Ɵ Substantial fragment from two closely related codices of the Hebrew Bible, with the short weekly readings from 2 Kings and the Major and Minor Prophets, in Hebrew, manuscript on parchment[Near East (most probably Egypt or Palestine), eleventh century, or just perhaps early twelfth century] 24 leaves, each with single column of approximately 13 lines in Hebrew square script, with nikkud, headings in larger version of same script or in calligraphic flourishes in margin, some more modern (probably early twentieth-century) pencil marks, scuffs and slight damage to edges of leaves, else good condition, first 4 leaves full size:185 by 130mm., and remaining leaves with upper and lower margins slightly trimmed, thus:170 by 130mm.; cloth-covered card binding (one gathering bound upside down) A substantial fragment of a remarkably early Hebrew Bible with a provenance that definitively stretches back to the celebrated Cairo Genizah; and perhaps a hitherto unrecognised part of a sister codex to that sold in our rooms on 6 July 2016 Provenance: 1. Most probably written for use by the Jewish community of Fustat, Cairo, in either the eleventh or early twelfth century. Owel David pronounced the bifolium once in the Sassoon collection as definitely from the Cairo Genizah and "not later than the 11th century" (Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, 1932, I, pp. 27-28; it had been acquired by Sassoon in Egypt in 1922).2. Thereafter most probably entering the famous Cairo Genizah, the repository of the Jewish community located in the Ben Ezra Synagogue of Fustat (on this see lot 14), and among the leaves that spilled out onto the market after the discovery of the hoard at the end of the nineteenth century until Solomon Schechter secured the bulk of it for Cambridge University. The discovery captivated public imagination in Europe in a way comparable only to the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. For half a century, until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, these were the oldest Hebrew manuscripts known.3. Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London, their MS 2083/1, acquired piece by piece in Sotheby's, 5 December 1995, lot 27; 18 June 1996, lot 41; and again 2 December 1997, lot 86. A further bifolium with readings from the Psalms, and with its borders trimmed away, was in the 5th sale of the collection of David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) at Sotheby's, 21 June 1994, lot 1 (part 9 of a composite bound manuscript [Sassoon MS 566], and now Schøyen MS 1858/9, and thus remaining with that sammelband). Text:From a remarkably early and important Hebrew Biblical codex, used for ritual weekly readings. If this fragmentary codex dates to the eleventh century then it is among the very earliest witnesses to the Hebrew Bible. If instead it is of the twelfth century then it is a direct contemporary of Maimonides (born 1135 Spain, moved to Fustat in 1168, dying there in 1204), and certainly the codex was there when he was head of the Jewish community in Fustat, working on the Mishneh Torah. It seems very likely that he saw, and perhaps even used, these leaves.Another fragment of 127 leaves from a contemporary Hebrew Bible also from Egypt, was sold in our rooms on 6 July 2016 (lot 45, realising £86,800). That was tentatively attributed to the Cairo Genizah and of near identical measurements to the present leaves. The hands of these two sections of small codices are distinct, but extremely close, and crucially the texts do not overlap. Moreover, at least two scribes were involved in the production of the present leaves. Thus, these leaves and those sold in 2016 may well be sections of a large series of volumes once used in Fustat, and divided up after the discovery of the Genizah there. If so, the present leaves are of great importance to the whole in securely locating them in the Cairo Genizah, and it should be noted that those sold in 2016 were of significant textual importance, containing a textual tradition otherwise known from only one Yemenite sixteenth-century codex.The leaves here contain readings from: 2 Kings 5:18-20; Ezekiel 22:1-5; Hosea 2:5-15; Joshua 2:16-24; Judges 11:2-12; Micah 5:10-6:8; 1 Samuel 1:20-2:12; 3:19-20; 1 Kings 7:44-51; Isaiah 43:21; 43:27; 2 Kings 7:1-14; Zechariah 2:16-17; 3:1-10; 14:4-14; Joshua 2:14-24; Micah 5:11-14; 6:1-8; 1 Kings 18:46; 19:1-21; Jeremiah 1:1-19; 2:4-9; Isaiah 1:1-27; 1 Samuel 1:2-15; Jeremiah 2:4-19; 9:22; 30:4-22; and Isaiah 1:1.To view a video of this item, click here.
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Ɵ Canon of Odes 3-7, celebrating the appearance of the Cross in the sky over Mount Golgotha in the reign of Emperor Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, in Middle Georgian, in nuskuri script, manuscript on parchment[Georgia, thirteenth or fourteenth century] Single leaf, with 28 lines in a formal nuskuri hand influenced by cursive letterforms, red rubrics, small initials in alternate red and black (set in margins), small spots and darkening to edges, else good condition, 200 by 150mm.; in cloth-covered card binding (with copy of report by Prof. Emeritus J. Neville Birdsall, dated 1992) Provenance: Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London, their MS 1598, acquired from Sam Fogg, London, in July 1992. Text: Georgian is the principal surviving example of the South Caucasian language group, completely unrelated to the Indo-European languages of Europe. It has a rich heritage, and was first mentioned as a spoken language by the Roman grammarian Marcus Cornelius Fronto in the second century AD., who noted its incomprehensibility. The script used to commit it to writing is derived from Greek. It was one of the earliest languages into which the Bible was translated, with the Gospels, the Epistles of Paul and the Psalms certainly existing in Old Georgian by the second half of the fifth century.The vast majority of medieval manuscripts in Georgian are in libraries in Tbiblisi and Kutaisi in Georgia itself, with a handful found in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the Greek patriarchate in Jerusalem, St. Catherine's on Mount Sinai, and Yerevan, Armenia.
Bede, Homilies, in Latin, cuttings from a manuscript in a fine Anglo-Saxon minuscule on parchment[most probably north-eastern France (perhaps Arras), first quarter of the ninth century]Large fragment of a single leaf bisected laterally into two equal halves, remains of double column of 25 lines in a pointed Anglo-Saxon minuscule, with an open 'g' with a zig-zagging tail, an oversized 'e', uncial style 'd', an 'r' descending below the line and both pointed and 'oc' forms of 'a' (for the same features cf. the contemporary hands of Basel, UB F III 15a and Kassel, 2o Ms. theol. 25: reproduced in Fuldische Handschriften aus Hessen, 1994, nos. 19 and 29), containing parts of book 2, homily 7, of the text, areas partly painted blue-green and tooled with fillet on outside and traces of red staining inside (probably from reuse around in north-European binding around outer board edges of a later book), together 180 by 180mm.; set individually in glass and within fitted case These are substantial cuttings from a copy of a work by Bede, the foremost Anglo-Saxon author, here in Anglo-Saxon miniscule, copied on the Continent in a house under English influence or by a visiting English scribe Provenance: 1. Written for use in a Continental scriptorium, perhaps by an English scribe, in the first quarter of the ninth century. In 1994 the script was identified by Prof. G. Schrimpf, Herrad Spilling and Wesley M. Stevens of the Theological Faculty of Fulda as from a centre in north-east France.2. Private American collection, dispersed by Quaritch in 1993.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1654; acquired from Quaritch. Text and scriptorium:The use of Anglo-Saxon script in Continental Europe during the close of the Early Middle Ages is a testament to the influence of English missionaries there in the eighth century. At the close of the seventh century, Ecgberht of Ripon inherited the proselytising ambitions of the Irish and sent monks to convert Frisia, followed by the missions of SS. Wihtberht, Willibrord and Boniface, each of whom founded monasteries and established connections to early Anglo-Saxon England. Soon after the death of Bede in 735, his scriptorium in Wearmouth-Jarrow was supplying copies of crucial Christian texts to communities there, and annotations to the celebrated Moore Bede reveal that it was in France perhaps as early as the reign of Charlemagne. Bischoff studied the Continental houses producing Anglo-Saxon script, with the majority in German scriptoria and only a handful in France (B. Bischoff, Mittelalterliche Studien, III, 1981, pp. 5-38), but the influence of these Anglo-Saxon hands and scribes did not widely survive the script reforms of the early Carolingian era, and by the early ninth century the practise was kept on only in the larger German centres such as Lorsch, Echternach and St Gall, and "[f]rom 820 on, Fulda is the only stronghold of Anglo-Saxon script in Germany" (B. Bischoff, Latin Palaeography, 1990, p. 94). If the identification of the present cuttings as French in origin is correct, then these would be a remarkable witness to the survival of the script in at least one house in France in the early ninth century.No surviving manuscript of the text definitively predates this witness to the text, and it is one of only nine recorded manuscripts of the ninth century. Of these, two are connected to Arras in north eastern France (Arras, Bibliothèque municipale, 739 [olim 333], & Boulogne-sur-mer, Bibliothèque municipale, 75 [83], both of the second quarter of the ninth century), with further French examples in nearby Cambrai (Bibliothèque municipale, 365), and much further afield near the German and Austrian borders in Lyons, Bibliothèque municipale, 473. This suggests that a house in the north eastern corner of France may have been behind the earliest distribution of the text there, and lends weight to the palaeographical suggestion that a scriptorium there was the origin of this fragment. The choice of text and script makes it likely that the scribe of our manuscript was working from an exemplar sent from England, and may himself have been a monk visiting from there. Published: K. Gugel, Welche erhaltenen mittelalterlichen Handscriften dürfen der Bibliothek des Klosters Fulda zugerechnet werden? Teil II: Die Fragmente aus Handschriften, Fuldaer Hochschulschriften 23a-b, Frankfurt, 1995-1996, pp. 51-52 (as "Fulda?" and based on description made before the work of Schrimpf, Spilling and Stevens).
Ɵ Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, in Latin, large cutting from a manuscript on parchment, surviving in situ on the binding of a printed copy of Introductionis ad artem Rhetoricam, Libri II, ex Cicerone potissimum depropti et ad usum puerorum usum accommodati (Perugia: Vincentius Columbarius, 1596)[Southern Italy (most probably Apulia), first half or mid-eleventh century] Cutting from a leaf with double column of 29 lines in a rounded and proud Beneventan minuscule, initials in larger capitals in same pen, some holes and scuffs concomitant with reuse in binding (with some small affects to text on spine and one board), upper margin surviving with medieval book number 'L[iber]' and 'XXXI' (the text here is XXXI, 45:89-91) and notes on moral contents (both of these perhaps thirteenth century), one hole strengthened on inside with very small cutting of contemporary Italian manuscript, overall fair and presentable condition, in total 310 by 270mm.; in fitted case Provenance: 1. Written for use in a southern Italian centre under the influence of Montecassino, most probably in Apulia, in the eleventh century, and still in active use there in the thirteenth century. At the close of the Middle Ages the parent volume had been set aside (perhaps due to the strange eccentricities of the script) and was cut up for reuse as binding material.2. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1587, acquired Maggs Bros., London, in June 1992. Script:Beneventan minuscule is perhaps the most well-known of the Early Middle Age 'local' scripts, and to some extent this is because it was not swept away like its peers by the Carolingian script reforms of the late eighth and ninth centuries. In fact, most examples postdate that event, and it thrived throughout the tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Monte Cassino and other Italian centre southwards to Naples, Salerno and Bari and eastwards to Abruzzi and across the sea to Dalmatia. Although Lowe thought it ended in the thirteenth century (The Beneventan Script, 1914, p. 41), Brown has traced a handful of later fragments (one in lot 25 below), with its final use in Naples in the sixteenth century (in Monastica. Scritti racolti in memoria del XV centenario della nascita di S. Benedetto, 1981).It holds a particular place of honour in The Schøyen Collection due to the collector's long fascination with its swirling letterforms and broken penstrokes that give it an otherworldly appearance. He has bought almost every scrap, leaf and book that he has encountered in the last forty years, making the collection the largest private repository of examples of this script. It is to reflect the range of this material in the collection, that we offer five examples here, each reflecting a different aspect of the history of this enigmatic script. This leaf contains a fine and early example of the script, from the zenith of its maturity of palaeographical form. Published:V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (III)', Mediaeval Studies, 56 (1994), p. 317.BMB. Bibliografia dei manuscritti in scrittura beneventana, 1994.
