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Leaf from Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment, with another leaf from a contemporary legal concordance [France, thirteenth century] Leaf from the Summa Theologiae, in double column of 57 lines of a tiny and rounded university script (with distinct. V, quaestio I, solutio III-quaestio II, articulus II), red or pale blue paragraph marks, running titles ('D/V') in capitals in same colours, original folio no. '32' at upper outer corner of recto, 3-line initials in red or blue with long whip-like penwork in contrasting colours, these sometimes terminating in clusters of three coloured dots, some 'nota bene' marks with 'clover-symbols' at head and long vertical penstrokes parallel to text columns with human faces picked out in penstrokes, some contemporary and near-contemporary marginalia indicating use, some spots and stains, a few tears at edges, else good condition, 342 by 226mm., France, thirteenth century; with another leaf from an apparent legal concordance, in three columns of approximately 85 lines of tiny script with numerous abbreviations, and cadels in uppermost lines, paragraphs marks in red or dark blue, running titles in vertical margin in blue and red capitals ('QII'), with one contemporary marginal addition 'Causa XI', discoloured in places with splits to edges and scuffs in places, overall fair condition, 323 by 236mm., France, thirteenth century The first leaf here is a fine example of a medieval university copy of perhaps the most influential theological work of the Middle Ages by one of its greatest scholars. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) was a leading light of the scholastic movement, rediscovering, translating and synthesising the previously lost works of Aristotle with Christian thought. The present work is unfinished, but still acted as the fundamental compendium of the entire teachings of the Church intended to instruct students in medieval theology.

Lower part of a large leaf from a copy of Aristotle, Metaphysica, in the Latin translation of William of Moerbeke, decorated manuscript on parchment [France, thirteenth century] Lower two-thirds of a large leaf, reused as a later limp parchment binding, and hence with losses to upper part of leaf with approximately 9 lines missing, remains of double column of 34 lines (with book 3), catchword at base ('sensus palma'), dark blue and red paragraph marks, a few contemporary marginalia, discoloured and with remains of paper labels from spine of later book on one side, some holes and scuffs, later inscriptions in lower margin on one side, overall fair condition, 272 by 223mm.Acquired from the European trade in 2019.The works of Aristotle (384-322 BC.), student of Plato, tutor to Alexander the Great and founder of the Lyceum, were described by Cicero as 'a river of gold', and have shaped over two millennia of philosophy and science. That said, with the fall of a unified Roman Empire knowledge of them was lost to the West until their rediscovery in Greek and Arabic translations in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. William of Moerbeke (d. c. 1286) was a Flemish Dominican (from Moerbeke near Geraardsbergen), and among the foremost translators from Greek in the thirteenth century. His work on Aristotle may have been at the behest of Thomas Aquinas, and certainly Aquinas' use of it popularised it among the universities of Europe.This was once part of a notably large university copy of this fundamental scholastic text. The bottom margin that survives is 101mm. in height, and taking into account the missing lines and a smaller upper margin, the original page size would have been around 360 by 220mm.

Leaf from the celebrated Beauvais Missal, with three animal-headed drollery creatures, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens), early fourteenth century (probably c. 1310)] Single leaf, with double column of mixed text and music in 13/14 lines (recto) and 18/19 lines (verso) of two sizes of a high grade of early gothic bookhand, those with music accompanied by a 4-line red stave, capitals enclosing quatrefoil penwork tiles (some of these touched in yellow wash or red), pale red rubrics (one with 'ORATIO' in ornamental capitals), three 2-line initials in blue or dark pink with white penwork, on coloured grounds with circles of gold at the edges, these leading to foliate extensions in the margin terminating in ivy-leaves (one such initial with extensions nearly the whole page in height), two large initials on recto formed from the bodies of coloured winged beasts with gaping mouths (one devouring a golden fruit), each on long and thin panel of blue or dark pink grounds with circles of gold, and with foliate extensions as before, verso with a similar animal above one of the smaller initials (with a curved body and an open mouth placed as if he is about to eat a line of text), tiny scuffs to gold in places, some offset from decoration on adjacent pages in original volume, else fresh and bright condition, 288 by 200mm. Of all books dispersed by the self-proclaimed biblioclast Otto Ege (1888-1951), the Beauvais Missal is perhaps the most famous as well as the most visually striking. It was owned by Robert de Hangest, canon of Beauvais Cathedral. He gifted the book to the Cathedral in 1356, and it was still there in the seventeenth century. By the nineteenth century it had passed to Didier Petit de Meurville (1793-1873) of Lyon; his sale in 1843, lot 354. It passed to Henri Auguste Brölemann (1775-1854) of Lyon, and by descent to his great-grand daughter, who sold it in Sotheby s, 4 May 1926, lot 161, to William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). It was then sold by the Gimbel Bros., New York, to Philip C. Duschnes (1897-1970), who presumably broke the volume and sold a number of leaves to Otto Ege in 1942 or 1943 (see S. Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, 2013, p. 45). It was no. 15 of Ege s Handlist, and the known leaves are now widely dispersed (see Gwara, pp. 122-23 for lists of these, his HL 15, and Lisa Fagin Davis' online reconstruction). This leaf was acquired by Roger Martin in Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, 4 September 2013, lot 143.

