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Preisdatenbank abonnierenNO RESERVE Peninsular War.- Ric (Don Pedro Maria) An Exposition of the Most Interesting Circumstances Attending the Second Siege and Capitulation of Zaragoza, first English edition, translated by William Buy, half-title, manuscript '13' to half-title, occasional spotting and browning, modern half morocco, 8vo, for James Ridgway, 1809.
Document - Letters Patent, 4 sewn vellum manuscript leaves concerning 'improvements in spinning hemp and flax and other fibrous materials', for Alexander Wilson (manager of Alexander Fletcher & Co. of Glasgow), with signatures, ? possibly a preliminary document; attached to a substantial Royal seal (diameter 16cms) contained in its original tin box, August 1845 Very good condition, seal with only very slight damage.
DOCTOR PAUL FELIX CABRERA - 'DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CITY, discovered near Palenque, in the Kingdom of Guatemala, in Spanish America: translated from original manuscript report of Captain Don Antonio Del Rio: followed by Teatro Critico Americano; or, a Critical Investigation and Research into The History of the Americans,' published by Henry Berthoud, London 1822, contains 17 lithographed platesCondition Report:Boards almost detached endpapers damp stained, foxing throughout, some pages uncut
A manuscript letter from footballer / football manager (William) Bill Shankly OBE written on Carlisle United A.F.C headed notepaper, dated 24th December 1949, writing in reference to the 'Leeds Cup Tie' and the full press box, but inviting the recipient to "come along to the match I will see that you get in to the paddock", signed 'Sincere Wishes, Bill Shankly' ( keywords: Autograph / signature )
Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)The VisitorGouache and ink, 24 x 32cm (9½ x 12½'')SignedProvenance: Artist's family by descent This subject is directly linked to two etchings, ‘Strange Visitor’ and ‘Little Girl’s Wonder’ completed in the last year of the artist’s life. The inspiration for these works was derived from an earlier oil painting ‘Little Girl’s Wonder’ which was exhibited in Dublin at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in August 1955, (Cat No. 103). Curiously, the young boy in this work is not included in the 1955 oil painting or in the prints. Perhaps when Dillon revisited this subject in 1970, he decided to explore the idea of including a boy. Further research may reveal more information but we do know that the narrative in these works relate to Dillon’s interest in the past and the present. Two children are depicted in an interior with a figure resembling a figure from a medieval manuscript. A little girl gazes at the visitor in a robe from behind a chair while a boy’s attention is directed toward the cat sitting on the visitor’s lap. The past is represented by the statuesque figure in medieval robes and the present signifies the children in an interior of a traditional cottage. The basket of turf in the foreground and the cross of St. Brigid on the wall behind the seated figure may be symbols linking the past and the present. The making of St. Brigid’s Crosses from rushes was traditional on St Brigid’s feast day, which was formerly celebrated as a pagan festival marking the beginning of Spring. The four arms tied at the ends and woven square in the middle were traditionally set over rural cottage doorways and windows to protect the home from any harm.Karen ReihillNovember, 2018
A RARE CARVED MAORI LARGE MODEL CANOE (WAKA), 19TH CENTURY formed of a hiwi carved from a single piece of wood, fitted above on each side with rauawa, each carved with traditional masks flanked by linear panels and beadwork designs (cracks, small chips, carved tauihu or taurapa (incomplete, the other missing), the interior retaining a carved turu and a further carved cylindrical support, retaining some original ochre striping, with a small Maori paddle, of different scale 205.5 cm; 80 7/8 in long Provenance Worden Hall, Lancashire A private English collection Described as follows in the Worden Hall Inventory: 'Ancient Things'.......'War Canoe, New Zealand. They are designated by particular names such as Marutubai a slaying or devouring fire T Townley Esq.' Sold together with a copy of this entry in the typed manuscript entitled 'Catalogue of Sir William ffarington Kt. 1768 with such additions as have from time to time been suplemented [sic] to 1870 by Mary Hannah ffarington. Mid-19th century ledger begun at both ends; the above titles at one end after an incomplete index, followed by a list of paintings, and extracts from the Official Account of Cook's Third Voyage'.
A PAIR OF ENGLISH SABATONS OF MAIL AND PLATE BY RAYMOND BARTEL, CIRCA 1934-9, IN THE SOUTH GERMAN STYLE OF THE LATE 15TH CENTURY each formed of a rear lame fitted with three studs to attach it within the lower edge of a greave, and pierced at its front with small holes to receive a broad strip of mail (cut from an oriental mail shirt of riveted and solid rings) that connect it to similar holes pierced within the rear edge of a long toe cap that narrows to its rounded end and is decorated medially with a spray of embossed flutes (one with a few small spots of active rust) Each 23.5 cm; 9¼ in long (2) Provenance William Randolph Hearst, St Donat's Castle, Wales R. T. Gwynn, Epsom The sabatons were made by Raymond Bartel, armourer to William Randolph Hearst, to complete for the latter a Nuremberg armour of about 1500 bought by him from Schloss Erbach in 1930, and bearing the arms of Kunz Schott von Hellingen, Burggraf von Rothenburg, (d. 1526). They were acquired with the armour by Gwynn in 1953, but remove by him at some time before 1958. Literature R. E. Oakeshott, The Archaeology of Weapons, London, 1960, pl. 15 R. T. Gwynn, Privately circulated manuscript catalogue of the collection of the author, Part 1- Arms and Armour, 1990, cat. No A 49 (several illustrations)
Late 19th century small photograph album of a trip to the Holy Land and North Africa taken by and featuring William Fisher, Feb-April 1895, depicting The Appian Way, Egypt, Palestine, Jerusalem, Samaria, Nazareth, Galilee and Damascus. Twelve photographs, each approx. 4 1/2" x 6" (10.8cm x 15.2cm) or reversed. With manuscript inscriptions to margins. Inscribed inside front board "To my dear friends Mr and Mrs Walter Fenton, Sunniside .....1900". Embossed brown cloth.
Stamps - Postal History - a Louis XVI ink manuscript letter front, addressed to Monsieur Reber [...] Cadet, armorial red wax seal, postage stamps, dated 1788; another, Revolutionary period, addressed to Citoyen Reber Dragon, stamped Saverne; Stamps, Queen Victoria, Penny Reds, generally franked, mounted for display; others, British Customs, various; Europe and World, album, [5]
A Victorian collections of arms, crests, seals, monograms and pictograms, clipped from contemporary notepaper and stationery, categorised and titled in florid ink manuscript: Arms of All Nations, Royal Arms, Archbishops, Dukes, Marquesses, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Army, Navy, Arms of Scottish Clans, The Arms of the English Counties, other section untitled but with armorials and heraldry representing the livery companies of London, regiments, Oxbridge colleges, etc., the album contemporary full morocco gilt binding (rubbed), by Acton Griffith, Baker St, [London], stamped, square 16mo
Topography - Antiquities of Shropshire, from An Old Manuscript of Edward Lloyd, Esq. of Drenewydd; Revised and Enlarged from Private and Other Manuscripts, With Illustrations by Thomas Farmer Dukes, Esq., F.S.A., John Eddowes, Shrewsbury 1844, line engraved named-view vignette to title-page, further line engravings illustrating text throughout, contemporary boards and strip by E. & J. Edwards, Binders, Dogpole, Shrewsbury, ticket to pastedown, later spine in-keeping and with gilt lettered red and green morocco labels, small folio; Cooke's Topographical Library, or British Traveller's Pocket County Directory: Cornwall, [London, n.d., c. 1810], engraved topographical frontispiece and plates, fold-out and hand-coloured map of England and Wales, contemporary cloth boards, later calf spine gilt with lettered title label, 16mo; Erdeswick (Sampson), A Survey of Staffordshire: Containing the Antiquities of that County, Collated with Manuscript Copies and With Additions and Corrections [...] by the Reverend Thomas Harwood, John Nichols and Son, Westminster 1820, contemporary quarter-calf and marbled boards (spine present but loosely inserted), 8vo; Warwickshire [...], from the Elaborate Work of Sir William Dugdale, And other later Authorities [...], Embellished with Engravings, And an accurate Map of the County, John Aston, Coventry 1817, embellished with further tipped-in and pasted antiquarian plates, contemporary quarter-calf and marbled boards, 8vo; Hutchinson (William), The History of the County of Cumberland, two-volume set, F. Jollie, Carlisle 1794, volume II with worn detached mottled calf binding, volume I disbound, 4to, (faults); Hanshall (J.H.), The History of the County Palatine of Chester, John Fletcher, Chester 1817, full-page and further inserted plates, contemporary quarter-calf and buckram boards, 4to; Lowe (Captain Alfred Edward Lawson), History of Nottinghamshire [...], History of the Hundred of Broxtow (sic), Illustrated, Part I only, Richard Allen and Son, Nottingham [n.d., c. 1873], paper covers, floppy small folio; Wiltshire: The Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, F.R.S., A.D. 1659 - 70, With Illustrations [...], Devizes 1862, period buckram, large 4to; Kelly's Directory of Hampshire, with Map, 1931, contemporary red buckram as issued, large 4to; Paterson's Roads in Great Britiain: fourth edition, 1778 and fifteenth edition, 1811, (faults), (2); Dublin, volume I only, 1818 [13]