Ɵ Conflictus veris et hiemis, a verse in hexameters on the debate between Spring and Winter, attributed to Alcuin of York, with the translations and miracles of St. Lomer, with further additions of Carolingian music, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[France (most probably Blois), c. 873 and tenth century]Fourteen leaves (plus a nineteenth-century parchment endleaf at each end), all conserved in nineteenth century and many remounted on guards and thus uncollatable, wanting 2 leaves after fol. 4 and another 2 leaves after fol. 12 as well as an 8-leaf gathering (now Vatican, Reg. Lat. 479: see below), last 4 leaves smaller than others (measuring 245 by 167mm.), the verse added to original endleaf at front in double column of 41 and 20 lines in a small and legible Carolingian minuscule with an extended ct-ligature and the characters' names in margin, one descender in lowermost line extended to form an ornate penwork leaf with a bauble mounted in its stem, and main texts relating to St. Lomer in single column of 29-36 lines in two closely related precise and refined Carolingian minuscules, both with et-ligature used integrally within words (but variant forms of capital 'q'/'Q'), the second with an NT-ligature and an uncial 'N' used in main text, crucial names in capitals, some capitals touched in red and others infilled with yellow wash, text opening major sections in capitals touched with red, rubrics of elongated red capitals, small red initials, larger initials in penwork, some with baubles set within their bodies or coloured in green and red, one large initial in delicate blank parchment penwork touched in red and set within dark brown initials terminating in floral flourishes, seventeenth-century scholarly marginalia, endleaf at front reused from a sixteenth-century French choirbook with music on a 4-line red stave, some stains to areas of text, spots from old mould damage at head, margins trimmed often to edges of text, overall good and solid condition on heavy and good quality parchment, 300 by 190mm.; nineteenth-century French brown calf over pasteboards, gilt-tooled with arched frames with floral sprays at corners, with spine gilt with "De S. Launomaro - MS IXe S" An important Carolingian monastic codex, containing a celebrated verse attributed to Alcuin, the leading intellectual light of the Carolingian renaissance, as well as the earliest witnesses to prose and musical texts relating to the Merovingian saint Lomer; this probably one of the last ninth-century codices to appear on the market Provenance:1. The main texts here on St. Lomer (also Laumer and Laudomarus) must have been written immediately after the translation of the saint's relics to a church in Blois in 874 (an event these leaves record), but before the foundation of the Benedictine abbey dedicated to the saint there in 924. Another eight leaves from the centre of this manuscript are the first part of a sammelband assembled in the seventeenth century in Italy (now Vatican, Reg. Lat. 479; A. Wilmart, Codices reginenses latini, 1937, pp. 651-2, with the whole manuscript reproduced online). Those contain the opening of the life of the saint, which ends abrubtly and is completed by the two words at the top of fol. 10r here.Crucially the opening of the text in the Vatican leaves refers to the saint as 'our patron'. In addition, there is a hitherto unnoticed contemporary or near-contemporary name added to the foot of the first of the present leaves, probably identifying "Raginoldus feldracanum" as an early user or perhaps donor of the codex. The second part of his name is hard to decipher, but a late medieval hand has added "Raginoldus feldra carutasis", suggesting Carnutum/Carnotum or Chartres as his town of origin (the monastery of Saint Martin au Val du Chartres was one of the temporary resting places of the relics and the community on their way to Blois: see N. Mars, Histoire du royal monastère de Sainct-Lomer de Blois, 1646, p. 29). His name does not occur in the published research of Dom Mars, but there is an unpublished and mostly unstudied six-volume cartulary of the eighteenth century for the house in the Archives départementales de Loir-et-Cher, ms. 11 H. 128, and search for this name there may reveal much.St. Lomer was born c. 530 at Neuville-la-Mare, north of Chartres, where he was ordained as a monk, before withdrawing into the forest of Perche where he founded the monastery of Corbion in 575, becoming its first abbot. He died in 593 while visiting Chartres and was buried near there, until monks from Corbion stole his relics a few years later to return him to his own community. Following a Viking attack on Corbion in 873/4 the community and their relics fled to Parigny near Avranches and then Le Mans before being offered sanctuary within the walled town of Blois. In the tenth century they moved outside the city walls to the church of St-Lubin, and then again in 1186 to the larger adjacent site they occupied for the remainder of the Middle Ages.2. Dom Noël Mars (1612-1702), the Benedictine monk and Maurist historian of Blois; with his marginal notes and signature, including one on fol. 10r referring to the Acta Sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, Paris, 1668, in which footnote 'a' on p. 338 evidently refers to this manuscript: "Haec ex MS. Historia S. Launomari Monasterii Blesensis a nostro Natale Mars erudite composite didicimus". The central leaves of the manuscript may well have become detached by the seventeenth century (see below), and Dom Mars conducted much antiquarian research in the archive of St-Lomer in the last decades of that century, and this may explain this section of it ending up in his possession. In 1789 the revolutionary government of the region suppressed the abbey, and seized its church for the parish of St-Nicholas two years later. Its goods and library were dispersed at the same time, with the Vatican leaves then beginning their journey towards Rome. Delisle notes four manuscripts in the BnF. as well as another in the collection of Herzog August in Wolfenbüttel from this medieval library (Le cabinet des manuscrits, 1868, II, p. 406).3. Louis de la Saussaye (1801-1878) of the Château de Troussay, near Blois, local historian, archaeologist, and numismatist, with a note of "un manuscrit du Xe siècle ... dant la bibliothèque de M. de la Saussaye" in Dom Mars' Histoire du royal monastère de Sainct-Lomer de Blois, p. 66, n. 2 and 7, n. 2, doubtless referring to these leaves. His sale, 30 September 1887, lot 1148.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 5577; acquired Sotheby's, 5 July 2016, lot 57.Text:Alcuin of York (c. 735-804) was the central intellectual figure of the Carolingian renaissance, and was educated in the renowned cathedral school at York under Archbishop Ecgbert (himself a pupil of Bede). By the 750s he was teaching in the school and came to the court of Charlemagne at the emperor's invitation, serving as 'master of the palace school' from 782, taking over the teaching of the emperor himself and his children, and becoming a guiding hand of the religious and intellectual revolution that was to follow. In 796, when entering his old age,... read more.... To view a video of this item, click here.
‡ The Kushim Clay Tablet, a large and remarkably fine pictographic tablet recording beer production at the brewery at the Inanna Temple in Uruk, with the apparent personal name 'Kush-im', that perhaps the first attested personal name in history, clay tablet with pictographic inscription[Sumer (Uruk), Uruk III period (thirty-first century BC.)] Square clay tablet, with a single case of pictograms in an example of expert pictographic script Uruk III, showing the production of beer from barley or corn, and its placing within the brew-house, the brewery mark and other marks probably depicting numbers, plus two further non-pictographic symbols for 'KU-SIM' probably the personal name of the recorder (or just perhaps his title), reverse blank, a few hairline cracks, else in outstanding condition, 68 by 72 by 19mm.; within morocco-covered folding case This "exceptionally fine, perfect, administrative tablet" is not only the finest such tablet in The Schøyen Collection; but it also has claim to be the earliest known record of any personal name in history Provenance:1. Most probably from the Inanna Temple archives, Uruk, and deposited there about fifty-two centuries ago. This archive is now known from 77 pictographic tablets, all apparently in the same hand, of which 25 tablets and 30 smaller fragments are in in the Freie Universität, Berlin, with a further four tablets in the British Museum and another four in the Louvre.2. From the formidable antiquities collection of Hans Erlenmeyer (1900-1967), and his wife Marie-Louise Erlenmeyer (1912-1997), housed in Basel; this piece acquired in the 1950s. In 1981 Marie-Louise Erlenmeyer founded the Erlenmeyer Foundation to promote animal and species protection.3. Sold on behalf of the foundation at Christie's 13 December 1988, lot 48, to Quaritch, London.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1717, acquired from Quaritch in August 1993. Text:Sumer, nestled in the fertile land between the Tigris and the Euphrates, supported the growth of one of the world's earliest great civilisations from about 5500 or 4000 BC., with the city of Uruk its largest centre. The people who moved to this region, perhaps from North Africa or India, drained the marshes there to produce farmland, and developed trade and industries. As a by-product of these social and economic developments they also pushed forward record keeping through proto-writing systems, such as the present example. Uruk was larger than any other city-state in the region, and at its height around 2900 BC. probably had 50,000-80,000 inhabitants, making it the largest urban site in the world at that time. The site dwindled after 2000 BC., but was not abandoned until the Islamic conquest of the seventh century AD. Here the symbols show the viewer the entire industrial process of making beer: from an ear of barley or corn, to a brick-building with a chimney that might be the brewery itself, and finally the barley or corn within a jar signifying the beer. The dots and other impressions most probably indicate numbers, probably recording that the amounts of beer produced were vast, some 134,813 litres of barley to be delivered over 3 years (37 months). At the end of this are two non-pictographic symbols of the greatest importance (here in top left corner). They spell out the two sounds 'KU' and 'SIM', and are most probably the name of the government official responsible. As noted by Harari and publicised by National Geographic in 2015, this apparent signature lays claim to be the first personal name of any human in history, and as Kushim was most likely the scribe, this is the earliest person to employ writing who we can name. He is known from seventeen other tablets, and in some of those addressed as "Sanga" or temple administrator. None of those, however, appears to be recorded in private ownership, and this is probably the only chance to acquire any form of this fundamentally important record. Published:H.J. Nissen, P. Damerow and R.K. Englund, Frühe Schrift und Techniken der Wissenschaftsverwaltung im alten Vorderen Orient, Berlin, 1991, no. 4.29, pp. 20, 24 and 66-67.H.J. Nissen, P. Damerow, and R.K. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping: early writing and techniques of economic administration in the Ancient Near East, University of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 36-37.L. Alvegård, 'Arkaisk babylonsk matematik: Talpjäser och lerbollar', Teknik & Naturvetenskap, 2 (1994), pp. 38-40.J. Curtis, 'Early Mesopotamia and Iran: Contact and Conflict 3500-1600 BC', in Mesopotamia and Iran in the Parthian and Sasanian periods : rejection and revival, c. 238 BC - AD 642; Proceedings of a Seminar in Memory of Vladimir G. Lukonin, eds. J. Curtis and V.G. Lukonin, British Museum Press, 2000, pp. 28, 64.Y.N. Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, 2011/2014 (Hebrew/English editions) 2:7. To view a video of this item, click here.