Leaf from an early copy of Arator, De Actibus Apostolorum, in Latin verse, with an apparently unrecorded Carolingian commentary, decorated manuscript on parchment [Germany, second half of tenth century] Single leaf, with single column of 23 lines in a short and square late Carolingian minuscule (last two lines of the heading for ch. 1, followed by the whole of ch. 1, excluding line 22 which has been cut away, the heading for ch. 2 and the first two lines of that chapter), using et-ligature integrally within words, a tall capital 'e' with a long tongue ending in a wedge-stroke and an uncial 'R' (compare hand of a contemporary Jerome: Munich, BSB., Clm 6313: Pracht auf Pergament, 2012, no. 21), near-contemporary interlinear gloss in a tiny hand, this also adding some punctuation, each line beginning with an initial offset in the margin, simple red initials, blind-ruled with this causing lifting of parchment along those lines, somewhat scuffed and discoloured, and with a small hole (without affect to text), trimmed at base with loss of a single line there, overall fair and presentable condition, 163 by 138mm. Provenance:Acquired in 2015 from Australian trade. Text:The sixth-century poet Arator rubbed shoulders with the greatest rulers and scholars of Early Medieval Italy. He served as a lawyer in the Gothic imperial capital of Ravenna, where he was treated with distinction by Emperor Theodoric the Goth (454-526), and protected by Cassiodorus (c. 484-c. 585), the intellectual titan of his age. He left the court about 544, and entered papal service as archdeacon of the Church. It was there he composed this work, a versification of the Acts of the Apostles that attempts to draw out the mystical and moral meanings of the texts. By papal order it was read aloud in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, over a number of days, and in written form quickly spread across the empire.The earliest witnesses all come from a sudden bloom of interest in the ninth century, with A.P. McKinley listing twenty examples of that century, four of the ninth or tenth century and eight of the tenth century (Arator. The Codices, 1942, pp. 69-70, and perhaps also 'Membra disiecta of manuscripts of Arator', Speculum, 15, 1940, pp. 95-8). That focus of interest also produced four distinct commentaries in the ninth and tenth centuries (see 'Latin commentaries on Arator', Scriptorium, 6, 1952, pp. 151-156), some in interlinear form as here. The script of the commentary here is scuffed in places and wanting, but enough survives to note that it is not any of those catalogued by McKinley. It may well be another, as yet unstudied, Carolingian interlinear commentary.The text is rare on the market in any form, with the Schoenberg Database recording only two manuscript codices as ever having come to the open market, and none of those in the last century: (i) a fourteenth-century codex offered in Sotheby's, 2 March 1837, lot 974, probably the same reappearing in the same rooms, 20 June 1900, lot 7; (ii) a copy of c. 1450 sold by Evans, 6 February 1832, lot 150, reappearing in Thomas Thorpe's famous catalogue of 1200 manuscripts (1832), no. 63, and then again in Evans, 29 June 1839, lot 1369, to he bookseller Thomas Rodd, his cat. of 1841, no. 91; and to these should be added another fifteenth-century copy once owned by the infamous Guglielmo Libri and sold by him to the Ashburnham collection (no. 951 in the 1853 catalogue), and a late fifteenth-century German witness acquired privately by Thomas E. Marston and from him to the Beinecke Library, Yale, in 1964. Only one fragment is known to us, a mid-ninth century fragment in Quaritch, cat. 1036, Bookhands of the Middle Ages (1984), no. 123.

