of their parchment, formation of letters, and proportions. Rich brown ink. Rare and significant. Choice condition.

- Leaf from Bible, Oxford, England, c. 1240, produced in the workshop of William de Brailes, one of the few thirteenth-century English illuminators known by name. His illuminations included the Oxford Bible. 5 x 7 1/4. Micro-miniscule script - 10 lines per inch - comprising 51 lines in two columns. Two-line initial in blue, and a seven-line initial in red, each adorned with flamboyant extenders in both colors. Text from Book of Kings IV: chaps. 6-8. Light, pleasing ivory toning, else fine. Such attribution of specific leaves to a specific illuminator's workshop is seldom possible. His work is the subject of De Brailes Hours: Shaping the Book of Hours in Thirteenth-Century Oxford, by Claire Donovan, University of Toronto Press, 1991. In Aug. 2002, a de Brailes leaf realized $1,725 on eBay. See sister leaf in Cleveland Museum of Art's Blackburn Collection, plate 4.

- Distinctively styled leaf from Book of Hours, France, Amiens(?) (site of Cathedral of Notre Dame), c. 1240 - a very early Book of Hours during the first period of transition from psalters and psalter-hours. 4 1/2 x 6. On one side, two especially elaborate initials, extensively burnished in gold, with unusual sky blue, red, and pink flowers. On verso, three single-line initials burnished in gold, each on sky blue ground with red. Text principally in brown, with several lines each side in red. With enormous character, reflecting the ravages of time, with patches of brown scorching - perhaps from storage near a hot chimney or fireplace, and moderate soiling from handling, but still striking and very satisfactory.

- Fragment of a French Folio Bible, Paris, c. 1247. 4 1/4 x 4 1/2. Text from Kings III: chap. 15. In an exquisite hand. The bottom corner of a leaf, with interesting blind-ruled margins. Small triangular wedge thin at bottom edge, some handling toning, else about fine.

- Very scarce complete leaf from workshop of Johannes Grusch, Paris, c. 1247. 7 1/2 x 11 1/4 - an unusual size for thirteenth-century scriptoria. Text from Joshua. One initial in brilliant orange, one in blue. Each side with nearly full-height riser of ornamental brackets in the Grusch style, in alternating orange and blue. An important lay scriptorium noted for their miniatures and music, Grusch's work is illustrated in Manuscript Painting in Paris during the reign of St. Louis (Berkeley, 1977). The workshop has also been the subject of an article, "The Johannes Grusch Atelier and the continental origins of the William of Devon Painter," by Robert Branner, Art Bulletin, Mar. 1972, as well as much other scholarship. From a Bible probably owned by and used at the celebrated and ancient Abbey of Sainte Genevieve in Paris, established in the sixth century. Its windows are said to be the finest in Paris, after those of the Sainte Chapelle. Sainte Genevieve became an esteemed seat of learning, and with St.-Victor's and Notre-Dame, became the cradle of the University of Paris. It is exceptional for a mediaeval manuscript to be attributable to both a specific scriptorium, and to a specific owner. Bean-shaped hole at blank bottom, judged from natural stretching of vellum. Some minor, very fine ink erosion, only discerned when held to light, else very fine.

- Leaf from pocket Bible, France, probably Paris, c. 1250. In Gothic miniscule, 11 lines per inch, comprising 59 lines of text in two columns. Portion of Deuteronomy: chaps. 20-23. Four two-line initials, in alternating marine blue and orange-red, each with charming tracery, the blue of these extenders a highly unusual aqua. Inscrutably tiny marginalia in brown, several of these passages arranged in delightful contoured cones of text. Some bookworming at upper right margin, barely affecting marginalia on verso, part of one column on each side lightened, though evidently a paper-and-ink anomaly, edge toning, else fine and delightful.

- Pair of leaves, believed consecutive, from a traveling Bible of the years of the Eighth - and last - Crusade, France, probably Paris, c. 1260. 4 x 6. Extraordinary for its micro-miniature Gothic textura script - 9 lines per inch - on notably sheer vellum, with a surface like fine suede. Ornamented with four "pheasant plumes" in orange and bright blue (two on the same page). Rubricated initials and marginalia in red and blue. With the end of the last Crusade, "the kingdom of Jerusalem came to an end. The Franks evacuated Syria, leaving behind them only the ruins of their castles and churches to bear witness, to this very day, of the crusades they had waged and of the kingdom that they had founded and lost."--Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1958 ed. Perhaps this leaf was carried to the Holy Land. Darkening from handling to porcelain-like ecru, each leaf with a single tear repaired with tissue tape, presumed archival, else about good. Provenance: From a Bible once owned by William Foyle of Beeligh Abbey.

- Fragment from a psalter, Flanders, c. 1290-1300. 2 x 2. With three initials in blue, embellished with red, plus "P" in burnished gold with suggestion of a simple figure - perhaps an angel - drawn in blue. In Gothic liturgical book hand. Oval stain atop gold letter, judged a drop of moisture, perhaps on the finger of an admiring reader, stain at blank top edge, else very fine.

- Leaf from Book of Hours, northern France, perhaps Paris, c. 1415. 4 3/4 x 7. Versal initials subtly highlighted in yellow. Ruled in palest pink, and penned in warm brown. Loss of crescent corner at blank upper right from old dampstain, else fine.