Ɵ Lectionary leaf, with readings from Luke 10:17-24 and John 15:12-16, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[probably Italy, tenth century] Single complete leaf, with double column of 20 lines in a late Carolingian minuscule including an et-ligature used sporadically integrally within words, a tongued 'e', and pronounced angular wedging to ends of ascenders, text opening with simple capitals, red rubric (mostly oxidised to silver), one large 8-line initial 'I' (opening "In illo tempore dixit Iehus discipulis suis...", introducing John 15:12) in red penwork (mostly oxidised) enclosing panels of simple ropework panels on striking black ink grounds, terminating in a scroll of acanthus leaf with red dots at head and a twist of foliage at foot, reused in a book binding in seventeenth century and with concomitant damage and scrawls in Italian of that date including the date "1660", darkened and stained on reverse (but legible), overall fair and presentable condition, 310 by 230mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance: 1. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/188, probably acquired in 1965. 2. Quaritch cat. 1088, Bookhands of the Middle Ages III, 1988, no. 34.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 97, acquired from Quaritch in June 1988. Text and script:Both the large and rounded script here and the initial owe much to earlier Carolingian models. The initial in particular is a continuation of simple initials of the early Carolingian period which used black grounds for visually striking affect. Examples occurred throughout the Carolingian world, with comparisons to that here in a Tours Bible (now St. Gall, Stiftsbibl. MS 75: reproduced in W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination, 1982, p. 43, fig. 20), an Evangeliary-Homiliary made c. 800 in Murbach (Bayerishe Staatsbibl. Clm. 14379: Pracht auf Pergament, 2012, no. 7), and a Gospel Book made in the region of Paris in the first decades of the ninth century (BnF., latin 11959: Trésors carolingiens, 2007, no. 30). Cahn theorises that such initials at Tours were ultimately derived from Insular models, perhaps influenced by Alcuin's own manuscript library carried from York to Tours.
Ɵ Bifolium from a Vita Sancti Stephani, including an abridgement of Evodius, Miracula Facta Uzali, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Germany (perhaps Rhineland), c. 1100] Bifolium (consecutive leaves and hence innermost leaves of a gathering), each leaf with single column of 30 lines of a rounded proto-gothic minuscule,with slightly tremulous aspect, an ampersand whose loops sit high above the baseline and trailing undulating penstrokes at beginning of some capitals, one large initial 'V' in red, reused in binding and hence slightly trimmed at foot of both leaves (text wanting at beginning and end), overall good condition with marginal prickings for ruling present, 220 by 170mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance: 1. Dr. Helmuth Wallach (1901-1989), of Munich and New York, the eminent antiquarian bookseller and art dealer. 2. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/211, acquired in 1970. 3. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 87.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 633, acquired June 1990. Text and script: While many of the letterforms here echo those of late Carolingian manuscripts, the script compares most closely to those of the late eleventh or early twelfth centuries (cf. the Augustine, Commentary on Genesis, of the first half of the twelfth century, now Cologne, Dom Hs. 61: reproduced Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, no. 27, especially the form of the ampersand).
Ɵ Two leaves with Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive originum, book 20, with readings on wine, and Pubilius Syrus, Sententiae, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Northern France (most probably Cercamp, Amiens), third quarter of the twelfth century] Bifolium, each leaf with double column of 44 lines of a small and precise proto-gothic bookhand, written above topline and without biting curves, faded red rubrics, one-line initials of capitula for next book on second leaf in alternate pale green and red, large pale and green initials with foliate penwork decoration, reused on a binding in late medieval period and with folds across middle of leaves, corners of blank margins clipped away and slight damage through heat exposure to upper outer corner of first leaf, else good condition, each leaf 395 by 285mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Most probably written for use in the Cistercian Abbey of Cercamp, diocese of Amiens, founded 1141 with monks from Pontigny, ransacked in 1415 during Agincourt, but re-established before being forcibly converted to stables and a military hospital in the 1630s during the Thirty Years' War, then seized for military use again in 1710 by the troops of Field Marshal d'Harcourt. At the Secularisation there was little left to suppress. By the nineteenth century the buildings were in use as a wool factory, and later became the residence of the Barons de Fourment. This bifolium certainly reused there at the end of the Middle Ages, and with a sixteenth or early seventeenth-century ex libris of the house, upside down at the foot of the rectos of both leaves: "Abbey de Cercamp", most probably from reuse there around a set of accounts. No other manuscript or fragment of one from this medieval library can be traced by us.2. André Simon (1877-1970), wine merchant, gourmet and one of the most important twentieth-century authors on wine, who voraciously collected books on the same subject. 3. Sotheby's 6 December 1993, lot 5. 4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1777, acquired in Sotheby's. Text and script:This bifolium is from an elegant monastic copy of the most important encyclopedia produced by the Middle Ages. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) was part of the intellectual renaissance in the seventh-century Visigothic court, and was notably close to King Sigebut (c. 565-620/1), to whom the first version of this work was dedicated. It has been suggested that he composed it as a form of summa for his recently-civilised barbarian masters, but it quickly found other more conventional readers in mainland Europe and became the most widely consulted scientific reference work of the Middle Ages. It survives today in nearly a thousand manuscripts (Barney et al., Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 2006, p.24), and by the year 800 copies of it could be found in almost all the cultural centres of Europe. The leaves here contain discussions of food, oils and greases, beverages (prominently including wine) and vessels for food. The second leaf contains the entries from 'M' to 'T' of the Sententiae of Pubilius Syrus (fl. 85-43 BC.), a Syrian slave freed by his Roman master due to his talent as an author and playwright. All that now remains of his work is this text: a series of moral maxims in iambic and trochaic verse arranged in alphabetical order. He was admired greatly by Seneca the Younger, quoted by Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing, sc. 1: "if she did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly"), and his work is the origin of the expression "a rolling stone gathers no moss".
Ɵ Leaf from an Atlantic Bible with a large white vine initial, text from Job 1:1-4; 1:7-3:2 with prologue of St. Jerome, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Italy (Tuscany), first half of the twelfth century] Large cutting from lower part of a once vast leaf, with a large initial 'V' ("Vir erat in terra ...", the opening of Job) in pale red and blank parchment band, intertwined with and enclosing a swirling mass of thin acanthus leaf sprays on pale pastel blue, red, dark green, beige/yellow, brown and perhaps once silver grounds (the latter now oxidised and crystalline with areas of metallic sheen), red and black tall ornamental capitals opening text, remains of double column of 25 lines in a bold proto-gothic bookhand, showing many earlier features such as a ct- and NT-ligature and a 'r' that descends below the baseline, torn at edges, some spots and stains, darkened on reverse, but overall a good initial in bright condition, 300 by 230mm.; in cloth-covered card binding, with Bernard Rosenthal's cataloguing Provenance: 1. Erwin Rosenthal (1889-1981), of Berkeley, California, art historian and antiquarian bookseller; personal gift to his son Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017) in 1956, "to encourage me in the formation of this collection".2. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 12.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 668, acquired from Quaritch in June 1990. Decoration:The initial here, with its thin white vine branches that cross the body of the initial in several places, compares closely to other Tuscan examples, such as those in a Passional, probably made in the second quarter of the twelfth century in San Gimignano (now San Gimignano, Bibl. Comunale, cod,1: K. Berg, Studies in Tuscan Twelfth Century Illumination, 1968, fig. 66), another Passional, made in the second quarter of the twelfth century in Florence (Florence, Laurenziana, Mugel. 13: Berg, fig. 74) and a copy of Augustine's commentary on the Gospels, made in Siena in the first half of the twelfth century (Siena, Bibl. Comunale, F.I.2: Berg, fig. 461). However, none of those employ silver alongside their pastel palettes. Silver is notoriously difficult to use in book arts, but had enjoyed some popularity in the Carolingian centuries, and appears in occasional grand Romanesque volumes (cf. the Genesis page of the Bible of St. Mary de Parc which has silver beast masks at its corners and silver interlace around the main initial: reproduced in W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination, 1982, fig. 90).
Ɵ Sermons on the Annunciation of the Virgin attributed to Augustine, with a large decorated initial, manuscript in Latin on parchment[Italy, mid-twelfth century] Single leaf, with a large initial 'S' (opening "Scientes fratres dilecctissimi ...") in vivid blue bands fishtailed at each terminal, enclosing a blue sprig of foliage with green, red and white tendrils and a large white stylised flower, all set on pale yellow ground in imitation of gold, first line of text in ornamental capitals, single red rubric, double column of 47 lines in a professional early gothic bookhand, without biting curves, catchwords sloping down at lower corner (partly trimmed away), recovered from a binding and hence with numerous later penwork additions of devotional material, spots, stains, a few small holes and a large fold horizontally across midpoint, overall in fair and presentable condition, 430 by 300mm.; in cloth-covered card binding, with Bernard Rosenthal's cataloguing Provenance: 1. Aldo Olschki (1893-1963), of Florence, publisher and antiquarian bookseller, son of the grand bookseller Leo Olschki (1861-1940). 2. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/75, acquired 1959.3. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 91.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 656, acquired from Quaritch in June 1990. Text and decoration:The text here was based on Augustine's sermon 369, and in the Middle Ages was attributed to him as well as Ildefonsus, Jerome and Maximus of Turin. It is most probably the work of an anonymous early medieval author (see R. Grégoire, Homéliaires liturgiques médiévaux, 1980, p. 179, no. 66).The fleshy acanthus leaves of the initial here, painted in broad brushstrokes in a vivid palette, and using a yellow wash ground to imitate burnished gold, are of interest. They look northwards to Bible decoration in France (cf. the Bible of St. Mary de Parc: reproduced in W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination, 1982, fig. 90) and forwards to Italian decoration of the thirteenth century, rather than to the white-vine initials that dominated Italian book arts of the twelfth century.