Sheffield History - Sheffield Market Place Act 1784, a George III velum manuscript, a legal document to purchase the lease for buildings and land to allow the redevelopment of the area round High Street, Angel Street, King Street and Haymarket opposite Fitzalan Square into a market; a George IV velum and ink manuscript indenture of three parts, dated 18th July 1827, for the transfer of a mortgage for £1000 and interest between Ralph Blakelock, a banker in Sheffield and the merchants; John Butcher, Samuel Hadfield, John Binney, and Thomas Binney, as well as Henry Agie a Gentleman all of Sheffield. The document looks to be describing the mortgage, rents and leases as well some land and property of a 'large Capital Messuage or Dwelling house' built on the site of two dwelling houses in a street or place in Sheffield commonly called or known by the name of the Hartshead. The two former houses were occupied by John Trippett and James Mycock before being 'wholly pulled down and rebuilt' by Nicholas Broadbent, [2]
Local Interest - Cammell of Brookfield Manor, Hathersage, Derbyshire - a collection of 19th century and first half of the 20th century ephemera, including photograph albums, some postcard and manuscripts, including a late Victorian embossed leather photograph album of the house, garden, estate and the family at leisure and country pursuits, many taken by F. Arkwright and some dated 1887, each annotated in ink MS with scene and sitters; a late Victorian/Edwardian buckram album, Sunny Memories, similar to the former but with some additional interiors and Derbyshire topography; a holiday album, Relating how G.H. Cammell Esqr and Family went to Jersey and back in 1902, compiled, inscribed by Iris Cammell (presumed daughter), signed and titled, applied with b/w photographs and heavily annotated and inscribed throughout in ink manuscript, b/w photographs include fellow Derbyshire neighbour the Strutts who holidayed alongside, ships sailed, hotels, local characters and topography; accompanied by an ink manuscript on paper poem regarding the holiday, with references to travelling, scenes and attending Sherlock Holmes the play; a folio of watercolours, by I.G. Cammell (Iris?), including cowboys and fanciful scenes of the American West, Windsor Castle and presumed Derbyshire topography; late Victorian portrait silhouette of a lady; cabinet card and carte de visite portraits; later photograp albums; postcards; (archive)
Royal Interest - Queen Victoria, a clipped ink manuscript signature of the then Princess Victoria, This Autograph of the Princess Victoria was presented by H.M. Queen Adelaide to the Hon. Mr. Curzon, 1835, inscribed slip accompanied by a bust-length lithographic portrait of the then princess, arranged in a later Victorian dark blue morocco easel frame, by Walter Jones, 196 Sloane St, [London], S.W., stamped to verso, the whole crested by a gilt-embossed crown, 21cm high, 24.5cm wide, the autograph 1835
Euclides. Degli Elementi di Euclide. Gli otto libri geometrici ad uso del Collegio Militare di Verona... in questa quarta edizione accresciuti del trattatello sopra le figure isoperimetre del rinomatissimo padre Pietro Cossali... Verona, Eredi Moroni, 1805.In-8° (mm 230x161). VIII (la prima carta bianca, in segnatura, usata come contropiatto), 319, [1] pagine. Vignetta silografica al frontespizio, raffigurante alcuni strumenti geometrici. Numerosi diagrammi incisi su legno nel testo. Testatine e finalini silografici. Esemplare in buono stato di conservazione, a fascicoli chiusi. Leggere bruniture, qualche fallo di carta, il margine bianco di alcune carte con lievi danni e tracce di polvere. Brossura coeva, dorso liscio con titolo in inchiostro su tassello cartaceo. Piatti con tracce di polvere e aloni, labbri lievemente danneggiati. Etichetta cartacea del libraio veronese Francesco Giustini Dal Dosso al recto della carta di guardia posteriore. Nota di possesso tardo ottocentesca 'Vincenzo Stanga' al piatto anteriore.Quarta e aumentata edizione della traduzione italiana degli Elementa di Euclide curata da Antonio Maria Lorgna, Francesco Ventretti, e Giovanni Battista Bertolini, docenti presso il Collegio Militare di Verona, e apparsa originariamente nel 1766. Il volume del 1805 include, quale appendice, una breve memoria del matematico Pietro Cossali (1748-1815) sulle figure isoperimetriche (cc. T7v-V8r). L'esemplare qui offerto presenta inoltre un dettaglio di grande interesse: alla carta di guardia posteriore è applicata l'etichetta del libraio Francesco Giustini Dal Dosso, attivo 'in Verona a S. Tommaso, dove trovasi un discreto assortimento di Libri stampati; vende anche Carta d'ogni sorta, e Libri rigati, all'ingrosso ed al minuto; nonchè Aghi da pomolo d'ogni sorta, all'ingrosso', con la data a stampa '1838', e l'indicazione del prezzo del volume, acquistabile per 2 lire e 75 centesimi.8° (230x161 mm). VIII (the first leaf blank, included in foliation, used as pastedown), 319, [1] pages. Woodcut vignette on the title-page, depicting geometrical instruments. Numerous woodcut diagrams in the text. Woodcut head- and tail-pieces. A good copy, quires unopened. Light browning; a few paper flaws, the blank margins of some leaves slightly frayed and soiled. Contemporary wrappers, smooth spine with inked title on paper label. Covers rather soiled and spotted, board edges slightly frayed. Bookseller paper ticket of the bookseller from Verona Francesco Giustini Dal Dosso on the recto of the rear flyleaf. Late 19th-century ownership inscription 'Vincenzo Stanga' on the upper cover.Fourth and enlarged edition of the Italian version of Euclid's Elementa edited by Antonio Maria Lorgna, Francesco Ventretti, and Giovanni Battista Bertolini, professors at the Military College of Verona, and first appeared in 1766. The 1805 edition also contains, as an appendix, a brief essay by the mathematician Pietro Cossali (1748-1815) on isoperimetric figures (fols. T7v-V8r). As an interesting feature, the present copy bears on the rear flyleaf the paper ticket of the bookseller Francesco Giustini Dal Dosso, active 'in Verona a S. Tommaso', with the printed date '1838' and the manuscript price notice of the volume, 2 lire and 75 centesimi.
Chimica/Chemistry. Thénard Louis Jacques. Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique... Seconde édition, revue et corrigée. Tome premier [-quatrieme]. Paris, Crochard, Hugues Marie Feugueray, 1817-1818. Un'opera in 4 volumi in-8° (mm 210x135). I. xvj, 648 pagine. II. xvj, 712 pagine. III. xvj, 715, [1] pagine. IV. x, 392, [2] pagine. 34 tavole calcografiche, di cui una ripiegata (numero VII), in fine, numerate in cifre romane da I a XXXII (presenti nella serie i numeri VII e VII bis) e l'ultima numerata in cifre arabe (33). Tabelle nel testo. In barbe. Fioriture, qualche pagina con piccole macchie o bruniture, qualche traccia di polvere. Brossura editoriale in carta spruzzata in blu, titoli a stampa su etichetta cartacea ai dorsi. Qualche abrasione e strappo ai bordi dei piatti, dorsi con mende e minime rotture lungo le cerniere. Nota manoscritta, probabilmente una indicazione di prezzo, al contropiatto posteriore del Tomo quarto.Seconda edizione di questo fondamentale manuale di chimica di Louis Jacques Thénard (1777-1857), noto per aver scoperto l'acqua ossigenata. L'opera è dedicata all'amico Gay-Lussac, ed ebbe - dopo la prima in quattro volumi pubblicata nel 1813-1816 - sei successive edizioni in lingua originale francese (continuamente aggiornate) e traduzioni in tedesco, italiano e spagnolo. I primi due volumi riguardano la chimica inorganica, il terzo la chimica organica, il quarto la chimica analitica, con una sezione dedicata alla descrizione della strumentazione. In questa seconda edizione è aggiunta, nel primo tomo, una breve trattazione della Teoria di Dalton. Importanti sono i dettagliati indici inclusi in ogni tomo, che rendono l'opera di Thénard una opera di efficace consultazione. Cole 1263; Partington, IV, 90-97; DSB, XIII, 313.One work in 4 volumes, 8° (210x135 mm). I. xvj, 648 pages. II. xvj, 712 pages. III. xvj, 715, [1] pages. IV. x, 392, [2] pages. 34 copper engraved plates, one folded (no. VII), numbered I-VII, VIIbis, VIII-XXXII, the last plate numbered 33. Tables in the text. Uncut. Foxing, a few leaves spotted and browned, traces of dust. Publisher' s wrappers speckled blue, printed title on paper label to the spines. Covers rubbed, board edges frayed, joints somewhat cracked. Some losses to the spines. Manuscript note - in all likelihood a price notice - on the rear pastedown of vol. 4. Second edition of this important chemistry textbook by Louis Jacques Thénard (1777-1857), known for his discovery of hydrogen peroxide. The book, dedicated to his friend Gay-Lussac, went through six French editions and was translated in German, Italian, and Spanish. The first edition of the Traité was published in four volumes in 1813-1816 and later editions were constantly updated. The first two volumes deal with inorganic chemistry, the third with organic chemistry (vegetable and animal), the fourth with analytical chemistry. In this second edition a brief treatment of Dalton's theory has been added to Tome premier. The detailed index included in each volume makes Thenard's book a particularly useful reference work for the chemistry of its period. The final pages in Tome quatrième describe chemical apparatus. See Cole 1263; Partington, IV, 90-97; DSB, XIII, 313.
