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Towneley (John) [Sale Catalogue] Bibliotheca Towneleiana. A Catalogue of the Curious and Extensive Library..., Part I only (of 3), annotations, interleaved with prices and buyers' names in manuscript, modern cloth-backed boards, R.H.Evans, 1814; [Sale Catalogue] A Catalogue of a Capital Collection of Prints...[by] Wenceslaus Hollar, prices and names in manuscript, old marbled boards, rebacked and recornered in calf, preserved in modern marbled board drop-back box, [Lugt 9397], King, 1818; [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Towneley Library [& Manuscripts], removed from Towneley Hall, Lancashire, 2 works in 1 vol., ruled in red and with prices in manuscript, old marbled boards, rubbed, rebacked in cloth, Sotheby's, 1883, 8vo & 4to (3)⁂ John Towneley (1731-1813), bibliophile, uncle and heir of Charles Towneley, collector of classical antiquities. The first sale included the "Towneley Homer", the famous 11th century Greek manuscript on vellum which was bought by Charles Burney for £620 and is now in the British Library, and the "Towneley Mysteries" 15th century manuscript now in the Huntington Library in America.

Vertue (George) A Catalogue and Description of King Charles the First's Capital Collection of Pictures, Limnings, Statues, Bronzes, Medals, and other Curiosities, 1757; A Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures, &c. belonging to James the Second; to which is added, A Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings in the Closet of the late Queen Caroline..., 4 double-page engraved plans of the picture hangings, 1758, together 2 works in 1 vol., first editions, the second with annotations in pencil and ink, mostly to the second part (references to Parker's Drawings of Holbein at Windsor Castle and R.A. exhibition of Holbein 1950), some browning, modern morocco-backed cloth, 4to, for W.Bathoe; and 5 others relating to the collection of Charles I, 4to (6)⁂ The magnificent art collection of Charles I was probably the finest collection ever assembled in England, but following his execution the paintings and other treasures were dispersed by Cromwell.The first work was compiled by Abraham Vanderdoort, translated into English by Vertue (from a manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum), and edited by Horace Walpole; the first part of the second work is signed "Will.Chiffinch" and the second part was compiled by Vertue.

Bernal (Ralph) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, from the Byzantine Period to that of Louis Seize, plates, one leaf loose and slightly frayed at edges, original cloth, small ink stain to upper cover, spine worn and faded, 1855 § Bohn (Henry C.) A Guide to the Knowledge of Pottery, Porcelain, and other Objects of Vertu, comprising an Illustrated Catalogue of the Bernal Collection, second edition, plates, one plate & leaf loose, original blind-stamped cloth, spine faded, 1862 § Goode (W.J.) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of...Old Sèvres Porcelain, prices and buyer's names in manuscript, 1895 § King (H.J.) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of...Dresden Porcelain, 1914, the last two with photographic plates, original boards, rubbed and soiled, all but the second Christie & Manson; and 6 old Sotheby catalogues of European ceramics, 8vo & 4to (10)⁂ "To Ralph Bernal, a highly intelligent man trained as a barrister and a Member of Parliament for thirty years, more than to any other single individual in the history of English collecting, we owe the shift of interest among collectors from the work of the artist to the product of the craftsman. Bernal's collection, almost in its entirety, was the stuff museums are made of." It was "probably the greatest collection of ceramics and objets d'art of its time". The English as Collectors pp. 293 & 433. The sale consisted of 4294 lots over 32 days and realised £62,690 18s.

China.- , [Photograph Album], 26 albumen photographs, pasted on album leaves, captioned in manuscript, one or two photographs a little rubbed, occasional spotting and browning, disbound, each photograph c.155 x 110 mm, 1900s.

Polar.- Osborn (Lieut. Sherard) Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; or, Eighteen Months in ... search of Sir John Franklin's Expedition ..., first edition, chromolithographed frontispiece and 3 plates, illustrations, folding colour map, previous owner's ink signature and faint remnants of an ink name-stamp to frontispiece verso, faint damp-staining to 2 plates, manuscript notes on Osborn loosely inserted, modern half calf, modern slipcase, 8vo, 1852.

NO RESERVE Bode (Dr. Wilhelm von) [Sale Catalogue] Nachlass Wilhelm von Bode, some prices in manuscript, original wrappers, a little spotted and soiled, Berlin, Paul Cassirer & Hugo Helbing, 1929; Die Meister der Holländischen und Vlämischen Malerschulen, second edition, illustrations, original vellum-backed marbled boards, spine gilt, Leipzig, 1919; and 9 others by Bode, 4to & 8vo (11)⁂ Dr Wilhelm von Bode (1845-1929) was a German art historian and the creator and first curator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin.

England.- Carter (John) Views of Ancient Buildings in England, 6 vol., first edition, 119 etched plates including title to vol. 1 only (as issued), additional titles in manuscript, tissue-guards, previous owner's inscription dated 1920 to front free endpaper (vol. 1), occasional faint spotting, contemporary calf, rubbed and worn, upper cover of vol. 1 nearly detached, 18mo, [1786-93].

NO RESERVE Wales, Carmarthenshire.- Bargain and sale between John Daniel, Letitia his wife and Hugh Bevan of a messuage and tenement in Llanybyther [now Llanybydder] in Carmarthenshire, and also a messuage and tenement in the parish of Caron, Cardigan, D.s. "John Daniel", "Letitia William" & "Hugh Bevan", manuscript on vellum, indented at head, 3 red wax seals, slightly yellowed and creased, all text legible, 465 x 735mm., 18th September 1766; and 5 other documents on vellum relating to Wales, v.s., v.d. (6).

NO RESERVE Somerset charity.- Ellsworth (Richard, of Bickham, near Timberscombe, Somerset, on his death founded the Ellsworth Charity, now Ellsworth Foundation, 1692-1714) Legal document relating to the terms of the foundation of the Ellsworth Charity, manuscript, 17pp., last f. a few small tears along folds at edges slightly affecting a few letters, some other ff. with tears, folds, slightly browned, 415 x 330mm., [c. 1780s].⁂ Timberscombe,village and civil parish on the River Avill 2.5 miles south-west of Dunster, and 5.5 miles south of Minehead within Exmoor National Park. The parish includes the hamlet of Bickham.

Broadside.- Glorious Revolution.- Some Reflections upon His Highness the Prince of Oranges Declaration, drop-head title, printed in double-column, in manuscript note in contemporary hand at foot of first page, soiled, folded and creased, folio (c.400 x 250mm.), n.p., [1688].⁂ ESTC cites only 2 copies of this broadside edition: British Library and California State Library (Sutro).

[Caulfield (Francis, 2nd Earl of Charlemont)] [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of some Highly Important and Valuable Books and Manuscripts of a Nobleman...11th day of August, with vendor's name supplied in ink at head of title and some prices in manuscript, lacking final leaf, bound with another sale at end (remainder of Charlemont library), with manuscript list of contents to both sales and note on the sale at beginning, book-label of A.N.L.Munby, contemporary half morocco, rubbed, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1865; and another copy of the catalogue in printed wrappers, 8vo (2)⁂ On 29th June 1865 a fire broke out at Sotheby's warehouse and many of the books and records stored there were destroyed, including some of the books from the library of the 2nd Earl of Charlemont awaiting sale on 11th August. The manuscript note at beginning states that "nearly the whole of these fine books were destroyed by fire at the auctioneers, also copies of the catalogue" but, judging by the manuscript prices, most books were saved and were apparently sold on the named date, with the remaining portion on 27th September. Interest was piqued and prices were good; Sir Thomas Phillipps bought some lots but grumbled at the scorched and stained condition of the bindings when he received them. Confusingly, Shakespeare's First Folio (lot 132) appears to have sold for £455 although this appears again as lot 1964 in the second sale, so maybe all the books were sold in the later sale.

Daniel (George) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the most Valuable, Interesting and Highly Important Library..., ruled in red with prices and buyers' names in manuscript, occasional foxing, contemporary morocco-backed marbled boards, rubbed, spine faded, 4to, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1864.⁂ Important library of Elizabethan and Shakespearean literature which made a total of £15,865 2s. It contained fine copies of Shakespeare's first four Folios, the First Folio being bought by Baroness Burdett-Coutts for £716 2s, and many of the quartos. The detailed catalogue includes prints, drawings, coins, silver and porcelain at the end.

