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Vast illuminated initial ‘I’ on a leaf from a Gradual, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern Italy (perhaps Florence), last decades of fifteenth century] Single leaf, with large initial ‘I’ (opening “In monte oliveti …”, a responsory for Palm Sunday) in coloured acanthus leaves and foliage on brilliantly burnished gold ground (with foliate tri-lobed sections cut from each vertical side), extensions of coloured foliage extending into margin and terminating in detailed flower heads, angular blue arrowhead-like leaves and large gold bezants, as well as a gold, blue and dark pink flower head in margin surrounded by gold fruit and other smaller flowerheads, initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, red rubrics, capitals touched in yellow wash, 5 lines of text with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum: 38mm.), slight cockling, else outstanding condition with wide and clean margins, 553 by 395mm. The lavish border illumination, with its scrolling tendrils enclosing flower buds and spreading foliate terminals with multiple shoots, echoes the work of the Florentine artist Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (d. 1399; see B. Drake Boehm, Choirs of Angels, 2008, fig. 22).

The Annunciation to the Virgin, in an initial on a leaf from a Gradual, manuscript on parchment [Southern Netherlands (perhaps Guelders), dated 1544] Single large leaf, with a large initial ‘A’ (opening “Ad te levavi animam …”, the Introit for the First Sunday in Advent), in delicate gold edged acanthus leaves on a dark brown ground, set on pale fawn grounds with a thin white frame, enclosing a scene of the Virgin kneeling in prayer, one hand raised in surprise as the angel in golden robes arrives and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a tiny white dove on sunbeams, full decorated border in Ghent-Bruges trompe d’oeil style with realistic flowers, a green seed pod, a pigeon, a butterfly, flies and snails laid down on yellow grounds, three coats-of-arms in the bas-de-page (those of the de Reautmont family: 4 crosses gules on argent; the arms of the Vauderic family of Guelders quartered with an unidentified set of arms with 3 spears argent on azure; and an unidentified set), simple red or blue initials, other initials in complex penwork with foliage and human faces picked out in their bodies, original folio number “L” at head of leaf, red rubrics, 11 lines of text with music on a 4-line black stave (rastrum: 13mm.), slight discolouration at edges from mounting, excellent condition, 425 by 304mm.; framed At the head of this leaf, above the initial, the scribe added the dating inscription, asking in Dutch for prayers for himself: “finitus anno domini M vc xliiii Bidt voer de scriver”. However, another leaf from the same manuscript has the date ‘1541’ added to its margin in a sixteenth-century hand (see next lot). The manuscript may have taken three years to complete, or the other scribe may have been mistaken when reading another inscription in the parent volume. It was most probably commissioned by the person whose three noble family lines are depicted in the arms at the foot of the page (see above), for a favoured religious institution. The presence of a kneeling Cistercian monk in another leaf from the same parent manuscript (see next lot) indicates the Order of the recipient monastic house.

Magister Rufinus, Summa decretorum, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [England, middle third of the twelfth century] Strip cut from the vertical side of a leaf, with remains of 35 lines from a single column in an excellent angular bookhand, written without biting curves and above topline, capitals in same ink, traces of horizontal knife-cut prickmarks for ruling in outer blank margin, a few small holes and small stains from reuse in a later binding, inner edge somewhat torn, overall good and legible condition, 296 by 60mm. From the library of Ampleforth Abbey, and sold by them some years ago. Magister Rufinus composed this influential summa on Gratians Decretum in Bologna between 1157 and 1159, making this an exceptionally early witness to the text.

The Martyrdom of St. Catherine, in an initial on a choirbook leaf, manuscript on parchment [Southern Netherlands (perhaps Guelders), dated 1541 (but more probably 1544)] Single large leaf, with a large initial ‘G’ (opening “Gaudeamus omnes in domino …”, an introit used for various feasts), in delicate gold edged acanthus leaves on a dark brown ground, set on pale peach grounds with a thin brown and white frame, enclosing a scene of St. Catherine kneeling before her executioner as he draws his sword, her wheel in the background with a pile of human heads at its foot as the heavens open and sunlight streams down, a tonsured Cistercian monk in the foreground kneeling in prayer, full decorated border in Ghent-Bruges trompe d’oeil style with realistic flowers, a peacock, another bird, a dragonfly and a snail laid down on yellow grounds, one coats-of-arms in the bas-de-page (the arms of the Vauderic family of Guelders quartered with an unidentified set of arms), simple red or blue initials, original folio number “xxv” at head of leaf, red rubrics, 11 lines of text with music on a 4-line black stave (rastrum: 13mm.), “1541” added to lower margin in sixteenth-century hand), a few scratches and tiny flakes to paint, slight discolouration at edges from mounting, excellent condition, 424 by 303mm.; framed From the same parent manuscript as the previous lot.

The Nativity, full-page miniature on a leaf from an illuminated Book of Hours, manuscript on parchment [northern Germany (probably Rhineland), c. 1500] Large rectangular miniature, the Virgin kneeling and adoring the Christ Child before a dilapidated bower with tiny birds in its rafters, Joseph behind her holding a candle, as angels and others look on adoringly, all within a thick border of burgundy and crystalline blue heightened with scrolling penwork, burnished gold corner- and mid-pieces, reverse blank, small cracks and chips, slight staining to right hand upright border, overall in crisp and glittering condition, 225 by 157mm.; elaborate painted and gilt wooden frame, some cracks and scuffs This detailed and colourful miniature is typical of Rhenish work from the end of the fifteenth century, with the facial modelling finding parallels in manuscripts such as the Gradual from St. Michael am Wiederbach, Cologne, dated 1531 (Glaube und Wissen, 1998, no. 102), and the form and colour of the realistic frame enclosing the miniature compares closely to another Gradual produced in Cologne in 1498 (ibid. no. 99).

ƟLarge fragment of a leaf from Hildegard of Bingen, Explanatio Symboli Sancti Athanasii, an explanation of the Athanasian Creed, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment, in situ on the binding of a sixteenth-century printed book [Germany (perhaps Rupertsberg or Eibingen), late thirteenth or early fourteenth century] Lower half of a leaf, reused on a sixteenth-century binding, with remains of double column of 18 lines in a good and spiky Germanic early gothic bookhand, using ‘w’ in place of ‘v’ in words such as “ewangelium”, capitals touched in red, remains of a marginalia set within an angular frame obscured within turn-ups of ‘back board’, the leaf arranged on the sixteenth-century book as a limp parchment binding with edges folded in, with a column of manuscript text visible in the centre of each board, text obscured around spine of later book and damaged by small holes there, text on outer surfaces of later binding scrubbed clean, spots, stains and small holes, else fair and legible condition, overall: 190 by 295mm. This is a hitherto unrecorded and completely unstudied fragment of this work by perhaps the most important female mystic of the Middle Ages; one of only three or four manuscripts of the work to survive Provenance: From a codex perhaps produced within the monastery of Rupertsberg (founded 1147) or Eibingen (founded 1165), both of which were founded by the author. The text was addressed to the nuns of Rupertsberg, and appears to have had an extremely limited distribution, perhaps not extending outside these two houses (see below). Rupertsberg was closed and its goods transferred to Eibingen in 1632, and both communities were suppressed together in 1803. However, the present fragment had already been reused on a binding of a book that had travelled to Italy by some point in the seventeenth century when it received its first ex libris inscriptions, and the parent manuscript may have been a volume reused for binding material in Rupertsberg itself, and discarded in its present state when they combined with Eibingen in 1632. If it was copied in one of these two communities, then the scribe is most likely to have been a woman, and may well have already been a young inmate of the community while the author was still alive. Text: Few authors in the Middle Ages were women, and even fewer were in a position that enabled them to reach the heights of their intellectual world. Thankfully, Hildegard of Bingen (c. 1098-1179) was in such a position. From a young age she experienced visions and entered the monastery of Disibodenberg as a child oblate. In 1136 she was unanimously elected magistra of the community by its members, and set about moving the nuns of the house to Rupertsberg where they would have greater independence. In 1165 she founded a further house from these nuns at Eibingen. At the age of 42 she received a profound vision instructing her ‘to write down that which you see and hear’, and she entered into the life of an author. She was beatified in 1326. The present text is an explanation of the Athanasian Creed composed for the inmates of her own female monastic community at Rupertsberg. It was written in the 1170s in a period of frenzied writing as she entered her seventies and the community feared they might soon lose her. The fragment here contains the parts of the opening of the text, touching on the Creation of the sun, moon and stars, the world and the creatures on it: from “sicut etiam in creatione die …” (in a slightly variant form to the edited text) to “… qui totam Ecclesiam sustentarent. Deinde”, reopening in the second column with “divinitate, et non in persona …” to “… divisio est nisi distinc[tio]”. This allows us to calculate that slightly less than 50 lines are missing from the top of the leaf, giving us a large page layout of approximately 390 by 260mm. total page size (and probable written space of 250 by 180mm.), in keeping with the large margins surviving here. The emergence of this fragment brings the number of recorded witnesses to the text to a total of three or four, with the others: (i) the Rupertsberger Riesenkodex, now Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek, Hs 2, dating to the 1180s and thus to the months or years after the author’s death; and (ii) its immediate descendent and direct copy, Vienna, Hofbibliothek, cod. 721, of the thirteenth century. The manuscripta.au website also reports another copy, apparently previously overlooked in a thirteenth-century collection of the author’s letters in ÖNB, cod. 881. The readings of the present fragment have not been compared with the other known witnesses and remain completely unstudied and unpublished. Any text by Hildegard of Bingen in manuscript is of near-legendary rarity on the market, and the last codex to appear was a fifteenth-century one containing De Avibus et Animalibus, sold in Sotheby’s, 25 March 1923, lot 99. We know of no other fragment to have appeared for sale. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

St. Clare of Assisi holding a monstrance before the Virgin and Child, miniature from a devotional manuscript on parchment [France (perhaps Bourges), late fifteenth century] Rectangular miniature set within a wide gold frame with blue and red jewels mounted in its body and the inscription “ave maria gratia plena dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus” in red ink over the gold, enclosing a smaller blue frame and a scene of the saint kneeling with a blue book tucked under her arm and clasping a monstrance between her hands as she prays, the Virgin enthroned and holding the Christ Child as he aims a white arrow at the saint, all on a deep red ground with the Holy Monogram in liquid gold and beneath a blue bower, miniature trimmed to edges and mounted in glass with old collection label “Annexe No. 487” on reverse, slight cockling to edges, excellent condition, 100 by 65mm. The pale countenances and drooping eyes of the figures here, as well as the overlaying of text and gemstones on the frame of the miniature, show the influence of the work of the celebrated Jean Colombe (c. 1430-c. 1493).

Cutting from a manuscript, probably a choirbook, with the Virgin and Child in a wreath, manuscript on parchment [Italy (perhaps Florence or vicinity), fifteenth century] Circular cutting with the Virgin tenderly holding the Christ Child, both with thin hairline gold haloes and on a pale blue ground, within a wreath bound by 4 gold bands, red ribbons emerging from those bands, diameter 92mm.; set within an early nineteenth-century gilt-copper frame with original glass (now crackled at surface), set in hardwood frame stamped “42” on reverse This is a charming example of the repurposing of medieval manuscript cuttings into more modern items. This cutting may have been among those discarded by Napoleonic troops when they plundered the large miniatures from manuscript choirbooks, and was perhaps then sold on as part of a larger group of such humbler cuttings, before being refashioned into a devotional image to be hung on a wall.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, with an account of a witch’s potion to raise a man from the dead, and mentioning a werewolf’s power to change its wild-beast features into a man’s, in Latin verse in dactylic hexameter, decorated manuscript on parchment [probably Low Countries, fourteenth century] Bifolium, each leaf with 32 lines in a professional squat early gothic bookhand (and text continuous across all pages here, and thus this most probably the centremost bifolium of a gathering; note one line here “dissimilemque animam subiit Aeta relictus” (with last word here miscopied as “relicta”) should be VII:170 but it appears here out of order between lines 293-4, capitals in spiky penstrokes touched with vermillion red, these set in margin in keeping with medieval practise of writing verse, each line marked in outer margin with a penwork punctus or punctus flexus, paragraph marks in same red, numerous contemporary or near-contemporary interlinear and marginal additions with alternative readings, reused on the later medieval binding of a sixteenth-century account book, and so with tears to edges, scuffs, stains, small holes, occasional later scrawls and somewhat darkened on reverse, each leaf: 225 by 149mm. This is Ovid’s greatest and longest work, spanning nearly 12,000 lines and narrating the history of the world from Creation until the deification of Julius Caesar. In doing so it surveys over 250 Greek myths, and has come to be a principal source for many of those. It had a profound impact on later writers, and is among the fundamental cornerstones of much Ancient, medieval and modern literature. The readings here are from book VII, lines 225-347, which discuss the events after Jason’s acquisition of the Golden Fleece, that is Medea’s travels on her dragon-drawn flying carriage to collect herbs to raise Aeson back to life in her secret gore-soaked rites. This magical spell contains a list of ingredients as captivating as it is macabre: she combines these herbs with stones from the Orient, ocean sands, hoar frost gathered under a full moon, the wings and flesh of a screech-owl, and “inque virum soliti vultus mutare ferinos ambigui prosecta lupi” (the entrails of a werewolf which has the power of changing its wild-beast features into a man’s), the skin of the Cinyphan water snake, the liver of a long-lived stag and the eggs and head of a crow nine generations old. She then cuts the old man’s throat and replaces his blood with the resulting brew, restoring him to his youth. Belief in werewolves, or lycanthropes, seems to have been commonplace in Greek and Roman mythology, with Herodotus identifying the tribe of the Neuri as changing into wolves for one day a year, and the Greek geographer Pausanias describing this affliction as affecting Lycaon in punishment for his murder of a child. Other than Ovid, Roman writers such as Livy and Pliny the elder relate stories of men who were bound to change into wolves, but the idea was not common in the Middle Ages before the fourteenth century when the study of witnesses such as this appears to have combined with Germanic legends about the shapeshifting activities of witches and vampires.