Substantial fragment of a codex of Ugolinus Pisanus, Philogenia, in Latin, manuscript on paper with an apparently unrecorded example of a domestic cat among its watermarks [Italy, second quarter of fifteenth century] 25 leaves, formed from two complete quires of 8 leaves each, plus four further bifolia and a singleton, all with single column of 14 lines in a rounded Italian gothic bookhand showing influence of early humanist hands, many interlinear near-contemporary and later additions supplying alternative readings, capitals touched in red, rubrics and simple initials in red (two with red penwork), other marginalia by main hand in blocks in tiny script, some nota bene marks including pointing hands, numerous other scribbles and later marginal drawings of a long bearded man in olive-brown ink and three dice in black ink, some borders cut away, stains, spots and damage to edges of leaves, overall fair and legible condition, 210 by 145mm.; kept loose in later boards These leaves are most probably all that remain of a codex of this notably rare work, the first humanist comedy. It was written in the early 1430s by Ugolinus Pisanus (d. 1445/50), the jurist and humanist scholar of Parma. The author travelled widely as a teacher in Eastern Europe, Croatia, Hungary and Russia, and was crowned an imperial poet by Sigismund of Luxemburg. He was close to several leading humanists, including such grand names as Pier Candido Decembrio, Antonio Panormita and Francesco Filelfo. The text tells the story of a love affair in which a young wife, Filogenia, contrives to meet her young lover, Epifebo, without arousing the suspicions of her husband, the farmer Gobio, drawing in a raft of supporting characters such as the girl’s parents, the young lover’s friends, the farmer’s brother, as well as prostitutes, peasants, servants and foremost the Friar Prodigio, whose role is to scandalously give the girl absolution from her sins. It is recorded in only thirty-six manuscripts (see entry for author in Dizionario BWhat is most fascinating here is that a few of the last leaves have a motif in their watermark which is apparently unrecorded anywhere else: a domestic cat. Briquet lists possible cats under the group title “Chat, léopard, lion, tigre”, but they are all great growling things with muscular upper bodies which indicate that members of the great cat family are intended. The Zonghi survey includes no felines beyond seven seated spotty leopards (A.F. Gasparinetti, Zonghi’s Watermarks, 1953, nos. 1250-56). Here the feline is evidently small and soft in its proportions, and nonchalantly strolls across the page in the fashion of a domestic cat. Its model was perhaps an actual pet that lived in the buildings used by the paper manufacturers some five hundred years ago, and through some friendship struck up with the artisan who prepared the wire tool for the paper press, ended up being immortalised in the paperstock.
Four leaves from Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [France, fifteenth century] Four large leaves, each with remains of double columns of 49 lines in a good gothic bookhand, capitals touched in red, small red or blue initials, running titles in alternate red and blue, one large initial in red and blue edged in penwork, some original flaws in parchment with signs of contemporary repairs through stitching, all recovered from bindings and hence darkened to outer surfaces of those later bindings, losses to inner edges of leaves (through trimming or tearing), folds, scuffs and stains, overall in fair condition, each leaf approximately 370 by 215mm.
Job on the Dungheap, large miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (Paris or Rouen), c. 1475] Single leaf, with a large arch-topped miniature showing Job in the dungheap with three men looking on, all before a ruined city and trees, framed in thin gold, full decorated border of acanthus leaves and realistic foliage set on circles of dull gold or blank parchment, the miniature above a large blue initial enclosing coloured foliage and on gold grounds and 3 lines of text, reverse with small gold initials on blue and burgundy grounds and line-fillers in same, and 15 lines of text, a few partly erased letters (opening ‘P’) in lower corner of border of reverse, slight cockling, else excellent condition, 178 by 130mm. From a parent manuscript sold in Christie’s, 20 April 1979, lot 129.
Ɵ Qur'an in 30 Juz', copied by Ahmed Amer Zeyd al-Shafei, in Arabic, decorated manuscript on paper [Saudi Arabia (probably Hejaz), dated 1294 AH (1877 AD)] 30 volumes, each with c.16-18 leaves, catch-words, single column, 11 lines bold black naskh, verse markings and surah headings in red, first two leaves of first Juz' with gilt decorations above and below the first two surah, some stains and smudges, a few chips or closed tears, 230 by 165mm.; contemporary red morocco with flaps, covers ruled in blind with three decorative medallions of arabesque designs to covers, also in blind, covers a little scuffed, some spines a little worn, paper labels on upper covers of some volumes (remains of labels on others) The Shafei name is a prominent one in the Hijaz area of Saudi Arabia, possibly with connections to the historical Al-Shafei Mosque in Jeddah. Each of the volumes has a dedication to “Shaykh Ahmad Muhammadal-Banhawi” and “Shaikh Muhammad Jazi”, who were presumably rulers in the wider Saudi peninsula that comissioned this work for the use of their local communities. The division of the Qur'an into 30 equal parts was often done to facilitate the reader to recite the entire work within one calendar month. This was particularly efficient practice within the context of a communal mosque, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, because it facilitated individuals reading separate juz' simultaneously. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
ƟThe Saga of Nikulás Leikara, and the Saga of Hermann and Jarlmann, two riddarasögur (knight’s sagas), in Old Norse, decorated manuscript on paper [South Iceland (Elliðaey island), dated 1884] 126 leaves (including 3 endleaves at each end), complete, single column of approximately 18 lines in neat curling Icelandic script of Jón Magnússon of Elliðaey (his signature in multiple places, including statements of having written it in 1883 [front endleaf] and in 1883-1884second frontispiece] and having finished the book [end of text]), contemporary pagination for each individual text, frontispieces for each text in blue, red-brown and purple angular capitals, the largest initials there with plant-like penwork tendrils surrounding them (the second frontispiece with “Tallman” in error for “Jarlman”), pp. 47-48 with lines there cut short suggesting that this was copied from a manuscript exemplar with a partly torn away leaf, some spots and stains, but overall in good condition, 155 by 100mm.; contemporary buckram over pasteboards with brown leather spine, gilt-tooled with interlocking geometric shapes and “Sögubòk”, torn at top and bottom of spine, with losses to latter Some languages, such as Icelandic, entered a printed form so late that they forced the circulation of texts in them in manuscript as late as the nineteenth century. Nikulás saga leikara is a late medieval saga and tells the story of Nikulás who was the king of Hungary and a magician. In the narrative, his foster father, Earl Svívari, convinces the hero to win the hand of Princess Dorma of Constantinople, and a secret betrothal is arranged against Dorma’s father’s wishes. Nikulás then travels to Constantinople where he poses as a merchant in order to gain access to the Byzantine court, where he cures one of the king’s men from a mysterious illness. He meets the princess secretly and they elope. However, the emperor (oddly named Valdimar) tries to bring them back through the use of magic, but the young couple escape instead and Valdimar kills his own mercenary army by mistake. The emperor accepts Nikulás as his rightful heir, and the couple return to the splendour of the Byzantine court. No medieval manuscripts of the saga now survive, but one was perhaps in the now incomplete fifteenth-century compendium now Stockholm, KB, Perg. fol. nr 7, and it is known now from over sixty manuscripts from the seventeenth to early twentieth century. The text was printed first in Winnepeg in 1889.The present witness is unknown and previously unrecorded. Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns concerns two foster-brothers, one the son of the king of Frakkland and the other the son of an earl. They are both sent to Constantinople to petition the emperor for the hand in marriage of Princess Ríkilát. Jarlmann wins her for Hermann by means of a magic ring. However, she is then abducted and imprisoned by the old king Rudent of Serkland who plans to marry her. Jarlmann feigns love for Þorbjörg, a giantess who guards Ríkilát, and a double wedding ceremony (Rudent-Ríkilát, Jarlmann-Þorbjörg) follows. Hermann kills the old king and regains his bride, while Jarlmann kills the giantess in their bridal bed. On returning to Frakkland, Jarlmann marries the king's sister Herborg and receives half of the kingdom. It survives in many manuscripts, with examples in North America in Cornell University (Fiske Collection) and John Hopkins, Baltimore, as well as in Iceland and Scandinavia. It was printed first in 1819 (but in a variant form to that here). Any manuscript in Old Norse is of the utmost rarity. No medieval Icelandic saga manuscript is recorded as ever appearing on the open market, and the very last available example of an even remotely similar text, a mid-fourteenth-century Icelandic Lives of the Apostles, olim Phillipps MS. 10442), sold Sotheby’s, 30 November 1965, lot 17, to the Icelandic government. Moreover, later copies of such material in Old Norse have been all but absent from the market, with only a handful appearing for sale anywhere in the world in the last half century. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
Leaf from a Psalter, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [England or Low Countries, reportedly for English market, last decades of the thirteenth century]Single leaf, with single column of 17 lines in an angular gothic bookhand, red rubric, one-line initials in gold or blue with contrasting penwork in red or blue (that in lowermost line extending in a foliate tendril down through entire border), one larger initial in blue with white circles enclosing foliage on a burnished gold ground, modern pencil folio numbers ‘121’ and ‘100’, trimmed at base, else excellent condition, 130 by 96mm.