Fagel (Greffier Francois) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the intire Cabinet of Capital Drawings, ruled in red and pencil and with prices supplied in manuscript, later half roan, worn, broken and loose, preserved in modern drop-back marbled board box, [Lugt 5921], 8vo, Thomas Philipe, 1799.⁂ The Fagel family acted as Greffier (secretary) to the States-General in Holland from 1670-1795, Francois (1659-1746) being the third in the role from 1690-1744. The family were all distinguished collectors and the library of Hendrik Fagel the younger was offered at auction in London in 1802. The sale never took place as Trinity College Dublin made a pre-emptive bid of £7,000 and the library moved to Dublin en bloc.ESTC lists only 4 copies (Birmingham University, 2 copies in BL and another in the British Museum); Lugt also records one in the V & A.

Gough (Richard) [Sale Catalogue] A Catalogue of the Entire and Valuable Library..., 1810; Museum Goughianum. A Catalogue of the Entire Collection of Prints, Drawings, Coins..., [Lugt 7834], 1810, together 2 works in 1 vol., ruled in red and with prices in manuscript, the second also with buyers' names, one or two leaves becoming loose, contemporary half calf, rubbed, rebacked in cloth preserving old spine, 8vo, Leigh and S.Sotheby⁂ Richard Gough (1735-1809), antiquarian, editor of Camden's Britannia and bibliophile. HIs collection of books and mansucripts on British topography were bequeathed to the Bodleian Library and these catalogues comprised his remaining books and prints etc. The library sale lasted 20 days and totalled £3552 1s 5d.Provenance: Trinity College Cambridge (bookplate and stamps at beginning and end); A.N.L.Munby (book-label and transferral stamp from Trinity to him); Frank Herrmann (pencil signature and acquisition note, purchased from auction of Munby's books).

Grave (Robert) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Valuable and Extensive Collection of Miscellaneous Prints, stipple-engraved portrait, ruled in red and with prices and some buyers' name in manuscript, William Upcott's copy with his inscription on front free endpaper, later ink inscriptions, portrait and title foxed, hole to upper margin of portrait, old marbled boards, contemporary half russia, rubbed, rebacked in calf, upper corners repaired, [Lugt 6907], Richardson, 1805 § Bindley (James) [Sale Catalogue] The Bindley Granger. A Catalogue of the very valuable collection of British Portraits..., prices and names in manuscript, some foxing, contemporary half calf, rubbed, rebacked, [Lugt 9502], Sotheby, 1819; and 10 others on prints, mostly sale catalogues, including a bound volume of mid-19th century print catalogues, 8vo & 4to (12) ⁂ The first is scarce with only 2 copies listed on COPAC, both in the British Museum; Lugt adds another in the V & A.

Hamilton (Duke of) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures, Works of Art, and Decorative Objects..., First [-Fifth] Portion, 5 parts in 1 vol., carbon print photographic plates by James Annan (son of Thomas Annan), prices and buyers' names to first three portions supplied in manuscript, occasional spotting, original cloth, a little rubbed, rebacked preserving original spine (faded), [Lugt 42168], Christie's, 1882; Hamilton Palace Collection (The). Illustrated Priced Catalogue, title in red & black with decorative border, illustrations, original pale green cloth, gilt, uncut, an excellent copy, Paris, Librairie d'Art & London, Remington & Co., 1882; [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Hamilton Library, large and fine paper copy with printed list of prices and buyers' names at end, title soiled, slight staining to lower margin, original printed wrappers, uncut, rubbed and soiled, spine worn, upper cover detached, Sotheby's, 1884, 8vo & 4to (2)⁂ The superb Hamilton Palace Collection included the art collection of William Beckford which was inherited by his son-in-law the 10th Duke of Hamilton along with Beckford's main library which was sold in 1884."2213 items. Pictures, ceramics, French furniture. One of the most magnificent sales ever to be held in England: it lasted fifteen [actually seventeen] days and totalled nearly £400,000". The English as Collectors p.433

NO RESERVE [Hoare (Sir Richard Colt)] [Sale Catalogue] The Stourhead Heirlooms. Catalogue of the Library removed from Stourhead, with prices and buyers' names in manuscript, 1883 bound with Towneley (John) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Towneley Manuscripts [& Library] removed from Towneley Hall, Lancashire, 2 vol., 1883, together 3 works in 1 vol., British Library duplicate copy with Reading Room slips loosely inserted, contemporary half red morocco, rubbed, original printed wrappers bound in, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge ⁂ The Stourhead library was particularly strong on British topography and raised £10,028 6s 6d. The Towneley sale included the 15th century manuscript of the "Towneley Mysteries" now in the Huntington library in America.

NO RESERVE Hodgkin (John Eliot) Rariora being Notes of some of the Printed Books, Manuscripts...collected (1858-1900), 3 vol., titles with decorative border, plates, original buckram, t.e.g., others uncut, slightly soiled, [1900]-02; [Sale Catalogues] The J.E.Hodgkin Collections. Catalogue of the Works of Art, 6 vol. in 1, plates, all but the last vol. neatly ruled in red and with prices and buyers' names in manuscript, contemporary red morocco, gilt, t.e.g., others uncut, a little rubbed, upper joint cracked, Sotheby's, 1914, 4to (4)⁂ The third volume of the first contains a useful section on fireworks. The sale catalogues comprise: Works of Art, Commemorative Medals, Autograph Letters, Engravings, Trade Cards, Book-plates & Broadsides, and the Library.

Ilchester Collection.- Fox-Strangways (Amelia) Catalogue of Pictures belonging to the Earl of Ilchester, errata slip at end, 1883 § Fox-Strangways (G.S.H., Lord Stavordale, later 6th Earl of Ilchester) Catalogue of Pictures belonging to the Earl of Ilchester at Holland House, errata leaf at end, with loosely-inserted manuscript note by F.H. to A.N.L.Munby concerning the volume with Munby's reply on verso and added note on limitation by Charles Sebag-Montefiore, 1904, together 2 vol., [each one of 40 deluxe copies], the first with bookplate of the Earl of Dartrey, the second presentation copy from Mary Ilchester (the author's mother) to Dartrey (her brother), original morocco, gilt, the first by Rivière, the second Birdsall, g.e., rubbed and scuffed, the second spine faded, 4to, privately printed [by the Chiswick Press] (2)⁂ Handsome catalogue of the extensive collection belonging to the Earls of Ilchester, the first listing the pictures at their country seats of Melbury, Redlynch & Abbotsbury and at 42, Belgrave Square in London, the second at Holland House in London. Many of the paintings were acquired by the 4th Earl while serving as diplomat in Florence in the 1820s although he donated several to Christ Church, Oxford (now in the Ashmolean Museum). In 1913 Abbotsbury and its contents were destroyed by fire so this catalogue is a useful record of that part of the collection.

Jermyn (James) [Sale Catalogue] Reydon, near Southwold. Catalogue of the Furniture, Plate, China, Library, Paintings..., several annotations in ink, interleaved with prices and buyers' names in pencil, 2 A.Ls.s. tipped in at beginning (one from Jermyn, another from his daughter), bookplate of H.Jermyn, contemporary half roan, original paper label to upper cover, rubbed, rebacked, [Lugt 19523], Ipswich, Rix and Burton, 1849 § Mills (James) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Large & Extremely Interesting Collection of Articles of Vertu..., title in red & black, photograph of James Mills and his cut signature mounted on verso of title with ink annotation "Died May 1866 when the etchings were sold", prices in manuscript, signature of Clement Charles Rix and bookplate of Clement Charles Rix Spelman on front pastedown, contemporary cloth, water-stained, [Not in Lugt], Norwich, 1865; Catalogue of the Collection of Valuable Water-Color Drawings by J.M.W.Turner..., prices in manuscript, stitched, Norwich, Spelman, 1866; and a small quantity of other sale catalogues of decorative arts, mostly Christie's of jewels and lace from c.1900-1950, 8vo & 4to (c.60)

Lowther (Lancelot, 6th Earl of Lonsdale) [Sale Catalogue] Lowther Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland, First-Fifth Series only (of 6) bound in 1 vol., modern morocco-backed marbled boards, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, original wrappers bound in, g.e., spine faded, Maple & Co. Ltd. & Thomas Wyatt, 1947 § Rushout (John, 2nd Baron Northwick) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the late Lord Northwick's Extensive and Magnificent Collection of Ancient and Modern Pictures...at Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, tinted lithographed frontispiece (lightly spotted), original cloth, rubbed and faded, [Lugt 25025], Phillips, 1859 § (Victor) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Magnificent Contents of 148 Piccadilly, W.1..., some prices in manuscript, original boards, lacking spine, Sotheby's, 1937 § Townshend (Hon. Robert Marsham) [Sale Catalogue] A Catalogue of the Sydney Collection at Frognal, Chislehurst, Kent, original boards, lacking spine, Knight, Frank & Rutley, 1915 § Oppenheimer (Henry) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Famous Collection of Old Master Drawings, later calf-backed boards, Christie's, 1936, plates, rubbed; and a small quantity of sale catalogues, mostly First World War up to 1970, 4to & 8vo ⁂ The first was a notorious sale. In a loosely-inserted note Frank Herrrmann writes, "As far as the books were concerned this sale constituted one of the worst cases of 'ringing' perpetuated by the antiquarian book trade in recent memory. The shame of it echoed among the trade for many years after...".The Rothschild sale "was one of the greatest pre-war Sotheby sales" while the Sydney Collection was "another first world war casualty on a magnificent scale". (The English as Collectors, p.435). The latter contained many rare items of Americana and Australiana.