Two cuttings from a Noted Breviary, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Germany, mid-twelfth century] Two long and tall cuttings from a large parent codex, collectively with parts of double column of 2 sizes of 32 lines in an early gothic bookhand (with parts of service for the dedication of a church and for the Common of Martyrs), capitals touched in red, red rubrics, simple red initials, early German neumes added above sung parts in slightly darker ink, scuffs, torn and cut edges, stains and small holes from reuse in a binding, overall fair condition, 283 by 86mm. and 273 by 90mm. The addition of the early musical notation here is interesting. It was added by the contemporary hand which corrected the main text, and employed early German neumes in campo aperto or staffless form.

ƟCollection of Homilies with the Life of St. Basil the Great, in Church Slavonic, decorated manuscript on paper [Russia, c. 1830] 80 leaves (plus one paper endleaf at each end), apparently complete, 25 lines in ornamental square Cyrillic bookhand, iridescent red rubrics, lines of red and black ornamental capitals opening major texts, simple small initials in same enclosing foliage sprays, larger initials in yellow with red foliage and penwork ornament, one large initial in bands of red and green with half-page long swirls of foliage terminating in yellow and green stylised foliage (fol. 1v), frontispiece with opening text in penwork capitals set within an architectural feature formed of red boxes line-drawn pillars and surmounted by line-drawn cross surrounded by foliage and birds, the margin filled by a decorative bar with shapes and foliage mounted on it (one of these shapes with birds on its ledges), a drollery formed from a bird’s body and a human head with rosy cheeks and a crown atop the bar standing on its uppermost loop, later “N 147” and a collection label edged in blue with “N178” and the apparent date “1912”, some staining to edges, a few leaves with tears, coming loose from the binding in places, overall in good condition, 305 by 210mm; contemporary binding of finely tooled brown leather over bevelled wooden boards, two clasps, some scuffs and tears at edges, but solid in binding Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Playbill for anti-Semitic theatrical performance, in Italian, manuscript on paper [Italy, seventeenth century] Single loose sheet, with 8 lines of large script, one interlinear correction of an additional ‘r’, the name “Martino” added in smaller script by same hand before “Cornaro” in last line, more modern “2” in upper lefthand corner, no watermark, red marks from old mount on reverse, small spots and stains, tear to one side, but overall in good condition, 190 by 250mm. This playbill was produced by hand to advertise a “opera ridicula” about the impure relations between a girl named Brodeghina and a jew named Guardamano, and the resulting jealousy of Moses Lante[r]naro. The play was to be performed in the public theatre of Cornelio Tacito in the “corrada de 100 Ussi a un Ora di notte”. The work is ascribed to Martino Cornaro, who must be the Venetian playwright of the same name. Such written ephemera were meant to serve a single purpose, and then to be discarded, and thus the survival of this one is remarkable. What is perhaps even more startling is that a defective playbill, evidently for the same performance, is recorded in Il Ponte Casa d’Aste auction, 26-8 May 2017, lot 2359 (catalogued very briefly there, but compare partial reproduction in accompanying photograph).

ƟGoffredus de Trano, Summa super rubricis decretalium and Iohannes de Deo, Liber seu summa dispensationum, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [northern Germany (perhaps Rhineland), fourteenth century (most probably first half of that century), with an additional final quire of c. 1400]241 leaves (plus an endleaf at front), the last leaf pasted to backboard, complete, collation: i-iii8, iv6, v10, vi-xix8, xx6 (once 8, last 2 leaves cancelled blanks removed after Early Modern foliation), xxi-xxix8, xxx11 (first original leaf a blank cancel, removed before Early Modern foliation added), occasional catchwords and original quire signatures, seventeenth- or eighteenth-century foliation in upper right hand corner of rectos (slightly imperfect, but followed here), double column of 38 lines, in a small number of skilled gothic bookhands (see below), capitals touched alternately in red and blue, rubrics in red, running titles in red or blue capitals, initials alternately in red and blue with contrasting penwork, space left blank for Tables of Affinity and Consanguinity on fols. 169r and 171r, prick marks for lines remaining in outer margins, a few leaves with extremities of edges slightly turned over, 2 further leaves with small sections of blank edges torn away, and small cuts to gutters of adjacent leaves from removal of 2 cancelled blanks, some slight areas of discoloration, small spots and scuffs and occasional natural flaw in parchment, a few leaves showing the volume very slightly trimmed (removing mostly edges of lines of marginalia), overwhelmingly in excellent condition on cream-coloured heavy parchment with wide and clean margins, 305 by 220mm.; fifteenth-century German binding of blind-stamped pigskin (tooled with frames formed of simple fillet and geometric panels around a central floral boss within a rhombus) over massive wooden boards, the spine tooled in same and sewn on 5 double thongs, leather added over binding structures in German style with spine covered first and leather panels for boards then laid over (inner vertical edge of board cover now slightly lifted), title in ink on fore-edge, clasps wanting and holes in leather where these clasps once protruded from edges of boards stitched shut, some green stains in same place from missing copper-based clasps, light scuffing and a few scratches, small hole in leather of spine, front board very slightly coming away from some thongs, but solid in bindingAn imposing and elegant German monastic codex, in its late medieval binding, and from the collections of Leander van Ess and Sir Thomas PhillippsProvenance:1. Most probably written and decorated in the first half of the fourteenth century for use in a German monastic community, perhaps in the Rhineland. The subsequent owner (Leander van Ess) obtained many books from monasteries in this region: he had served as a monk at Marienmünster in North-Rhine Westphalia and took books with him when it was dissolved in 1803. Perhaps significantly, a large group of his manuscripts came from the Carthusian monastery of St. Barbara in Cologne, which was founded in 1334. If future research upholds a connection to this last house, then it may have been among the founding books of their medieval library.2. Leander van Ess (in fact Johann Heinrich van Ess, 1772-1847), important early bibliophile and manuscript collector at time of the suppression of the German monasteries and the spilling of their libraries onto the open market, pastor of Swalenberg, theologian at Marburg University, German translator of the New Testament, passionate proponent of lay Bible reading and founder of the Christliche Bruderbund zur Verbreitung der heiligen Schriften), with his printed collection number ‘95’ on spine, this corresponding to the published catalogue of his collection: Sammlung und Verzeichniss Handscriftlicher [sic] Bücher aus dem VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV, etc. Jahrhundert …, Darmstadt, 1823, no. 95. On his library see: M. Mc. Gatch in 'So precious a foundation', the Library of Leander Van Ess at the Burke Library of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, 1996, pp. 47-84.3. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), the single greatest manuscript collector to have ever lived who assembled a collection of 60,000 manuscripts. This his MS. 480 and thus among his very first purchases, made in 1824 when he was only 33 years old, and as part of the entire manuscript collection of van Ess (some 372 volumes for £320). This was the famous acquisition for which van Ess naively sent the books to Phillipps before payment had been made, resulting in five years arguments and wrangling over Sir Thomas’ outrageous refusal to pay the entire bill (all described in van Ess’ angry letter of 1826, printed in A.N.L. Munby, The Formation of the Phillipps Library Up to the Year 1840, 1954, pp. 29-32). Phillipps’ paper label pasted to base of spine, and hand written numbers inside frontboard and at foot of fol. 1r. Sold in Phillipps’ sale, Sotheby’s, 24 April 1911, lot 274.4. Walther Dolch (1883-1914) for the Eduard Langer Library. Langer (1852-1914) was an industrialist and politician based in Branau/Broumov (Bohemia/Upper Austria, now Czech Republic), who built the largest library of its kind in Austria-Hungary.5. Fürst Alexander Olivier Anton von Dietrichstein zu Schloss Nikolsburg (1899-1964); his second sale with Gilhofer and Ranschburg, 25 June 1934, lot 286: lot number in pencil and sale catalogue clipping pasted inside front board.6. Christie’s, 21 November 2012, lot 24, to Les Enlumineres, their TM. 676, sold in 2014.Text: This weighty monastic tome contains two important texts that were indispensable legal reference works for any ecclesiastical institution in the Middle Ages. The first is that of the Summa super rubricis decretalium by Goffredus of Trano (1200-1245) an Italian canon lawyer. He studied under the celebrated legal specialist Azo, and subsequently took up a professorship of Roman Law at Naples. In 1244, he was appointed cardinal by Innocent IV, his former fellow-student at Bologna. This text is the product of a comprehensive rewrite and improvement of his glosses on the Decretals, made in the years just before the author’s death. It became the seminal work in its field and survives in 280 medieval codices.To this has been appended the Liber seu summa dispensationum of Johannes de Deo (born 1189-91, d. 1267), a native of the Algarve, who studied canon law and perhaps also civil law at Bologna in the years before 1229. In due course, he taught in the university there for at least two decades, producing a number of summaries and digests of canon law. Around 1260 he took up office as archdeacon in Lisbon, and he died there some seven years later. The present text survives in two recensions composed before and after 1243, and that here is the second, shorter version (see J.P. von Schulte, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts, II, 1877, p. 96, n. 10, and A. de Sousa Costa, Doutrina penitencial do canonista Joâo de Deus, 1956, pp. 103-105, pp. 196-197, for a list of other manuscripts). It addresses the thorny legal issue of ‘dispensation’, the act by which an ecclesiastical superior could grant exemption from a particular law, most famously in the granting of the right to marry when kinship laws forbade this, or the right to dissolve a marriage. In this text Johannes de Deo examines all forms and types of dispensatio, granted by various members within the hierarchy of the Church, but also among the normal social bonds of lay society.For additional cataloguing information, please visit  https://www.dreweatts.com/auctions/lot-details/?saleId=14207&lotId=74 

ƟThe Myrowr of Recluses, a Middle English translation of the Speculum Inclusorum, a guide to the life of an English anchorite, decorated manuscript on paper [England (probably London region, perhaps Barking Abbey), first half of fifteenth century (probably soon after 1414)] 66 leaves (plus 3 modern paper endleaves at front and back), catchwords and leaf signatures throughout, complete, collation: i-viii8, ix2, single column of 21 lines of a professional English vernacular hand, paragraph marks in alternate red and blue, small initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, three large variegated initials in red and blue with scrolling penwork extending height of upright margin, some notes for rubricator left in margins, paper heavy and with no apparent watermark, small spots and stains, many leaves with slight discolouration at corners from old water damage (a few leaves with parts of margin notes for rubricator washed out by this), else excellent condition, 200 by 140 mm.; English nineteenth-century blind-tooled brown leather, spine gilt with: “MYSTERYE OF RECLUSES / M.S. / 1414”, leaves with red edges The only complete manuscript of this Middle English text on the life of a religious recluse, perhaps produced in Barking Abbey as part of the female education campaign of Abbess Sybil de Felton Provenance:1. The prologue to the text, unique to only this manuscript, dates the beginning of its composition to the “this Wednysday bi the morrow, the even of the blissed virgyne seynt Alburgh, the secunde yeere of the worthy christen prince oure souerayn liege lord þe kyng Henry the Fiftis”, that is 10 October 1414, with the next day the Feast of St. Ethelberga, sister of St. Erkenwald the patron saint of London. In 1414, 10 October was indeed a Wednesday. This copy is of the first half of the fifteenth century, and most probably was copied soon after the translation of the text into Middle English. The first few leaves here have apparent authorial corrections, but it must be noted that E.A. Jones has suggested instead that these are the work of a contemporary corrector trying to improve on the syntax. More importantly, Jones tentatively locates this translation of the text, and thus perhaps also the site of copying of this witness, on the basis of the dedication to “lady Seynt Marie and of my … lady Seynt Alburgh”, to the abbey of Barking, a Benedictine foundation for women a few miles to the east of London, and the education campaign there of Abbess Sybil de Felton. She owned or obtained for that house one of the earliest copies of Nicolas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, as well as William Flete’s De Remediis contra Temptationes and the Clensyng of Mannes Soule. Moreover, Barking may have been the site of the composition of, or first audience for, The Chastising of God’s Children, and as a house of educated women it was turned to by Henry V to aid in the royal foundation of the English Benedictines at Syon. Indeed, one of Sybil de Felton followers from Barking, named Matilda Newton, became the initial abbess of Syon although she never professed as a Bridgettine. She returned to Barking in 1417 to live as a recluse (this nun has also been tentatively identified as a translator of texts: see M. Cré in A Companion to Marguerite Porete and the Mirror of Simple Souls, 2017). Barking Abbey was suppressed on 14 November 1539 and its possessions scattered.2. Passing then into apparent lay hands: Roger Saddlar: his sixteenth-century inscription on fol. 10v; and Robert Leche (d. 1587) of Christ Church, Oxford, and then proctor of the university in 1560 and 1566, and chancellor of the diocese of Chester in 1562 (J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 1891, p. 892): his inscription: “In dei nomine, amen. Auditis, visis, et intellectis, et plenarie discussis per nos Robertum Leche artium magistri et in LL baccallarii reverend’ in Christo patris et domini, domini Willelmus permissione dia’ […] episcopi” on fol. 66v.3. John Wylde, his seventeenth- or eighteenth-century ex libris and “no 133” at the head of fol. 1r.4. Most probably William Ford (1771-1832), Manchester bookseller: inscription in hand of Joseph Brooks Yates on first endleaf recording “2.12.6 from Mr Ford’s collection, 26 Sep. 1820”, presumably recording its price in £, shillings and pence. Ford’s initial catalogues were formed from his own vast private library, allowing the identification given here. Ford noted, perhaps prophetically, in a letter to Dibdin that “It was my love of books, not of lucre, which first induced me to become a bookseller.” He went bankrupt in 1810, but continued to operate as a bookseller and issued catalogues as late as 1832.5. Joseph Brooks Yates (1780-1855): his inscriptions on endleaf on purchase from ‘Ford’ and “exhibited at L & P Society April 1844” (ie. Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society, of which he was president).6. Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), his lengthy inscription on front endleaf recording his discussions on the volume with “Mr Skeat of Cambridge” (W.W. Skeat, Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, as well as a Middle English and Gothic language scholar), Frederick J. Furnivall (who worked with Skeat on the Early English Text Society publications) and Henry Bradshaw (Librarian Camb. Univ. Library)” (liturgicist and linguist, who famously declared “Books are to me as living organisms, and I can only study them as such; so every particle of light which I can obtain as to their personal history is so much positive gain”), this dated 8 February 1880. Followed by a letter of the previous year from Skeat tipped in, declaring it “an original of the date it professes to be - 2nd year of Henry V” and suggesting the dialect is that of London. Plus a loose note, presumably from Skeat suggesting two related published works.7. Allan Heywood Bright (1862-1941), inherited from H.Y. Thompson: his bookplate, with pencil mark “I/4”. Sold in his descendants’ sale, Christies, 16 July 2014, lot 12, to the present owner. Text:This is the only complete copy of this work, known previously solely from the fragmentary witness in British Library Harley MS. 2372. The Harley manuscript is a less than perfect witness, lacking about a third of the text including the beginning, the end of part II and the end of part III. Additionally, it is clear that it was copied in the mid-fifteenth century at some remove from the original, and by the end of that century it was in Stamford, Lincs. (see A. Rogers in The Library, VII:15, 2014). The differences in the present text and that in the Harley manuscript show that neither is directly related to each other, but both were copied from a lost manuscript in Middle English, perhaps the original of the translation, with the present witness including some devotional verses on the Passion that were perhaps at some stage associated with the text. The present manuscript was not available to be consulted by Marta Powell Harley in 1995 when she edited the fragmentary text in the Harley manuscript, and likewise E.A. Jones in his parallel Latin and Middle English edition of the text published in 2013. Jones has subsequently published some brief observations on the text and the origins of the present copy, but it can scarcely be said to have been edited and much work remains to be done. For additional cataloguing information, please visit https://www.dreweatts.com/auctions/lot-details/?saleId=14207&lotId=75 Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