Kitab Alif Laila, the Book of One Thousand and One Nights, in Arabic, short quotations added to twelve cuttings recovered from Christian manuscripts, including various Bibles in Latin and a leaf from a copy of the Decretals, a Menaion and Oktoechos or Parakletike in Greek, an orthodox prayerbook and a Bible in Armenian, and a few originally blank pieces of parchment most probably from similar Christian books, manuscripts on parchment[France, Italy, perhaps England, Armenia, and Byzantium, ninth to twelfth century, with additions from the Holy Land in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century] Thirteen cuttings: (a) Matthew 11:16-19 and 12:5-25, in Latin, double column of 13 lines in a Romanesque book script, red and blue initials, northern France, mid-twelfth century, with addition of 6 lines in Arabic naskh (Thousand and One Nights); (b) Canon Law, Decretals, similar to but not identifiable as Ivo of Chartres, in Latin, single column of 13 lines in a good Romanesque bookhand, annotations in margins, headings in capitals (some touched in red), six 2-line initials, Normandy or England, first half of the twelfth century, with addition of 2 lines of Arabic naskh ("The 27th ... the two faces ... the guardian"); (c) Malachi 1:4-10; 1:14-2:20, in Latin, single column of 32 lines in a rounded bookhand, Italy, first half of the twelfth century, with addition of 6 lines in Arabic naskh ("The tenth sitting of the literal ..."); (d) Homiliary, including part of St. Gregory: Homiliae in Evangelia, Lib. II, Hom. 31, and reading from Matthew 9:9, single column of 16 lines in good Romanesque bookhand, perhaps Italy or Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, second half of the twelfth century, with addition of 5 lines in Arabic naskh (the first and second reading according to the Wazir from the Baghari); (e) Zamagirk, part of the Armenian Orthodox Prayerbook, with readings from John and Matthew, double column of 10 lines in a sloping Armenian Uncial (erkat'agir), Armenia, twelfth century, with addition of 4 lines in Arabic naskh ("The fifth part of the twistings/turnings[?]"); (f) two fragments of Psalms, with the Name 'Elijah' in Armenian, double column of 16 lines in an Armenian Uncial (erkat'agir), Armenia, twelfth century, with additions of 2 lines of Arabic naskh (from The Book of the 40 Extracts, and Book of Manliness/Chivalry) on a paper label pasted on; (g) Menaion, part of the Office of the Apostle Bartholomew, for August 25, in Greek, double column of 30 lines in Greek minuscule, Byzantium, tenth century, with addition of 15 lines of Arabic naskh in upper and side borders (part of Thousand and One Nights and a charitable donation); (h) Oktoechos or Parakletike, liturgical book of the Byzantine Church, single column of 22 lines in a sloping Greek half uncial (the so-called 'mixed script'), Byzantium, ninth century, with addition of 3 lines of Arabic naskh (parts of Thousand and One Nights); plus four further cuttings from blank sections of parchment (but most probably also from Christian books), with (1) 4 lines of Arabic naskh ("The first part of the skilled-one and ... given to his children"), (2) 7 lines of Arabic naskh (section of the ninth part of the Service of Poetry, with a charitable donation), (3) 3 lines of Arabic naskh (Thousand and One Nights), (4) 2 lines of Arabic naskh (Thousand and One Nights); almost all approximately 150 by 170mm., some with tears and losses to edges, only one with substantial losses to edges (item a) This clutch of fragments is of breathtaking importance as witnesses to the Fall of Jerusalem; and they are most probably all that remains of a series of codices left abandoned in the city by fleeing Christians when it fell to the forces of Salah ad-din in 1187, and then reused by the Muslim conquerors as wrappers for their own books Provenance:1. Almost certainly from a library in the Holy City of Jerusalem, probably that of the Holy Sepulchre itself, the epicentre of Christendom and Christian devotion. The Crusades and the fall of Jerusalem were of the greatest importance to the history of the Middle Ages and the mind of medieval man. The call to arms to take back the Holy City gripped the population of medieval Europe and drew many thousands of them to strange lands beyond the boundaries of Europe. In addition, the eventual fall of that city to the Muslim invader in 1187 was a crippling lowpoint which inspired political and religious upheaval throughout Europe. Originally these leaves were part of a range of Christian liturgical and legal books from Western Europe, Byzantium and Armenia, dating from the ninth to the mid-twelfth century. Then they were cut up and reused as wrappers on a lengthy Arabic manuscript of One Thousand and One Nights, writing sideways along their blank spaces in handsome unvocalised naskh of not later than the thirteenth century, along with later Arabic names including an apparent reference to the Damascus historian Ali ibn Asakir (d. 1176). No other site apart from the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, and probably the Church of the Holy Sepulchre itself, could allow for this mix of scripts. It is of importance that the earliest fragments here are Greek (identified and published by Aiuto in 2006 and 2008). The arrival of the Western Crusaders in 1099 pushed out the Greek liturgy from the Holy Land in favour of a Latin liturgy based on the Rule of St. Augustine. However, Greek observance did continue in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (see D. Galadza, 'Greek liturgy in crusader Jerusalem: witnesses of liturgical life at the Holy Sepulchre and St Sabas Lavra', Journal of Medieval History, 43, 2017). Under Western rule, Jerusalem was the cosmopolitan Christian capital of the East, principally French and Genoese, although the wife of Baldwin II, its ruler, was Armenian. It fell to the forces of Salah ad-Din in October 1187, when the last French nobleman in the city, Balian of Ibelin, negotiated a surrender and peaceful passage to the sea for its occupants. Immediately after the surrender of the city, amid widespread looting, Salah ad-Din ordered the closing of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, ultimately deciding not to destroy it, but handing it back to the Greek authorities. Other surviving books from Jerusalem, or fragments of them, testify to the carrying of valuable codices from the city by refugees (see British Library, Egerton MS 1139; Cambridge, Fitzwilliam, McClean MS 49; BnF, mss. lat. 9396 and 12056; and Vatican, cod. Vat.Lat.5974), but it should be noted that those were grand and opulent books. What we have here are more probably the last relics of the mundane books of the religious services of the city, abandoned by fleeing Christians, and picked up by some part of the Muslim conquerors and reused for their valuable parchment.2. These entering Arabic hands in the late twelfth century, perhaps passing then to a member of Salah ad-Din's Syrian forces, where they were reused as wrappers around a copy of Kitab Alif Laila, the Book of One Thousand and One Nights. When sold last in 1993, these cuttings were reported as thought to have have survived in Damascus, and this accords with the fact that in 1187 Salah ad-Din's forces were equally composed of Egyptians and Syrians, as well as the reading of the name of Ali ibn Asakir among the additions.3. Sotheby's, 6 December 1993, lot 3.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1776, acquired in the Sotheby's sale.Read more...
Leaf from a collection of Homilies on St. Peter and the Ascension by SS. Augustine and Jerome, in Latin, leaf from a monumentally large lectern manuscript on parchment[northern Italy (perhaps the Veneto), c. 1200] Single leaf, with single column of 49 lines in a notably rounded and squat gothic bookhand which appears Italian on first inspection, capitals touched with red penstrokes, red rubrics, initials in split red bars or with geometric designs left within their bodies in blank parchment with foliate penwork additions in dark green, small marginalia underlined in looping red penwork, later medieval folio no. "xliii" in upper outer corner, reused on a binding and with folds, small scuffs and one large circular stain from an overflowing container of some dark liquid being placed on the centre of the leaf, overall fair and presentable condition, a few modern pencil notes (some in French), 530 by 330mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Kraus list 189 (1958), no. 211.2. Sotheby's 21 June 1994, lot 4 (part).3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1854, acquired at Sotheby's. Text and script:The script and decoration here present a number of puzzling questions on first inspection. The initials, with their cascading bunches of penwork surround, find close parallels in examples from the Low Countries and adjacent northern France, while the script has strong influences from rounded and squat Italian hands, while remaining distinct from them. Thus, in 1994 it was catalogued as Italian, with the tentative suggestion that instead it might be from neighbouring southern France or northern Spain instead.In fact, such features are found in Gothic manuscripts from Venice and the Veneto (cf. the Statuti e leggi di venezia, of c. 1250, sold in Semenzato, 25 April 2003, lot 28, and a Romance collection including the Chanson de Roland of late thirteenth-century Venetian origin, now in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, fr. V.7), perhaps locating this leaf to that region. Manuscript leaves from the Veneto of this great age are extremely rare to the market.
Ɵ Two leaves from a monumental Lectern Bible, with Leviticus 25:40-26:26 and Deuteronomy 12:31-14:19, in Latin, from a vast decorated manuscript on parchment[southern Flanders (perhaps Tournai), c. 1275] Two leaves (text not continuous), with double column of 33 lines in a large, formal gothic book script of highest grade (littera gothica textualis formata), initials in red and blue with penwork flourishes the entire height of the text and margins, slight cockling and discolouration at edges and corners, slight flaking from ink of a few letters on one page, else in good and bright condition, 510 by 37mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance: 1. From volume one of a grand four volume Bible, probably from the medieval library of St. Martin's, Tournai, with volumes II and III probably Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS II.2523, and volume IV may be Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS Ludwig I.9. The presence of punctus flexus punctuation might be taken to indicate production for Cistercian use, and the parent volume of these leaves was owned by one "Frater Stephanus Blanchet" in the sixteenth century (see the leaf with his ex libris in Quaritch cat. 1036, Bookhands of the Middle Ages, 1984, no. 75). The Brussels volumes once belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps, who bought them in the 1820s among the residue of the library of St. Martin's, Tournai, noting that before he could obtain it, volume I had been sold and "destroyed by a Bookseller at Brussels". 2. Erik von Scherling (1907-1956) of Leiden (see lot 6); who owned a part of the broken volume I (from Leviticus 3 to Judges 24) in 1954 (offered Rotulus VII, no. 2474, illustrated as frontispiece there).3. Broken by the Folio Society between 1963 and 1965 and widely dispersed, with leaves appearing in their cats. 13 (1963), no.130, 16 (1963), no. 128, 23 (1964), no. 26, 27 (1965), nos. 125a+b, 33 (1965), no. 111; as well as Sotheby's, 25 April 1983, lot 84. A single leaf is also New Zealand, Dunedin Public Library, Reed Collection, frag. 11 (M.M. Manion, V.F. Vines and C. de Hamel, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, no. 74, and our catalogue for 4 December 2018, lot 16 for updates to provenance), and others have since appeared in our rooms, 4 December 2018, lot 16.4a. The first leaf here passed to the palaeographer, E.A. Lowe, where it hung framed in his study at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, from there it passed to Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/22, acquired in 1972; and from there to Quaritch cat. 1088, Bookhands of the Middle Ages III, 1988, no. 71, from whence it was acquired for the Schøyen Collection as MS 82.4b. The second leaf re-emerged in Swann Galleries, New York, Auction 1525, 22 March 1990, lot 123, and was also acquired for the Schøyen Collection and reunited with MS 82. Script:A fine example of the grand decorative script of the thirteenth century primarily used for de luxe Biblical and liturgical codices, showing the angularity and lateral compression of letter forms common to the Gothic, but with a wide range of decorative flourishes included for decorative effect.
Ɵ Leaf from a collection of Bulls of Pope Boniface VIII, in Latin, from a large manuscript on parchment[northern France (probably Paris), c. 1300] Bifolium, each leaf with double column of 55 lines in a fluent and rapidly written gothic bookhand (textualis currens), typical of Parisian academic books, some small marginalia, spaces left for rubrics, section of parchment lost from blank margin at foot of first leaf, recovered from the binding of a printed copy of Panormitanus, Lectura super V libris Decretalium, Basel: Bernard Richel, 1480-1481, some scuffing and water damage to second leaf causing illegibility in places there, overall fair condition, 380 by 270mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance:1. Written in Paris c. 1300, and by the closing decades of the fifteenth century discarded and reused as binding material in Trier. While in its new home at the front of an incunable, a five-line inscription was added to the foot of the first leaf, recording that Brother Paulus de Muntzdail, when still a novice of St. Alban outside the walls of Trier, presented a printed copy of Panormitanus, Lectura super V libris Decretalium (and the manuscript leaves reused in its binding) as well as other books to his monastic house, and arranged in the presence of a notary that none of his books should be lent outside his monastery except with special permission, on a temporary basis, and with the restriction of a written warranty. Other books from this gift survive in Yale, Rare Book 36 00-0080, a Bernardo Bottoni, Casus longi super quinque librios decretalium, Basel: Michel Wenssler, c. 1473; University of Glasgow, Hunterian Special Collections, Be.2 19, a Lactantius printed in Venice in 1479; and Hunterian Special Collections, Cm. 1.4, a Plutarch printed in Strassburg in 1473-75; all with identical inscriptions in the same hand. Paulus de Muntzdail held a doctorate in Canon Law and before moving to Trier to become a Carthusian, he served as the provost of the Church of Saint Mary in Flanheim, and the rector of the parish church in Kreuznach near Mainz. He died in 1487.2. Carthusian Monastery of St. Alban, Trier (founded 1335, surviving until 1673, when it was suppressed during warfare with the French, and the community moved to Merzlich, then known as Konz-Karthaus, before suppression during the Secularisation, after which its goods and chattles were sold in 1805). 3. Jacques Rosenthal (1854-1937), passing after his sudden death to Hans Koch, who took over the business.4. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), San Francisco, California, his I/124, acquired in 1960. 5. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 106.6. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 724, acquired from Quaritch in March 1991. Text:The leaves here contain parts of Pope Boniface VIII's bulls of 7 April 1295; 8 April 1295 nullifying certain exceptions privileges granted by Pope Nicholas IV; 8 April 1295 nullifying privileges granted by the popes, Celestine and Honorius IV; followed by a short legal commentary.