Leaf from the celebrated Beauvais Missal, with a single animal-headed drollery, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens), early fourteenth century (probably c. 1310)] Single leaf, with double column of 21 lines of a high grade of early gothic bookhand, capitals touched in yellow wash or enclosing quatrefoil penwork tiles, pale red rubrics, ten 2-line initials in blue or dark pink, heightened with white penwork and enclosing foliage or geometric knots in same, with circles of gold at their corners and on contrasting coloured grounds, coloured foliate extensions into margins with more small circles of gold mounted in their shoots, these terminating in leaves, one of these on the recto with its extensions almost the entire page in height, and another enclosing an animal-masked drollery creature tightly curled within the body of the initial and looking back over his shoulder at the adjacent text, apparent earlier folio no. '12' in pencil in upper outer corner and slight offset on verso from decoration of adjacent leaf in original volume, else fresh and bright condition, 288 by 198mm.For main discussion of the provenance see previous lot. This leaf was acquired by Roger Martin at Kiefer Buch-und Kunstauktionenhaus, 7 February 2017, lot 98.

Three leaves from the gargantuan 'Bohun Bible', each with an illuminated initial, manuscript in Latin on parchment [England (East Anglia, perhaps Cambridge), c. 1340] Three vast leaves, with double column of 22 lines in a rounded English gothic bookhand (with Ecclesiasticus 30:17-31:2, Habakkuk 2:3-3:4 and Jeremiah 37:3-38:1) with significant lateral compression of lines, capitals touched in hairline penwork, running titles and versal numbers in blue and red, one large illuminated initial on each leaf, on bi-coloured grounds, and with fleshy foliate terminals emerging from head and foot, one of these accompanied by a gold paragraph mark on similarly coloured grounds, Early Modern folio nos. '232', '97' and '396' at upper outer corners of rectos (one with seventeenth-century English inscription at foot of second column: 'From the 4. verse of the 3d chapter of Habakuk is torne out & wanting'), small spots and stains, slightly cockled, occasional marks from old mounts, else good condition, each approximately 450 by 310mm. The parent volume of this leaf was most probably part of a four volume set, with the first volume perhaps now British Library MS. Royal I.E.IV, with a miniature of Jerome writing. On a stylistic basis links have been made between the surviving parts of these volumes and other manuscripts made for the Bohun family, earls of Hereford, whose main estates were in East Anglia (L. Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts, 1285-1385, 1986, no. 132). Other single leaves and collections of leaves in the Bodleian (MS. Bib. Lat.b.4) include ex libris marks of three Early Modern Cheshire families, and these have led to connections being made to the Benedictine Priory of St. Radegund's, Cambridge (suppressed in 1496 to establish Jesus College), and most recently the Carmelite Friary in Chester. The surviving leaves are listed by C. de Hamel in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, pp. 93-95 (including the first leaf here, as no. 97, in the list there), and in an updated form extensively discussing their provenance by the same author in 'The Bohun Bible Leaves', in Script & Print, Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand, 32 (2008), pp. 49-63. It was dispersed by Winifred Myers (1909-1985) of Bond Street, London, and the Habakkuk leaf here is accompanied by a cutting from a catalogue of hers of 1927. Acquired by Roger Martin from a private UK collector in 2007 (and before that Sotheby's, 23 June 1987, lot 17); from a private US collector in 2012; and in the US trade in 2014.