Cutting from a Noted Missal, with music in Beneventan neumes, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy, mid-twelfth century] Fragment from the foot of a leaf, with remains of two columns each with 17 lines in two sizes of a good early gothic bookhand (text from the Common of Martyrs and the Common of a Confessor Bishop), with a capital ‘F’ which sits low with its midbar on the line, music in stylised Beneventan diastematic neumes arranged around a single red staff-line, capitals touched in red, rubrics in red, some stains, spots and small holes from reuse in a later binding, overall fair and presentable condition, 146 by 202mm.
Leaf from a Glossed Bible, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [France (most probably Paris), thirteenth century] Single large leaf, with main text in single column of 26 lines in a fine and professional early gothic hand (with parts of Zacharias 12 and 13), with gloss arranged on either side in columns or blocks inset within edges of text, further glosses interlineally, initials, paragraph marks and running titles in alternate red and blue, quire signature ‘XII’ in drypoint and contemporary ink at foot of verso, natural flaw in upper margin with contemporary repair, some small spots and cockled areas at edges, else in excellent condition on fine and white parchment with clean margins, 345 by 245mm. Another leaf from the same parent codex appeared in Quaritch, cat. 1270, Bookhands of the Middle Ages VI (2000), no. 14 (end Habakkuk and opening of Zephaniah).
ƟVita di Filippo Strozzi, in Italian, illustrated manuscript on paper [Italy (probably Florence), first decades of seventeenth century] 190 leaves (plus two paper endleaves at each end), apparently complete, single column of 17 lines in a loose and scrawling italic hand, major section breaks with titles in larger ornamental script, frontispiece with pen-drawn portrait of Filippo Strozzi as a bearded nobleman in armour, set in a cabouchon loosely wrapped in sumptuous cloth and above a pedestal with the title of the work, a few small spots, else in excellent condition, 125 by 93mm.; contemporary binding of parchment over pasteboards, title in pen on spine, front board with “N:16” in pen Filippo Strozzi (1489-1538) was an influential banker and trader of Florence, who came to rival the Medici, probably organised the assassination of one of its dukes and attempted to wrest control over Florence away from them by military might. He took control over his family’s company as a youth and steered it so successfully that in a single lifetime his fortunes threatened to eclipse that of the Medici, forging a commercial empire from Naples to the Atlantic. In the face of this commercial threat the Medici agreed to an alliance cemented by the marriage of Filippo to Clarice de’ Medici in 1508. He fostered the celebrated Catherine de’ Medici in his house in Rome, as well as Lorenzino de’ Medici. Tensions returned after the death of Clarice and the rise to power of Duke Alessandro de Medici, and Filippo most probably organised and encouraged Lorenzino’s assassination of his own cousin, Duke Alessandro. Filippo then tried to overthrow Medici rule of Florence using French troops, but failed and was imprisoned in 1537, where he died a year later (perhaps from murder or suicide: the prayer, Deo liberatori, included here as an appendix on fol. 181v-183r, sets Filippo up as a born again Cato, taking his own life to preserve the honour of his family). This life was written by Filippo’s brother Lorenzo, but circulated anonymously. The autograph survives in Florence in the Laurenziana, and it was not published until 1728 as an appendix to Varchi’s, Storia fiorentina (there in a form quite different to that here). It is rare in manuscript. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
“Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim”, panel of calligraphy, perhaps a practice sheet in the style of Ahmed Kharahisari, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Ottoman Turkey, probably second half of sixteenth century] Single leaf, with single line of stylised black calligraphy, outlined in black and panel ruled in green, gold and black ruling, space between text and border filled with spiralling vines heightened in green and blue, with a background hatching of red to fill the space, parchment yellowed with some light water-staining to edges, old cockling causing cracks to the pigments in the text and illustrations, reverse blank, c. 98 by 186 mm. This piece presents a number of questions. Clearly it is of significant age, and the cockling that has affected the main inscription as well as the border decoration strongly suggests this. However the parchment here is of low quality, indicating that it was unlikely to have been used for manuscript production. The script is finely executed and notably close to that of Ahmed Kharahisari (1468-1566, leading Ottoman calligrapher working in the courts of Suleyman I), but the parchment here is of low quality and not in keeping with use for manuscript production. This would appear to be a practice sheet, or perhaps part of a maquette, perhaps produced in his workshop of Kharahisari.
ƟReadings for masses throughout the entire liturgical year according to the Eastern Calendar, with Kalophonic Greek musical notation, and notes on the use of this form of notation, decorated manuscript on paper [Byzantium, fifteenth or sixteenth century] 222 leaves (plus 2 thin paper endleaves at front and one at back), wanting a few single leaves throughout (stubs often revealing original position), single column of 10 lines of hairline thin Greek minuscule with accompanying musical notation in broad dark penstrokes, additional ‘great signs’ (megala semaia) and martyria in thin red penstrokes, rubrics in Greek in faded red, some sections crossed out by original user, capitals infilled with large red dots, some red initials with floral sprays in margin, significant openings with cascading red floral sprays in margin, major texts opening with ornamental penwork headbands touched in diluted ink wash, spots, stains, some small worm damage and discolouration to first leaf, else in good condition, 140 by 95mm.; early binding of plain pasteboards (perhaps remnant of a parchment covered binding, now much affected on outer surfaces from worm damage), exposed spine varnished at some point, solid in binding This volume contains the readings for the liturgy for the Eastern liturgical calendar in Greek, glossed throughout with their appropriate Kalophonic musical notation, with the additional ‘great signs’ (megala semaia) in thin red penstrokes. This form of musical notation was the norm in Byzantium from the mid-twelfth century until the beginning of the modern period. Unlike Western notation, Byzantine music does not employ a stave to show the relative position of the notes on a set grade, but places them in relative position to those that precede it, indicating whether the note is higher or lower than that before (like Western neumes). The fixed pitch is established by the insertion of special signs, the martyria, to indicate this (like the use of a Western clef). The first six leaves here contain some brief description of the various uses of such symbols. Such manuscripts are rare to the market. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
Panel of Persian verse with drawing of an archer, 'marriage' of two different pieces, in Farsi, illuminated manuscript on paper [probably Safavid Persia, c. 1700] Single sheet, comprising 3 lines black nasta'liq, with interlinear colouring of polychrome flowers against a gold background, mounted on card alongside a small miniature of an archer, both framed within multiple borders with various foliate decorations, all heightened in gold, some light water-staining to lower right-hand side of image, a few small scuffs, reverse blank, total c. 142 by 250mm.
ƟGrimoire (occult compendium), with rituals, recipes and sections on alchemy, astrology and demonology, in Italian and Latin, illustrated manuscript on paper [Italy (perhaps Naples), seventeenth and early eighteenth century] 20 leaves (last 2 blank), complete, single column of up to 28 lines in an unprofessional but neat hand, diagrams set within text, small spots and stains, old water damage causing loss of upright border in middle of book, but with little or no affect to text, edges woolly there, overall fair and legible condition, 215 by 154mm.; roughly stitched into contemporary pink paper binding Provenance:Written by an occult practitioner, probably for his own use, and perhaps partly in Naples: note at end of text “Neapoli 6. Augusti 1726”. Text:The text here includes the Virtutes Psalmorum Regis David: a series of seventy-one divinatory precepts hidden in plain sight after the first verse of the psalms to avoid censorship. To this has been added a multitude of related texts including studies of the formula “abracadabra”, seals formed from Hebrew characters, the Celestial alphabet (with the letters and their corresponding syllables given in full), the alphabet of Malachi, the Tetragrammaton, Hydromantia, and a series of prophecies of future events to happen in years between 1740 and 1990. It ends with a table of the ‘hours of the planets’ across two pages. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
Two fragments of John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, in Beneventan minuscule, in Latin, manuscript in Latin on parchment [Italy (probably south east), eleventh century] Substantial portion of a leaf and a long strip from same, with remains of double column of 15 lines (main fragment) and 4 lines (strip) in a good Beneventan minuscule, somewhat scuffed to reverse, small spots and stains as recovered from reuse in a binding, else good and legible condition, 171 by 208mm. and 36 by 206mm. Beneventan script survived the Carolingian reforms and continued to be written at the Abbey of Montecassino (founded by St. Benedict of Nursia c. 529) and its subsidiaries from the eighth to the sixteenth century, as a form of paleographical ‘living fossil’. It evolved from Roman cursive models, drawing on those for its cacophony of ligatures and angular strokes that break up almost all straight lines, creating a distinctively jagged and broken visual effect. The hand here is notably close to that on a leaf of the Acta Sanctorum, sold in the Schøyen sale, 10 July 2012, lot 19, which along with Naples, Bibl. Naz. VIII.B.6 (Troia, Apulia, eleventh-century) and British Library, Egerton MS 2889 (south-east Italy, eleventh-century) have been taken to indicate an otherwise forgotten foundation from Montecassino in the Norman controlled region of Troia (named by the Normans after Troy, their supposed origin place) in the main pass through the Apennines. This may well be from the same centre.