ƟPersius, Satires, a Renaissance scholar’s copy with numerous marginal additions, in Latin verse hexameters, manuscript on paper [Italy (Tuscany, probably Cortona), second half of fifteenth century] 18 leaves, wanting a bifolium from beginning (text opens in Satire I, line 60), else complete, collation: i12, ii6 (and these within a single paper bifolium and a folded fourteenth-century parchment leaf recording court judgments combined to form endleaves and an informal first binding), single column of 19 lines in a fine humanist script, calligraphic initials in split penwork bars, rubrics in red, extensively glossed in smaller script with almost all free space employed for this on some pages, watermark that of hills within a circle, close to Briquet 11931 (with some examples found in Tuscan towns of Pisa in 1479 and 1489 and Pistoia in 1483-92), small spots, stains and edges torn and bumped, but overall in good and presentable condition, 220 by 145mm.; the folded over fourteenth-century document was once the original temporary binding of this book (worn on outer pages from handing, and with “Explicit liber persii Deo gratia” and “est finito” on back cover), that now set within a near-contemporary limp parchment flap binding (that now loose from text block, traces of glue from modern repair at spine), with plaited cord attached to a wooden button for attachment of flap to front board, number ‘4’ on front cover, lengthy contemporary inscription (mostly smudged and erased) and ornate penwork letter ‘B’ on back cover, overall in fair condition Provenance:1. Written for a humanist student of Persius in the second half of the fifteenth century, who then proceeded to fill much of the available space with glosses on the text. Copied from a manuscript, with orthography, abbreviations and textual variants showing this was not copied from the editio princeps of Udalricus Gallus (Rome, c. 1478), nor the editions of Martin Flach (Basel, 1474) or Paulus Ferrariensis (Treviso, 1481). This glossing hand makes reference to the “Britannicus” printed edition of the text, that produced by Jacobus Britannicus in 1486, and so these additions must have been added after that year. The court document reused as the original temporary binding and now fossilised as endleaves is for cases brought before the court of Cortona, Tuscany, and this is the most likely origin point for the manuscript.2. By the turn of the next century it appears to have passed to either “Christofono bello Guido Carissimo”, who added a sixteenth-century ex libris to the head of fol. 19v, or “Giovanni da Casetino” (probably Casentino, a valley to the immediate north east of Florence) who adds his on fol. 20v. Text:The works of Persius (34-62 AD.; more properly Aulus Persius Flaccus) are notably rare in manuscript. He was a Roman poet and satirist, who was a native of Pisa in Tuscany, and regional pride may explain both the original owner’s commissioning of this copy and his devoted study and glossing of it. He is recorded as studying in Rome, and while there fell in with a small group of poets, including Lucan. He records that there he also met Seneca, but was not impressed by the man. Due to some ‘flaw of the stomach’ he died early, at the age of twenty-eight, and it fell to his friend and mentor the Stoic philosopher Cornutus to edit and release his works. He suppressed all but the Satires, and from them expurgated occasional lines, such as one acerbically critiquing Emperor Nero’s literary tastes. The extant satires themselves look at various aspects of Roman life, bringing biting sarcasm to bear on its pomposity. Book one is set as a dialogue between the poet and an unnamed friend, and examines the moral decline of Rome’s literature and the literary tastes of the city. It attacks the artificial rhetoric of its poets, their over polished language and their vanities. Book two begins with the birthday of a friend of the poet, and uses it to open discussion on what men wish for, with its characters openly praying for worthy and noble things, but secretly for money and the deaths of those who stand in their way. It ends with a moral exhortation to the reader to not presume that the gods wish for gold as we do, even if we adorn sacred spaces and objects with it; far better, the poet concludes, is to approach the gods free of such trappings, with clean hands and a pure heart. Satire three sets its aim on those who live amiss although they know the correct way to behave, as well as their numerous excuses - with the poet taking his own youthful life as an example of this failing. On the endleaves here a host of hands have added short quotations from other authors, including Varro, Ovid, Vergil and Martial, some Classical lines in Greek written in Roman script and numerous pentrials. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

ƟGuido da Pisa, La Fiorita d’Italia, with frequent citations of the works of Dante Alighieri, in medieval Italian, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Tuscany), mid-fifteenth century] 83 leaves, wanting a few single leaves throughout and 3 leaves from end, collation: i10, ii9 (wants iv), iii10, iv8 (wants iv and vii), v4 (wants innermost and outermost bifolia), vi10, vii9 (wants viii), viii-ix8, x7 (wanting last 3), catchwords and early modern foliation (slightly faulty from loss of single leaves, but followed here for convenience), single column of 37 lines of 2 Italian bookhands (the first accomplished and appealing semi-humanist hand; the second more influenced by secretarial script), pale red rubrics, initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork in and around the initial extending into long whip-like extensions in margin, one large initial in split blue bands with same penwork on frontispiece, the penwork extensions there extending entire height of margin, some small spots and areas of discolouration, slight cockling to leaves throughout, else in good condition, 260 by 190mm.; contemporary binding of blind-tooled dark brown leather over wooden boards, tooling of fillet, ropework designs and panels of small flowerheads all arranged as frames around a circular central boss enclosing crosses on each board, marks on lower board from ‘feet’ once attached there to hold book above potentially damp medieval shelf, boards much affected by worm at edges, with losses there and wood broken near clasp supports (one of these slightly loose, another repaired, losses to leather at foot of boards and spine, modern conservation to stabilise, and so in fair condition, fitted purple buckram case of c. 1900 An important early Italian vernacular text, in a remarkably fine copy still in its contemporary binding; and evidently the first copy to emerge on the open market in over 140 years Provenance:1. Written in the mid-fifteenth century, most probably in Tuscany, for a patron of some wealth and influence.2. Thereafter in an ecclesiastical library, most probably in same region: “Questo libero di santo Cosimo” in eighteenth-century scrawl in margin of fol. 78v. Other heavily erased inscriptions on front pastedown and at head of frontispiece.3. “Gerali di Pontunoli”, inscription on front pastedown recording its acquisition from his family on 20 November 1889, and apparently unrecorded since. Text: Little is known about the author of this important early Italian work. He was a native of Pisa and reveals in his work that he was a Carmelite Friar. He composed it sometime between 1321 and 1337, and despite a modest description of it by the author as ‘some memorable facts and sayings of the ancients’, it is in fact a chronicle of the Biblical and Ancient World, designed to show how that developed into civilised Christian society. To do this he draws on a large number of Classical authorities, including Livy, Ovid, Isidore and Jerome, as well as medieval writers such as Jacobus de Voragine and Nicholas Trevet, but none are given the same prominence here as Dante Alighieri, whose verse he cites frequently and at length. His devotion to Dante was doubtless driven by his composition of a lengthy gloss on the Comedia, as well as his shared belief with that author in the use of Tuscan Italian as a literary and educational language. As Guido himself insists: “sono molti, i quali vorrebbono sapere … ed abbiano avuto impedimento dal non studiare” (there are many, who would like to know ... and have had impediment from not studying), and it is for them that, “intendo di traslare di latino in volgare alquanti memorabili fatti e detti degli antichi” (I intend to translate from Latin into the vernacular some memorable facts and sayings of the ancients). It is clearly unfinished, as it sets out in its prologue the scope of a work to enumerate all the Roman Emperors in seven books, but ends in the existing version after two of these. Despite this it was greatly popular in the late Middle Ages, and some 60 codices have been traced (S. Bellomo, Censimento dei manoscritti della Fiorita di G. da P., Trento 1990; and P. Rinoldi, ‘Per la tradizione indiretta della “Fiorita” di G. da P.: due manoscritti dell’“Aquila”’, in LaParoladeltesto, 3, 1999, pp. 113-131; without knowledge of the present codex). In the main these were produced for use by students, and so are almost universally on paper and more rough and ready than the present copy. This is one of only four to survive on parchment. Few copies exist outside of Italy, and the Schoenberg database records only one as appearing on the market, a copy dated 1411 once in the collection of the Florentine nobleman, Baron Seymour Kirkup, and offered in Sotheby’s, 6 December 1871, lot 2035. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Leaf from a Lectionary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on manuscript [Italy, mid-twelfth century] Substantial fragment of a leaf, with double column of 30 lines in an elegant Romanesque hand with pronounced wedges at end of ascenders and without biting curves, rubrics in ornamental red capitals, 7 simple red initials (one in split bands), trimmed at edges with losses to outer and lower edges, some spots, stains and with reverse scuffed, overall fair and presentable condition, 287 by 208mm.

ƟCollection of Sibyllic prophesies, some apocalyptic and concerning the coming of the Antichrist, in Latin, manuscript on paper [Italy, mid-fifteenth century (probably after 1456)] 16 leaves (plus one early nineteenth-century paper endleaf at front and back), complete in itself but perhaps once part of a larger compendium, collation: i-ii8 (last leaf blank), single column of 21 lines of a skilled semi-humanist hand, marginalia and interlinear additions made in tiny hairline script, many with penwork symbols to show where they attach to main text, simple penwork initials in last few leaves, spaces left for initials, watermark tri-lobed hill/Golgotha surmounted by a Cross, some spots and small stains, else excellent condition, 223 by 150mm.; early nineteenth-century card binding with blue edged collection label (“84 / D.1”) at base of spine The main text here is a personal scholar’s copy of a collection of the prophecies of the Sibyls, in the same form as found in Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, San Marco, MS. 621, fols. 402v-05r. Here it has been substantially added to interlineally and in the margin by its first owner over some time. The Sibyls were the prophetesses of the Ancient Greek world, first mentioned in writing in the fifth century BC., and their recorded prophecies were transmitted through Roman accounts of them to the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Along that path, these prophecies were amalgamated with Christian belief and the medieval history of the various European nations, with some fuelling the legends of the coming of the Antichrist. Here on fols. 3v-4r when reporting the prophecy of the Erythraean Sibyl concerning the rise of a marvellous star bearing the image of the four creatures of Revelation (lion, ox, man, eagle), that would proceed the arrival from the East of a terrifying beast with 663 feet, the text interprets this as an account of the coming of the Antichrist and the End of Days. Our scribe contextualises this even further within his world, adding the words “macometus” and “saraceni observatus leges machometi” in tiny script above “bestia”. Constantinople had fallen to the Turks in 1453 and it clearly influenced his glossing here; further mention is made of the kings of Jerusalem and Sicily on fol. 5r, and Constantinople on fol. 6r. Another hand adds a lengthy near-contemporary note on the works of Valerius Maximus on fol. 10r, before carrying on to alphabetically list subject matters in that work (‘A-T’ but without accidental loss at end). The book ends with a copy of the tombstone inscription of St. Umberto Accarigi of Siena (d. 1348). Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).   