Ɵ Opening leaf of Guillelmus Durandus, Repertorium juris canonici (Breviarium aureum), a collection of citations from canonists on controversial questions, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Italy and then England, fourteenth century] Single leaf (the opening leaf of the main text), with double column of 75 lines of an apparently Italian rounded university bookhand (textura semi-rotunda), some glosses (including many on verso that may be English in origin), single red rubric opening text, 2- to 3-line initials in red with blue penwork, one large variegated initial in red and blue intersecting panels with blue penwork, borders around edges of columns in repeating red and blue leaf-shapes with long whip-like penwork tendrils, some scuffing, slight discolouration and a few small holes, overall in good and presentable condition, 390 by 260mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance: 1. Most probably written in Italy or by an Italian scribe, in the second half of the fourteenth century, and then left undecorated, with the initials and distinctive border decorations being added a few decades later in England. The smaller of the glossing scripts may be an anglicana hand, also added in England during the volume's use there. This movement of the parent codex strongly suggests that it was produced for a law student or master, who trained in one of the popular legal universities in Italy, probably Bologna, before travelling to take up a position in England, perhaps at Oxford.2. Philip Bliss (1787-1857), registrar of the University of Oxford and principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford; this leaf from an album of leaves and fragments assembled by him from Oxford bindings and elsewhere, the album sold at Sotheby's, 21 August 1858, lot 100/119.3. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), the single greatest manuscript collector to have ever lived, who assembled a collection of some 60,000 manuscripts in a single lifetime, this part of his MS 15,659, passing after his death to his heirs and ultimately the Robinson brothers, whose bookdealership was based in the rooms in Pall Mall we now occupy; the album sold by them at Sotheby's, 24 April 1911, lot 390/391; with a pencil note on text and author in Phillipps' hand at head of recto.4. E.H. Dring (1863-1928), the first managing director of Quaritch, passing in turn to his son E.M. Dring (1906-1990), himself manager of Quaritch from 1960; sold after his death to Quaritch, and then this leaf their cat. 1056, Bookhands of the Middle Ages II, 1985, no. 36.5. Private American collector, returning to Quaritch in 1991.6. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1396, acquired from Quaritch. Text and script: Guillelmus Durandus (c. 1230-1296) was a French canonist and liturgical writer, who also served as bishop of Mende, in France. He studied Canon Law at Bologna, and later taught the same at Modena, before serving Pope Clement IV and his successor Gregory X in Rome. Pope Martin IV elevated him to vicar spiritual in 1281, and despite his election to the bishopric of Mende he was compelled to stay another decade in Italy, only leaving in 1291. This leaf is an excellent witness to the strange portmanteau marriages of script and decoration that sometimes occur in university texts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. As the universities grew and acquired reputations for the teaching of individual subjects so students travelled further and further afield for their education. Italy, and in particular Bologna, was notably strong in the teaching of law, and the script here is rounded and squat indicating an origin there. The border decoration and initials, however, point clearly at English book decoration, and were presumably added there.
Ɵ Hercules Oetaeus (a play on the death of Hercules on Mount Oeta), 688-710, 714-735, 953-974, 979-1000, in Latin, large cutting from a decorated manuscript on parchment[Italy (probably northern), second half of fourteenth century or c. 1400] Cutting from a bifolium, with one near complete leaf (only trimmed at foot with loss of 4 lines there) and the other leaf trimmed away at foot and along vertical edge (with loss of half the text column there), each leaf with single column of 25 lines in Italian gothic bookhand (Italian rotunda), capitals set off in margin as common with layout of verse, extensive marginal and interlinear gloss in a tiny humanistic bookhand, paragraph marks in red or blue, red rubric, one simple blue initial, recovered from a binding and hence with tears and small holes, reverse soiled and scrawled on (but legible there), overall fair and presentable condition, 200 by 180mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Probably copied in northern Italy in the second half of the fourteenth century or the turn of the fifteenth century, perhaps for a scholarly reader, who added numerous interlinear additions to the text in a humanist hand.2. Later discarded and cut up for reuse on bindings, the present cutting ending up as a binding of a book owned in the first half of the seventeenth century by one Pietro della Valle: his ex libris on reverse ("libro per il sig' Pietro della Valle"). This is most probably the important Italian cultural figure of the same name, who was a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi, as well as a composer and musicologist. In 1614 he left Italy to travel to Constantinople (where he spent a year learning Turkish and Arabic), and then throughout the Holy Land and Middle East (in Baghdad he married a famously beautiful Syriac Christian woman, Sitti Maani Gioerida, as well as supplying some of the earliest descriptions of Ancient Babylon and bringing inscribed bricks from Nineveh and Ur back to Europe - among the very first examples of cuneiform known to the West). In 1618 he campaigned alongside Shah Abbas in northern Persia, before setting sail for India and North Africa, only returning to Rome in 1624, when he was appointed to the private staff of Pope Urban VIII. He died in 1652.2. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1596, acquired Quaritch, London, in July 1992. Text:This work survived the late Antique and Medieval worlds among the plays of Seneca the younger (c. 4 BC:-65 AD.; more properly Lucius Annaeus Seneca), the Roman statesman, philosopher and dramatist, but is more probably the work of another associated Ancient writer who used numerous phrases and quotations from Seneca's other plays. There are notable differences in style and the work is twice the length of any of Seneca's other works (and in fact is the longest play from antiquity). Interestingly, this witness shows signs of scholarly comparison of manuscripts of the work, following in its main text the 'A' branch of the work (that descending from a twelfth-century French manuscript), but swapping one of its lines for the alternate reading of an 'E' branch (line 959 of the original work; this redaction deriving from the earliest complete manuscript of the work: Florence, Laur. MS 37.13, an eleventh-century Italian codex).
‡ Homer, Iliad XI:1-5 (with Zeus sending Strife to the Achaean fleet, bearing a war-banner in her hands, at the break of dawn), in Greek, epic verse in dactylic hexameters, manuscript on papyrus [Egypt, second century AD.] One rectangular papyrus fragment, with remains of a single column of six lines in an excellent Greek half uncial script, here written as prose but with diagonal dividing lines marking the ends of lines of verse or noting punctuation (as no other examples of such lines are known their intended function remains speculation: see literature cited below), single line in unidentified Greek cursive hand on reverse, 51 by 45mm.; set in glass, and within a folding cloth-covered case An important early witness to one of the fundamental works of Western literature, with this fragment being the first recorded witness to this part of the text, and the only example on papyrus Provenance: 1. Erik von Scherling, Leiden (1907-1956), son of the Swedish consul in Rotterdam, who worked for the bookseller Jacob Ginsberg in Leiden, learning Latin and Arabic while there, and then opened up a dealership there issuing regular bulletins and a sale-catalogue/gossipy journal named Rotulus from the 1930s until the 1950s; almost certainly acquired from his "Egyptian correspondent" in the early 1930s or directly by him in Egypt during his manuscript collecting trip to Cairo in 1934-35.2. Maggs Bros., London (1964-1988), and among the clutter of material left by von Scherling on his sudden and untimely death in 1956, a small part of these offered for sale to various institutions and the remainder divided between Maggs and Laurence Witten of New Haven, CT, USA. 3. Sam Fogg, London, acquired from Maggs.4. Schøyen collection, London and Oslo, their MS 112/80, acquired June 1988. Text and script: A fragment of the single-most influential literary text in the Western world, in a copy contemporary with Suetonius, Martial and Pliny the Younger. Homer's account of the siege and fall of Troy is the foundation stone of European culture. The text is usually dated to c.850 BC., and consensus agrees that it was composed some decades before the Odyssey. It was extremely popular in antiquity, and remained so throughout the Greek speaking world in the early Middle Ages. This is most probably the work of an inexperienced scribe practising their copying in a scribal school, but is still of great importance as it is the earliest recorded witness to this section of the Iliad. As this fragment includes the first example of any form of uncials in this catalogue, a few words must be said here about this crucially important script. Around the second or third century AD. rustic capitals had evolved into large stately rounded capitals that St. Jerome named 'uncials'. Among modern readers the script is most well-known for the baffling effect it produces in having no breaks between words. It had raw austere beauty, and signalled authority, and quickly became the script of fundamental texts, especially the Bible (see also examples of Coptic Uncial and Armenian Uncial used to copy the Bible, below in lots 11 and 16). Published: G. Ucciardello in R. Pintaudi, Papyri Graecae Schøyen, 2005, no. 2, pp. 5-6.
The archive of the Honour of Eye, including a Letters Patent of Richard II, confirming the gift of his queen, Anne of Bohemia, of the manor and honour of Eye to Sir Michael de la Pole, dated 1383; de la Pole's subsequent deed granting part of the same to John Bacon, again dated 1383; and an early sixteenth-century secular cartulary of the entire estate-portfolio; all in Latin, French and Middle English, manuscripts on paper and parchment[England (Honour of Eye, Suffolk), fourteenth and sixteenth century] Three items: (a) large charter on parchment, containing a Letters Patent of King Richard II confirming his queen's grant of the manor and Honour of Eye to Sir Michael de la Pole, 22 long lines in a formal English secretarial hand, space left for opening initial, endorsed in English in a sixteenth-century script, in outstanding condition, the Great Seal of England in green wax, showing the king enthroned and a knight on horseback, dated 7 December 1383, 245 by 390mm., in large green cloth-covered case; (b) Deed of Confirmation of Sir Michael de la Pole of the Grant of the Manor and Honour of Eye to John Bacon, on parchment, 20 long lines in English secretarial hand, traces of red wax seal on green and purple plaited silk cords, slight flaking from ink but without affect to legibility, folds, else excellent condition, dated the Friday following the Feast of the Epiphany, "7 Richard II" (ie. 1383), 170+33 by 380mm.; (c) secular cartulary of the Honour of Eye then in the ownership of Robert Buller, on 27 leaves of paper, single column of 40 lines in a calligraphic English secretarial hand, larger script for keywords and headings, with additions by Robert Buller, watermark a glove with a 'CR' around the wrist and surmounted by a five petalled flower, inkstamp of East Suffolk records office (from temporary loan there) at foot of first leaf, bumping to edges of some leaves and small spots, else excellent condition, dated 1507-1525 with additions of 1562, 320 by 220mm., in limp vellum wrapper made from a bifolium recovered from a fifteenth-century manuscript Missal, Use of Sarum, each leaf of wrapping with double column of 33 lines, 320 by 220mm., with sixteenth-century inscription on front: "A Boke of deedes of londes in Eye" Provenance: 1. Various medieval and post-medieval owners of the Honour of Eye, Suffolk, England, including Sir Michael de la Pole (d. 1415), 2nd Earl Suffolk and 2nd Lord de la Pole. This was a feudal barony in a typically Norman form, a series of manors and estates spread across England but centred on the town and castle of Eye, usually granted to a baron by the English king for provision for knights and their military service to the crown. The term 'honour' was given to the largest of these estate arrangements - usually involving supplies for more than twenty knights and their followings. That at Eye was one of the largest baronial estates in England after 1066, with combined holdings in eight counties; and was assessed in Domesday Book as the second largest landholding in Suffolk. It was seized by the Crown in 1370, and granted to Richard II's queen, Anne of Bohemia, in 1382. The present charter confirms the grant in turn by Anne to Sir Michael de la Pole, on the understanding that he, in turn, grants the land to John Bacon, the king's secretary.2. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1784; acquired from Quaritch, London, in December 1993. Text: The most interesting document here is the secular cartulary, which includes eighty-eight records of the men who held the various estates of the honour of Eye in the opening years of the sixteenth century. Within these, the last ten items form another smaller secular cartulary, being the lands owned then by Robert Buller.To view a video of this item, click here.