Leaf from a copy of a Homiliary with a text ascribed to Bede, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [probably England, mid-fifteenth century] Two wide strips, each with approximately a column of text from the full height of a single leaf (and thus reuniting to reform that leaf), each column with 28 lines in a late gothic bookhand made with a wide nibbed pen, and using ‘w’ in spelling of evangelist and similar, these containing parts of Bede’s Homily I:2, red rubrics (one rubric “Bed’” suggesting that his works were not the only ones in the parent manuscript), initials in red leafy fronds enclosed within soft green or turquoise-blue outlines, recovered from a binding and hence with scuffs, holes and concomitant damage, overall fair and presentable, together 206 by 164mm. From the library of Ampleforth Abbey, and de-accessioned by them some years ago.
Bifolium from a Renaissance Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (probably Paris), c. 1520] Two conjoined leaves, each with single column of 20 lines of text in two sizes of a late gothic hand showing substantial influence from humanist script (note ct-ligature), rubrics in red, one- and 2-line initials in alternate white scrolls or gold on coloured grounds, the larger enclosing foliage sprays, line-fillers in golden bars of woody stems, text on each page enclosed within a border of gold ropework ending in tassels or woody stems with stylised flower heads at foot, these visually lifted from the page through pale green shading, modern pencil foliation ‘17’ and ‘24’, outer vertical borders trimmed away to edges of border decoration (with some losses there), else in excellent condition, each leaf 151 by 78mm. These leaves come from an elegant manuscript produced in a style identified by Myra Orth as the so-called ‘1520s workshop’. For other examples see the Doheny Hours (Jaime Ortiz-Patino collection, sold Sotheby’s, 21 April 1998, lot 39), and another Book of Hours illuminated by the Doheny Master also sold in Sotheby’s, 20 June 1995, lot 121. The ropework border in other leaves from a close but different parent manuscript (see Sotheby’s, 2 December 2003, lot 28d) has been taken to indicate that the original owner was a member of the Cordelières, the order of Franciscan Tertiaries to which the women of the French royal family belonged.
ƟIbn Shaddad, History of Aleppo (Izz' al-Din Ibn Shaddad, Al-A'lak al-Khafira fi Dikr Umara al-Sham wa al-Jazeera), in Arabic, produced for patron in France, decorated manuscript on paper [probably Aleppo or perhaps Constantinople, dated Rabi al-thani 1079 AH (September 1688 AD)] 196 leaves, plus 4 endpapers, complete, single column, 13 lines in black naskh, headings and important phrases in red, exceptionally clean copy, nineteenth-century ink inscriptions to endpapers in English, 215 by 155 mm.; contemporary morocco over pasteboards, stamped and ruled in blind with decorative medallions to centre of covers, but without flap, ruled in blind, early inscription “No 4” in black ink to upper cover, edges worn with loss to leather, revealing Arabic manuscript leaves compacted to reuse as pasteboards An exceptionally rare example of a text in Arabic, produced for a European (here probably from Lyon, France) on western paper; still in its contemporary ‘Western-style’ Arabic binding Provenance:1. Produced in the Near East in 1688 for a French patron, and then sent back to Europe: the text was copied and the codex bound in the Near East, but the Arabic penmanship is in an obviously simple style (probably to accommodate a reader who might not be fluent in the nuances of contemporary Arabic calligraphy), and the binding was produced without a flap, like Western and Greek bindings. Most crucially, the double watermark of a bunch of grapes and a fleur-de-lys set above a banderole with initials (here “D. D”) place this in a tight knit group of grape watermarks which centre on France (more specifically Paris, Lyon and regions of coastal southern France) in the second half of the sixteenth century and the seventeenth century, and is extremely close to Briquet 13206 (Lyons, 1630). Moreover, this copy is dedicated in its colophon to a king “Lawus al-ma'rouf bubin” (Louis the great/famous de Bourbon, ie. King Louis XIV ‘the Sun King’, who reigned from 1654 to 1715), who is “al-Roumi'” among the ‘Romans’ (most probably meaning non-Arabs and non-Greeks). There were Arabists in France from the 1530s onwards, and both Lyon and Paris were active in the teaching and printing of Arabic from the second half of the sixteenth century. The present volume was most probably commissioned for a member of the academic community in Lyon. Surviving examples of such commissions are exceedingly rare, and only one other is known to us: an Arabic translation of the works of Apollonius of Perga (lost in the original Greek), copied in the same simple script in Aleppo for the seventeenth-century Leiden scholar Jacobus Golius (Arabic Studies in the Netherlands, 2014, p. 42, with pl. on 44)2. By the nineteenth century the book was in England, receiving its English titles on both its first and last endleaves, as well as an apparent price in £s, shillings and pence on its back pastedown.3. Bengt Schönbäck of Sweden: his bookplate on back pastedown, and with brief pencil descriptions in that language on endleaf. Text:Ibn Shaddad (1217-1285) served the Ayyubid dynasty as an official in Aleppo, and is best known for this text, which contains a historical geography of Syria and Upper Mesopotamia. It was written while in exile in Egypt after the Mongol invasion of Syria in 1260. This volume names its contents as the Tarikh Ibn Shaddad fi Haleb, an alternative short title to that given above. Binding:The binding here is distinctively Near Eastern, and the boards are composed from seventeenth-century Arabic manuscript leaves. However, a 20mm. long section of the original leather of the outermost edge of the back board shows that this binding cannot have ever had a flap. This probably represents an attempt by an Arabic bookbinder to bind in the style of Western books, as part of this highly individual commission for a Western Arabist. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
Dante Alighieri, Commedia: Inferno X, 1-90, in Tuscan Italian, single leaf from a decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Tuscany), last quarter of fourteenth century or very early fifteenth century] Single leaf, with single column of 45 lines in brown ink an early semi-humanist hand of highest grade (written space: 177 by 78mm.), with some near-contemporary corrections changing spellings and entire readings of words in hairline thin black ink, capitals set in margin apart from main lines and touched in red, remnants of Canzo number ‘X’ in upper outer corner of text in red, one large initial ‘O’ (opening “Ora sen va per un secreto …”) in red enclosed within swirling blue penwork with long whip-like tendrils reaching into the margins in sweeping curves and vertical penstrokes encased within other curling tendrils (close to those in another fourteenth-century Dante manuscript: Perugia, Biblioteca Comunale, MS. 818; see also that now Cortona, Biblioteca Comunale e dell'Accademia Etrusca, MS. 88, also of fourteenth century), one 5-line fifteenth-century marginal addition on reverse on Farinata’s connections with the Ghibelline faction (glossing verses 87-89), recovered from reuse in a binding and hence with losses at corners and edges, some worm damage and discolouration, a few lines of text damaged but mostly legible, overall in fair and presentable condition, 275 by 205mm. A nearly emergent leaf from the most important literary work of the entire Middle Ages, with numerous orthographic and textual variants Provenance:This is most probably all the remains of a high grade manuscript written and decorated for a wealthy patron in the last quarter of fourteenth century, probably in Tuscany. The measured and elegant semi-humanist script puts the parent manuscript among the very finest products of fourteenth-century vernacular book production, and sets this quite apart from the more common ‘Cento’ group mass-copied in Florence in the same period. As such it represents a rare opportunity for study of a de luxe copy of the text produced outside the homogenous Cento group in a centre probably far from Florence. 2. Recently discovered in an Italian collection, and with an export license from that country. Previously unknown and unrecorded by scholarship. Text:Some works of medieval literature have made such an impact in the collective cultural heritage of the West that they have touched the lives of almost every generation of readers since their composition. Chaucer is in this category, as perhaps is Wolfram von Eschenbach, Rudolf von Emms, Christine de Pisan, Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, and for northern Europe, we might add also add Snorri Sturluson. Paramount among this small and select gathering of names is that of Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321), the foremost poet of the Italian language, whose works all but founded the modern Italian. This leaf is from what is widely regarded to be the most important literary work of the entire Middle Ages, the grand and exquisitely beautiful Divine Comedy. It was completed by 1321 in the last months of the author’s life and found immediate fame. Echoes of his work are legion and found throughout European literature from the fourteenth century to today, from Boccaccio’s evident devotion in his Trattatello in laude di Dante, to T.S. Eliot’s statement “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third”. Jorge Luis Borges declared it “the best book literature has achieved”. By happy chance, this leaf contains the celebrated opening of Canto X of the Inferno, in which the author enters the sixth circle of Hell, that inhabited by heretics, and talks with Farinata degli Uberti (who denied life after death, and was exhumed and tried posthumuously in 1283) and Cavalcante Cavalcanti (probably an atheist, whose son, Guido, was Dante’s closest friend and arguably his poetic master, and who married the daughter of Farinata) as they lie in their fiery tombs that sit unsealed until after the last judgment. Within the history of the appreciation of the work, this section is among those most widely studied and contemplated; the great philologist Erich Auerbach (1892-1957) devoted a famous chapter of his masterwork Mimesis (1946) to this episode. This leaf has numerous orthographic and textual variants (unmarked in the transcription above), and these are completely unstudied. Over 800 medieval manuscripts and fragments have now been recorded by the ‘Dante online’ project, but they have been obsessively sought after for several centuries by collectors and grand institutional libraries alike, and are of enormous rarity on the market. Only a handful of codices have emerged on the market in the last century, the last in Sotheby’s on 25 June 1985, lot 82. The same house sold a single leaf with erased text only readable under UV light from a palimpsest manuscript, on 17 December 1991, lot 6; and a damaged leaf with a miniature recovered from a binding, on 1 December 1998, lot 16. To this should be added another leaf from a binding that emerged recently in Forum Auctions, London, on 25 January 2017, lot 118 (realising £14,000 hammer).