Leaf from the St Albans Abbey Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern France (Paris), c. 1330] Single leaf, with double columns of 46 lines in a fine gothic bookhand (Numbers 28:3-30:9), with ornamental cadels in topmost line ornamented with hairline penwork picking out foliage and an animal's mask, capitals touched in yellow wash, versal numbers in alternate liquid gold and blue capitals with contrasting penwork, running titles in same, two 2-line initials (one each side of leaf) each in faded pink, heightened with white penwork, enclosing coloured foliage and on burnished gold grounds, extensions into margin forming a text border filling entire central gutter of thin coloured and gold panels, these panels terminating at head and foot in horizontal sprays of foliage to the left and right ending in coloured and gold leaves, small spots and slight offset from decoration of adjacent leaves in original volume, else in good condition, 295 by 200mm. Provenance:1. From an incomplete Bible sold at Sotheby's, 6 July 1964, lot 239, to the dealer and book-breaker Philip C. Duschnes, who dispersed it. Other leaves had already been removed, with some ending up in the collections of E.H. Dring (1864-1928, one reappearing in Quaritch, cat. 1036, 1984, no. 76). Then identified in 1981 as from the medieval library of St Albans Abbey, Hertfordshire, and perhaps to be identified as one of 'duas bonas biblias' acquired by Abbot Michael de Mentmore (C. de Hamel in Fine Books and Book Collecting, 1981, pp. 10-12).2. This leaf acquired from North American trade in 2019.

Leaf from the St Albans Abbey Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[northern France (Paris), c. 1330] Single leaf, with double columns of 46 lines in a fine gothic bookhand (I Chronicles 14:6-17:13), capitals touched in yellow wash, versal numbers in alternate liquid gold and blue capitals with contrasting penwork, running titles in same, three 2-line initials in blue or faded pink, heightened with white penwork, enclosing coloured foliage and on burnished gold grounds, extensions into margin forming a text border of thin coloured and gold panels, these with sprays of foliage and single gold bezants, some spots and stains, else in good condition, 295 by 200mm.Acquired from a private American collector in 2009.From the same parent manuscript as the previous lot.

Leaf from the St Albans Abbey Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern France (Paris), c. 1330] Single leaf, with double columns of 46 lines in a fine gothic bookhand (I Maccabees 13:43-14:46), capitals touched in yellow wash, versal numbers in alternate liquid gold and blue capitals with contrasting penwork, running titles in same, one 2-line initial in pink, heightened with white penwork, enclosing coloured foliage and on burnished gold grounds, extensions into margin forming a text border there of thin coloured and gold panels with sprays of foliage and single gold bezants, some spots and stains (especially at upper and inner extremities of leaf from old water-damage), else in good condition, 295 by 200mm. Acquired from American trade in 2019.From the same parent manuscript as the previous two lots.

Three leaves from a grand lectern Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Flanders, or possibly France, early fourteenth century] Three large leaves, each with double column of 50 lines of a good gothic bookhand (with I Kings 26:7-end 28, III Kings 29:11-13:15 and Isaiah 43:7-46:5), with pronounced lateral compression, capitals touched in yellow, versal numbers in alternate red and blue capitals, running titles in same, seven 3-line initials in blue or dark pink, enclosing curls of coloured foliage on blue or dark pink grounds, foliate sprays in margin terminating in coloured and gold leaves, all accompanied by decorative text borders of thin coloured panels with splashes of gold mounted in their bodies, all of these panels terminating with similar foliage and four in animal masks or elongated bird's heads, small amount of marginalia, small spots and stains, else in excellent condition, each approximately 405 by 275mm. Provenance:1. The parent manuscript (of 503 leaves) was bequeathed to a Dominican convent in 1450 by Mirmellus Arnandi, lawyer and judge: several erased inscriptions on leaves as reported in Sotheby's, 11 December 1984, lot 39 (that part now Schøyen collection, MS. 223).2. The parent manuscript then Sotheby's, 6 July 1931, lot 389.3. Parke-Bernet, New York, 29 November 1948, lot 336.4. Otto Ege, purchased in Parke-Bernet, and widely dispersed by him and Philip C. Duschnes (see S. Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, 2013, pp. 121-22, his HL 14); the remains of the volume then emerging in the Sotheby's sale in 1984.5. The present leaves acquired in PBA Galleries, San Francisco, 29 November 2007, lot 369, and from a private Australian collector and the North American trade in 2019.