The Darley Abbey Archive, a vast collection of 85 documents from the Augustinian Abbey of St. Mary, Darley, Derbyshire, all in Latin with some Middle English placenames, single sheet manuscripts on parchment[England (Darley, Derbyshire), 1160s to late fourteenth century] 85 single sheet documents (including a list of debts and the will of William Marshall of Derby dated 1265, a record of alms given to a newly founded hospital of St. Helen in Derby by William de Voleta, from the early thirteenth century, and a terrier of the lands of the Abbey of Darley in Normanton by Derby, dated 1348 and 1386), in a variety of English secretarial hands, many with wax seals in wide variety of floral, animal and letter styles (seals of the abbey as well as the grantors or addressees), overall all in fair and presentable condition and affixed to individual paper surrounds with descriptions, these kept in three large nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century archival boxes; detailed listing of individual charters included with lot Provenance: 1. Augustinian Abbey of St. Mary, Darley, Derbyshire: founded initially in 1154 by Robert de Ferrers, 2nd Earl of Derby through a donation to St. Helen's Priory, but delayed until c. 1160 when Hugh, the rural dean of Derby donated suitable land at 'Little Darley' for the site of the actual monastery. It was a daughter house to St. Helen's Priory. It fared well and grew to be the largest and wealthiest abbey in Derbyshire, was valued at £72, 19sh. and 3 and a half d. in 1291. However, in the first half of the fourteenth century, due either to failed harvests and mortality of cattle or more scandalously the wanton selling off of its assets by the abbot, the abbey slipped into financial ruin. It was surrendered for dissolution on 22 October 1538, and the abbey and its buildings sold to one "Mr. Robt. Sacheverell, gent.". they were subsequently almost completely demolished (with only the Abbey Inn, a local public house and a single local residence having any claim to be a standing part of the monastery). The archive along with the abbey's other goods and chattles entered private hands at the same time. 2. E.H. Dring (1863-1928; see also lot 56 above), acquired around 1910 or 1920; and passing by descent to his son E.M. Dring (1906-1990), sold after his death to Quaritch.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1604; acquired from Quaritch, London in August 1992. Text:The early decline of this influential monastic house, so that it dwindled into insignificance almost a century before the Reformation, ensures that little survives of it. Only three books from its large library are now known (Bodleian, Auct. D infra 2.8; Laud gr.28; and e Museo 222; all twelfth or thirteenth century: N.R. Ker; Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 1941, p. 34), and while a thirteenth-century medieval cartulary does survive and has been edited (British Library, Cotton MS Titus, C IX, wanting its opening leaves, augmented by a few additional charters in a transcript of a slim 22 page record of a late fourteenth-century cartulary in the hands of the master of Emanuel College, Cambridge, in 1780; R.R. Darlington, The Cartulary of Darley Abbey, Highgate, Kendal, 1945), that does not include some sixty-six of the charters in the present archive. These remain unstudied and unpublished and promise much for the future history of the abbey through its heyday and long into its slow collapse throughout the fourteenth century. The survival of this archive intact in private ownership is a remarkable event, due in some part to the collecting habits and interest of the Drings, and this may well be the last English monastic archive of this large size to appear on the open market.
The Bosworth archive, a collection of charters and documents issued for estates in or around modern Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, in Latin with Middle English placenames, singlesheet manuscripts on parchment[England (Bosworth, Leicestershire), 1320s-1370s] Twenty-one charters, comprising: (1) Quitclaim of Thomas de Harecourt, knight, to Ralph Hurleman and Alice, his wife, 11 long lines in an English secretarial hand, 150 by 350mm., dated: Wednesday after the Feast of Epiphany, "43 Edward III" (ie. January 1370); (2) Charter of Audemis/Dudemis de Brackele Confirming the Tenure of a Property in Bosworth for Peter de Coton and Margaret, his wife, 8 long lines, 60 by 210mm., dated: Monday before the Feast of St. Benedict, "10 Edward III" (ie. March 1336); (3) Charter of Ralph le Warde of Bosworth in confirmation of a transfer of a house there to Ralph Hoppe and Richard de Boseworth, 11 long lines, 80 by 240mm., dated June 1356; (4) Sale by William Prat of Bosworth to Simon le Hoppere of land in Bosworth, 9 long lines, round red wax seal with St. Christopher with staff and Christ Child on shoulder (diam 19mm.), the charter 80 by 230mm., dated 1349-1350; (5) Sale by William de Harcourt, lord of the manor of Bosworth, to Nicholas de Schepey and Mathilda, his wife, of property in Osbaston, 8 long lines, 80 by 280mm., dated 1349-1350; (6) Sale by Peter, son of Margery de Coton of Bosworth, to Uwayne de Brackele, of property in Bosworth, 9 long lines, 90 by 220mm., dated 1335-1336; (7) Indenture between John, son of Henry le Warde of Bosworth, and Thomas "super le hull de Whelnsberg" concerning land in Bosworth, 11 long lines, 90 by 230mm., dated 1329-1330; (8) Charter of Richard of Schepey to Robert of Wytton, priest, and John Kneyht of Bosworth concerning property in Bosworth, 11 long lines, 90 by 210mm., dated 1363-1364; (9) Charter of Thomas "super le Hul" of "Whekusberwe" to Simon of Bosworth, concerning a property in Bosworth, 11 long lines, round red wax seal, with pelican (diam. 16mm.), the charter 110 by 220mm., dated 1334-1335; (10) Charter of Margery, widow of Peter of Uton/Coton, to John Levere the younger, concerning property in Bosworth, 10 long lines, with part of oval red wax seal (24 by 20mm.), the charter 60 by 240mm., dated 1376-1377; (11) Charter of William of Bosworth of Meysham to Ralph Hurleman of Bosworth, concerning a property in Bosworth, 9 long lines, round red wax seal, with tree or flower design (diam. 22mm.), 100 by 280mm., dated 1375-1376; (12) Charter of Richard Cok of Kniteleye to Alice Billing of Bosworth and John Lerson, concerning a property in Bosworth, 14 long lines, 100 by 250mm., dated 29 September 1324; (13) Charter of Ralph Hurleman of Soton to Thomas Godesson, Chaplain, and others of Bosworth, concerning lands and goods left as a gift of alms, 18 long lines, 150 by 220mm., dated 1369-1370; (14) Charter of Johanna, wife of William Prat of Bosworth, to Ralph Hurleman for sale of land in Bosworth, 15 long lines, with 2 round red-brown wax seals: first with initial 'H' (presumably for Hurleman, diam. 11mm.), second with ears of corn (diam. 15mm.), 120 by 300mm., dated 1376-1377; (15) Charter of Thomas Harecourt, son of William Harecourt, to Alan of Sotton and Thomas Godeson, chaplain, concerning land in Bosworth, 9 long lines, with part of round red wax seal (diam. 25mm.), 100 by 220mm., dated 1370-1371; (16) Charter of John de Morton and John de Elnehale of Bosworth to John, son of Felicie de Elnehale, Concerning the Sale of a Property in Bosworth, 15 long lines, with part of oval white wax seal (20 by 25mm.), 130 by 200mm., dated 1358-1359; (17) Charter of Richard, Son of Robert of Darleton of Bosworth, to Ralph Hurleman of Coton, concerning the rental of property in Darleton, 12 long lines, 110 by 280mm., dated 22 January 1369; (18) Charter of Cecilia, daughter of William Prat of Bosworth, to Ralph Hurleman of Bosworth, regarding property in Bosworth, 13 long lines, 110 by 260mm., dated 1374-1375; (19) Charter of Andrew Sherman of Eton to Thomas Godesson, chaplain, for a grant of alms from property in Bosworth, 7 long lines, with round white wax seal with armorial shield (diam. 23mm.), 100 by 210mm., dated 1368-1369; (20) Charter of Robert le Baxter of Bosworth to Reginald le Chanburleyn and Johanna, his wife, concerning property in Bosworth, 12 long lines, seal tag cut from another document, 140 by 250mm., dated 1361-1362; (21) Charter of William Patrick of Bosworth to John, son of William Parker, concerning the lease of land in Bosworth formerly leased by John's mother, 11 long lines, with part of round white wax seal (diam. 24mm.), 90 by 200m., dated 1346-1347; some holes, folds, scuffs, else overall in good condition, all affixed to individual paper surrounds with descriptions, these kept in a large nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century archival box Provenance: 1. E.H. Dring (1863-1928; see also lot 56 above), acquired around 1910 or 1920; and passing by descent to his son E.M. Dring (1906-1990), sold after his death to Quaritch.2. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1605; acquired from Quaritch, London in August 1992. Text: This archive stems from an English fourteenth-century family, probably the Harcourts, or just perhaps the Hurlemans or Prats, who appear through marriage and shrewd business to have built up a substantial property empire within Leicestershire and adjoining counties during the Middle Ages. The Harcourt family held substantial estates from the earl of Leicester, from the arrival of Errand de Harcourt in the twelfth century. In the following century they established and maintained close contacts with the English royal court, and in 1373 the Thomas Harcourt (d. 1417) who issued items (1) and (15) here, married a descendent of King Henry II. The family remained in positions of power until the sixteenth century.