ƟBook of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on parchment [southern France (perhaps Limoges), immediately before 1439] 96 leaves (including one blank leaf, and plus original parchment pastedowns and single endleaf at front and back), complete (without Calendar, but perhaps always so), collation: i-ii6, iii4, iv8, v-vi6, vii2, viii-ix6, x4, xi8, xii4, xiii-xvii6, catchwords, single column of 18 lines in two sizes of a fine gothic bookhand, capitals touched in yellow wash and those in uppermost line with penwork decoration, versal initials and some line-fillers in burnished gold on red and blue grounds, 2-line initials in same with hairline floral sprays in margin terminating in red, blue or gold leaves, six large initials in same with full or three-quarter borders of coloured and gold rinceaux foliage, six large arch-topped miniatures, each framed within thin gold bars, with a separate set of these bars enclosing the text on the same page, with full borders of coloured and gold rinceaux foliage with some birds, 3 lines of text beneath miniature on fol. 79v erased (perhaps due to original scribal error: the text beginning perfectly at head of next leaf), some flaking from text on last few leaves, slight thumbing in places and outer upright border cropped to edge of decoration with very slight losses to edge of borders on miniature leaves, overall good and solid condition, 190 by 132mm.; seventeenth-century calf binding over wooden boards, gilt-tooled with Symbols of the Passion on each board within ornate foliate rollstamp, some small bumps and chips and with spine rebacked with sections of original leather laid on Provenance:1. Most probably written and illuminated for Maragde de Châteauneuf de Randon and Saint Ramsey or a member of her immediate family or circle, around 1439: an inscription in French in main hand on first endleaf notes her death on 29 September in that year: “Lan mil iiiic & xxxix & le iour de saint Michel xxix iour de septembre trespassa la noble demoiselle maragde de chastel no de rando, autremant apelee de saint remezi, Anima eius requiescat in pace, amen”. There are prayers here after the Penitential Psalms and Office of the Dead that ask for the reader to plead for mercy for the soul of “famula tua” (in female form) and these are accompanied by burnished gold initials ‘M’ (doubtless for Maragde). The book would appear either to have been written for her, but not yet finished at the time of her death and completed with this event in recent memory, or commissioned in her memory. Maragde de Châteauneuf de Randon and Saint Ramsey was a wealthy and influential member of the southern French nobility, whose family were vicomtes de Saint-Remeise and the barons d’Allenc. She was either the wife or daughter of Guillaume, seigneur de Saint Ramsey, near Limoges.2. Leblanc (Parisian auction house), Livres précieux, manuscrits et imprimés sur peau-vélin, du cabinet de M.**, 1811, lot 114, most probably from the vast stock of Paris bookseller Charles Chardin (1742-1826; eulogised by Dibdin, and portrayed by ‘Lewis’ in his Tour in France and Germany, II, pp. 400-04).3. In the English trade in the early twentieth century, with various pencil notes to pastedowns including the adamant “NOT FOR SALE” in capitals.4. Albert Ehrman (1890-1969), of Broxbourne House (and from which his library took its name); his vol. 1249, and with his small inkstamp at each end. A number of fine incunabula from his library were presented to the British Library, with fine bookbindings passing to the Bodleian and his collection of booktrade records to the Roxburghe Club. Sotheby’s sold the reminder of his printed books on 14-15 November 1977 and 8-9 May 1978.5. Re-emerging in Sotheby’s, 3 December 2002, lot 78, and thence by descent. Text:The volume comprises: the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol. 2r), Lauds (fol. 9r), Prime (fol. 16r), Terce (fol. 18v), Sext (fol. 20v), None (fol. 22v), Vespers (fol. 24v) and Compline (fol. 27v); the Penitential Psalms (fol. 40r) and Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 52r; including SS. Martial of Limoges and Radegund of Poitiers); the Hours of the Cross (fol. 74r) and of the Holy Ghost (fol. 77r); followed by a long series of prayers to Christ (fol. 79v), including one to be said at Mass which claims to grant 2000 years’ indulgence, as well as the prayers to the Virgin in French. Illumination:Southern French manuscript illumination is far rarer than that from the north, and this manuscript is deserving of further study. The palette is brilliantly vivid, and some faces are so well executed they suggest the presence more than one artist. There are numerous features, such as the exquisitely detailed pink architectural canopies and skies filled with gold scroll work, which seem to fit better in northern European art, and in 2002 the Sotheby’s cataloguer drew parallels to leaves with apparent Metz illumination now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (S.N. Fleigel, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, 1999, nos. 29-33) and proposed an itinerant artist. The miniatures are: 1. fol. 2r, The Annunciation with the Angel appearing to a kneeling Virgin, within a pink architectural gothic interior with bright gold and coloured tessellated windows, the border including a cockerel and a green bird; 2. fol. 40r, David kneeling in prayer, wearing scarlet robes in a stylised hilly landscape below a deep burgundy sky filled with gold scrolls; 3. fol. 52r, Judgement Day, with Christ seated in Judgement on a rainbow as skeletons rise from their graves below, all before a vivid red sky filled with gold scrolls, border with a peacock; 4. fol. 74r, The Descent from the Cross, with the Virgin cradling Christ’s body at the foot of the Cross, before Jerusalem and a cohort of Roman soldiers; 5. fol. 77r, Pentecost, the Virgin and apostles before a brilliantly illuminated tessellated background; 6. fol. 79v, God the Father holding a Crucifix between adoring angels, seated on a great throne before a grand architectural pink canopy. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
The Evangelist John, with his attribute and pointing to a copy of his Gospel, with a single Latin word “Iohannis” in Insular capitals, on a silver cornerpiece from an Anglo-Saxon bookbinding [England, seventh to ninth century (most probably ninth century)] Silver cornerpiece, formed to fit around one outer corner of a bookbinding, with niello carving in surface showing John standing within a roundel pointing to an open book, with his attribute of an eagle peeping around his right shoulder, “IO/HA/NNIS” in Phase II Insular capitals over his left shoulder, three animal masks (probably two roaring bears and a snake with bulging eyes) at interior corners, the bears with pouncing to their muzzles, the open eyes of these animals serving as holes for the pins to hold the piece to the book board, 30mm. square A fine example of high-grade Anglo-Saxon metalwork, most probably from a key moment in English history: the Viking invasions and the repelling of those by King Alfred Provenance: 1. From the binding of a de luxe Anglo-Saxon codex, most probably a Gospel Book of the ninth century. An archaeo-metallurgical report by Dr. Brian Gilmour (employing energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence and photomicroscopy of micro-cracking to the surface) indicates that this item is of an early medieval date, with trace impurities of copper and lead probably due to the reuse of impure scrap silver in its production. It may have been originally gilded, having a surprisingly high 8.9% gold reading on its surface (against 0.64% from section analysis). This use of gold, as well as the close stylistic comparisons with other refined examples of Anglo-Saxon metalwork (see below) sets this among the finer products of ninth-century England. The ninth century saw many opportunities for the breaking down of earlier bindings into their component scrap parts, and also for the production of the parent book of this decoration. Viking attack swept across England in the first half of the ninth century, bringing all states there to their knees, with the exception of Wessex. Much metalwork must have been seized by the invaders, and many communities must have been left without essential Christian books. In the last decades of that century, Alfred brought this onslaught to a stop, and turned his attention to a necessary renaissance of Christian knowledge and book production, most famously sending a copy of Gregory’s Cura Pastoralis in English translation, to every bishopric in the country with “an aestel [perhaps pointer] worth 50 mancuses [the equivalent of a half a pound of gold].” The present piece may have been taken from a codex during the invasions and lost, or been part of a new codex copied to replace one lost during the invasions.2. From an English collection, and previously in the Don Lee antiquities collection before 1990. Text and art style:The Latin inscription here is in Phase II style Insular capitals, those stemming from the display script developed in a Hiberno-Saxon context c. 700, and used in England from the eighth century to somewhere in the ninth century. In manuscript art they are found most prominently in the Book of Cerne (Mercia, ninth century; Cambridge University Library, MS. Ll.I.10), and in metalwork in the inscription (again for John the Evangelist) on a gold niello plaque of almost the same dimensions and doubtless also from a book binding (now British Museum M&LA 1978, 1-1,1: reproduced in L. Webster and J. Backhouse, The Making of England, 1991, no. 66a, pp. 82-83). In these two cases as well as the present one the capitals are thin and angular with an ‘A’ whose second stroke extends above the apex of the letter and curves to the left. All that separates them are minor features (here the leaning cross bars of the ‘N’s are higher than those of the others and the lowermost stroke of the ‘S’ is diagonal rather than sitting on the horizontal line) or paleographical aspects set by the media the scribe was working in (the Book of Cerne has long curling penstrokes at the end of its descenders, while the metalwork examples are necessarily shorter and squatter). In style the figure of the evangelist on the present piece shows great affinity with the central figure of the Fuller Brooch (Making of England, no. 257, pp. 280-281), but without the animal-like downturned ears and pointed nose of that figure. In addition, the eagle that peeks around our figure with its down-turned mouth and diamond shaped eye finds close parallel on the gold niello plaque noted above. The wide staring eyes and dispassionate flat-line mouth in the present piece are a common feature of the depiction of forward facing portraits in early medieval art, which endured until the late tenth century in the Anglo-Saxon book arts (compare, among many others, the Christ in Majesty page in the Codex Amiatinus, made before 716, Monkwearmouth/Jarrow: Making of England, no. 88, p. 124; and the depiction of Cassiodorus in Durham Cathedral Library, MS. B.II.30, eighth century, Northumbria: ibid., no. 89, p. 125). At the time of this sale, the British Library will be hosting the largest and most important exhibition Anglo-Saxon codices, fragments and artefacts to happen to date, with the celebrated Codex Amiatinus returning to Britain for the first time in 1300 years. It is impossible to prove, but tempting to speculate, that this small ornament may once have been on the binding of one of the codices in that exhibition, or at least one as elegant and opulent as the finer examples there. Examples of Anglo-Saxon metalwork with any script on the open market are rare, and those of comparable quality breathtakingly so.