ƟCommentary on the New Testament (perhaps by a Ludolphus, evidently unrecorded), in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [France or French Flanders, fourteenth century] 120 leaves (plus 4 modern paper endleaves at front and back), complete, collation: i-x12, catchwords, late medieval foliation at head of rectos (240-359, but used here for convenience), probably copied from a misbound exemplar, and with parts of the text for St. Paul’s Letter to Ephesians, II Peter, I John, first lines of III John and Revelations missing from their correct place (all but end of III John appearing in tenth quire), these mistakes noted by a late medieval corrector who adds notes such as “residuum uide Fo. 351” and “ad hoc signum X” directing reader in lower margins to leaf with continuing text (foliation thus probably added at same time to facilitate these cross-references), double column of 48-49 lines in a squat and scrolling hand influenced by university script, those in uppermost lines with ornamental cadels (some depicting figures such as a pointing man and sheep with its tongue out on fol. 324v, and the three handed manicula on 347r), Biblical quotations underlined in red, paragraph marks in red or blue, running titles and versal initials in main ink set off with red pen lines, capitals in ornamental penstrokes touched in red (and occasionally with figures, such as deer’s head on fol. 299v picked out in penwork), catchwords within an array of ornamental penwork boxes, ships and a crudely drawn human figure, larger initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, notes on date in nineteenth-century blue pencil to upper outer corner of first leaf, some small spots and stains, leaves slightly cockled, last 24 leaves with inner lower corner missing (perhaps old rodent damage), 243 by 167mm.; nineteenth-century binding of marbled boards with parchment spine and corners, marbled doublures, small chips to parchment, else good condition Provenance:1. Written in the fourteenth century by a scribe who names himself as “Ludolfus” at the end of the text, most probably for a monastic community in France or French Flanders: note the spelling of “Ystorie” on fol. 284r. The penwork decoration of some capitals with their layered repeating strokes might point towards the Low Countries, and this would accord well with the ethnic origin of the name of the scribe.2. Thence in a private French collection, and probably bound for that owner in the nineteenth century: with slip of paper loosely inserted at back with erroneous description of the codex in French. This collection may have been in Bordeaux, where the present book re-emerged some years ago. Text:A complete but unrecorded, verse-by-verse, continuous commentary on the entire New Testament in Latin prose. Despite exhaustive searching the text here defies identification, and is evidently unedited and unpublished. It may not survive in any other witnesses. A nineteenth-century slip of paper identifies it as a work of Ludolphus of Saxony, but this is based solely on the shared and common name of the scribe and is in error. The commentary is in fact drawn in the greater part from the writings of St. Gregory the Great, who is heralded as “predicator egregious” (‘illustrious preacher’) on several occasions here. Large sections of the work quote verbatim or give abridgements of his Homiliae in Evangelia, his Epistolae, and his Cura Pastoralis, where each is relevant to the specific parts of the New Testament. Frequently the author added to the end of his chapters explicit references to Gregory’s works or suggestions for the reader to consult the fuller text of one of his homilies or letters. Quotations of the text of the New Testament in its lemmata and explanations contain frequent variants from the Latin Vulgate, and there may be some echoes of mendicant theology, popular in the University of Paris at the time this book was written, and the author may have picked this up during a period of study there. What is perhaps most surprising is the size and scale of this work. Many commentaries cover only a book or section of books from the Bible, but the foliation here strongly suggests that this was once part of a two volume set (with the first covering the Old Testament in 239 leaves). It would appear to have been a comprehensive work, in a stable and finished form and of significant scale, and thus its apparent absence from our scholarly record is all the more surprising. It is deserving of much further study. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

ƟBreviary, of Dominican Use, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Germany (probably Bohemia, perhaps western border with Germany), dated 1494] 300 leaves (including 3 original endleaves at back, but plus an additional one more modern endleaf at front and 2 more at back), perhaps wanting a singleton or so from end of the Sanctoral, else complete, collation: i12, ii9 (last a singleton), iii9 (last a singleton), iv-vii8, viii10, ix-xxvi8, xxvii10, xxviii-xxxiv8, xxxv10, xxxvi8, some catchwords, single column with 18 lines in an angular late gothic bookhand, often with ornamental penwork cadels in upper and lower margins, some ending in foliate penwork, capitals touched in red, rubrics in red or underlined in red, initials in alternate red or blue, twelve large illuminated initials, the larger of these with purple penwork infill and with extensions into margin formed of thin coloured acanthus leaf fronds with gold bezants, line-drawn lamb in bas-de-page on fol. 161v, some originally blank leaves with early eighteenth-century additions of prayers in a German hand, a nineteenth-century printed devotional image of St. Catherine of Siena pasted to last but one endleaf, some slight water damage to leaves at each end, slight cockling throughout, slightly trimmed at top and bottom, dark spots on last few leaves from clasp attachment on back board, some offset from last leaf to adjacent endleaf (but without affect to text), overall good condition, 89 by 64mm.; sixteenth- or seventeenth-century red velvet over pasteboards (surfaces somewhat rubbed and worn, cracked at spine, and the whole refreshed and restored with new endleaves added and boards supported with modern pasteboard inserts), working brass clasp Provenance:1. Written and illuminated in 1494 for a Dominican, most probably in Bohemia: the Calendar is distinctively Dominican, with feasts for SS. Thomas Aquinas (7 March), Vincent Ferrer (5 April), and Dominic (feast 5 August, as “patris nostri” in dark blue, and translation 24 May); and the presence of the rare saint, Wenceslaus (28 September) in the Calendar points to Bohemia, while St. Wolfgang of Regensburg in the Litany might suggest the border country between southeastern Germany and western Bohemia. The volume is dated “Anno domini 1494” in red at the end of the text. The tiny size of the volume suggests it was made for use by an itinerant preacher.2. Maria Catharine Constra(): with a lengthy record in German in a scrawling hand on fol. 21r, recording her gifting of the book in 1705 (the same hand makes devotional additions to blank leaves throughout). Text: The volume comprises: a Calendar (fol. 1r), followed by tables with signs of the zodiac and favourable days for blood-letting and similar; the Temporal, from the first Sunday in Advent to the twenty-fifth after Pentecost (fol. 22r), followed by the Office for Consecration; the Santoral (fol. 115r); the Common of the Saints (fol. 194r); the Office of the Dead (fol. 250r) and a Litany (fol. 267r). Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).   

ƟBook of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Southern Netherlands (Bruges, or perhaps Ghent), last decades of fifteenth century] 169 leaves, rebound on thin paper guards and thus uncollatable, but wanting single leaves throughout (mostly with miniatures), single column of 16 lines in a fine late gothic bookhand, one- and 2-line initials in liquid gold on blue and pink grounds heightened with white penwork, the larger of these sprouting hairline foliage into the margins with gold leaves and trilobed flowers with blue and dark pink tips to their petals, 5 leaves for Salve Regina prayer and in Suffrages of Saints with blue or pink historiated initials set on gold grounds and with full borders of coloured acanthus leaves and other foliage sprouting from a thin gold text frame, the borders enclosing birds, a snail and butterfly, Calendar leaves with ‘KL’ initials in liquid gold and full borders in same style with roundels showing zodiac symbols and occupations enclosed in outer and lower margins, fourteen leaves with large coloured initials enclosing foliage set within trompe d’oeil borders in Ghent-Bruges style with flowers, fruit, realistic insects and for Office of the Dead skulls, six full-page miniatures (fol. 16v: Pentecost; 26v: Annunciation to the Virgin; 61v: Annunciation to the Shepherds; 75v, Massacre of the Innocents before an enthroned Herod; 98v: King David kneeling in prayer; 151v: David kneeling before the Cross) set within similar borders with birds, some flaking from paint in places and thumbing to borders, spots and stains, overall fair condition, 95 by 70mm.; nineteenth-century red velvet over bevelled wooden boards (these probably earlier), scuffed at edges, else good, fitted buckram suede-lined case A note dated 1851 and pasted to the front endleaf records that this book came from the library of the priest, Phillippe Bernhard. The text comprises a Calendar (fol. 1r; February-December); the Hours of the Passion (fol. 12r); the Hours of the Cross (fol. 20r); the Hours of the Virgin, (fol. 46r), followed by its seasonal variations; the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol. 99r) followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 118r); the ‘Psalter of Jerome’ (fol. 152r); and the Suffrages of the Saints. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Ɵ  Pocket monastic choirbook, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [France, fifteenth century (perhaps early in that century)] 73 leaves (plus 3 modern paper endleaves at front, and 4 at back), wanting a few single leaves throughout and leaves at end, collation: i6, ii8, iii9 (iv wanting), iv8, v10 (vi-vii bound in as bifolium stitched into quire in correct place), vi8, vii7 (last leaf wanting), viii-ix8, x1 (single leaf from following, and now lost, quire), single column of 2 or 3 lines of text in late gothic bookhand, with music on a 4-line red stave (note-like squares arranged in ‘chessboards’ or ‘diamonds’ at end of some sections of music), capitals touched in yellow, red rubrics, initials in split penwork with yellow wash and elaborate hairline penwork (some of this penwork picking out human faces) or red and blue with ornate purple and red penwork surrounds, some text overwritten, small hole in last leaf, spots, scuffs and stains, overall in fair and legible condition, 102 by 70mm.; later and perhaps eighteenth-century limp parchment binding with yapp edges and paper doublures printed with red diamonds Some of the longer rubrics here give directions to the user where to stand when singing the readings, and on one occasion specify that the “congregatio conventum” should assemble “in cimeterio” (cemetery) for the ceremony. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