Copy of the Letters Patent of the Dissolution of the Priory of St. Peter and St. Ethelreda at Ely of 8 November 1539, with confirmation of appointment of Robert Steward as the dean of the new cathedral, and listing the former prior and monks, properties held by the priory, with further Letters Patent of the establishment of Ely Cathedral and its history, in Latin, manuscript roll on parchment[England (Ely), 1574/5] Roll, formed of 16 paper sheets (each numbered with contemporary Arabic numeral at head) and one parchment membrane (this the outermost roll and reusing a sixteenth-century copy of a royal indenture in Tudor English from Queen Elizabeth I to Henry Doylie allowing him to examine offences against the statute "for the killing of rookes crowes and choughes daylie" dated 24 September 1574, the arms of the last prior [and first dean] of Ely, Robert Steward, painted on the reverse of this wrapper), the document of the main roll opening in the name of Henry VIII, and dated 10 September 1541 in an addition at its head, text in a fine English secretarial hand (signed by a clerk, "Ashton") with opening lines and significant words in larger version of same, marginalia in the left-hand border picking out estate names and similar, some underlining of same in main text in purple/burgundy on first sheet or so, watermark of a jug with "I B" on its body, losses of a few characters at right-hand side of column, with modern repairs there, the outermost parchment membrane with tears and losses at extremities, overall in good and legible condition, 6000 by 280mm.; the whole within another wrapper of thicker paper with inscription of seventeenth century (again with losses at edges repaired), and within a burgundy fitted case This is an important copy of the document of the Dissolution of the Priory of St. Peter and St. Ethelreda at Ely, most probably made for its last prior and first dean of Ely Cathedral, the notorious Robert Steward, who worked with the royal forces to facilitate the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Ely and elsewhere Provenance: 1. Robert Steward (alias Welles: his origin place as opposed to his patronym), the prior of the Priory of St. Peter and St. Ethelreda (founded in the seventh century and one of the wealthiest and most influential English medieval houses), at the time of the Reformation, made guardian of its valuables immediately after its surrender to the king's commissioners and subsequently the first dean of Ely Cathedral: his arms with contemporary inscription of his name and these offices prominently on outer side of wrapper. Like the contemporary Vicar of Bray, Steward seems to have placed greater store on his office than any religious principles he had, and readily complied with the Dissolution as well as the return of Catholicism under Mary Tudor, and died in 1557 and was buried on the south side of the presbytery. This roll may then have entered the archives of the cathedral itself or remained in private hands.2. Re-emerging at Christie's, 20 June 1990, lot 38.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 682, acquired in Christie's.
Two Catholic documents from Reformation Scotland, leasing lands at Quhithil from the estate of the Dean of the College and Royal Chapel at Restalrig, Edinburgh, to avoid permanent confiscation at the Dissolution, issued by Cardinal Laurentius, Bishop of Prevestin, and confirmed by Johannes Dingwall, Papal Protonotary, in Latin, single sheet documents on parchment[Italy (Bologna) and Scotland (College of the Holy Trinity, Edinburgh), dated 9 January 1530 and 28 April 1530 respectively] Two large and impressive documents: (i) the Authority of Cardinal Laurentius, Bishop of Prevestin, allowing the Dean of the College and Royal Chapel at Restalrig, Edinburgh, to lease out lands at "Quhitehil", 29 long lines in a rounded Italian secretarial, calligraphic initials in uppermost line, some folds, cord tags but no seal, else excellent condition, 290+40 by 450mm.; (ii) Gargantuan charter of Johannes Dingwall, Papal Protonotary, and Willielmus Gibson, Dean of the Royal Chapel at Restalrig, Edinburgh, in Confirmation of the Charter of Cardinal Laurentius, Bishop of Prevestin, Concerning the Leasing of Lands at Quhithil, witnessed by William Preston, rector of Beltoun, Adam Franthe, Walter Turnbull, Henricus Mow, William Meldrum, Notary and William Preston, 94 long lines in the fine Scottish secretarial hand of the Papal notary Willelmus Stevinsoun of the diocese of St. Andrews (the text including the full text of the other earlier document in this lot, thereby repeating and endorsing it), flourished opening initial, red wax seal (diam. 40mm., in metal skippet, of Iohannes Dingwall, Papal protonotary, with his arms surmounted by cardinal's hat, and the inscription: "magistri johannis dingwall prothonotarii"),another seal wanting 670+23 by 650mm.; together in red folding fitted case with two levels Provenance: 1. College and Royal Chapel at Restalrig, Edinburgh, founded 1487 on the estate of the parish church of Restalrig, that founded by King James II of Scotland. The building was described by Pope Innocent VIII himself as "a sumptuous new work", and was apparently a high vaulted chapel with no central pillar, lit by large traceried windows. Papal fears of the destruction of this powerful symbol of Catholic sympathising Scotland were not misplaced, and by 1552 the prebendary houses on the site had been burned down, with the chapel itself declared by the Reformed General Assembly in 1560 "a monument to idolatrie" and ordered "raysit and utterlei castin downe and destroyed" (I. Cowan and D. Easson, Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland, 1976, pp. 224-25). The destruction process was so complete that now only the lowest level of the aisle and some small walls have survived. What stands today is a restoration of 1906. 2. Dr. Jeremy Griffiths (1955-1997) of Oxford.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1689, acquired from Dr. Griffiths in July 1993. Text and script: These two complimentary documents offer a fascinating insight into the Catholic Church's preparations on the eve of the Scottish Reformation, openly seeking to enmesh important estates at Quhithil in a complex lease to a lay sympathiser in order to isolate them from the coming depredations and seizures. As Restalrig was both a monastery and the Royal Chapel of Scotland it presumably would face such losses first, demanding the attentions here of a cardinal based in Bologna and local Catholic officials. The script of the second document is of interest as it is by a named scribe (Papal notary Willelmus Stevinsoun of the diocese of St. Andrews) and is in the type of secretarial hand commonly used for Scottish literary manuscripts at the close of the Middle Ages, such as the copies of the Scotichronicon and the Haye and Sinclair witnesses to the Canterbury Tales (M.B. Parkes, English Cursive Bookhands, 1969, pl. 13.ii). Among scribes working in this period in Scotland, unlike those of its southern neighbour England, there was no clear division between bookhands and secretarial hands when dealing with literary manuscripts, and notaries were often employed on copying non-diplomatic texts, carrying across their usual scripts with them (see R.J. Lyall, 'Books and Book Owners in Fifteenth-Century Scotland', in J. Griffiths and D. Pearsall, Book Production and Publishing in Britain, 1375-1475, 1989, pp. 242-43).
‡ Votive text appealing to Victoria Augusta, perhaps in the name of a Roman auxiliary stationed in England and named Aufilius or Aufidius, in Latin, in Roman Capitals punched with dots into thin gold plate[probably England (perhaps Roman fort of Lanchester/Longovicium, near Durham in northern England), third century AD. (perhaps c. 270)] Thin gold plate, cut to ansate form (ie. shape of a square with a rhomboidal wing on each upright side, a shape designed for suspension), with the text "VICTORI/AE AVG/ AVF FIDI/ VS [for 'filius'].../ D D." punched into its surface in Roman Capitals using a series of dots, other dots added to 'wings' for decorative affect, three holes pierced along upper edge most probably for suspension, some traces of dents and slight damage to extremities, else excellent condition, 37 by 56mm.; in custom made glass case, within fitted blue-cloth covered case A Romano-British inscription on the rarest and most alluring of writing materials to survive from the Ancient world: gold Provenance: 1. Probably created for a high-ranking Roman auxiliary perhaps named Aufilius or Aufidius (appeals to Victoria Augusta are most commonly found on items made for the Roman military or from military sites), who appears to have been stationed in Lanchester, near Durham (see below). Such inscriptions are highly formulaic, and so we can be certain that the opening line contains a dedication to Victoria Augusta, and the last line contains the standard formula "D[ono] D[edit]" ('gave this as a gift'). Following this the first part of the central two lines might convincingly be read as "AUF[ilius/idius] FILI/US ..." (with the 'L' in the second word mistruck as an apparent 'D') and the remaining word identifying his father too abbreviated or garbled to be extrapolated here.2. Reportedly found as a stray find in vicinity of Lanchester, near Durham, in the 1940s. Lanchester (Roman Longovicium) was the site of a substantial Roman auxiliary fort on Dere Street (the Roman road connecting York to Hadrian's Wall) in the province of Britannia Inferior. The site is mentioned in both the Ravenna Cosmography and the Notitia Dignitatum. An unusually large number of altars, dedication slabs and a milestone set on the adjacent sections of Dere Street allow us to conclude that the fort was built by the Twentieth Legion, probably around 150 AD. It seems to have been the subject of rebuilding in the middle of the third century and the fourth century. At the time this object was made, stone inscriptions identify the fort as manned by Celts from the Plateau de Langres in the Bourgogne region of Gaul, near Dijon, the Cohors Primae Lingonum (First Cohort of Lingones) and the Cohors Primae Lingonum Gordiana equitata (First Cohort of Lingones, Gordian's own, part mounted), as well as a detachment of Suebians from Lusitania.3. Lennox Gallery, London, in 1996, and sold then to the present owner.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 2344. Text: While far from common, Roman metalwork objects with punched dot inscriptions are known from diverse objects, including a bronze dog or slave collar, with the inscription "Tene me ne fugio" ('Hold me, lest I flee), offered in Bonhams, 30 September 2014, lot 383, as well as small votive offerings such as the present piece. Close parallels for this item can be found in the holdings of the Ashmolean and York Museum (H4.1-2, from the Old Railway Station site, with a Greek inscription including the personal name Demetrius), but those are on more common metals such as bronze. The use of gold here suggests the wealth and influence of its original owner, and it was perhaps produced for attachment to a statue of a deity. Published:Y. Petrina, 'Kanopos oder Menoutis? Zur Identifikation einer Ruinenstätte in der Bucht von Abuqir', KLIO 90 (2008), p. 205.
George I, king of England, Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal for a grant of arms to George St. George, Conferring on him the barony of Hatley in Ireland, in Latin, decorated manuscript charter on parchment[England, dated 26 April 1715] Large single sheet charter on two rolls of parchment (one rolled inside the other), with 26 and 30 long lines in a fine and calligraphic script, ruled on thick red lines, the first line in large gold letters with ornamental cadels and opening with a large initial in same enclosing a skilfully painted portrait of King George I, full border of coloured coats-of-arms and golden acanthus leaves on first leaf, with the Great Seal of England in brown wax (diam. 150mm.) attached by plaited silver cords (these fraying but intact), each parchment leaf 600 by 750mm.; in contemporary wooden fitted case with large circular compartment for seal, lined with coloured paper and covered in tooled leather, by "Charles Tennant, at the sign of the Royal Trunk at the corner of Wine Tavern street and Merchants-Quay, Dublin": his printed label inside, leather here aged and dusty, with scuffs and losses of sections and wood and leather at extremities Provenance: Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1381, acquired Christie's, 26 June 1991, lot 342. Text and script:A notably large and proud example of Early Modern script and decoration used to display the original owner's power and influence.