Leaf from a Noted Breviary with a very large white-vine initial, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Germany, eleventh century (probably first half)] Single leaf, with 30 long lines in two sizes of a good German Romanesque bookhand, with ‘e’ with a protruding tongue, using the et-ligature integrally within words, the smaller script with music with hairline thin neumes set above the lines, rubrics and initials in red, some capitals touched in red (one ‘M’ containing three small red dots), one half-page white-vine initial ‘D’ in split bands with interlace sections, the central compartment and the curl of the tail filled with sprouts of foliage, later scrawls to recto from reuse on accounts of “1531”, darkening and discoloured on recto, and with small tears and spots and stains, else fair and presentable condition, 335 by 232mm. The large and elegant script here, with a rectangular aspect to the body of each letter, is notably close to that of a Glossed Psalter of the 990s (now Cologne, Dom Hs. 45: Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, no. 40, pp. 219-24), and the use of the ampersand integrally within words also indicates an early date for the parent codex, firmly within the Romanesque period. The smaller script looks forward instead to innovations of the early Gothic and ensures this is from the eleventh century rather than any earlier. Cuttings of this date on the market rarely have such elaborate and large initials in any condition.
Bifolium from a large Lectionary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Germany (Rhineland, probably Cologne), first half of the twelfth century] Bifolium, with one very large initial ‘R’ (opening the title ‘Requiem’), 125mm. high, formed from two coiled dragons in green and soft brown with detailed wings, one with a fleshy spade-shaped tail, the lower part of the initial with swirling acanthus foliage, all on pale green, sky blue and red grounds (the last with penwork picking out white tendrils), the remainder of the word in dark brown capitals with red dots, another large initial, 65mm. high, in squat white vine foliage perhaps intertwined with a serpent (removal of border cutting away the beast’s head), on green and vivid blue grounds, three other large red initials with delicate foliate tendrils, other initials and rubrics in red, double column, 31 lines in a fine German Romanesque bookhand, musical neumes arranged above smaller script, small original split in margin of vellum, recovered from a bookbinding and hence one vertical border trimmed away, some small stains and holes, with damage to left-hand side of largest initial, total size 370mm. by 485mm. The dragons here with their detailed wings are close to other examples from the Rhineland (cf. those in a copy of Ambroise, Hexameron, mid-twelfth century, Cologne, now in the cathedral archive there, their MS. 31: Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, no. 31, p. 192 with facing illustration), and the foliage in tight circular scrolls finds parallels in works from the same area in the first half of the century (ibid. no. 35, pp. 204-07). Interestingly, the prayer adjacent to the initial has been marked up by the original scribe in tiny script above the main line with alternative endings for crucial words so that supplicants could correctly identify themselves in the male, female or plural forms, suggesting use of the book in a dual monastic community of men and women.
Grammatical text, in Greek, manuscript on paper [Italy (probably Venice), second half of fifteenth century] Two bifolia (4 leaves), each with single column of 15 lines in a semi-cursive Greek bookhand, with initials and rubrics in faded red, watermark Golgotha (a tri-lobed mountain surmounted by a cross) in the form of Briquet 11748-55 (mostly Italy, spanning 1412-1484, one particularly close example in 11751 from Venice and 1420), some modern pencil notes, wide margins, edges of leaves slightly darkened, each leaf 245 by 172mm. These leaves are from a Greek Grammar copied in Italy during the explosion of interest in Greek language and culture in the second half of the fifteenth century and early part of the sixteenth. The text here gives the declensions of the Greek nouns (Περι ονοματον),), using for the first declension: Aeneas (ο Αινειας) and Χρυσης (pastor in the Iliad). The second and third declension follow, explaining the rules for the latter in the three genders (masculine, feminine, neutral).
Bifolium from Gerard of Cremona (also de Sabloneta), Practica Joannis Serapionis, a Latin translation of Serapion’s medical handbook, manuscript on parchment [Italy (perhaps south), late thirteenth or early fourteenth century] Two conjoined leaves, each with double column of 49 lines of a rounded Italian gothic bookhand, some quotations underlined in red, red rubrics and initials, small amount of marginalia, tiny instructions to rubricator surviving in top margin, scribbles on innermost pages from later reuse in binding of French accounts dated in several places 1586, blank outermost corners cut away, overall fair and presentable condition, each leaf 305 by 218mm. Serapion (more properly Yúh?nn? Ibn Serapion) was a ninth-century Nestorian physician who wrote two medical compendia in Syriac. The shorter of the two was translated into Arabic and thence to Latin by Gerard of Cremona (the thirteenth-century translator of medical texts, to be distinguished from his twelfth-century namesake who translated Aristotle and similar). It is formed from seven separate treatises dealing with diseases of the body and nerves; diseases of eye, mouth, lung, breast and heart; diseases of stomach, intestines, and those caused by worms; diseases of liver, spleen, kidneys, and bladder, and gout; skin diseases, wounds caused by a bite, and gynaecological diseases; fever; and composite medicines. The bifolium here contains part of the sixth treatise, and concerns abscesses of the kidneys and bladder and their cures, the creation of kidney stones and their methods of manual extraction.