Lyttelton (Charles George, 8th Viscount Cobham) A Catalogue of the Pictures at Hagley Hall, inscribed by the author to his brother Albert V.Lyttelton on front pastedown with several corrections in ink, errata leaf tipped in at end, original buckram, gilt, t.e.g., other uncut, a little rubbed, spine faded and titled in manuscript, 8vo, privately printed at the Chiswick Press, 1900.⁂ Scarce. Hagley Hall, Worcs., is the seat of the Lyttelton family, a neo-Palladian house built between 1754 and 1760. A fire on Christmas Eve 1925 destroyed the library and some of the pictures, as indicated by the ink annotations in the catalogue. COPAC lists only 3 copies (National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and Oxford University).

Rogers (Samuel) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Very Celebrated Collection of Works of Art...also, the Extensive Library..., 5 parts in 1 vol., ruled in red with prices and buyers' names supplied in manuscript, manuscript list of totals at end, title with short tear to lower edge and light water-staining to first few leaves, contemporary half morocco, t.e.g., rubbed, [Lugt 22964], Christie & Manson, 1856; and 2 others by or about Rogers, 8vo (3)⁂ Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) was a banker, poet, art collector and connoisseur whose lifetime spanned the peak of English collecting but he bought astutely and is supposed never to have exceeded £250 on a purchase. He acquired mainly Italian and English paintings and was one of the first to collect early Italian art but he also amassed prints & drawings, antiquities, sculpture, Greek vases, coins and furniture, and a vast library. The sale lasted for 20 days and totalled £45,188. 14s. 3d.; the National Gallery purchased several paintings besides the three Rogers bequeathed to the Gallery.Frank Herrmann's "favourite collection of 'works of art' of every kind!" The English as Collectors, p.435.

Roscoe (William) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the very select and valuable Library...which will be sold by auction...on Monday the 19th August, and Thirteen following Days, interleaved with prices and buyers' names neatly written in ink with leaf at end showing individual days' and other sales' totals, advertisement leaf for sales of Roscoe's prints, drawings and paintings at end, modern half calf, spine ruled in gilt and slightly faded, slip-case, 8vo, Liverpool, Winstanley, 1816.⁂ William Roscoe (1753-1831) of Liverpool was a lawyer, abolitionist, botanist, author, art collector and bibliophile. In 1816 the Liverpool bank of which he was a partner was in financial difficulties and he was forced to sell his library and collection. According to the leaf at end the library raised £5154 8s 6d. with the major lot being a 14th century Italian illuminated manuscript Bible which was bought by Robinson for £178 10s and subsequently sold to Coke of Holkham for 200 guineas. Several of the books were bought by his friend Coke and others were bought by friends for him but he refused to accept these and they were donated to the Liverpool Athenaeum. The whole collection, with prints, drawings and paintings, totalled £9586 19s.

Roscoe (William) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the very select and valuable Library..., 1816; [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Genuine and Entire Collection of Prints..., 1816; [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the...Collection of Drawings and Pictures..., 1816, 3 parts in 1, prices and some buyers' names in manuscript (names shaved), some spotting, contemporary half russia, worn, spine defective, Liverpool, Winstanley; List of the Numbers and Prices of the Library..., bound with similar lists for prints and drawings & pictures with index, original wrappers, torn, frayed and detached, Macclesfield, 1818; On the Origin and Vicissitudes of Literature, Science and Art, and their Influence on the Present State of Society. A Discourse delivered on the Opening of the Liverpool Royal Institution..., first edition, browned, modern marbled boards, Liverpool, 1817; and another on Roscoe, 8vo & 4to (4)⁂ Roscoe's art collection was intended to illustrate the rise and progress of the Arts and he was particularly interested in early Italian art or Primitives, being one of the first British collectors in this area. The List of Prices is interesting for it includes a 'Memoranda' leaf at the end which states that the collections of drawings and that of Italian pictures were each offered for sale as a collection, for £1000 in both cases (plus £500 for the German & Flemish paintings), but there being no bidders the items were then sold individually. According to the manuscript list of totals in the previous lot the prints made £1901 4s, the drawings £646 6s 6d. and the pictures £2885. This item is scarce; although occasionally found bound with the catalogues COPAC & WorldCat record only 2 separate copies of the 16pp. list of the library prices (Oxford and Trinity College, Hartford Ct.), and only one of the 10pp. list of print prices (Oxford) with no mention of the further 6pp. of prices of the drawings and pictures.

Rushout (John, 2nd Baron Northwick) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the late Lord Northwick's Extensive and Magnificent Collection of Ancient and Modern Pictures...at Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, tinted lithographed frontispiece (lightly foxed), some prices in manuscript, frontispiece and first few leaves loose, original cloth, spine faded and with nick to joint, [Lugt 25025], Phillips, 1859 § [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Magnificent Contents of Alton Towers, the princely seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury, original cloth, rebacked preserving part of original spine, [Lugt 23727], Christie's, 1857 § Magniac (Hollingworth) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Renowned Collection of Works of Art..., original boards, [Lugt 50986], Christie's, 1892 § Taylor (John Edward) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Renowned Collection of Works of Art..., 2 vol., vol.1 with prices in manuscript, original boards, Christie's, 1912, plates, rubbed; and 12 other pre-First World War sale catalogues including John Watkins Brett, 1864; Robert Napier, 1877; Dr. John Percy, Part 1, 1890; Adrian Hope, 1894; Martin Heckscher, 1898, 4to & 8vo (14)⁂ The Alton Towers sale last 30 days but only realised £42,198 16s. "Many of the pictures...were bought in Rome in 1829 in one lot from Madame Bonaparte, mother of Napoleon, by the Shrewsbury family". The English as Collectors, p.433John Edward Taylor "was one of the proprietors of the Manchester Guardian, and the sale of his magnificent collection of every form of antique and pictures was one of the greatest before the beginning of the first world war. It raised a grand total of £385,500. A great deal of interest centred in Taylor's Turner drawings when, during a single day, Lockett Agnew bought 49 out of 61 items". The English as Collectors, p.436

Sotheby (Samuel) A List of the Original Catalogues of the Principal Libraries which have been sold by auction by Mr Samuel Baker, from 1744 to 1774...Mr. Sotheby, from 1816 to 1828..., second issue (extended to 1828), advertisement leaf for large paper copies at end, a few neat ink annotations, interleaved, with manuscript presentation note from a Mr Nichols tipped in, original wrappers, inscribed at head of upper wrapper, rubbed, spine a little worn, 8vo, 1828.⁂ Scarce list of Sotheby sales, originally issued in 1818, with the sales listed both chronologically and alphabetically.