Record of testamentary charities by different testators, made to freeborn legitimate and illegitimate boys and girls in set proportions by an established charitable foundation, according to the Roman laws of Septimus Severus, in Latin, manuscript in transitional script between square and rustic Latin capitals, on bronze tablet[Mediterranean (perhaps Spain, Italy or southern France), dated to the fourth day before the kalends of November in the consulship of Claudius Pompeianus and Lollianus Avitus (ie. 29 October 209)] Large bronze tablet with losses at edges and base, remains of inscription in single column of 13 lines of Roman capitals (each approximately 9mm. high, and these lines in three sections: the first recording the charitable gift, the second discussing the town council and recording the consulships, the third recording only the date), some surface scratches, else good condition, 222 by 142 by 5mm.; in fitted case Provenance: 1. Produced for display in either a public place or a temple. Reported in 1994 as "said to be from Spain", but, as Tomlin notes in a pers. comm. in 1997, one of the donors may be identifiable with a known early third-century official from Venafro in southern central Italy. Alternatively, the provenance of the item in the French trade opens the possibility that it may be from a site on the southern coastline of that country.2. Quaritch, London, acquired by them from the French trade immediately before December 1994. 3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1976, acquired from Quaritch. Text: When complete this tablet was most probably a public record of charitable gifts by a number of donors, erected as a permanent public record by the town in which it was displayed. Suetonius records the use of such tablets in his note of Vespasian's replacement of some 3000 tablets that had previously hung in the Capitoline Hill in Rome, but were destroyed during the fires at the end of Nero's reign. Their inscription on bronze conveyed authority and permanence, and some national lawcodes, such as the Icilian Law hung in the Temple of Diana on the Aventine, and civic land registers such as those recorded at Orange in south-eastern France, were produced in that format to impart those qualities to their contents. The charitable acts recorded here must have been held in the same regard by the community that produced this grand record of them. The text of this record was reconstructed and published by Tomlin in 2000. Published:R.S.O. Tomlin, 'An Early Third-Century Alimentary Foundation', Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 129 (2000), pp. 287-292.P. Brown, Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire, 2002, p. 115, no. 15.E.A. Hemelrijk, Hidden Lives, Public Personae: Women and Civic Life in the Roman West, 2015, p. 149.C. Laes, Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within, 2006, p. 280.
A Collection of Thirty Four Pieces of First World War Related Miniature Crested China, by Arcadian China, Carlton Ware, Savoy China, Swan China etc, including a Model of a Tommy and his Machine Gun, a torpedo destroyer, submarines, tanks, ambulances, Tommy's Dugout Somewhere in France, trench mortar guns, Mill's hand grenade etc; also, a Staffordshire figure of Lord Kitchener and two graduated pottery jugs decorated with the 1914 Allied flags. Generally in good condition. Torpedo destroyer with fine crack.
A Pair of First/Second World War Officer's Brown Leather Long Boots, with buckled straps and lace-up fastenings, with beech trees; also:- seven pairs of black leather Hobnail/Ammo boots with leather soles; a pair of officer's black leather lace-up boots with leather soles; six pairs of ammo boots with rubber soles, and a pair of brown leather gaiters (32). Officer's boots in good condition. Remaining boots in various states of repair.
![[India] The Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume published on the 4th August 1939 for the Madras Tercentenary Celebration](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/1293449b-58d3-49c6-ba4e-ab6d0118aecb/17d6d110-3b8c-41fb-9501-ab84011c5e08/468x382.jpg)
[India] The Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume published on the 4th August 1939 for the Madras Tercentenary Celebration Committee Humphrey Milford OUP first edition describing in great detail the growth and development of the city of Madras and illustrated with many plates, in gilt lettered cloth
Colour In Woven Design by Roberts Beaumont with coloured plates & original illustrations 1890 first edition, Yarns and Textile Fabrics by Dr. Herzfeld 1898 illustrated, The History of Lace by Mrs. Palliser 1865 with colour plates & other illustrations and The Cutter's Practical Guide to Cutting and Making all Kinds of Lounges, Reefers and Norfolk Jackets with numerous diagrams (4)
Collection of Works by H.M. Tomlinson: Illusion 1915 limited edition on hand-made paper, Cote D’or one of 300 signed copies, Between The Lines 1930 special edition, The Sea & The Jungle with woodcuts by Clare Leighton 1930, Out of Soundings 1931 first edition, Norman Douglas, London River, All Hands 1937, Under The Red Ensign 1926 with copies of The Aran Islands 1912 illustrated by Jack B. Yeats, Milton’s Paradise Regained decorated by Thomas Lowinsky, The Call of The Wild by Jack London, Kipling etc (22)
New Naturalist Series: The Wren by Edward Armstrong 1955 first edition in illustrated dust-wrapper, The Badger by Ernest Neal 1948 first edition in illustrated dust-wrapper, Butterflies by E.B. Ford 1945 with Sketches of British Insects by Rev Houghton 1888 with coloured plates in gilt cloth, British Beetles, Wild Nature & Country Life with mounted colour plates in gilt pictorial binding and Wild Life Through The Year A & C Black (7)
![[Signed] Richard Adams The Plague Dogs 1977 illustrated by A. Wainwright first edition signed copy, The Girl In A Swing 1980,](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/1293449b-58d3-49c6-ba4e-ab6d0118aecb/7602c2f1-0386-4cb3-abc5-ab84011c7cfc/468x382.jpg)
The Angel In the House by Coventry Patmore 1863 first edition 2 volumes in gilt cloth, Atalanta In Calydon by A.C. Swinburne 1866, The Poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1907 in gilt leather, Goblin Market in decorated leather with 3 volumes by William Watson 1895-1904 and copy of Parsifal published Harrap (9)
Alfred Austin Lamia’s Winter-Quarters with colour plates 1907 first edition decorated cloth, Sacheverell Sitwell Golden Wall and Mirador 1961, G.W. Steevens In India with map 1909, A Second Book of South African Flowers 1936, The Ancient Explorers with maps 1929, Hard Road to Klondike 1962 etc (10)
![[Wayside & Woodland series] The Birds of The British Isles & Their Eggs, Migration & Habits 3 volumes 1932-4 by T](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/1293449b-58d3-49c6-ba4e-ab6d0118aecb/00b331ee-dab6-4381-ad06-ab84011c9ed8/468x382.jpg)
[Wayside & Woodland series] The Birds of The British Isles & Their Eggs, Migration & Habits 3 volumes 1932-4 by T.W. Coward with over 500 illustrations (many coloured) gilt cloth in dust-wrappers, Guide to British Wild Flowers by Edward Step first, second & third series 1929-30 illustrated in gilt cloth and dust-wrappers, with Butterflies of the British Isles in gilt cloth (7)
P.G. Wodehouse Louder and Funnier 1932 First Edition, Tom Sharpe The Great Pursuit 1977, Wilt On High 1984, Gerald Durrell The Mockery Bird 1981, Menagerie Manor 1964, Birds Beasts & Relatives 1969, James Herriot Vets In Spain 1977, Vets Might Fly 1976, Kingsley Amis Jake’s Thing 1978, John Mortimer Paradise Postponed signed copy, and books by H.E. Bates, most in dust-wrappers (19)
![[Edward Fitzgerald] The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam of Nishapour now first completely done into English Verse with Biographical](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/1293449b-58d3-49c6-ba4e-ab6d0118aecb/c3e74998-65c7-4de9-af90-ab84011caa9c/468x382.jpg)
[Edward Fitzgerald] The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam of Nishapour now first completely done into English Verse with Biographical & Critical Introduction by John Payne, 1898 limited edition on hand-made paper bound in decorated vellum, another copy Translated by E.H. Whinfield 1893 and another limited edition privately printed 1906 in 2 volumes, offered with three copies of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1888, 1899 and a boxed copy of 1955 with coloured plates (7)
Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam Illustrated by Ronald Balfour published Constable, 1920 first edition with mounted plates and other illustrations, bound in cream cloth with colour circular onlay and gilt titles with The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald with illustrations by Adelaide Hanson and Blanche Cumming, published 1912 tipped-in colour plates and page decorations in gilt decorated cloth (2)
View of The State of Europe During The Middle Ages by Henry Hallam 1819 in 3 volumes in gilt leather, The French Revolution A History in Three Volumes by Thomas Carlyle 1837 first edition in half leather, The Outline of History by H.G. Wells in half leather, Indian Mutiny of 1857, The Franks from their First Appearance in History by Walter Perry 1857, Little Christopher Columus: A Play etc (17)
Heath's Book of Beauty for 1838, 1840, 1841, 1843 and New Series Volume with beautifully finished engravings from the drawings by the first artists, edited by the Countess of Blessington engraved titles and bound in original gilt cloth with The Keepsake for 1840 illustrated with engravings and edited by Lady Wortley (6)
General View of the Agriculture of Wiltshire Drawn up and Published by Order of The Board of Agriculture by Thomas Davis 1811 first edition with portrait and a folding hand-coloured map bound in half leather with raised bands and gilt titles and decoration, The Flora of Wiltshire comprising the Flowering Plants and Ferns indigenous to the County by Thomas Bruges Flower (Parts 1-9) with several parts signed by author, bound in half leather with raised bands, gilt title and decorated spine (2)
![[Angling] British Fresh-Water Fish by Sir Herbert Maxwell with 12 coloured plates 1904 with British Salt Water Fish by F.G. A](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/1293449b-58d3-49c6-ba4e-ab6d0118aecb/eaac4838-355c-4c0f-925b-ab84011cf58d/468x382.jpg)
[Angling] British Fresh-Water Fish by Sir Herbert Maxwell with 12 coloured plates 1904 with British Salt Water Fish by F.G. Aflalo with coloured plates 1904 (both Woburn Library), The New Naturalist: An Angler's Entomology by J.R. Harris 1952 first edition in dust-wrapper, The Trout and The Salmon being 2 volumes in Fur Feather and Fin series 1898 illustrated cloth (5)
A Natural History of New and Rare Ferns containing Species and Varieties None of which are Included in Any of the Eight Volumes of "Ferns British and Exotic" by E.J. Lowe with coloured Illustrations & woodcuts published Groombridge 1862, bound in half leather with raised bands & gilt titles and The Ferns And Fern Allies of Wakefield and its Neighbourhood by T.W. Gissing Illustrated by Sowerby 1862 first edition with coloured plates in half leather (2)
![[Scouting] Lord Baden-Powell Birds & Beasts In Africa illustrated with colour plates & other illustrations, published](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/1293449b-58d3-49c6-ba4e-ab6d0118aecb/9af81db9-1394-4e0d-b69a-ab84011d0329/468x382.jpg)
The Eastern Arboretum or Register of Remarkable Trees, Seats, Gardens &c In The County of Norfolk with Popular Delineations of The British Sylva by James Grigor, Illustrated with 50 Drawings of Trees Etched on Copper by H. Ninham published Longman, Brown etc 1841 first edition, in original gilt lettered cloth
General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon with Observations on the Means of its Improvement drawn up for the consideration of The Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement by Charles Vancouver, printed for Richard Philips 1808 first edition with folding hand-coloured map, tables and 28 engraved plates (some folding and hand-coloured), bound in boards with paper covered spine & printed label (binding worn) and Discourses Explanatory of the Object And Plan of the Course of Lectures on Agriculture and Rural Economy by Andrew Coventry 1808 in boards (2)
![[Exploration] Fighting The Polar Ice by Anthony Fiala illustrated from photographs by the author also eight from paintings, i](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/1293449b-58d3-49c6-ba4e-ab6d0118aecb/6569fc17-928f-4e29-9f37-ab84011d0e14/468x382.jpg)
[Exploration] Fighting The Polar Ice by Anthony Fiala illustrated from photographs by the author also eight from paintings, in colour, published Hodder & Stoughton 1907 first English edition with folding map at rear in gilt cloth, Discovery of The North Pole by Dr. Frederick A Cook and Commander Robert E. Peary illustrated 1909 and Finding The North Pole illustrated 1909 publishers cloth (3)
![[Geology] S.H. Haughton The Geology of Some Ore Deposits in Southern Africa, published Johannesburg 1964 in 2 volumes first e](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/1293449b-58d3-49c6-ba4e-ab6d0118aecb/8283d5df-422d-42e0-af1c-ab84011d0fc4/468x382.jpg)
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