Two leaves from a richly illuminated Breviary, in Latin with French rubrics, manuscript on parchment [France (Paris), second half of fourteenth century] Two separate leaves, each with double column of 36 lines in a fine gothic hand, with notable lateral compression, capitals with delicate hairline penwork, red rubrics, contemporary foliation ('xx iiii': text from end of the Hour of None and the beginning of the Hour of Vespers to be said on the Feast of Corpus Christi; and 'xx iiii xix': text from end of the Hour of Second Vespers followed by the beginning of the Hour of Lauds to be said on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in red at centre of top of rectos, one-line initial in gold or blue with contrasting penwork, with geometric line-fillers in same, 2-line initials in blue or pale pink heightened with white penwork, enclosing sprigs of coloured foliage on burnished gold grounds, each leaf with one very large initial, one enclosing densely curled coloured foliage on gold grounds, the other with a grinning red face with foliage emerging from its mouth and ears (probably meant to be a lion, compare the decoration of another contemporary French Book of Hours, offered in our rooms, 6 December 2017, lot 61), full decorated borders (including inner margins) of thin gold and coloured bars with snarling dragons at head of pages, geometric panels at feet, and sprays of foliage, text borders in same on innermost sides of both columns on reverses of both leaves, modern pencil foliation '170' on one leaf, slightly trimmed at edges with small losses from border decoration, small smudges and spots, else excellent condition, each leaf 237 by 173mm. Provenance:1. The parent manuscript of this glittering Breviary was written and illuminated in Paris in the second half of the fourteenth century, most probably for a Franciscan house dedicated to St. Aegidius/Gilles (with references on some leaves to that saint as 'our patron').2. It was most probably initially dispersed in the late 1920s or early 1930s, with leaves first appearing in Quaritch's cat. for 1931, nos. 127 and 128 (each item advertising 'a few leaves' from the manuscript). Other leaves can be found in a bequest by Lord Cholmondeley of 2 leaves to the Society for Italic Handwriting; a UK private collection, bought from Quaritch in 1950 (these with the address to St. Aegidius as 'our patron' in prime from the office of that saint; Sotheby's, 5 April 1976, part of lot 601, the teaching collection of A.N.L. Munby, illustrated in frontispiece image there; Sotheby's, 19 June 1979, lot 3 (this described later in Sotheby's December 1994, as then in a Swiss collection); Christie's, New York, September 1981, lot 16; Sotheby's, 8 December 1981, lot 3; Quaritch, cat. 1056, Bookhands of the Middle Ages II (1985), no. 69; Sotheby's, 24 June 1986, lot 50; Sotheby's, 22 June 1988, lot 11; and Maggs Bros., Bulletin 10 (June 1979), that now Tokyo, Keio University Library.3. The first of the present leaves acquired from North American trade in 2002, who had in turn acquired it from a private collector in San Francisco; the second leaf here was acquired in McTear's 1842 Auctions, Glasgow, 19 July 2019, lot 1684.

SS. Cosmas and Damian in a historiated initial on a bifolium from a Dominican Breviary, in Latin with French rubrics, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (Paris), c. 1340-50]  Bifolium, with a 4-line initial 'S' (opening 'Sub diocleciano et maximiano in egea ...', the office for SS. Cosmas and Damian), in dark pink with white penwork, enclosing the saints standing and facing each other, each holding pots of ointment denoting their role as doctors, all before a dark pink tessellated background, the initial on blue grounds and within a thin gold frame, other initials in blue or pink with coloured foliage on gold grounds, these often with extensions into the border of gold and coloured bars terminating in foliage, and on one occasion a dragon-like animal mask, capitals touched in penwork and yellow wash, some preceded with single curls of coloured foliage on gold grounds, line-fillers in same, red rubrics, double column of 28 lines of two sizes of a high-grade gothic bookhand (part of the Office for the Nativity of the Virgin, a prayer for St. Gorgonius, the rubric for the Office of SS. Protus and Hyacinth, part of the Office for St. Maurice and companions, and the opening of the Office for SS. Cosmas and Damian), some slight damage to edges of leaves in places, small section of initial rubbed and flaked (damaging left-hand saint's hand and jaw), small spots and stains, else good condition and on thin and fine parchment, each leaf 272 by 190mm. Provenance:From a dispersed parent manuscript that principally survives in Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. 55, Lyon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. 6020, and London, British Library, Egerton 3035 (ex. John Ruskin), with other groups of leaves now in the Comites Latentes collection, Geneva, the Lilly Library, Bloomington (from the collection of C.L. Ricketts: see S. de Ricci, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States, 1935, I, p. 624, no. 44, citing others in Quaritch, the collection of the paleographer Sir Frederic Kenyon, and several private North American collectors), and most recently a leaf in Sotheby's, 23 May 2017, lot 15. The present leaf was acquired from a private European collector in 2008. Illumination:This Breviary was illuminated by a follower of Jean Pucelle, perhaps the most influential Parisian book-painter of the early fourteenth century. His style was greatly influential, and a Bible Moralisée made for Jean le Bon, king of France from 1350-64, dates to the 1340s and was illuminated by no less than fifteen artists working in Pucelle's style (see F. Avril, 'Un chef-d'œuvre de l'enluminure sous le règne de Jean le Bon', Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot, 58, 1972, pp. 91-125).