- Leaf from a Book of Hours, Low Countries, c. 1420. In Dutch. 4 x 5 3/4. Twenty lines per side. Undoubtedly a costly creation, with seven initials each in shimmering liquidy gold, and the rare blue - this appearing with a lovely lapis hue - highlighting text in unusual copper-brown. One word heightened in red. Expert older inlaid strip at blank margin, mid-brown scorching: a notation on the remains of the binding (not present) stated in French that it was damaged by fire in 1914, perhaps in the dawn of World War I. Else very satisfactory, and very scarce.

- Leaf from a miniature prayer book, Low Countries, c. 1440. 2 1/2 x 4. In Dutch, on watermarked paper. Penned in a lettre batarde script, brown with two letters touched in red. Recovered from a small prayer book which contained both paper and vellum leaves, the use of paper for this purpose at this date rather unusual. Waterstains, mostly at blank margin, else good.

- Fragment from Book of Hours which contained illuminations in the style of the Maitre Francois, Paris, c. 1440-50. 1 x 4 1/2. Ruled in red, brown text in Gothic textura script. Toning at two blank edges, else very fine.

- Leaf from a miniature Book of Hours, England, c. 1450. 2 3/4 x 4. Fourteen lines of ruled text, in fine Gothic textura script. English Books of Hours are very uncommon: in 1533, Henry VIII decreed that books relating to the practices of the Church of Rome should be destroyed. Most of the remaining examples were held secretly, in private hands. Concluding on verso, "Amen." Irregular 1/4 x 1 fragment lacking at blank lower left margin, some handling soiling, else very good.

- Fragment from a Flemish gradual leaf, Flanders, c. 1450. (Graduals contain the musical chants for the proper of the Mass.) 1 3/4 x 6 1/4 irregular. Music both sides, red staves and text, Lombardic initials and notation in red. Mousechew removing most of one quadrant, else very fine.

- Leaf from a Book of Hours, Netherlands, c. 1450. In Latin, with four-line addition of a prayer in Dutch. 4 1/2 x 6 1/2. Verso blank. An interesting example, ruled in pale pink, text in coffee-and-cream brown, three letters touched with red, and addition in dark brown (with smudge, almost certainly by scribe's hand). Minor damp evidence at left binding edge, else about very fine.

- Leaf from a superior Book of Hours, southern France, attributed to Aix or Marseilles, c. 1460. 4 x 6. Fifteen lines per side in simulated golden brown, with seven large, one-line initials, alternating in marine blue and burnished gold in bas relief. The seven initials each with microfine - and fairly spectacular - penwork tracery in alternating red and blue. Together with eight uses of end-of-line flourishes in tandem blue and burnished gold, and heightening of some initials in yellow. An unusually round, flowing Gothic hand, perhaps due to the Italian and Spanish influences in the area where produced. A worthy example indeed.

- Fragment from an antiphonal gradual leaf, Spain, c. 1480. 5 x 6 1/4. Elongated rectangular neumes in milk chocolate, on five-line red staves. Ink erosion of one note (only), considerable wear imparting much patina and character, else good.

- Leaf from a breviary, Germany, 15th century. 5 1/4 x 7 3/4. Interestingly scribed on thick paper, rather than vellum. In Latin, in a distinctive precursor script to German Blackletter. Penned in brown, with many initials in a Christmas red unlike any we've seen on such a manuscript: The red pigment was undoubtedly made within the walls of this German scriptorium, from berries, clay, and other local ingredients, imparting its unique and evocative vibrance. Double column both sides of wheat-colored handmade paper. Recovered from use in old binding, with stains corresponding to brushstrokes applying paste; brown somewhat light but legible, red prominent; minor defects and few bookworm holes, else good. Attractive conversation piece. Early manuscripts from Germany are many fewer on the market than those from France or Italy. Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 2002, possibly from a distinguished Norwegian collection.

- Large fragment from monumental antiphonal, Spain, c. 1550. 8 x 8. On one side, diamond neumes in cocoa brown, on two staves, originally five lines each; on verso, parts of five lines of text in ruby red, intended to be legible at a distance. Interesting contrast between hair and undersides of vellum, both unusually supple for such a heavy skin. Some waterstaining of music side, else very good.

- Fragment of Gregorian chant leaf, by an Italian scribe, c. 1606. 5 1/2 x 6 3/4, oversize notes and text, intended for reading in darkened churches. On thick vellum. Rotunda script both sides in brown-black, square neumes on red four-line staves. From an antiphonal attributed to Dominican Order of St. Mary Magdalene in the Quirinal, Rome. Intriguing golden undercolor on verso, reflecting formulation of sizing and pigment; some ink erosion, else fine, with two extremely wide margins, suggestive of scale of book.

- Manuscript missal leaves from a choirbook, France, c. 1753, one with music both sides, on four-line staves. 3 1/2 x 6, on paper. In French and Latin. Large initials in plum red, text in brown. From manuscript, Livres d'Eglise Pour les Vespres qui Commence le Premier Dimanche de l'Avant...& Finie a La Trinite. Music with ink erosion; light handling, else very good.

A superb teaching collection, gift for a favored religious or academic institution - or for oneself. In an age characterized by physical destruction of venerable religious structures, this assemblage preserves the vital evidence of the role of Christianity in the history of the world. Some items understandably with imperfections, but generally very good to very fine. Color photocopy set, front of each item, by postal mail, 20.00. (collection)
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