ƟSimon Gattula, Confessionale Pro Reverendissimo Episcopo Venusino Confessionale Pro Reverendissimo Episcopo Venusino, illuminated manuscript in Latin on parchment [southern Italy (Naples), 1557]13 leaves, complete, collation: i2, ii8, iii3 (last a singleton to complete volume), single column, up to 20 lines in fine calligraphic bookhand in brown, blue or red ink, six 2- or 3-line initials in liquid gold, 7 full-page line-drawn illustrations (fol. 1r: arms of Simon Gattula within a cabochon surmounted by a mitre, with blue ink inscription SIMON/GATTULA/EPUS/VENUSINUS; fol. 1v, arms of the Pope surmounted by the three tiered papal crown and St. Peter’s keys; fol. 2r, Crucifixion; fol. 2v, St. Peter kneeling before Christ and receiving his keys; fol.7r, Gattula as a bishop, kneeling in prayer before visions of the Crucifixion and the Virgin and Child; fol. 7v, Pentecost; fol. 9v, the Crown of Thorns in penwork with blue and yellow wash; fol. 11r, St. Andrew holding his cross and a book; and arms of Rudolfo Pio, surmounted by cardinal’s hat and with inscription naming owner of arms, added later to fol. 11v), some small spots, cockling and small holes in places, overall good condition, 140 by 105mm.; fine contemporary binding of dark brown leather over pasteboards, elaborately gilt-tooled on front and back boards with name of author around a floral central boss within floral roll stamped frame (restored in nineteenth century, when paper endleaves were added), spine cracking in places, 2 tags on each board cut away Provenance:1. This is evidently a de luxe copy of the text produced for the author s own library, and in his personal binding. Its small size and lavish illustration suggest that it was intended for his own devotional use. Simon Gattula held office as the head of the Neapolitan church, and in 1551 was elected bishop of Venosa, a diocese in the Apennines in southern Italy. He died there in 1566. No other book from his library is known to us.2. Rudolfo Pio, nephew of Alberto Pio, the lord of Carpi, north of Modena: his arms added to fol. 11v.3. Pantani Giuseppe Fabbro Valestra: his ownership inscription dated 1877, at foot of fol. 1r. Text:The present manuscript contains a petition that Simon Gattula sent to the Pope to obtain authorisation for the use of a series of prayers and confessional practises within Gattula’s diocese, and includes a copy of the papal response of 1557, granting this. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Ɵ Prayerbook, in Middle Low German, probably made for female monastic use, manuscript on paper [Germany (most probably north, perhaps border with Low Countries), c. 1500] 99 leaves (including 10 blank leaves, plus an original endleaf at back), wanting a single leaf from seventh quire, else complete, collation: i-v8, vi10, vii7 (wants v), viii-xii8, no catchwords, 2 scribes, the main text in single column of 15 lines in a tall and thin gothic bookhand with descenders that reach far below the line, the second with 14 lines of a similar gothic bookhand hand in paler ink, capitals touched in red, rubrics in paler red, line fillers in lines of cross-hatched red symbols, some stains at edges from use, small spots, last endleaf nearly detached, else in fair and presentable condition, 155 by 100mm.; contemporary panel-stamped brown leather over bevelled wooden boards, remnants of 2 brass clasps, splits at spine, small hole in leather at head of spine, losses of leather from corners, but strong in binding Provenance:1. Written for a member of a monastic community, most probably in northern Germany, with some features of the language suggesting the border region with the Low Countries. The later ownership by a woman may suggest that this was a female community. Contemporary ex libris inscriptions, one naming a “M. van Offe[n]boeoch” and others a member of the “van der recke” family2. Katryna van der Kirke: her ex libris apparently dated 1562, along with a Latin exhortation and some lines of German language religious poetry, “Bedet und waket / Sat y nycht bloyt und naket / Voer den brutigam cristi stam / als de vyf dollen hebrum gedan.” Text:The prayers here are a mix of those addressing traditional religious subjects (“To got den heren”, “Voer den hilgen sacrament”, “to gade den vader” and on “De seven worde Christi de he an den cruce sprack”) with others focussing on specific maladies (usually illness, the book opens with a long series of appeals after the rubric, “Hyt gebet in krankheit to bidden”). To this has been appended a short Psalter in German, drawn from the Psalter compiled by St. Augustine’s mother, Monica (“kurtz psalter aus dem gansem psalter davids Durch den hilgen augustinum siner moder Monica zusamen gezogen”). Some prayers in the second half of the book contain instructions in their rubrics as to where the supplicant should stand or act during the service. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Ɵ The Prayerbook of Jørgen Quitzow, in Renaissance Danish and German, illuminated manuscript on parchment, with near-contemporary additions on paper [Denmark (perhaps the Lutheran Chapter for Noble Ladies at Maribo, Lolland, or just perhaps central Fyn), dated 1570] 80 leaves, the main section (48 leaves) on vellum, complete, collation: i-xi4, approximately 16 lines of an angular calligraphic hand with numerous pen cadels and flourishes set in a near-square single column framed at edges by double orange-red and pale green lines, rubrics in red, sections opening with larger ornate letters and ending with calligraphic interlace ‘penwork knots’, double-page opening at front with coloured and illuminated coats-of-arms (see below), 17 hand-coloured woodcuts taken from a contemporary printed text on paper (from a copy of the Danish version of Luther, Husspostille published in 1564; 2 with substantial damage, and a further 8 spaces indicating that woodcuts were once there but have been removed or fallen away), this followed by some 32 paper leaves with near-contemporary additions of devotional material probably added for (or even by) Quitzow, mostly in quires of 8 and wanting a single leaf from this section, else complete, the first 6 leaves also approximately 16 lines in near-square single column, set within single red lines, thereafter 13 leaves with further devotional additions, the last leaves blank, some small natural flaws in parchment, small spots and scuffs, but overall in good and solid condition, 100 by 95mm.; Danish binding of c. 1800, marbled paper-covered pasteboards, spine backed with light tan leather, corners quartered with same, title “Bonn/bog” in ink on spine, with Thore Virgin’s “1570” added below Provenance:1. Written and illuminated for Jørgen Quitzow (d. 1599: see E. Ladewig Pederson in Adel forpligter - studier over den danske adels gældsstiftelse, 1983, p. 190, for brief comment) of Lykkesholm, Fyn: with the arms of his father’s family (Quitzow, beneath a silver helm and within metallic foliage) facing those of his mother’s family (Rønnow of Magelund, within golden foliage and gilt and red helm) as an illuminated opening on the inside facing pages of the first two leaves, and with a scrawled contemporary signature at the foot of those leaves that is certainly his own (“Jürgenn Qvitzow / med egen hand”). He was an important Danish magnate of the last decades of the sixteenth century, presumably named after his grandfather Jørgen Henningsen Quitzow (d. 1544), who served King Christian III as royal courtier and chancellor from 1537 until his death. His grandmother was Ellen Andersdatter (d. after 1558), a member of the influential Gøye family, who in later life became the first and founding abbess of the Lutheran Chapter for Noble Ladies at Maribo, Lolland, a house which took over the buildings of the first Bridgettine abbey in Denmark (that founded directly from Vadstena in 1418, and suppressed as a Catholic house during the Reformation, but with some nuns remaining in situ throughout the refoundation). This was a community of protestant ‘nuns’ in all ways bar their titles, made up from woman dedicated to prayer and Bible study in Danish and German. Such Lutheran chapters were a common phenomenon in early Reformation Denmark, often founded to ensure the suppression of earlier powerful Catholic religious centres (in this case the founding Bridgettine house of Denmark). However, old habits seem to have died hard, and in 1563 complaints were made to the bishop of Fyn that the inmates were harbouring Catholics, had resumed prayers for the dead of their Bridgettine predecessors and had returned to wearing the Bridgettine habit in private. Accusations of drunkenness and disorder followed and the house was suppressed in 1621.Two of the around twenty surviving medieval and Renaissance prayer books made for Danish private owners are securely connected to Maribo (K.M. Nielsen, A. Otto and J. Lyster, Middelalderens danke Bønnebøger, 1945-1982; cataloguing Copenhagen, GKS 1614, 4to and Thott. Samling 553, 4to), and it is possible that the scriptorium there produced also this codex, also produced this codex, perhaps as a gift to Qvitzow from his grandmother or maternal aunt (both reportedly abbesses of the house).2. Lt. Captain Thore Virgin (1886-1957) of Qvarnfors, Skåne, Sweden: his ex libris and small printed bookplate on front pastedown, noting the acquisition of the book in Copenhagen on 28 March 1927. The remnant of the Thore Virgin library was widely dispersed in recent years, but this volume has until now not appeared on the open market, and is completely unknown and unrecorded. Text and illustrations:The text opens with the calligraphic title, “En liden trøstelig Bønebog/ aff atskillige slaugs Tydske oc danske bønebøger de trøsteligste tilsamme[n] schreffuen/ nu udi denne siste Verdens tid gantske nødsommelig at bede. 15*70”, and includes a lengthy series of prayers interspersed with readings from SS. Augustine, Basil, John Chrysostom, Hilarion, Origen and others, and quotations from the works of Luther (including prayers), Ludwig Rabus (whose prayerbook was published in 1567), and Andreas Musculus (who published a devotional work in 1559). The last six leaves of the parchment section contain devotional Biblical readings.Books of Hours and prayer books translated into vernacular languages are of exceptional rarity, outside of the Dutch tradition (which had a strong vernacular tradition following the devotio moderna movement and the translation of Gerhard Groote). While a few hundred thousand such manuscripts exist in Latin, only a handful survive in a small number of other vernacular languages. Only about twenty-five such manuscripts substantially in German are currently known to exist (R. Cermann, ‘Über den Export deutschsprachiger Stundenbücher von Paris nach Nürnberg’, Codices Manuscripti, 75, 2010, pp. 9-24, and Sotheby’s, 2 December 2014, lot 49). Seventeen survive in Middle English, none earlier than the end of the fourteenth century (A. Sutherland, English Psalms in the Middle Ages. 1300-1450, Oxford, 2015, p. 27). The total number of Old French vernacular prayer books is unknown but probably no more than fifteen, with many examples of the sixteenth century (see V. Reinburg, French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400-1600, Cambridge, 2014, p. 96 for isolated examples). Of the roughly twenty prayerbooks and associated texts in Danish listed in Middelalderens danke Bønnebøger only three are outside of Denmark itself, and those all in Swedish institutional ownership (Kalmar, Läroverks Bibliotek; Stockholm, KB. A40; and Linköping, Theol. 217). Thus, this manuscript is almost certainly the only such work in any form of Danish which might appear on the market again, and most probably one of the very few early manuscripts in Danish still in private ownership. Additional Note: The presence of a previously overlooked catchword “Det” on the last leaf of the original parchment section of this codex indicates that a leaf or so is missing from the end of this section. Please note: that the original parchment section of this codex is missing a leaf or so from its end Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Ɵ Gargantuan Antiphoner, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment in its contemporary binding [Spain, c. 1500] 44 leaves (plus pastedowns recovered from similar volume and reused), many of these cut from codex for dispersal and with a number of leaves wanting throughout, original foliation of leaves that remain: 2-3, 7-34, 41-2, 47-8, 51-53, 56-7, 65, 67, plus one loose unnumbered leaf at each end, these with 5 lines of text in very large Iberian liturgical script, with music on a 5-line red stave (as common in late medieval Spain and not indicating polyphony), rastrum: 80mm., red rubrics, penwork initials in split interlacing bands, red or blue with ornate foliage and penwork in contrasting colour, or simple red, two large variegated initials in red and blue enclosing detailed penwork foliage and with penwork frames, one vast initial ‘N’ (opening “Nativitas gloriose virginis …”) in riotously tessellating shapes of red and blue enclosing tiles of penwork with flowerheads, and enclosed within detailed penwork frame, some leaves loose (see above), scuffs and stains, else fair condition, 790 by 560mm.; contemporary binding of brown leather over massive wooden boards, metalwork cornerpieces and four central mounts on each board (wanting cornerpieces from backboard), leather of spine missing but binding structures in place, scuffs and tears to leather with losses at edges, fair condition Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Ɵ Records of people investigated or punished by the Sienese Inquisitor for the years immediately up to 1711, in Latin, tall and thin manuscript on paper [Italy (Siena), 1710-16, with a few later additions from same century] 94 leaves (including 80 blank leaves), with entries of names of the individual’s concerned arranged alphabetically, each letter leaving blank leaves after the main entry to allow for more names, entries in 2 or 3 scrawling Italian hands, first leaf with lengthy Latin title in ornate capitals and fine script above the inquisitor’s seal (paper with white wax), the impressing of this seal leaving dents in centre of numerous subsequent leaves, some small spots and an erasure to first leaf, else excellent condition, 340 by 95mm.; contemporary limp parchment over thin pasteboards, detaching in places from spine, but solid in binding, 2 white leather tags at edges of each board Without wanting to seem frivolous about such unpleasant practises as Inquisitorial persecution and torture, this manuscript is perhaps best described as a torturer’s rolodex. It opens with the statement that it was owned by the Inquisitor P.M. Iohanne Baptisto Magni a Verrucchio, and in alarmingly calm and ordered fashion states it contains the list of names and surnames of those investigated and punished in Siena, arranged firstly in alphabetical order and then by descending date of the interrogation. It was a practical reference tool, and must have played its part in the final decades of the witch-trials of early eighteenth-century Siena (some doubtless here under the generic title ‘heretic’ and ‘blasphemer’). The upheavals of the Napoleonic invasions destroyed many such archives, and all such records are rare; those of Palermo were burnt in 1782 and those of Galicia were repurposed into musket cartridges during the Napoleonic Wars. Siena is, in fact, reasonably well documented, owing to its transference of much of its records to the Papal archives. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Ɵ Scholarly compendium including numerous Classical works, Aesop’s fables and a lengthy account of European geography, in Latin and Greek, manuscript on paper in Royal French binding [France (Paris), late seventeenth century] 241 leaves (plus doublures), evidently complete, single column of up to 40 lines in a single scrawling italic hand, titles and some opening words in larger version of same, numerous calligraphic pen swirls, slight discolouration and a few small spots throughout, overall good condition, 220 by 154mm.; original binding of brown leather over thick pasteboards bound with 5 thongs at spine, gilt-tooled with arms of kings of France (in form of 1578-1790) below a crown and within the collars of the Orders of St. Michel and ‘du roi’ as central cabouchons, each board also with gilt floral border with large fleur-de-lys set at corner, spine gilt-tooled with fleur-de-lys and foliage in compartments, title “RHETO/RICA”, finely marbled doublures, gilt edges decorated with green marbling, bumped at edges, slight scuffs, some splits at spine, but solid in binding This is a puzzling volume in that its humble contents do not on first impression sit easily with the grandeur of its royal binding. The main contents of this volume are those of a late seventeenth-century scholar (excerpts from Cicero, Coriolanus, with sections on the Roman wars with Carthage, the ancient kings of Prussia and Bithnia, Theodoric the Ostrogoth, Attila the Hun, Nero’s crushing of a revolt in Roman Britain, as well as the animal fables Cicada et Formica, Vulpes et Felis, Vespersilio et Mustella, Vulpes et Hircus, Felis et Simia, and Canis cum Lepore). There is also topical material on the Duc de Chaulnes and the public display of the corpse of St. Francis Borgia (1510-72, canonised 1670). Some material on St. Genevieve, including an account of the procession of her relics in 1694, points towards Paris, and verses on King Louis XIV’s attacks on heresy, perhaps point towards the royal court. The final part, which contains a lengthy Geographia ascribed to the Jesuit Joseph de Jouvancy (1643-1719), adds that that geographic text was written in 1694 in Paris in the royal college or lycée of Louis XIV. This is an unlikely book to come from the royal library, but may well have once been part of the library of the royal lycée. The school was founded by the Jesuits in 1563 as the Collège de Clermont, but renamed in Louis XIV’s honour after he extended it his direct patronage in 1682. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Ɵ Arithmetique, calligraphic manual on the practical applications of the subject, in French, manuscript on paper [France, 16 April 1774] 208 leaves, evidently complete, with single column of 24 long lines of a good italic hand, larger calligraphic script in faded red for rubrics, some line fillers in same, sums set within text columns, a few pages with ink split on them, some ink burn (but with little affect to text), overall in good condition, 285 by 220mm.; contemporary brown leather pasteboards, remains of green silk ties, edges of binding somewhat rubbed and slightly loose in places This impressively large volume was copied for a student of a priest named “Sieur Perie”, perhaps the “Barthe Remi” who wrote his name on an endleaf. Inscriptions on the first and last leaves show that work on it was begun on 5 October 1773, and it was completed on 16 April the following year. It was presumably some form of graduation award, completed as part of his scribal and accountancy studies. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  

Ɵ Giovanni Battista Raimondo de Silva, Amori Stravaganti, or “Vita di Anna Bolena”, in Italian, manuscript on paper [Italy, eighteenth century] 398 leaves (plus a contemporary paper endleaf at front and back), evidently complete, single column of approximately 25 lines in a scrawling hand, significant names sometimes in larger rounded script, the volume opening with title-page and a single leaf with contents list, some slight inkburn (but not affecting legibility of text), speckled edges, various book-trade marks on pastedowns, overall good and clean condition, 188 by 130mm; contemporary white parchment over thin pasteboards, with “Vita di Anna Bolena, Rega d’Inghila” in Phillipps’ hand on spine above earlier “XXVIII”, paper fragments and clean area in shape of circle from Phillipps’ labels once on spine Provenance:1. Frederick North (1766-1827), 5th Earl Guildford, politician, British governor of Ceylon, traveller and formidable book collector, often purchasing entire libraries of ecclesiastical institutions in Italy and Greece with the aim of forming a university on Corfu. However, problems with his will forced the sale of the library by auction at Evans of 93 Pall Mall from 1828-35, including this volume as 8 December 1830, lot 4 (part).2. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), manic and obsessive bibliophile as well as the greatest manuscript collector to have ever lived: his MS. 4925 (inscription on front endleaf), and acquired in the Guilford sale along with 1300 other Italian manuscripts from that collection; this one offered by Sotheby’s in the Phillipps’ sale, 13 June 1896, lot 630, and again in the same rooms, 29 October 1962, lot 168, to H.W. Edwards, his cat. 106 (1963), no. 47. Text:To the passionate Englishman, Thomas Phillipps, this volume contained the “Vita di Anna Bolena”, but in fact its scope is much wider. It collects together racy and on occasion lurid tales of love in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European courts, uniting those of the royal palace of France, those of the Duchess Mazarin, Madame Colonna, that of Ugo da Montefeltro with Lady Olimpia Maildachini Pamfili among numerous others, with that of Anne Boleyn (this last translating a French text).