Two leaves from an early Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [southern Netherlands, c. 1390] Two separate leaves, each with single column of 16 or 17 lines (both with special and rare offices: Saturday Hours of the Virgin and the Monday Hours of the Angels) in two sizes of a professional gothic bookhand, red rubrics, one- and 2-line initials in gold and blue with contrasting penwork, line-fillers in same, larger initials in blue or pink heightened with white penwork enclosing scrolls of coloured foliage and on burnished gold grounds, these larger initials accompanied by full decorated borders of blue and white foliage terminating in gold leaves and gold bezants within undulating penwork, small spots and stains, one leaf cut down, overall good condition, 197 by 155mm. and 211 by 154mm. Another leaf from this charming and early Book of Hours was in Maggs Bros., European Bulletin, 20 (1995), no. 11. These leaves acquired in Australian and UK trade in 2014. 

Five leaves from an early Book of Hours, of Dominican Use, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Flanders (Tournai), second quarter of the fourteenth century] Bifolium and three single leaves, each with single column of two sizes of 16 lines of a professional gothic bookhand, capitals touched in red, red rubrics, one-line initials in gold or blue with yellow or red penwork, 2-line initials in blue or fawn enclosing coloured leafy foliage on burnished gold grounds, these with extensions into margin of coloured and gold foliage usually forming text frame on at least two sides, one page with a full decorated border of coloured and gold bars with geometric knots at their corners and sides, with two human drolleries standing on text frame at base (one a tonsured bearded man's head with rabbit-like hindlegs and the other wearing a cowl and with a bearded man's face for its hind-quarters, one marginalia of a long-necked bird craning its head over backwards to look at the text (perhaps used as a 'note bene' mark), some spots and stains, occasional thumbing to edges, trimmed at outer edges, overall good condition, each leaf approximately 120 by 88mm. The parent manuscript of these leaves was once owned by Henry Yates Thompson, and was in his descendants' sale at Christie's, 16 July 2014, lot 7. Other leaves appeared in our rooms, 7 December 2016, lots 39 and 40, and 6 July 2017, lots 53 and 54. The leaves here were all acquired by Roger Martin from the European trade in 2018. 

Two leaves from an Antiphonal, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [eastern France (perhaps Bescançon), fourteenth century] Two separate leaves, with single column of 12/13 lines in a cramped gothic bookhand, with music on a 4-line red stave, capitals in elaborate penwork strokes touched with yellow wash and red paint (some with penwork picking out faces), red rubrics, small initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, some of these with long and whip-like penwork extensions far into margins, each leaf with one large initial in ornamental penwork strokes decorated with penwork foliage and red, one with a human face at its upper right-hand edge, the initial accompanying the Feast of All Souls (2 November) with a youth with his hands clasped in prayer as God appears to him in the clouds above, the other accompanying the Feast of Catherine of Alexandria (25 November) with the initial crowned and a young man dressed in blue and red clothes holding up a garland of flowers for the young woman who once stood on the other side of the initial (but now erased apart from her hand inside the initial), a partly erased banderole held in the man's other hand (with only a few letters left, perhaps opening 'ma ...'), some scuffs, stains and small spots, else good condition, each leaf approximately 283 by 216mm. Other leaves from this charming extra-illustrated antiphonal have appeared in our rooms, 9 December 2015, lot 48 and 7 December 2016, lot 48, where, following the decoration on those leaves, we mistakenly identified them as from the Rhineland. The emergence of further leaves with banderoles with text in French, particularly that showing a remarkable wine tasting scene (now in a private collection), suggest eastern France instead, perhaps Bescançon. The present leaves were acquired by Roger Martin from the European trade in 2017.