Stowe.- Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (Richard, 2nd Duke of Buckingham) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Contents of Stowe House, near Buckingham, lithographed frontispiece and 2 plates, some prices and buyers' names supplied in manuscript, original printed blue wrappers, rubbed, frayed at edges, modern marbled slip-case, [Lugt 19122], Christie & Manson, 1848; [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Library removed from Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, 1849 bound with The Stowe Granger. Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits, [Lugt 19255], 1849 and Catalogue of the remaining portion of Engraved British Portraits, [Lugt 19283], 1849, together 3 works in 1 vol. (the second bound last), a few prices and buyers' names in manuscript, modern half morocco, calf label, S.Leigh Sotheby & Co. § Forster (Henry Rumsey) The Stowe Catalogue Priced and Annotated, mezzotint frontispiece of Rembrandt's Unmerciful Servant' (foxed), title in red & black, lists of both subscribers & purchasers, plates, advertisements at end, contemporary blind-stamped cloth, rebacked in calf, 1848 § Thompson (E.Maunde) Catalogue of a selection from the Stowe Manuscripts...in the British Museum, plates, bookplate of Rev. C.H.Middelton Wake with A.L.s. from the author to him tipped in, original cloth-backed boards, 1883 § [Sale Catalogue] The Ducal Estate of Stowe, catalogue no.300, plates, folding colour plans, joints split, original cloth-backed boards, rubbed, spine torn, Jackson Stops, 1921; and another on Stowe, v.s. (6)⁂ Group of sale catalogues of various portions of the great art collection and library at Stowe, following the bankruptcy in 1847 of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, who was rumoured to have left for the Continent with debts exceeding £1,000,000. The first sale of the contents totalled £75,562 4s 6d. It included the famous "Chandos Portrait" of Shakespeare which sold to the Earl of Ellesmere for £372 15s. and in 1856 became the first donation to the newly-created National Portrait Gallery. "A tragic sale this...It lasted thirty-five days and the prices were incredibly low. This was probably because such a vast accumulation of treasure by many generations of a single family was just more than the trade, collectors and local gentry between them could absorb at one go." The English as Collectors, p.435

Sykes (Sir Mark Masterman) [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Splendid, Curious, and Extensive Library..., 3 parts in 1, engraved portrait, with prices and buyers' names supplied in manuscript, portrait with marginal foxing and lightly offset onto title,contemporary half calf, uncut, rubbed, 8vo, Evans, 1824.⁂ Sir Mark Masterman Sykes (1771-1823) M.P., of Yorkshire, was an important book-collector. His library was particularly strong in incunabula (including a Gutenberg Bible) and Elizabethan poetry; it realised nearly £10,000.

Leaf from a very large copy of the Acta Sanctorum, with parts of the Passion of St. Theodore the Martyr, in Beneventan minuscule, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Monte Cassino), eleventh century] Single large leaf, with remains of double column of 33 lines in a good and regular Beneventan hand with notably large letters (cf. the eleventh-century Homiliae Capitulares leaf in Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages IV: Beneventan Script, 1990, no. 3, and perhaps also no. 8), ‘et’-ligature used integrally within words and ‘ri’-ligature present, recovered from reuse as a pastedown in a later binding and so with holes, tears and damage to edges, slightly cockled and discoloured, reverse scuffed reducing legibility there, trimmed at edges but without losses of lines of text, overall fair and presentable condition, 430 by 315mm. The present leaf is a notably large and early example of Beneventan minuscule. Beneventan script stands quite apart from almost all modern Western scripts, and in its strangeness both confounds and delights the eye of the modern reader. While the Carolingian script reforms swept away the handful of remaining local bookhands at the end of the Dark Ages and replaced them with Carolingian minuscule, the local script of Monte Cassino stood firm, and in fact spread to dependent areas in southern Italy and adjacent Dalmatia. In time the simple and elegant Carolingian minuscule passed to humanist script and to printing, while Beneventan minuscule carried on alone of the Dark Age scripts to the sixteenth century. To look at its strange curling letterforms, broken lines and reliance on early medieval abbreviations is to stare across an gulf at a paleographical fossil, on another evolutionary branch of development from our own.

Leaf from a Romanesque Bible, with large initial, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [southern France or northern Spain, second half of twelfth century (probably last decades)] Single leaf, with double column of 48 lines of a small and angular early gothic bookhand (written space: 203 by 125mm.), some biting curves and written above topline, small amount of marginalia, red rubric, one small blue initial formed of split bars within red penwork picking out acanthus leaves, one large initial ‘A’ (opening “Adam set enos caynan …”, the opening of I Chronicles) in large split pale blue bars, edged with and containing red acanthus leaves, foliate extension in border filling over half the page in height, line-pricking just visible in lower part of outer border, one large stain at head of second column (but text legible), modern pencil folio no. ‘118’ in upper outer corner, else good condition, 264 by 182mm.; in Otto Ege’s card mount with his printed description taped to front and his pencil notes Otto Ege owned the present manuscript before 1939, and it was no. 59 on his Handlist. The leaves are extremely rare in Ege’s sets, and S. Gwara records none in any known collection but draws his information from the photographs in the 1952 Microfilm Memorial Archive, Berks County Historical Society, Reading, PA. (Otto Ege’s Manuscripts, 2013, p. 139 and p. 6, n. 14). The emergence of this leaf with its strange initial opens the possibility that the parent manuscript was from northern Spain, rather than France.

Bifolium from a copy of Peter Lombard, Magna Glossatura in Epistolas Pauli, with parts of St. Paul’s epistle to Timothy, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [northern France (doubtless Paris), thirteenth century] 2 conjoined leaves, with double column of 28 lines of main text, with gloss set in blocks of smaller script integrally within text columns, simple red and blue initials and running titles in alternate coloured capitals, the larger with scrolling and scalloping penwork, those adjacent to margins with ornate penwork there in both colours, original drypoint glossed leaf-signatures ‘VI’ and ‘IIII’ as well as modern pencil foliation ‘195’ and ‘202’, prickmarks visible and leaf untrimmed, small spots and natural flaws in margin, else excellent condition, each leaf: 352 by 253mm. From a large and handsome copy of the text identified as from the medieval library of the Augustinian abbey of Rebdorf. The parent codex was sold by Sotheby’s, 17 June 2003, lot 82, and then dispersed. Other leaves have appeared in Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages VIII, 2007, no. 95; Sotheby’s, 10 July 2012, lot 1 and again 7 July 2015, lot 8; as well as in our rooms, 6 July 2017, lot 10.

Leaf from a Glossed Bible from the medieval library of Cambron Abbey, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [northern France (doubtless Paris), mid-thirteenth century] Single large leaf, with main column of 23 lines in angular early gothic bookhand (with Iob 31:7-23, written space including integral gloss: 195 by 140mm.), integral glosses set in smaller script in columns on either side, other glosses added by the main glossing hand interlineally, then near-contemporary additions of further such material in outer margins of page, paragraph marks in red or blue, initials in same with contrasting penwork, running titles (here “L / IOB” in alternate red and blue capitals at head of each page), some stains and darkening in places, splits and torn edges (but prick marks still visible at outer edge) from reuse as a later book binding, but overall fair and presentable, 350 by 233mm. This leaf may be all that remains of a large and proud Glossed Bible codex, produced in Paris in the mid-thirteenth century, but then in the library of the great Belgian Cistercian monastery of Cambron in Hainault (founded from Clairvaux in 1148, suppressed in the late eighteenth century). Their distinctive late medieval ownership inscription “De camberone” at foot of verso. The practice of inscribing a monastery’s name on a number of randomly selected internal pages began at Cîteaux itself and became characteristically Cistercian, but no other house practised it as compulsively as Cambron (cf. British Library, Egerton MSS. 628, 630 and 647, and the Bible in Sotheby’s, 8 December 2009, lot 49, among others). The parent volume is almost certainly the “Iob glossatus, bis” listed in their late medieval library catalogue as part of a large gift by Magister Godfredus (A. Sanderus, Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta, 1641, I, p. 355). It appears to have still been on the shelf there in 1792, and appears in an inventory of that date as “Liber iob actus apostolorum / Canonicae apocalysipsis glossati” (R. Plancke, Les catalogues de manuscrits de l'ancienne abbaye de Cambron, 1938, p. 59, no. 192). The abbey may have started to take leaves from their own manuscripts in the sixteenth century and beyond, leaving the bulk of the codex on the shelf. The library there was dispersed in the early nineteenth century, with 34 of its manuscripts passing to Sir Thomas Phillipps (Munby, Phillipps Studies, III, 1954, pp. 22-3; and including the next volume on the shelf in the 1792 inventory, a Glossed Epistles of St. Paul, now Brussels, Bibl. Royale II 2537). The present leaf, in situ on the binding of a later book, must have passed out of the monastery then to J. de Billemont of Brussels: his calligraphic ex libris at foot of recto (and thus once on outside of later book).