A MANUSCRIPT 'RECEIPT' (RECIPE) BOOK, DATED 1885, containing many interesting receipts

WALPOLE ROBERT: (1676-1745) British Prime Minister 1721-42. Large portion of a D.S., R Walpole, one page, slim oblong 4to, Pay Office, Horse Guards, 30th September 1715. The manuscript text, which appears to the verso of a portion of a printed document dated 20th July 1715 relating to an Act of Parliament 'for Charging and Continuing the Duties on Malt, Mum, Cyder and Perry…..and for making forth Duplicates of Exchequer Bills and Lottery Tickets, lost burnt or destroy'd…..', states that Walpole assigns and transfers all of his right, title and interest in the Order unto the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. Very slightly irregularly trimmed and with some light creasing and age wear, only very slightly affecting the text and signature, otherwise about VG

GRENVILLE WILLIAM: (1759-1834) 1st Baron Grenville. British Prime Minister 1806-07. A good ink signature ('Grenville') on an oblong small 8vo piece of vellum, removed from the foot of a document and with several partial lines of printed and manuscript text, March 1791. Some light traces of former mounting to the verso, otherwise VG

NORDAU MAX: (1849-1923) Zionist Leader and Physician, co-founder of the World Zionist Organisation with Theodor Herzl. Small series of three A.Ls.S., M. Nordau, two written on French Carte Postales and the other one page, 8vo, Rue Henner, Paris, September - October 1913, to Ferdinand Leipnik, in German. Nordau writes, in part, 'I have not the slightest objection to using my memories of Vambery in the foreword to the reprint of his autobiography. I regard this as a kind of tender thanks to him for his kindness towards me. I only set the condition that Unwin let me read the translation or the proof sheet. I have had dreadful experiences in the matter of English translations' (26th September 1913), 'I very much apologise for my delayed reply. I thought you might have read in a newspaper that I was invited to attend the Verdi centennial in Milan where I gave a speech. I only came back to Paris yesterday and received your manuscript…..In the next few days you will receive the translation' (16th October 1913) and in the final letter sends the translation and apologises for the delay due to circumstances beyond his control. The two postcards are each hand addressed by Nordau to the verso and both are also signed ('Dr. Nordau') by him in the return address panel. The letter with blank integral leaf. Some light age wear, generally VG, 3   Ferdinand Leipnik (1869-1924) Hungarian Journalist, Spy and Art Historian.   Armin Vambery (1832-1913) Hungarian Turkologist & Traveller.

A late 19th/early 20th century Burmese palm leaf manuscript

The Book of Kells Reproduction from the manuscript in Trinity College Dublin; With a Study by Francoise Henry

Antique Judaica Birkat Habayit Watercolor and Ink Manuscript on Paper. Measures 30-1/2" H x 24-1/4" W, frame measures 34" H x 27-1/2" W. Condition: Heavy creasing throughout the surface, antique condition, soiling Estimate: $100.00 - $200.00 Domestic Shipping: Third party

Italian School Hand Colored Engraving On 18th Century Manuscript. Visible date of 1726. Measures 12-1/4" x 16-1/2", frame measures 18-1/2" x 22-1/2". Condition: Lightly "burned" edges or in good condition. Estimate: $100.00 - $200.00 Domestic Shipping: $135.00

Victor Hugo (French poet, novelist, and dramatist, 1802-85) - a signed autograph letter dated 1866 of Guernsey interest, the letter handwritten in ink, dated 'H.H. 3 juin 1866' (Hauteville House 3rd June 1866), written as a testimonial to the "superior" bookbinding services provided by Mr. Henry Turner of Mill Street, Guernsey, who had bound the original manuscript of Les Travailleurs de la Mer, framed with a 19th century printed translation, newspaper cutting referring to the bookbinding service provided by Turner to Victor Hugo and portrait photogravure of Victor Hugo with facsimile signature, overall frame size 36 x 22¾in. (91.5 x 57.75cm.). *Condition; Letter and newspaper cutting with some insect damage to surface of paper in places, some foxing and time staining. Lighter insect damage to printed translation with some foxing and light mount burn. Some foxing to margins of portrait print. In a modern mahogany style frame with ivory mount. 

WWI Flying Corps interest - Medals, Archive & Ephemera - Relating to 2nd Lieutenant Leslie Reed Blacking - No. 207 Squadron, an important and fascinating collection, to include medals - RAF Volunteer Reserve medal; Efficiency Reserve medal; Victory and War medals, matching miniature dress medals and bar; original issue fibre identity / Dog tag; other insignia and badges; silver mounted swagger stick; large amount of family related ephemera and possessions, to include personal letters, photograph album - containing photographs of 2nd Lieutenant Leslie Reed Blacking in uniform, various RAF aircraft to include Sopwith Camel etc; a book - 'DARKNESS SHALL COVER ME, Night bombing over the Western Front 1918' by Humphrey Wynn with original typed manuscript, a quotation from page 222, "Suddenly a German fighter appeared alongside us, the pilot wearing a pickelhaube and monocle. He looked very like Kaiser Wilhelm II and gave us a mock salute with his fingers". * The book dedication reads, "Dedicated to the gallant memory of all those who flew on the Western Front in the First World War, and especially to that of my dear friend Leslie Reed Blacking and those who served with him on NO 207 Squadron at Ligescourt in 1918".

Photographs, etc.  Early 20th century album of snapshot photographs of family & UK topographical interest; also an autograph & commonplace book with manuscript entries & one or two slipped in photographs.  (2).

POTTS MR.  Lectures on the Practice of Surgery, 1799. 43 neatly written manuscript pages in a thick notebook with other written entries (generally 19th cent.) & pasted in press cuttings, poetical extracts, etc.

Scottish Songs - Manuscript.  Manuscript quarto vol. of Scottish songs with accompanying music & poetry. Approx. 120pp. Brds. det. but present. Watermarked Hamerton, Norfolk, 1799.Condition report:Almost completely filled. Approx. 97 pages with music, 8 pages of lyrics only and the odd blank page. 

Plain Astronomy"".  Manuscript notebook with many pages of handwritten text & a few diags. & calculations. Calf backed marbled brds. Prob. late 18th cent. 

Book of Hours (Use of Rome). Illuminated manuscript on prepared parchment in Latin, Northern France or Flanders, circa 1450, 84 x 61 mm, 132 folios: 12 leaves of manuscript calendar at front, 118 leaves of text and illuminations, and one blank ruled leaf at end (complete), plus single 19 th century parchment blank at front and two similar parchment blanks at end, 19 th century red morocco-faced parchment endpapers (rear endpaper with 19 th century printed ownership label of R. Robertson Glasgow of Montgreenan to recto), calendar with 17 lines per page in red and brown ink, ruled in red, with small initial to each month in liquid gold, blue, pink, and black pen outlines, heightened with white, main text with 15 lines per page in brown ink in a gothic textualis bookhand, with capitals in blue and red, or gold with pen-flourishing in red and black, numerous small two-line initials in liquid gold, blue, red, white and black, TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUMINATED MINIATURES in gold and colours, bordered in black, white and gold, with outer borders of foliage in black and green, and leaves and flowers in gold, green, blue, orange or red, each miniature with facing page of manuscript text in brown and red ink, with illuminated vertical border to the right in gold, red, blue and white outlined in black, decorated small initials in gold and blue, and large historiated five-line initial in gold, blue, red, green, pink and white, outer borders of foliage in black, gold, blue, red, green, pink, occasional light toning and handling marks to margins, generally in very good condition with no obvious defects, all edges gilt, gilt dentelles to inside covers with a pale green inset morocco panel to each, fine mid-19 th century elaborately gilt decorated red morocco (unsigned), lettered in gilt to spine Horae Beatae Virginis Mariae, binding measures 9 x 6.7 cm (3.5 x 2.65 ins), housed in dark olive green morocco slipcase, similarly lettered to spine, a little rubbed (Qty: 1)Contents: Calendar (folios 1-12), Hours of the Cross (folios 14-17), Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary (folios 19-30), Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary- Matins (folios 32-50), Lauds (folios 52-63), Prime (folios 65-68), Terce (folios 70-73), Sext (folios 75-77), Nones (folios 79-82), Vespers (folios 84-89), Compline (folios 91-95), Seven Penitential Psalms (folios 97-114), and Office of the Dead, (folios 116-131). Illuminations: Crucifixion (folio 13), Coronation of the Virgin (folio 18), Annunciation (folio 31), Visitation (folio 51), Nativity (folio 64), Annunciation to the Shepherds (folio 69), Adoration of the Magi (folio 74), Presentation (folio 78), Massacre of the Innocents (folio 83), Flight into Egypt (folio 90), Judgement Day (folio 96), and Mass for the Dead (folio 115). Provenance: Northern France or Flanders, given the names of saints (or bishops) in the calendar associated with towns in southern Flanders and the adjacent northern border of France, and from the preponderance of female martyrs, probably produced for a female lay owner. The partially filled calendar includes the feast days of, among others, Blaise (3 February), Bridget (1 February), Agatha (5 February), Macaire (9 May), Pudentiana (19 May), Bernard of Clairvaux (20 August), Bishop Hubert of Liege (6 September), Lambert of Liege (17 September), Saint Remy or Remigius of Rheims (1 October), Dionysius (9 October), Bishop Martin of Tours (11 November), Saint Eloi or Eligius (1 December), and Barbara (4 December). Eligius for example was appointed Bishop of Noyon-Tournai in 642, and worked for twenty years to convert the pagan population of Flanders to Christianity. Nineteenth-century ownership label at rear of Robert Robertson Glasgow (1811-1860), who inherited Montgreenan, North Ayrshire, Scotland in 1845 from his father Robert Robertson, a physician and owner of plantations in St Vincent (Montgreenan and Sans Souci). Attractive and complete near-miniature book of hours, small enough to hold in the palm of one’s hand, designed for private devotion from Northern France or Flanders.

Bible; New Testament. The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Newly Translated out of the Original Greek, and with the former Translations diligently Compared and Revised, Oxford: printed by the University-Printers, 1699, printed in double-column, a few tiny holes to title-page, final few gatherings toned, close-trimmed to top edge, marbled endpapers, verso of front free endpaper and adjacent preliminary blank with various manuscript ownership names and details, contemporary blind panelled black morocco, slight loss at head of spine, covers with engraved silver furniture comprising central escutcheon bearing monogram 'EMB', cornerpieces, and clasps, 12mo (Qty: 1)With inscriptions charting the book's history in the same family of eminent Norfolk Quakers over a 200-year period: 'Martha Barker married John Hudson ... Martha Barclay their Daughter married David Barclay & died April 20th 1763'; 'Keswick Library. This book was given by David Barclay after his first wife's death & their two daughters Martha who died a minor and unmarried and Agatha who became the wife of Richard Gurney'; and 'Jane Anderson, grand-daughter of Rosslyn Bruce and Rachel Gurney. Married to Charles Hampton, on July 24th, 1971'. The Gurney family were an extremely rich and influential family who were instrumental in the development of the city of Norwich. They established Gurney's Bank in 1770, which merged into Barclays in 1896. Social reformer Elizabeth Fry's father was John Gurney, a partner in Gurney's Bank, and her mother, Catherine, was a member of the Barclay family who were among the founders of Barclays Bank. Keswick Hall, near Norwich, was one of the principal seats of the Gurney family.

Manuscript Cookery Book. An early receipt book, circa 1700, pp.79, comprising 175 numbered recipes written in a single neat and legible hand, 4pp. index at rear titled 'The Table' in the same hand, text within red ink double-rule border, final leaf with several recipes in a different hand, lightly toned and spotted (mostly to margins), two small worm holes to upper bank corner throughout (becoming a short trail at rear), sheet size 23.5 x 18 cm (9.25 x 7 ins), marbled endpapers, front endpapers with armorial bookplates of James Brodie of Brodie Esq. and Sir William Bennet of Grubett Baronet 1707, all edges gilt, contemporary red morocco, slightly rubbed and marked, foot of spine chipped, spine and covers gilt panelled, 4to, housed in a custom-made red cloth solander box (Qty: 1)A beautifully written early cookery book, containing recipes such as: 'To rost a Neats Tongue & Udder'; 'To Pickle Ashen keys'; 'To boyle a John a doree'; 'To boyle Pullets in Bladders'; 'To rost a Westphalia Ham the newest way'; 'To make Beefe Pye in Blood'; 'To make Pitty Pattys the French way'; 'To make the Puses that I was speaking of before in my Potage'; 'To rost a Hare with a Puding in his Belly'; 'To broyle Hog's feet & Ragoo the Eares'; 'To make Andoolins'; 'To Pott a Swan'; 'To fry Harticholks the best way'; and 'To make Mango of Muskmellons'.