ƟThe Horwer Missal, written by Johannes Horwer for the Church of Schwerzenbach, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Switzerland (Zurich), dated 1485] 153 leaves (plus 3 modern paper endleaves at each end), complete, collation: i9 (last probably a singleton), ii-x8, xi6, xii-xix8, xx6 (last 2 leaves of original quire cancelled blanks), some catchwords and contemporary foliation in red ink at head of each recto, double column of 27 lines in an excellent and angular Germanic bookhand, capitals touched in red (some with ornamental cadels reaching into upper and lower margins), red rubrics , small initials in alternate red and blue (some with ornamental cadels reaching into margin), larger initials in ornate red brushstrokes (some with tightly twisting penwork in contrasting colours, and those in lowermost lines with long whip-like penstrokes filling the bas-de-page, a few with human faces and that on fol. 98r with a red dragon’s muzzle), major sections opening with burnished gold initials with pink and khaki-green penwork (some with coloured foliage sprouting into border, and that facing Canon miniature with a dragon’s head at foot and human face at top, opening of text with two sided borders of scrolling coloured foliage with golden fruit, good dry-point sketch of a bird in flight in bas-de-page of fol. 99r, good pen and ink drawing in bas-de-page of fol. 98r of a red-billed stork raising its foot to stamp on a stylised frog, one full-page Crucifixion miniature before the Canon of the Mass, the figures before a burgundy sky set with liquid gold stars and all within a realistic pale green frame, some contemporary or near-contemporary marginal additions, marks on edges of some leaves from leather page markers once glued there, leaves at each end of volume with old water damage leading to cockling, some offset and shine-through in places and a few leaves with damage to their top edges, overall in good and presentable condition, 345 by 245mm.; nineteenth-century brown leather over pasteboards, gilt-tooled with floral and simple fillet frames around a blind-tooled floral cabouchon, “Missale” and “Cod. Membr. /Anni 1484” gilt on spine, in brown felt-lined fitted case This impressively large and weighty codex is one of the tiny proportion of medieval manuscripts for which we know almost all of the circumstances of its creation: its scribe, commissioner and which community it was made for, as well as the date of its completion Provenance:1. Written and illuminated by Johannes Horwer in 1485 for Andreas ‘Molitor’ (Müller), rector of the church in Schwerzenbach (a few miles east of Zurich, and incorporated within the city from 1402): Horwer’s signature discretely in white within the cross bar of the initial ‘S’ on fol. 140r (now mostly erased) and more openly in gold in a banderole in the lower margin of the frontispiece on fol. 2v (another banderole in the outer margin with the date in gold). Molitor is named in the inscription on fol. 89r: “Ego Andreas Molitoris de Keiserstuel rector huius ecclesie in Schwerzenbach pro remedio anime et benefactorum retuli hunc librum 1485” followed by his coat of arms (per fess sable a lion or passant and or a demi waterwheel sable). He is recorded as leutpriester (substitute priest) in Schwerzenbach in 1470, 1489 and 1493.2. From a nineteenth-century episcopal library: two repeated inkstamps on recto of first leaf with galero and six tassels per side, above initials perhaps to be read “ R A”. Text:The volume comprises: an Ordo specialis boni, a list of special feast days (fol. 1r), here functioning as an index to the codex; the Temporal (fol. 2v); the Ordo Missae (fol. 84v); the Canon (fol. 89r); the Sanctoral (fol. 94r), with readings for SS. Felix and Regula, martyred by decapitation near Zurich, and with text here that singles out and lauds Zurich: “O thuregum Rome regum regale palacium” (‘O Zurich royal palace of the kings of Rome’), and again in the text on Charlemagne on fol. 99r: “urbs Thuregum famosa”; the Common of the Saints (fol. 130v); the Missae votive (fol. 137r); and the Collecte speciales (fol. 153r). The Scribe-Artist:We are fortunate that Johannes Horwer’s work is known from more than one extant codex. He signed another Missal produced for the Knights Hospitallers dated 1469 with his name in a similar banderole in purple ink highlighted with gold (the summer part now surviving in s’-Heerenberg, Huis Bergh, MS. 15: A.S. Korteweg, Catalogue of Medieval Manuscripts and Incunabula at Huis Bergh Castle in s’-Heerenberg, 2013, no. 98), and in that he specifically names himself “scriptor”. However, the decoration and miniature of that codex are so close to the present example as to suggest he was also the illuminator. A third volume, a Gradual, was to be found in St. Petersberg in the early part of the twentieth century, and is recorded in a publication of 1925 by O. Dobiasch-Roschdestwenskaja as written by “Johannem Horwer von Lichtensteig burger Zürich” (in ‘Die Satire am Rande der mitteralterlichen Hss.’, Analecta Medii Aevi, I, 1925). Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
Leaf from a large Lectionary, in Coptic with Arabic rubrics, manuscript on paper [Egypt, fifteenth century or c. 1500] Single large leaf, with double column of 25 lines in bold Coptic liturgical hand, punctuation marks and rubrics in red, one catchword in upper margin between red dots and black penlines, rubrics glossed with 4-line Arabic translation, short single line of Arabic at foot of text on other side, text opening with one large initial and a line of capitals, some small holes through ink-burn, tears to edges and small losses at edges, else in fair and presentable condition, 327 by 220mm. The text here announces that the reading is for Lent and contains parts of Exodus.
ƟGalen, Ars medicinalis in the translation of Johannitus (Hunayn ibn Ishaq) with commentary, here in Catalan translation, decorated manuscript on paper [Spain (Catalonia, probably Barcelona), c. 1475] 26 leaves (plus an original paper endleaf at each end, and including 2 blank leaves at end of main text), complete, collation: i-ii12, catchword, double column of 32 lines in an angular Iberian gothic bookhand, the uppermost lines with elongated ascenders, Johannitus’ commentary set in margins in main hand, openings of each section in angular capitals with some ascenders touched in red, paragraph marks and rubrics in bright red (some rubrics with calligraphic penstrokes), simple blue initials on frontispiece with black penwork, spaces left for remaining initials (with tiny guide letters), small spots in places, else excellent condition, 290 by 204mm.; contemporary limp parchment binding with flap and leather ties on flap and front board, stains and cockling, overall in good condition, in fitted red morocco slipcase The only known copy of this rare translation of Galen’s works in private hands, in outstanding condition and still in its original binding Provenance:1. Written for a medical practitioner in Catalonia c. 1475; with a mostly erased contemporary inscription on the front cover reading “Adam … A[…]tarius” probably in the same hand as that of the near-contemporary additions at the end of the volume.2. Joan Gili i Serra (1907-1998), Anglo-Catalan antiquarian bookdealer of Dolphin Bookshop off the Charing Cross Road, London, and later Oxford, as well as an important Catalan publisher and translator. Text:Johannitus, or more correctly Hunayn ibn Ishaq, was a Christian born near Baghdad in the opening years of the ninth century. He made full use of his medical studies in the intellectual capital of the Abbasid caliphate, and having mastered Syriac, Latin and Greek in addition to his native Arabic, he turned his hand to translation, producing Syriac and Arabic translations of crucial Greek medical texts. A collection of these texts, named the Articella, was perhaps translated into Latin by Constantinus Africanus in the eleventh century and certainly was in use in the famous Salerno medical school a century later. This produced the first major medical textbook in the West, the Isagoge Johanniti, which included the Galenic Tegni (in fact his Ars Medica). This spread outwards from northern Italy in the fourteenth century, and in the University of Montpellier it entered the collective knowledge of educated Catalan society. Montpellier was part of the territory of the crown of Aragon, and under the influence of the kings of Mallorca from 1276, and operated as a meeting point for educated Catalans and Italians. It became the second most important site for the study of medicine in the West in the Middle Ages, after Guilhem VIII established a medical scholarly milieu there by declaring in 1180 that anyone could teach the subject within the walls of the city, and teaching by physician-monks of the various religious communities there was augmented by Arabic and Jewish doctors. On 17 August 1220 the professors resident in the city founded a Univeratas Medicorum and immediately thereafter Cardinal Conrad von Urach, legate of Pope Honorius III (1148-1227), granted the school its charter. By 1240 the school was placed under the control of the bishop of Maguelonne, but teaching continued along the model of Arabic medical schools, and some sections of the learned Christian population there are recorded as being able to speak Arabic. With the collapse of the Salerno school in the mid-thirteenth century, Montpellier received an influx of teachers and rose to being the centre of medical learning in Europe. The Isagoge Johanniti was one of only sixteen prescribed medical works for all students in Montpellier. That culturally mixed and linguistically complex environment is the almost certain site of this translation of the work. It was made before 1399 (when first mention is made of it), and it was perhaps an attempt to produce a Catalan version for arriving students from Barcelona. It survives in three medieval manuscripts only, in addition to the present one: (i) Paris, BnF., ms. Espanol 508 (mid-fifteenth century); (ii) Vatican, BAV, ms. lat. 4797 (fragmentary, dated 1476); and (iii) Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, ms. 239 (late fifteenth century, and copied from the Vatican manuscript). To these should probably be added an independent translation of the work into Catalan that survives only in Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, ms. 881 (after 1459). No copy is recorded outside of institutional ownership.The manuscript here includes all of Galen’s seven sections of his text, on the elements of the body (here fol. 1r): blood, phlegm, choler, bile and so on; the various ages of man; the elements of the physical world (fol. 5v), and influences of the outside world on the human body, including air, seasons, stars, winds, exercise, idleness and bathing; and others which influence the human body from inside (fol. 6v), such as meat, drink and accidents; followed by a section on fevers (fol. 7v); and another on abscesses (fol. 8v); and finally the last section classifies the types of diseases (fol. 8v), starting with general ailments before moving outwards and then inwards to those that affect the limbs of the body and its organs. This is followed by a Galenic text on urine, here mentioning the original author “De conerxença de les urines segons Galien” (fol. 17v). The last leaf before the endleaf at the back includes a series of neatly copied medical recipes. Ɵ Indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).
Leaf from a monumental Lectern Bible, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Flanders or Southern Netherlands (perhaps Tournai), c. 1275] Single very large leaf, with double column of 33 lines in fine angular and formal bookhand (with Leviticus 23:27-24:23; written space 336 by 210mm.) with notable lateral compression, capitals touched pale ochre wash, versal initials and running titles in alternate red or blue capitals, one 2-line initial ‘E’ in blue enclosed within blue and red penwork, terminating in tightly coiled foliate tendrils and long descending penstrokes, the initial extending at its head into jagged-edged leaves in red and blue with further foliage at top, this filling the internal gutter to form a decorative frame up entire length of inner border of outermost column, modern pencil note on opening Biblical book: “23 27” in upper inner corner, comparison with other leaves from parent manuscript showing this trimmed by approximately 50mm. on upright outer edge (perhaps for last framing), some spots and stains and a small amount of cockling overall, else in good condition, 500 by 310mm. Provenance: From a grand manuscript Bible, probably produced in four volumes, perhaps for an institution in Tournai. Volumes II and III appear to be Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS II.2523, and volume IV may be Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum MS Ludwig I.9. A single leaf from the lost first volume was offered in Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages (1984), no. 75, recording that it had a sixteenth-century inscription of a “Frater Stephanus Blanchet”. The Brussels manuscripts once belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps, who bought them in the late 1820s with the residue of the library of St. Martin in Tournai, noting that before he could obtain it, the first volume had been sold and “destroyed by a Bookseller at Brussels”. Part of it, with text from Leviticus 3 to Judges 24 was owned by the Leiden manuscript seller Erik von Scherling in 1954 (Rotulus VII, no. 2474, illustrated), and most single leaves, including this one can be traced to that section. Other leaves are listed in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, p. 93, and another leaf was recently sold in the Schøyen sale, 10 July 2012, lot 55.
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