Two bifolia from a philosophical text citing Aristotle, De Anima, and the works of St. Augustine among others, in Latin, from the medieval library of the Carthusians of Buxheim, manuscript on parchment [southern Germany (Bavaria, probably Buxheim, near Memmingen), thirteenth century] 4 leaves (2 bifolia), each leaf with double column of 58 lines in a tiny hairline early gothic script, spaces left for rubrics and initials, recovered from reuse on a later binding and hence torn at top with losses to a few lines, trimmed along one vertical side with same, scuffed at reverse with slight loss of legibility there, overall fair and presentable condition, each leaf approximately 225 by 159mm. With the late medieval ex libris of the Carthusians of Buxheim: “Kartusiens’ de bustheim” written vertically along outer margin of one page. The monastery was founded in 1402, and rapidly expanded to become one of the largest Charterhouses in Germany. They quickly focussed their activities on book production and building up their library, so that by the early sixteenth century it numbered over a thousand volumes and was among the very largest in Europe. By the seventeenth century it appears that the medieval parts of the library were seen as superfluous by the monks, and some of their books appeared in the Paris book trade in the seventeenth century. The house was dissolved in 1803, and the remaining library with many of the other goods passed to the Counts of Ostein. Due to financial mismanagement the family was forced to liquidate its assets, and some 16,680 volumes from the library were sold in Munich in 1883, with the unsolds passing to the booksellers Ludwig and Nathan Rosenthal. The early printed book which these presumably were used to bind, must have been among the 540 incunabula in that sale.

Leaves from an English pocket Bible, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [England (probably Oxford), second half of thirteenth century] 7 continuous leaves (modern pencil foliation 398-404), with double column of 44 lines of professional and spiky English early gothic bookhand, capitals touched in red, red rubrics, versal numbers in pale blue, simple initials in same with red penwork, some stains to first few leaves and discoloration at edges, trimmed at edges with losses of running titles, else good condition, 195 by 138mm.

Leaves from an English pocket Bible with a human drollery and a large illuminated initial, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [England (probably Oxford), second half of thirteenth century] 8 continuous leaves (a gathering, modern pencil foliation 405-12), with double column of 44 lines of professional and spiky English early gothic bookhand, capitals touched in red, red rubrics, versal numbers in pale blue, simple initials in same with red penwork, one large half-page initial ‘P’ on first leaf (opening “Primum quidem sermonem …”, the opening of the Acts of the Apostles), body of initial in blue, enclosing swirls of foliage on burnished gold, the whole on a russet frame with gold bezants set at its edges, and with coloured foliate tendrils extending up and down the margin terminating at their foot in curled leaves and at their head in a humorous human-drollery formed of a tonsured monk in a cowl with lion’s legs, some oxidisation to parts of monk’s face and scratches to body (these perhaps intentional and by an inmate of a monastic house who once owned the book), trimmed at edges with losses of running titles, else good condition, 195 by 140mm. From the same manuscript as the previous lot.

Two leaves from a copy of Seneca the younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy, late thirteenth or early fourteenth century] 2 single leaves, each with double column of 40 lines of a tall Italian gothic bookhand (with parts of epistles 81-2 & 83-4), spaces left for initials, some pointing finger marks, reused in a later binding and hence with scuffs and stains, a few later Italian scribbles in margins, overall in fair and presentable condition, each 209 by 145mm. Unlike many other works of Classical literature, the Middle Ages never set aside and forgot the gentle moralising works of the Roman philosopher and statesman, Seneca the younger (c. 4 BC.-65 AD., more properly Lucius Annaeus Seneca). His collection of letters seems to have been split in Antiquity into three volumes, with the first two containing letters 1-88 and 89-124 respectively, and the third volume lost. The first volume, with the texts here, survived as a predominantly French tradition, with the two halves reuniting again in Normandy and England around the time of the Norman Conquest. The letters here cover the subjects of ‘benefits’ (or acts of kindness to others), the natural fear of death (with the line “Leisure without study is death; it is a tomb for the living man”), drunkenness (arguing that “the wise man ought not to get drunk … [as] what men call pleasures are punishments as soon as they have exceeded due bounds”), and the gathering of ideas over riches.

Leaf from a Gratian, Decretum, with gloss, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [France, last decades of twelfth century or early decades of thirteenth century] Single leaf, with double column of main text with 42 lines of a thin and exquisitely precise early gothic bookhand, with biting curves and the pronounced angularity of gothic script, red rubrics, tall and thin initials in red, gloss added in thirteenth century in smaller more angular script in margins, prickings visible down one upright edge, the other trimmed with small losses to end of one main column there (as well as removal of adjacent marginal gloss), small holes, tears and stains, overall fair and presentable condition, 290 by 220mm. This leaf is a notably early witness to this crucially important legal text. It was composed in Bologna in an initial version after 1139, followed by a second recension in the 1150s. We know little about the author, apart from his name: Gratian. He attempted to resolve discordant parts of the law, and after the incorporation of the text into the Corpus Juris Canonici it came to form the bedrock for all medieval ecclesiastical law, and remained the established text until the early twentieth century. By 1143 the text was in use in legal disputes in Venice, and spread rapidly across the rest of Europe, being cited c. 1180 by Robert of Torigny, the abbot of Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, in his chronicle. For other early leaves of it, see that dated to c. 1170-80 sold in our rooms, 9 December 2015, lot 23, and another leaf copied before c. 1180 sold in our rooms, 6 July 2016, lot 22. The text here is Decretum II, 1,1, cap. xxii.

Bifolium from Jacobus de Voragine, Sermones de sanctis, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy, fourteenth century (perhaps first half)] 2 conjoined leaves, each with double column of 33 lines in a tiny rounded Italian bookhand heavily influenced by university script, capitals touched in red, paragraph marks in red or turquoise blue, one red rubric, some staining and wormholes, folded over at top (only affecting upper margin), trimmed at edges with losses to edges of outer column of text on one leaf, overall fair and legible condition , complete leaf: 157 by 120mm. The author was the archbishop of Genoa celebrated for his compiling of the Legenda Aurea. He records in his Chronicon januense that after taking the office of archbishop he composed his ‘sermons concerning all the saints’, providing sermon material for saints’ feasts throughout the liturgical year.

Leaves from an extremely large codex of John of Freiburg, Summa confessorum and the same author’s Tractatus de instructione confessorum, in Latin, manuscript on parchment with another seven fragments from two near-contemporary legal manuscript codices of same date on parchment [France and Italy, early fourteenth century] 11 leaves (including 2 bifolia), including: (i) a complete leaf and part of a bifolium (trimmed at top to remove upper quarter of leaves) from John of Freiburg, Summa Confessorum, double column of 51 lines of a fine rounded early gothic bookhand, quotations underlined in red, red rubrics, paragraph marks in alternate red or blue, small initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, 2 larger initials variegated in red or blue with elaborate penwork infill and penwork extensions in margin trailing into long whip-like penstrokes, one catchword at end of partial bifolium, reused on an account book dated ‘1569’ and so with some scrawls, some staining overall, losses of parchment from bifolium with affect to outer columns, overall in fair and legible condition, complete leaf: 370 by 290mm., France, early fourteenth century; plus another 7 cuttings from 2 Canon Law codices: one partial bifolium, 3 half leaves and 3 strips, reused in bindings and somewhat defective, overall fair condition, France and Italy, fourteenth century The Dominican theologian, John of Freiburg, composed his gigantic Summa confessorum in the years 1297-8, and his smaller Tractatus de instructione confessorum (also known as Confessionale) in the years immediately following. These works were an extension to the works of Raymond of Pennafort and William of Rennes’ gloss on that work. They were very popular in the Middle Ages, and both survive in approximately 170 recorded manuscripts (T. Kaeppeli and E. Panella, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum medii aevi, 1970-93, ii. 430-6 and iv. 152).

Bifolium from a copy of John Marchesinus, Mammotrectus super Bibliam, or ‘nourisher on the Bible’, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [France, fifteenth century] 2 conjoined leaves (innermost bifolium from gathering), with double column of 49 lines in a good French late medieval bookhand (continuous text for chs. 4-28 of text), names of authorities and quotations underlined in red, capitals touched in red, red paragraph marks, red rubrics, running titles “De primo libro Genesis” in red, some small holes, corners cut away, discoloured on reverses of leaves, one border slightly trimmed (without affect to text), overall in fair and presentable condition, each leaf: 345 by 240mm. John Marchesinus was an important Franciscan author who lived in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. He completed this work, an etymological analysis of the Vulgate, in Reggio Emilia around the end of the thirteenth century. It was intended to provide young friars with a semantic, liturgical, and theological aid to understand the Scriptures.