Whole Duty of a Woman. The Whole Duty of a Woman: or a Guide to the Female Sex. From the Age of Sixteen to Sixty, etc. Being Directions, How Women of all Qualities and Conditions, ought to Behave themselves in the various Circumstances of this Life, for their Obtaining not only Present, but Future Happiness. I. Directions how to Obtain the Divine and Moral Vertues of Piety, Meekness. Modesty, Chastity, Humility, Compassion, Temperance and Affability, with their Advantages, and how to avoid the opposite Vices. II. The Duty of Virgins, Directing them what they ought to do, and what to avoid, for gaining all the Accomplishments required in that State. With the Whole Art of Love, &c. 3. The Whole Duty of a Wife. 4. The Whole Duty of Widow &c. Also Choice Receipts in Physick, and Chirurgery. With the Whole Art of Cookery, Preserving, Candying, Beautifying, &c. Written by a Lady, 3rd edition, London: J. Guillim, 1701, [6], 184pp., manuscript date at head of title 'Dec ye 17 1705', early ownership inscription of Joanna Whitmore Brackley to page 64 (D8 verso, in section relating to love, passion & the wedding day), some toning and light dampstaining mostly towards rear, later endpapers with blind stamp to front free endpaper, later speckled calf, recent black morocco title label, 12mo (Qty: 1)ESTC T63975; Maclean, p. 150; Oxford, p. 46; cf. Cagle 1052 for the first edition, 1695. Only three UK institutional locations found (British Library, Bodleian and National Library of Scotland). The work includes the observation that 'The sexes are made of different tempers, that the defects may be the better supplied, by mutual assistance. Our sex wants the others reason for our conduct, and their strength for our protection. Theirs want our gentleness to soften and entertain them, our looks have more strength than their laws; there is more power in our tears, than in their arguments; and therefore things prudently managed, will by degrees, bring over a husband to see his errors; and by acknowledging his failings, take care for the future, to amend them; but then the wifes gentleness and vertue, must be the mirror, wherein he must see the deformity of his irregularities'.

Dunton (John). Athenian Sport: or, Two Thousand Paradoxes Merrily Argued, To Amuse and Divert the Age … With Improvements from the Honourable Mr. Boyle, Lock, Norris, Collier, Cowley, Dryden, Garth, Addison, and other Illustrious Wits. By a member of the Athenian Society, 1 st edition, printed for B. Bragg, 1707, half-title, text in double column, 18 th century engraved bookplate of Edmondstoune of Newton to front pastedown, with related ink note above ‘Newtoun Decr 4 th 1751’, contemporary blind panelled calf, slightly rubbed, 8vo, together with Athenianism: or, The New Projects of Mr. John Dunton, Author of the Essay entitl'd, The Hazard of a Death-Bed-Repentance being, Six Hundred distinct Treatises (in Prose and Verse) written with his own hand; and is an entire collection of all his writings, both in manuscript, and such as were formerly printed. To which is added, Dunton's Fare Wel to Printing, Vol. I [all published], printed by Tho. Darrack... and are to be sold by John Morphew, 1710, engraved portrait frontispiece of John Dunton by Van der Gucht after E. Knight, [2], xiv, [16], 224, 360 pages, minor spotting and light soiling to title and a few preliminary leaves, modern antique-style blind-panelled full calf, with gilt morocco label to spine, 8vo (Qty: 2)Provenance (for the first work): James Edmondstoune of Newton in Perthshire. Parks 339 & 362. The first work is a collection in prose and verse, compiled by the eccentric writer and bookseller John Dunton (1659-1732). Subjects vary from the whimsical to the scatological, but focus chiefly on human foibles and ignorance, and the relationship of the sexes. The second, and scarcer title, Athenianism , complete with the only surviving portrait of the author (and often missing) consists of 24 'projects', or Satires on literature, history, religion, autobiography and science, much of which is in verse, including a poem on male prostitution entitled 'The He-Strumpets'.

Nourse (Timothy). The Mistery of Husbandry Discover'd. Containing several New and Advantageous Ways of Tillage, Sowing, Planting, Manureing and Improving of all sorts of Meadows, Pasture, Corn-land, Woods, Gardens, Orchards, and also of Fruit for Cyder and Perry... , the third edition, to which is added, The Compleat Collier: or, An Account how to Find and Work Coal, and Coal-Mines, the like never before printed, George Conyers, 1708, engraved frontispiece (a little frayed at foot of gutter margin), title-page of 'The Compleat Collier' to general title-page verso, 'An Analytical Account of the Argument' and Contents leaf following title with A2 as a stub, 6 pp. publisher's ads before 'The Compleat Collier' at rear, some spotting, browning and old damp-staining throughout, engraved armorial bookplate of 'Hugh Rose of Kilraick, 1709', hinges cracked, contemporary calf with remains of manuscript paper spine labels, rubbed, chipped at foot of upper joint, 8vo (Qty: 1)ESTC T131546, giving two British and two North American locations only. This is a re-issue of the 1700 edition of Nourse's Campania Foelix , with the original title-page, with a change of title and the edition of 'The Compleat Collier', with separate pagination (22 pp.) bound at the rear: this is the first book on coal mining and was reprinted separately in the same year with the title of The Mistery of Husbandry Discover'd , by Timothy Nourse to verso.

[Stringer, Moses]. Opera Mineralia Explicata: or, the Mineral Kingdom, within the Dominions of Great Britain, display'd. Being a compleat history of the antient corporations of the City of London, and for the mines, the mineral and the battery works, 1st edition, printed for Jonas Brown, [1713], woodcut arms of the Society of the Mineral and Battery Works, occasional light spotting, later panelled calf, a little rubbed, spine label lacking with compartment titled in manuscript, 8vo (Qty: 1)ESTC N41617.

Jacob (Giles). The Country Gentleman's Vade Mecum. Containing an Account of the best Methods to improve Lands ... Of Horses, Cattle ... Of Deer and Parks; Game; Fish and Fishing, Fish-Ponds, etc. Prices of Timber and all Sorts of Building ... Rules for Management of a Family ... Account of Gardening in general, 1st edition, printed for William Taylor, 1717, engraved frontispiece, woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials, manuscript calculations to p. 10, bound with: [Mabbut, George], Tables for Renewing and Purchasing of the Leases of Cathedral Churches and Colleges, Cambridge: John Hayes, 1686, browning, stain to title-page, 2 holes to final leaf affecting one letter, and: Clerke (George), The Landed Man's Assistant: or, the Steward's Vade Mecum. Containing the newest, most plain and perspicuous Method of keeping the Accompts of Gentlemen's Estates yet extant, 2nd edition, printed for Tho. Payne, 1715, title-page printed in red and black, 3 folding letterpress tables counted in pagination, title-page browned, one table frayed along lower edge, 3 works in 1 volume, endpapers and blanks profusely annotated with mathematical calculations, receipts and related instructions in a variety of contemporary hands, end-pockets, contemporary sheep, decorative blind panels to spine compartments and covers, rubbed, front joint partially split, 12mo (15.4 x 9.4 cm) (Qty: 1)ESTC T90927, R41187, T37529; Kress 3023 for Jacob; Wing M113 for Mabbutt (the work was previously attributed to Isaac Newton). Sammelband of three scarce pamphlets on land management, the endpapers annotated with contemporary receipts and instructions, including methods for dealing with ants, termites and 'a difficiency of male flowers on your cucumber plants', and other remedies. Giles Jacob is best remembered for his A New Law Dictionary (1729). This edition of Clerke's work was possibly preceded by an undated edition which ESTC dates 1712 on internal evidence. We trace no copy of any edition at auction for over 50 years; ESTC identifies eleven institutional copies of this edition world-wide.

Wood (William). A Survey of Trade. In Four Parts. I. The Great Advantages of Trade in General, and the Particular Influence of it on Great-Britain. II. The Marks of Beneficial Trade ... III. The Great Advantages of our Colonies and Plantations to Great-Britain ... IV. Some Considerations on the Disadvantages of our Trade at Present Labours Under ... Together with Considerations on our Money and Bullion, 2nd edition, John Walthoe, 1722, single advertisement leaves at front and rear, lacks A8 [?errata leaf], turn-ins browned, contemporary calf gilt with manuscript paper spine label, a little cracked along upper joint and corners slightly bruised, 8vo (Qty: 1)Goldsmiths' 6096; Kress 3498. A re-issue of the 1718 first edition, with a different title-page and an initial leaf of advertisements. According to ESTC T146690, (which does not record the second advert leaf), some copies of the book do not have the errata leaf.

Macintosh (William, or Richard Bradley). A Treatise concerning the Manner of Fallowing of Ground, raising of Grass-Seeds, and Training of Lint and Hemp, for the Increase and Improvement of the Linnen-Manufactories in Scotland, 1st edition, Edinburgh: Robert Fleming, 1724, 7 engraved plates of looms and tools, (some folding), marginal paper-flaw to A2, closed marginal tear to final leaf L7, contemporary speckled sheep, rebacked to style, 8vo (18.4 x 11.6 cm), together with: Economist and General Adviser. The Economist and General Adviser, containing Important Papers on the Following Subjects: the Markets, Marketing, Drunkenness, Gardening, Cookery, Travelling, Housekeeping, Management of Income, Distilling, Baking, Brewing, Agriculture, Public Abuses, Shops and Shopping, House Taking, Benefit Societies, Annals of Gulling, Amusements, Useful Recipes, Domestic Medicine, Etc., 2 volumes in 1 [all published], 1st edition, Knight and Lacey, 1824-5, containing 64 weekly numbers, title-page to each volume (both dated 1825), wood-engraved vignettes in text, engraved plate, outer leaves browned, occasional spotting elsewhere, contemporary ownership inscription to title-page, occasional marginalia, manuscript quotation from the Cook's Oracle to rear blank, contemporary half calf, orange morocco labels to spine, rubbed, 8vo (19.4 x 11.7 cm), and Kennett (White), The Case of Impropriations, and of the Augmentation of Vicarages and Other Insufficient Cures, stated by History and Law, from the First Usurpation of the Popes and Monks, to Her Majesty's Royal Bounty lately extended to the Poorer Clergy of the Church of England, 1st edition, for Awnsham and John Churchill, 1704, 2A2 torn affecting pagination, variable light browning, intermittent tide-mark in top margins, effaced ownership inscription to title-page, various contemporary ownership inscriptions to front endpapers, contemporary calf, rubbed, spine-ends consolidated, 8vo (19.1 x 10.8 cm) (Qty: 3)Kress 3560 (Macintosh), C.1235 (Economist).

Auction Catalogue. A Catalogue of the Library, Antiquities, &c. of the Late Learned Dr. Woodward, Fellow of the College of Physicians, and of the Royal Society; and Professor of Physick in Gresham-College. Which will begin to be Sold by Auction, at Mr. Cooper's, in the Great Piazza, Covent-Garden, on Monday the 11th Day of November, 1728... By Mr. Christopher Bateman, Bookseller; and Mr. John Cooper... , [printed by Henry Woodfall, 1728], engraved initial letters and head and tail-pieces, toned and some staining to last few leaves, title-page dusty, contemporary ink prices to margins, bound with [Woodward, John] , Remarks Upon the Antient and present State of London, Occasion'd by some Roman Urns, Coins, and other Antiquities, Lately discover'd..., The Third Edition, Printed for A. Bettesworth and W. Taylor, 1723, advertisement leaf at rear, title-page with contemporary manuscript numerals to lower margin (dusty and slightly torn at foot of gutter), binder's blank at front with ink inscription dated 1848, and that at rear with later manuscript notes, marbled endpapers, front pastedown with book ticket 'The Collection of Frank Marcham 1899', top edges gilt, early 20th century black half morocco, gilt decorated spine rubbed and with slight loss at head, 8vo in 4s (Qty: 1)ESTC T61373 & T145805. The first title is rare: the last copy we have found sold at auction was at Sotheby's in 1965. This copy belonged to London bookseller and collector Frank Marcham (circa 1880-1941).

P[eter], H[ugh]. Good Work for a Good Magistrate. Or, a Short Cut to Great Quiet. By Honest, homely plain English Hints given from Scripture, Reason, and Experience, for the regulating of most Cases in this Commonwealth. Concerning, Religion; Mercie; Justice, 1st edition, printed by William Du-Gard, 1651, woodcut headpieces and initials, shallow damp-stain in fore margin of quire A, small chip and old ink inscription (probably a pressmark) to title page, contemporary manuscript manicule to p. 62 and marginalia to p. 65, a few other trivial marks, old inscription 'Ex Dono G St G Bar.' to front free endpaper, contemporary blind-ruled sheep, spine rubbed, 12mo (14.3 x 8.5 cm) (Qty: 1)Provenance: inscription to front free endpaper, 'Ex dono G St G Bar.', possibly George St George, 1st Baron St George (c.1658-1735), Anglo-Irish politician, several times member of parliament for Roscommon, and appointed privy counsellor in 1715. ESTC R203158; Sabin 61193; Wing P1706. Peter (1596-1660), an Independent minister, travelled to New England in 1635 and became an influential figure in the Bay Colony. After returning to England in 1641 as an agent of the Massachusetts government he became a leading supporter of the parliamentarian cause, and was even rumoured to have been Charles's masked executioner. A close associate of Cromwell's, he was himself executed shortly after the Restoration.