Leaf from a theological commentary with alphabetical entries, these here on teaching, tolls and preaching, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [France, fourteenth century] Single leaf, with double column of 54 lines in a squat university hand with numerous abbreviations, capitals touched in red, paragraph marks in red or blue, 2-line initials in same with a few strokes of penwork decoration each, entries numbered in margin in red in Arabic numerals, running titles in red and normal pen (the latter probably once instructions to rubricator but left in place), a few marginal notes by contemporary or near-contemporary hands, else with wide and clean margins, overall in excellent condition, 310 by 215mm.; card mount From a text that drew on patristic sources such as St. Augustine, as well as medieval authors such as St. Francis and Henry of Ghent (d. 1293). The entries here are on the topics of “praeceptum”, “pedagium” and “praedicator”.

Bifolium from an illuminated Missal, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy (perhaps Milan), fourteenth century] 2 conjoined leaves, each with double column of 39 lines in 2 sizes of a good and rounded gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, small initials in red or blue, larger initials in same with penwork foliage filling entire border, larger initials in red or blue (the red perhaps added by a later hand) with three-quarter borders of swirls of coloured acanthus leaves with gold beads on their stems and gold leaf tips and flowers, scuffs and spots, corners cut away, slightly darkened in places, but overall fair and presentable, each leaf: 285 by 190mm.

Three bifolia from a decorated manuscript Missal, in Latin, on parchment [Italy, fifteenth century] 6 leaves (3 bifolia), each with single column of 27 lines in 2 sizes of an excellent late gothic bookhand, capitals touched in yellow wash, red rubrics, one-line initials in alternate red and blue, larger initials in same but encased within scrolling penwork in alternate colour, one leaf with a scrawl in lower margin, another with pronounced grain pattern, some spots and scuffs, else good condition, each leaf: 278 by 200mm.

Three bifolia from a gargantuan Missal, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Germany (perhaps Rhineland), late fourteenth century or perhaps opening of fifteenth century] 6 leaves (3 bifolia), each leaf with double column of 31 lines in two sizes of an accomplished gothic bookhand with pronounced fishtailing to ascenders and significant lateral compression (written space: 330 by 210mm.), capitals formed of elongated penstrokes and touched in red, red rubrics (with hairline instructions to rubricator remaining in margin), simple red initials, small amount of interlinear corrections by later hands, small spots and one small hole due to natural flaw in parchment, one leaf with an early leather page-marker pasted to outer edge, else in excellent condition, each leaf 458 by 316mm. These leaves were once part of an impressive manuscript, probably produced for lectern reading. Other leaves have been offered for sale in Quaritch, cat. 1147 (1991), no. 71, and 1434 (2016), no. 27.

Choirbook leaf with a delicately painted initial, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy (perhaps Veneto), mid-thirteenth century] Single large leaf, with an initial ‘D’ (opening “Dum per ambularet dominus iuxta …”, the verse for the first night of the Feast of St. Andrew), in soft pale brown strokes with white penwork picking out bands at its midpoint and curls of acanthus leaves at terminals, enclosing mirrored sprays of green and red foliage on dark blue grounds, all within a pale brown and red penwork frame, remaining letters of the word which the initial begins in red ornamental capitals, one initial in blue with red penwork, capitals in long and complex red penstrokes making these letters unusually tall and thin, smaller capitals touched in red, 10 lines of text in a good early gothic hand with pronounced fishtailing to ascenders and strangely an st-ligature, with music in square notation arranged on a primitive stave above a red clef line, one missing section of text supplied in margin (this partly cut away by trimming), small spots and stains, else excellent condition, 390 by 280mm.; framed in glass on both sides From an extremely early choirbook. The main initial is executed brilliantly, and the complex tall red capitals here delight the eye and find parallels in a leaf catalogued by G. Freuler for the Koller auction in Zurich of 18 September 2015, lot 150. The music here is arranged in a notably antiquated form, but one that can be found in some Italian choirbooks as late as the early fourteenth century (cf. P. Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, no. 19).

Large decorated initial from a manuscript Antiphoner, repaired with sections from a late twelfth-century Missal, both on parchment [northern Italy (probably Bologna), late thirteenth century] Single leaf, with large initial ‘E’ (96 by 79mm., opening “Ecce vicit Leo …”, a responsory for the Second Procession at Easter) in finely scalloped blue bars shaded with gold and heightened with white penwork, enclosing symmetrical sprays of blue acanthus leaves on pink, red, and pale brown grounds, a coloured knot at the head and foot of the initial’s body, simple initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, capitals touched in red, rubrics in red, 7 lines of early gothic bookhand with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum 28mm.), torn area of bottom of leaf supported with cutting from a twelfth-century Missal (260 by 90mm.), most probably from central Italy and early twelfth century (cf. the similar initials in the group of mss in Avril and Zaluska, Manuscrits Enlumines d’origine italienne I, 1980, nos.60-63, 66 and 72, all from central Italy and ranging in date from the late eleventh to the first decades of the twelfth century; and Berg, Studies in Tuscan Twelfth Century Illumination, 1968, no.133, pl. 380, Pistoia and second quarter of twelfth century) with remains of 3 columns of text (from 2 leaves), 10 lines, with capitals touched in yellow and the top of a large initial ‘I’ in yellow with a geometric interlace top and red and green grounds, eighteenth-century Biblical reference and folio no. “51”, some small spots, reverse with heavy grain-pattern and hence somewhat dark, overall good, 470 by 340mm. Once owned by Bernard Rosenthal, and with his stock no. “BMR Misc 6a” in pencil.

Leaf from a Missal, Dominican Use, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy (Perugia), parent manuscript dated 1353] Single leaf, with double column of 26 lines of a round and ornate gothic bookhand in two sizes (written space: 210 by 153mm.), capitals touched in pale yellow, red rubrics, one-line initials in red or blue, 2-line initials in same with contrasting penwork scrolling the height of the border, two large initials in coloured acanthus leaf fronds, enclosing sprigs of blue foliage, and with large gold baubels set within their bodies, all on blue grounds edge with gold, curls of coloured acanthus leaves in border, small spots, else excellent condition, 328 by 299mm.; in Otto Ege’s card mount with his printed description taped to front and his pencil notes A significant portion of the parent manuscript was acquired by Otto Ege soon after 1935, most probably from Philip Duschnes (who had other leaves in his cat. 31, c. 1936). It had formerly belonged to the collector Marsden J. Perry (1850-1935). It is no. 122 on Ege’s Handlist (see S. Gwara, Otto Ege’s Manuscripts, 2013, pp. 158-9 for lists of known leaves as well as catalogue references).

Leaf from an opulently illuminated Book of Hours, in Latin, on parchment [France (Paris), c. 1430] Single leaf, with single column of 16 lines in an excellent late gothic bookhand, rubrics in liquid gold, one- and 2-line initials in blue and pink on burnished gold grounds, one large initial in same enclosing densely twisting ivy leaf foliage, full border of acanthus leaf sprays in corners and other hairline and realistic foliage with coloured fruit and gold leaves, small spots, else excellent condition, 192 by 140mm. Other leaves from the same manuscript were sold in our rooms, 6 December 2017, lots 63-4.

Leaf from an illuminated Missal, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [probably Rhineland or perhaps northern Netherlands, late fourteenth century] Single large leaf, with double column of approximately 21 lines in an elongated and angular script, with sharp-edged wedges at head and foot of ascenders, with music in the form of hufnagelschrift neumes arranged on pale green and red clef lines, red and blue penwork ‘knots’ used to fill space between words that accompany music, capitals in spiky penstrokes and touched in red, red rubrics, one large red initial leaving blank parchment foliage within its body, encased in blue penwork, 2 illuminated initials in burnished gold, on bicoloured blue and dark pink grounds heightened with white penwork, the first extending its gold body into margin in two long thin bars edged with blue and pink which extend the full height of the column and terminate in spiky gold leaves, contemporary folio number “Li” in red at head of page, modern pencil “76” in upper outer corner, 340 by 240mm.; gilt frame

Frontispiece of a Commission of Leonardo Loredan, doge of Venice, appointing Hieronimus de Pesaro to high office, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern Italy (Venice), sixteenth century] Single leaf cut from the opening of a longer document, with 14 lines in humanist script on front and 28 on reverse, simple red and dark blue one-line initials, a 2-line initial in liquid gold on burgundy ground, text on front set within a realistic dull-gold frame and panels of scrolling foliage in same on purple grounds, a winged lion holding a book in a cabouchon in the upper border, a larger cabouchon in the bas-de-page with a road winding away in a grassy landscape, with the de Pesaro arms hanging from a tree, some flaking of paint from lower left hand corner of border, edges a little darkened, overall good condition on fine cream coloured parchment, 248 by 178mm. Leonardo Loredan (1436-1521: here “Leonardus Lauredanus”) was the seventy-fifth doge of Venice from 1500 until his death, and his reign saw one of the highpoints of the production of similarly highly illuminated and illustrated ducal documents (see the most recent study on such documents, H.K. Szépe’s, Venice Illuminated: Power and Painting in Renaissance Manuscripts, 2018, especially pp. 165-7 & 172-3 for examples of other documents issued by Leonardo Loredan). These were produced by the ducal court for presentation to Venetian noblemen on their appointment to high office, often in fine bindings in the form seen in lot 89, and ceremoniously given by the doge himself to the recipient as a badge of office.

Small cutting of French verse, reused as a frisket in sixteenth century, manuscript on parchment [France, thirteenth century] Rectangular cutting, with remnants of 7 lines from a single column (suggesting this was once a double column manuscript, that here too slight to allow easy identification, but including the phrases “la place de la cite” and “je veul dist il q[ue] [com]mander”), the script on the front just visible in normal light, that on reverse visible only in UV light, that overlaid with red ink on front marking out shapes of imprinted letters in reverse, small strip cut from upper part (for red script to be printed through during secondary use as frisket), scuffs, cuts, overall fair condition, 35 by 95mm. Friskets - sections of medieval manuscript leaves reused in early printing to mask off the print face from all but the rubrics to be printed in red - were until quite recently thought to be rare. Following the research of Elizabeth Upper ('Red Frisket Sheets, c.1490 - 1630', Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 108:4 (2014) , who lists 21 in total; see also her online extension of this which extends this total to 59) and our sale of one, 8 July 2015, lot 27, private collectors recognised them in their own collections and a handful more have been brought to light (see our catalogue, 6 July 2016, lot 42, for further references, as well as a large example now in the University of South Carolina and another offered in Bassenge, 16 April 2019, lot 807).

ƟPart of a bifolium from a didactic theological text, in Middle High German, manuscript on parchment in situ on the binding of a seventeenth-century printed sammelband [probably border region of southern Germany with northern Austria and Switzerland, mid-fifteenth century] 2 conjoined leaves pasted around the pasteboards of 2 later printed books (M. Laurentus Fabricus Dantiscanti, Partitiones Codicis Hebraei …, Wittenberg: Clement Berger, 1626 & Thomas Erpenius, Grammatica Ebrea generalis …, Geneva: Ioannes de Tournes, 1627, the latter printed from right to left, and the sammelband thus having 2 front covers, some blank paper leaves bound between the two volumes, these with 3 pages of contemporary pen notes on Hebrew words), with each leaf aligned so that it sits over each board, and with the blank gutter over the spine of the printed book, the leaves then folded around each board and pasted in place there, each visible section of leaf with remains of double column of 23 lines in an angular and spiky German bookhand, capitals touched in red, red rubrics and simple red initials, some scuffing, but most text perfectly legible, more certainly preserved under pastedowns, total visible: 180 by 110mm. An eighteenth-century inscription on the endleaf of the printed book here shows that its owner was a Petrus Fincklus apparently of Austria (Noricus). To this a second hand has added the note that he was “Pastor Happurgens”, probably Habsburg on the northern border of Switzerland. The text here is laid out as a series of stock questions and answers, opening with the rubrics: “ein vrage” and “den entlosung”, most probably for use in a master-pupil teaching situation, with subjects here including the Virgin Mary, “gotes sun” and religious sight. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Royal diploma of King Enrique II of Castile, for a Don Sancho concerning rights in Aranda de Duero, vast single sheet manuscript document in Old Castilian on parchment [Spain (Castile, Leon), 1369-79] Single large sheet, with 60 long lines of main text above a witness-list and scribal endorsement, penwork cadels to letters in uppermost line, significant names in red or blue capitals or left in blank parchment within red or blue grounds, opening initial in red with swirling penwork, a Chi-Rho symbol in red within a blue and red roundel set within blue and red frame, the royal seal of Castile within circular text frames in blue and red painted into text between columns of witnesses, parchment turned up at foot and document intentionally pierced through this turn up and the pen flourishes of the scribal endorsement to attach twisted silken cords of blue, red, white, yellow and green, these holding in place a lead seal with the arms of Castile on one side and a seated king on the other (rubbed, but in fair condition with main details and text still discernible), several early modern endorsements on reverse, some rubbed areas of text and cockled areas of parchment (but without significant loss to text other than second part of dating year), folds from storage, overall good condition, 715+50 by 610mm. Enrique II (1334-79) is styled here as ruler of “Castiella, de tolledo, de Leon, de Gallista, de Sevilla, de Cordoba, de Murcia, de iah’en [Jaén], de algarbe, de algesiin”, and elsewhere nicknamed ‘el Fratricida’ as he killed his half-brother, Pedro ‘the Cruel’ (probably necessarily in order to protect his own safety). This act placed him on the throne as the first king of Castile and Leon from the house of Trastámara. He lead a belligerent life, going to war against Ferdinand I of Portugal and his son in law, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, before returning to the same conflict during the Hundred Years’ War in which he fought both the Portuguese and the English. He died in 1379 and was buried in the Capilla de los Reyes Nuevos in Toledo. This is a grand royal document, most probably intended to impress upon its viewer the majesty of the house of Trastámata, and draw attention away from the fratricidal origins of Enrique’s power (on his use of charters thus, see M.R. Obrado, ‘Simbología y propaganda política en los formularios cancillerescos de Enrique II de Castilla’, En la España medieval, 18, 1995). To that end a uniquely medieval Spanish diplomatic practise is employed here to its fullest: that of painting the royal seal into the centre of the document. Here it is placed between the columns of noble witnesses, mostly drawn from Enrique’s family, his innermost courtiers and young sons of subjugate rulers he had taken into his court as hostages, reminding the viewer of the centrality of his authority. Examples of such charters survive almost entirely in institutional ownership, and rarely appear on the market. Another issued by Pedro I in 1351 was offered by Les Enlumineres, catalogue 4 (1995), no. 32.

Plautus, Amphitryon, in Latin verse, bifolium from a fine humanist manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Florence), mid-fifteenth century] Two conjoined leaves, with single column of 28 lines of excellent humanist script (with parts of the end of Act 1, sc.1, lines 276-306 & the opening and end of sc. 2, lines 1-24 & 192-230, as well as the opening of sc. 3, lines 1-18), one 4-line contemporary marginalia in smaller humanist script, capitals set in margin apart from main text lines (in accordance with Ancient and medieval practise of writing verse), catchwords (“et me quod”) at foot of verso of last leaf showing this was the outermost bifolium in the gathering, rubrics, running titles (“Comedio .i.” and “Amphitrio”) and character names in same script in red (“mercurius” and “Iupiter” in full when these open a scene, else short versions “So”, “Am” and so on set in margin and within text throughout scenes), 2 initials in alternate blue or red with ornate contrasting penwork, folds and outer corners cut away (with small affect to outer edges of uppermost 2 lines), small spots from reuse on a later binding, eighteenth- or nineteenth-century scrawl “Valerius” along place spine lay on later book, overall in good condition and on finely produced parchment with wide and clean margins, each leaf 294 by 215mm. A relic from a remarkably fine Renaissance copy of one of the rarest Roman literary authors to appear on the market The works of Plautus (c. 254-184 BC.; more formerly Titus Maccius Plautus) are the earliest literary works in Latin to survive in their entirety. He may have been a native of Sarsinia in Emilia-Romagna, and seems to have been long acquainted with comic theatre (the self-adopted nicknames ‘Maccius’ and ‘Plautus’ are those of the stock farcical character of a clowning dwarf and an Umbrian term meaning flat-footed or flat-eared). He studied the works of Menander, and much of his work owes a clear debt to Greek theatrical models. He wrote a formidable 130 plays, setting him up as one of the most prolific authors of the Ancient World, but of these only 20 now survive, with a further 31 known only from short quotations in larger works. This work, the Amphitryon, narrates the passionate jealousy of the eponymous character, who was a son of the king of Tiryns in Argolis, inspired by Jupiter’s seduction of his wife and the resulting birth of twin boys, one of whom was Amphitryon’s son and the other was Hercules. While a number of medieval manuscripts did exist of the text, few of these had much impact (it was never used as a school text, and was apparently unknown to Dante and his contemporaries). That changed with the discovery of an eleventh-century copy by Nicolas of Cusa in Cologne in 1429, and its subsequent bringing to Cardinal Orsini in Italy around the midpoint of the fifteenth century (now Vatican, lat. 3870). There it came to the notice of the great Renaissance text hunter, Poggio Bracciolini, and bears notes in his hand, but it was the copy of it made by the celebrated humanist, Niccolo Niccoli, that would raise these plays from obscurity, and it was widely copied and performed throughout the subsequent Renaissance. The translation of these plays, first in Ferrara in the late fifteenth century, began a whole new genre of vernacular comedy, with Ariosto’s Cassaria dependent on the plays in the Ferrarese court, as well as Jack Juggler and Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors in sixteenth-century England (both dependant in part on the text here). Few have ever appeared on the market. Phillipps managed to acquire four witnesses, and these account for most of the appearances of any part of Plautus’ works in the trade records of the last century. Apart from these, the most recent appearances are those of the Dyson Perrins copy (Italian, perhaps Rome, late fifteenth century), which was sold in Sotheby’s, 1 December 1959, lot 76, and reappeared in Quaritch, cat. 891, no. 226, a year later; and the Major Abbey manuscript (Florentine, middle third of fifteenth century), also Sotheby’s, 4 June 1974, lot 2931.