Bailey (Nathan). Dictionarium Domesticum, Being a New and Compleat Household Dictionary. For the use both of City and Country, Shewing I. The Whole Arts of Brewing, Baking ... II. The Management of the Kitchen, Pantry ... III. The Herdsman ... IV. The English Vineyard ... V. The Apiary ... VI. The Family Physician and Herbalist, 1st edition, C. Hitch, C. Davis & S. Austen, 1736, engraved frontispiece showing domestic scenes with early manuscript inscriptions to verso, frontispiece, title and first leaf of preface repaired to lower inner corner, some dust-soiling, light dampstains and few marks, later free endpapers, contemporary sheep, insect damage to joints and extremities, old repairs to joints, , 8vo, together with: Salmon (William). The Family-Dictionary; Or, Houshold Companion: Containing in an Alphabetical Method, I. Directions for Cookery ... II. Making all sorts of Pastry Ware ... III. Making of Conserves ... IV. The Making all kinds of Potable Liquors ... V. The Making of all sorts of Rare Perfumes ... VI. The Virtues and Uses of the most usual Herbs and Plants ... VII. The Preparations of several choice Medicines, 2nd edition ('corrected and much enlarged'), London: H. Rhodes, 1696, upper outer corner of title torn with slight loss to corner of ruled border, browning and scattered spotting, contemporary reversed calf, worn paper labels to spine, joints cracked, 8vo (Qty: 2)Bailey: Cagle 555; Bitting p. 24. Salmon: Cagle 981 (for the first edition of 1695); Oxford, p. 45; Wing S429.

Poetry. Sammelband of 42 separately published poetry items and related, 1738-40, including: [Swift, Jonathan], Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift. Written by Himself: Nov. 1731, 1st edition, for C. Bathurst, 1739, [2],18pp., vignette with cockerel on title, publisher’s advert at foot of final page, bound with The Jew’s Complaint , or, The Christian Whore, for W. Lloyd, 1738, 10pp., bound with Hill (John), Orpheus: an English Opera, for John Clarke, 1740, 7,[1],16,[2]pp., lower outer blank corners of final four leaves including advert leaf torn with loss, final page dust-soiled, bound with ‘Translation of the Latin Epitaph, published in Old Common Sense, Feb. 3 1738’, [London? 1738?], 2 copies, single sheet broadside, double column parallel translation, verso blank, bound with 37 other poetry publications, all published 1738-40, many anonymous and many published by Thomas Cooper or Charles Bathurst, contemporary mottled calf, gilt-decorated spine with six raised bands, rubbed, slight wear to extremities, lacks spine label (titled ‘Collection of Poems’), folio (33.5 x 21 cm) (Qty: 1)Full list in bound order: 1) [Delany, Patrick], Longford’s-Glyn, or the Willow and the Brook; a True History, Faithfully Translated from the Irish Original, 2nd edition, for Charles Bathurst, 1739, [4],11,[1]pp. Foxon D201. 2) [Pilkington, Laetitia], The Statues: or, the Trial of Constancy. A Tale for the Ladies, for T. Cooper, 1739, 18pp., lacks final blank. Foxon P279; Rothschild 223. 3) The Year of Wonders, Being a Literal and Poetical Translation of an Old Latin Prophecy, Found near Merlin’s Cave, by S[tephe]n D[uc]k, Printed and Sold by J. Johnson, 1737, 6pp, lacks final blank, small tear with loss to upper blank outer corner of final leaf, uncut. Foxon Y14. 4) Seventeen Hundred and Thirty-nine. Or, the Modern P——S, a Satire, for T. Reynolds, 1739, 8pp . Foxon S354; Rothschild 221-2. 5) [Swift, Jonathan], Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift. Written by Himself: Nov. 1731, 1st edition, for C. Bathurst, 1739, [2],18pp., vignette with cockerel on title, publisher’s advert at foot of final page. Foxon S290; Rothschild 2166-8; Teerink 771. 6) Whitehead (Paul), Manners: A Satire, [reimpression], for R. Dodsley, 1739, [ 2],17,[1]pp., no type flowers between title and text on p. 3. Foxon W418. 7) Meredith (James), Manners Decypher’d. A Reply to Mr. Whitehead, on his Satire Call’d Manners, for T. Cooper, [1739], [2],12pp., lacks final advert leaf. Foxon M189. 8) Characters: An Epistle to Alexander Pope Esq; and Mr. Whitehead, for T. Cooper, 1739. 15,[1]pp. Foxon C129. 9) Epidemical Madness: A Poem in Imitation of Horace, for J. Brindley, 1739, 16pp. Foxon E345. 10) Solitude. An Irregular Ode, Inscribed to a Friend, for L. Gilliver and J. Clark, 1738, 15,[1]pp. Foxon S552. 11 & 42) ‘Translation of the Latin Epitaph, published in Old Common Sense, Feb. 3 1738’, [London? 1738?], single sheet broadside, double column parallel translation, verso blank. ESTC 51588. 12) L[or]d B[olingbro]ke’s Speech upon the Convention, for Jacob Littleton, 1739, 7,[1]pp., uncut. Foxon L80. 13) The Green-Cloth: or, the Verge of the Court. An Epistle to a Friend, by Mr. W——d [probably Paul Whitehead], for F. Noble and J. Boydel, 1739, 18pp. Foxon G276. 14) The Tit-Bit. A Tale, for T. Cooper, 1738, 8pp . Foxon T320. 15) A Congratulatory Poem: Humbly Inscribed to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, on the Conclusion of the Convention between their Majesties of Great-Britain and Spain, for J. Brett, 1739, 8pp . Foxon C349. 16) Meredith (James), An Essay on the Divine Attributes…, for J. Hawkins, 1738, 18,[2]pp., two lines manuscript errata at foot of final page, advert leaf at rear (verso blank). Foxon M188. 17) A Hopeful Convention Agreed Upon, and Design’d for the Benefit of Trade. An Inconceivable Curious Medley, for M. Watson, [1739], [5],8-18pp. Foxon H306. 18) E[dinburg]h’s Instructions to their Member, for Patrick Ramsay, 1739, 7,[1]pp. Foxon E24. 19) Achilles to Chiron. By the Right Honourable Lady **** Occasion’d by Reading a Poem, call’d Chiron to Achilles, for Jacob Robinson, 1738, iv,[1],4-8pp. Foxon A16. 20) [Cooke, Thomas], A Rhapsody on Virtue and Pleasure. To the Right Honourable James Reynolds Esq; Late Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, for T. Cooper, 1738, 1 6pp., ‘Price one shilling’ on title. Foxon C422; Rothschild 216. 21) Drake (James), The Lover. A Poem, for T. Cooper, W. Shropshire and T. Gardner, 1739, 15,[1]pp.,. Foxon D424. 22) The Satirists: A Satire. Humbly Inscrib’d to his Grace the Duke of Marlborough, for C. Corbett, [1739], 16pp., no watermark. Foxon S83. 23) A Poetical Essay on Physick. Inscribed to Dr. Pellet, President of the College of Physicians and F.R.S., for T. Cooper, [1740], 16pp . Foxon P703. 24) [D’Urfey, Thomas], The Progress of Honesty: or, A View of the Court and City, for J. Brett, 1739, 18pp . Foxon D551. 25) Sir R[obert Godschall] Triumphant. A Song Addressed to his Friends. To the Tune of To all you Ladies now at Land, for J. Cooper, 1739, 12pp., uncut. Foxon S473. 26) [Newcomb, Thomas], Vindicta Britannica: An Ode, to the Real Patriot, Occasioned by the Declaration of War against Spain, for C. Corbett, 1740, 12pp., no watermark. Foxon N280. 27) Tickell (Thomas), The Horn-Book, a Poem, by Thomas Tickle, [reissue], for Charles Corbet, [1739], 8pp., with an additional poem ‘Thersites’ on pp. 7-8, uncut. Foxon T302. 28) [Boyd, Elizabeth], Admiral Haddock: or, The Progress of Spain. A Poem, Printed and Sold by J. Applebee, C. Corbett, E. Nutt, E. Cook and M. Bartlett, 1739, [4]3-14pp., advert to half-title verso. Foxon B338. 29) Wharton (Philip), The Fear of Death. An Ode, for John Brett, 1739, [5],2-4pp. Foxon W379. 30) The Popular Convention. A Poem, by the Dutchess of Puddledock, for T. Cooper, 1739, 8pp., uncut. Foxon P997. 31) [West, Gilbert], A Canto of the Fairy Queen. Written by Spenser, Never before Published, for G. Hawkins, 1739, [2],12pp., uncut. Foxon W357. 32) The Church Yard: A Satirical Poem, for T. Cooper, 1739, 19,[1]pp. Foxon C184. 33) [Hay, William, attributed to], Apigrams in Distich, for J. Stagg, 1740, 20pp . Foxon I, p. 239. 34) The Jew’s Complaint, or, The Christian Whore, for W. Lloyd, 1738, 10pp. [not in verse]. ESTC N31599 (locating 2 copies only at the British Library and University of California, Los Angeles); WorldCat locates the British Library copy and two further copies at the National Library of Israel and the Hebrew Union College-JIR, Cincinnati. 35) [Gilbert, Thomas], The First Satire of Juvenal Imitated, for H. Goreham, 1740, 20pp . Foxon G141. 36) Hill (John), Orpheus: an English Opera, for John Clarke, 1740, 7,[1],16,[2]pp., lower outer blank corners of final four leaves including advert leaf torn with loss, final page dust-soiled. 37) Duck (Stephen), Alrick and Isabel: or, The Unhappy Marriage. A Poem, for J. Roberts, 1740, iii,[1],16pp. Foxon D467. 38) [Savage, Richard, attributed to], The Triumph of Beauty: or, The Prude Metamorphos’d, for C. Corbett, 1740, 20pp . Foxon T499. 39) A New Ballad on the Taking of Porto-Bello, by Admiral Vernon, for R. Dodsley, 1740, 7,[1]pp., uncut. Foxon N81. 40) [Lorleach, Mr.], A Satirical Epistle to Mr. Pope, for the Author, 1740, 8pp . Foxon L269. 41) The Convention. An Excellent New Ballad. To which is added, The King of Spain’s Protest, and a New Epitaph, for T. Reynolds, 1739, 5,[1], lacks final leaf (New Epitaph, verso blank), uncut. Foxon C402. 42) duplicate of 12.

[Stretzer, Thomas]. A New Description of Merryland. Containing, A Topographical, Geographical, and Natural History of That Country, 6th edition, Bath: J. Leake, 1741, engraved frontispiece (very slightly edge-frayed in places), woodcut tail-pieces, some toning (mainly to first and final leaves), title-page with author's name in early manuscript and small crease to upper outer corner, F1 with short tear in blank fore-margin, 20th century speckled half calf with gilt lettered spine, extremities a little rubbed, 8vo in 4s (Qty: 1)ESTC N41930. Part of a genre of erotic literature of the time which used topographical metaphors to describe the female body.

Marbodus of Rennes. De lapidibus pretiosis Encheridion, cum scholiis Pictorii Villingensis. Eivsdem Pictorii de lapide molari carmen, [Freiburg: Faber], 1531, 55, [1] ff., neat old ink notes in Latin to title and final leaf verso, bound as fourth and final item, after: Paul of Aegina , Pharmaca Simplicia, Othone Brunfelsio interprete. Item de Ratione Victus, Guilelmo Copo ... interprete, Strasbourg: Georgius Ulricher Andlanus, 1531 , device on title and final blank verso, blank M7 present, woodcut initials, title dust-soiled and with old ink inscriptions partly erased, old ink notes in German to final three blank pages, bound before Valla (Giorgio) , De simplicium natura liber unus, Strasbourg: Heinrich Seybold, 1528, 104 unnumbered leaves, title within ornamental woodcut border (small damp stain to centre of leaf), errata on final leaf recto, bound before [Odo de Meudon] , Aemilius Macer De herbarum virtutibus, cum Joannis Atrociani com[m]entariis longe utilissimis, & nu[m]quam antea impressis, [and] Strabo (Walafrid) , Poetae et Theologi clarissimi, Hortulus vernantissimus, 2 parts in one volume, Freiburg: Johann Faber, 1530, neat old ink notes to lower margins of two preliminary leaves and final leaf blank verso (in the same hand as Marbodus), Hebrew characters in red ink to title, manuscript contents list in a later hand to front free endpaper, contemporary blind-stamped vellum with two brass clasps, upper cover with ownership monogram blind-stamp 'A.W.], remains of later paper library spine label, rubbed, some edge wear, 8vo (15 x 10 cm) (Qty: 1)1) Ferguson II, 74; STC 593; Krivatsy 152; Thorndike I, 775; VD16 M 931; Wellcome I, 4039. The first edition of this work by Marbodus, bishop of Rennes (c.1035-1123), describing 60 stones and precious stones and their miraculous powers in 743 hexameters, was published in 1511; the second in his 'Opera' (Rennes, 1524); then in the present edition which was reprinted in the same year in Paris. It is the first edition edited by Pictorius. 'Of medieval Latin Lapidaries the earliest and what also seems to have been the classic on the subject of the marvelous properties of stones' (Thorndike). 2) Adams P496; VD16 ZV 12239; Wellcome I, 4874. 3) VD16 V 195; Wellcome I, 6437. Rare compendium of herbs and their medicinal properties. 4) Adams O62; Durling 2892; Pritzel 5711 (under Macer Floridus); VD16 O 270. This is the second edition to contain the commentary of Johannes Atrocianus, a professor of mathematics at Basel. It was revised and expanded from that which appeared in 1527. Strabo was the Abbot of Reichenau. The poem is the first known gardening book of the medieval period and was written about 842, the first printed edition appearing in 1510.