Collection of leaves from liturgical codices, in Latin, manuscripts on parchment [twelfth to fifteenth century]5 leaves, including: (i) large leaf from a late twelfth-century Lectionary, double column of 23 lines in 2 sizes of fine early gothic script, red rubrics, simple red and pale blue initials, largest initial with swirl of red penwork acanthus leaves at foot, 340 by 260mm., France (probably northern), late twelfth century; (ii) 4 leaves most probably from a single Lectionary manuscript, double column of 32 lines, red rubrics, initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, 2 with original folio numbers ‘lxxii’ and ‘lxxxiiii’, one with remnants of a large initial (mostly gone through ink burn), each 360 by 265mm., Italy, late fourteenth or early fifteenth century; all recovered from account book bindings and hence with losses to edges, sections of text washed out and later scrawls, overall fair condition

A skilfully painted Bull, on a leaf from an illuminated Bible manuscript on parchment [northern France (doubtless Paris), thirteenth century] Single leaf, with a half-page historiated initial ‘F’ (opening “Fuit in diebus herodis …”, the opening of the Gospel of Luke) enclosing a charmingly executed brown bull, touched in places with tiny hairline white strokes, who steps from the blank margin into the body of the initial, looking back quizzically over his shoulder as he does, the initial in blue and pink bands with gold tendrils and a green wash edging, smaller initials, running titles and versal initial in red or blue (some initials with penwork), red rubrics, double column of 43 lines of tiny angular university script, Arabic numbers added in central gutter in tiny hairline strokes by a contemporary hand, small spots, else excellent condition, 160 by 112mm. An appealing example of thirteenth-century French art.

Emperor Justinianus as an enthroned king handing his lawcodes (here as a single-sheet document) to two young men, on a large initial on a leaf from the Corpus Juris Civilis, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (probably Paris), thirteenth century] Single large leaf, with an initial ‘U’ (opening “Ulpianus libro …” the opening of the second book), in pale brown wash heightened with white hairline penwork, enclosing a seated monarch with a golden crown, as he receives a single-sheet document from 2 young men, all on blue grounds within thin gold frame, the remaining parts of this and the next word in elongated red and blue capitals, 4 other small initials in pink or blue on coloured grounds with gold bezants, 2 enclosing foliage, the others with a crowned king’s face and a cat-like animal who bites at a bezant, another long eared drollery creature curled around the lower inner corner of the text on verso, simple red and blue elongated initials, red rubrics, elaborate red or blue paragraph marks, double column of 52 lines in a good early gothic bookhand, the margins filled with gloss, and in fact this leaf skilfully remarginated very soon after being produced with its original margins (perhaps with outdated gloss) stripped away and replaced by new, other glosses set interlineally as well as a series of references symbols added by a medieval hand in black ink over some words, split to upper margin, thinness of parchment causing some splits along ruled lines of text (but not affecting initial and visible easily only when leaf is held up to light), rubbed in places with slight losses to gloss in margin, overall good condition, 433 by 250mm. The initial here opens the text on the jurisdiction over the Jews. The artist of this charming and well accomplished example of French thirteenth-century painting may well have been familiar with the workshops of Paris more regularly involved in the production of illuminated Bibles. The models for the seated king here and the two men standing before him are most probably those found elsewhere in the productions of the Johannes Grusch and ‘Vie de Saint Denis’ ateliers (cf. R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris During the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles, 1977, figs. 228 & 250, where interestingly the latter illustrates two Jewish men in tall pointed hats).

The Annunciation to the Shepherds, on a leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript in Latin on parchment [northern France (Paris or Rouen), c. 1470] Single leaf, with three-quarter page rectangular miniature with a female shepherd at its midpoint, this figure kneeling and holding a sheep, surrounded by other male shepherds who gaze adoringly as angels holding a banderole descend from above, at the foot a snarling sheepdog, and all before a rolling hillscape with sheep and a walled medieval town, drapery and dog’s fur heightened with liquid gold penstrokes, all within a thin gold frame and above a 3-line initial formed of white scrolls on dull gold ground and with 3 lines of text with one-line initials in liquid gold on coloured grounds, border on 3 sides of acanthus leaves and other foliage on dull gold grounds, these panels enclosing 2 enchanting bipedal dragons with down-turned frog-like mouths, 23 lines of text on verso with small initials and line fillers as before, small spots, else excellent condition, 204 by 148mm.

Job in bed displaying his skin afflictions, in a large historiated initial, with a border with a human drummer and a naked bearded drollery with human heads for hands, all by the Secondo Maestro del Breviario Strozzi 11, on a leaf from a manuscript Antiphoner on parchment [Tuscany (probably Florence), mid-fourteenth century (probably c. 1340)] Single vast leaf, with a large initial ‘S’ (opening “Si bona suscepimus …”, a responsory for the funeral service), in dark blue acanthus leaves shaded with white brushstrokes, other coloured acanthus leaves making up the remaining parts of the letter, and with coloured knots and gold fruit at junctions, all on a blue ground with teal green and red frame, the upper compartment enclosing Job as a bearded man in a red skullcap, reclining half-naked on a bed exposing his boils and blemishes while a female attendant inclines towards him, all before a burnished gold background, the lower compartment with an angular boss-like four petalled flower on burnished gold ground, simple coloured foliage around a coloured bar with curls of leaves enclosing gold or coloured grounds and a bezant filling most of inner border and all of lower border, with a naked bearded human drollery with 2 human heads for arms, a drummer wearing a coif and a bearded human face set within the foliage, large red initials set within ornate blue penwork, red rubrics, 5 lines of text (written space 445 by 300mm.) with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum: 48mm.), original number ‘I’ in margin, as well as later pen pagination set in outer margin adjacent to second stave (perhaps eighteenth century, here ‘25’ and ‘26’; other known leaves with same hand in same place: Sotheby’s: ‘6’ and presumably ‘5’, Amedeo: ‘111’ and presumably ‘112’), remains of old and perhaps Italian paper label at foot (much missing, but “44[3]” visible), folds at head and foot of blank margins, some darkening in places and cockling, with small losses to paintwork in lower margin (this common to other leaves from this codex), 622 by 450mm. A hitherto unrecorded leaf from this fascinating dispersed antiphoner, with a rare composition of Job as bed-ridden patient afflicted by skin diseases. The first leaf to come to light did so in Sotheby’s, 19 June 1990, lot 34 (with full page illustration), but the artist was not identified and named, and the remaining examples of his work not drawn together for study, until the publication of F. Todini, La Spezia. Museo Civico Amedeo Lia Miniature, in 1996 (pp. 232-38, which focussed on another leaf almost certainly from the same codex). Todini identified the original parent manuscript as one once in the church of San Francesco di Pisa, which had left that community and seems to have been dispersed in the eighteenth century, partly in England. The Secondo Maestro del Breviario Strozzi 11 follows the finest conventions of Florentine work of the mid-fourteenth century, and shares his detailed facial expressions and sparsely populated borders inhabited by tall and thin human figures with other contemporary Florentine masters such as Pacino di Bonaguida, the Master of the Dominican Effigies and the Master of the Montepulciano Gradual (formerly Master of Antiphonary of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas; see Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300-1350, 2012, pp. 252-81 & 310-11, 316-19 & 322-5, as well as our sale 6 July 2017, lot 62, and references there). However, what sets him apart from these other artists are his pinched and pensive human faces, as well as his riotously inventive border decorations with long-muzzled dragons and strange even alarming human drolleries such as here.