Leaf from a Registrum Brevium, a register of writs, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [England (probably London or Westminster), mid-fourteenth century] Single leaf, with single column of 33 lines of a small and compact anglicana chancery hand, paragraph marks in red or dark blue, with reference words set off in outer margin with same, some capitals of these reference words touched in red, original folio no. 'lxxxxii' in upper outer corner of recto, lower outer corner once folded in, small spots and stains, somewhat cockled, else good condition, 192 by 127mm.Provenance:1. The parent codex of this leaf was written as a practical manual of procedural law for a working lawyer in medieval England. The Registrum Brevium functioned like case law digests in the modern practice of law, listing the grounds on which previous cases had been filed and thus providing lawyers with a reference list of causes of action that could be brought to court.2. Perhaps to be identified with the copy of the text with the same measurements but written in a single column of 34 lines, which was sold in Sotheby's, 10 December 1962, lot 144, to 'Dawson', perhaps the Los Angeles bookdealers. Another leaf certainly from the same manuscript as the present one was offered in Pirages, cat. 70 (2016), no. 198, with that written on 34 lines. The Sotheby's codex included 100 leaves, and was from the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps (his MS. 7379, his sale in the same rooms, 27 April 1903, lot 954), and had a late fifteenth-century note on fol. 30v signed by Robert Hardcowtre of 'ley hide' in Staffordshire.3. A label once on the reverse of a card frame this leaf was mounted in when acquired noted this as a part of 'TFI 1964', a reference to the portfolios issued by Foliophiles Inc., a company founded by G.M.L. Brown of New York, then handed over to the notorious Harold J. Maker in the early 1950s (also known as Harold von Maker and Peter Wertz; on whose later con-man activities see T. McShane, Stolen Masterpiece Tracker, 2006), and from 1963 run by Alfred W. Stites (1922-2016) of Washington DC. Stites proceeded to create and sell portfolio sets of leaves from manuscripts and printed books as teaching tools under the title 'Pages from the Past'. These were produced and sent out with great rapidity and turnover of contents, with Stites producing 18 such sets in 1964-66. Intact examples of these sets survive in Columbia, University of Missouri, Ellis library (including another leaf from the same legal manuscript with fol. no. 'lxxii'); Western Michigan University library; and St. Louis Public Library. 4. On the same card frame was mounted the business card of M. Revak & Co., Art, Letters, Literature of the Law, of Tucson, Arizona, and evidently sold by him.5. Acquired by Roger Martin from a private North American collector in 2018.

Leaf from a copy of Innocent IV, Apparatus in Quinque Libros Decretalium, in Latin, manuscript on parchment, with another contemporary English leaf from a text on singing [England, fourteenth century] Two leaves: Innocent IV, Apparatus, with double column of 57 lines in a small and fine university hand (with book I, rubric III, capit. XX:8-capit. XXI:1-7), capitals marked with pendrawn paragraph marks touched in red, other paragraph marks in dark blue and red, other capitals in margin touched in red, running titles 'L/I' in red capitals at head of each page, reused as pastedown in later binding and so trimmed at edges, small holes, scuffed and illegible in places on reverse, tears to edges, else fair and presentable condition, 300 by 215mm.; plus a contemporary English leaf from a text on singing (not traceable in 'In Principio' database) with double column of 59 lines, running title 'L/II' in red and dark blue capitals, 281 by 207mm.Acquired in UK and European trade in 2019.For discussion of the first text here, see lot 75

Leaf from a gargantuan copy of Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Switzerland (perhaps Gams), or Germany, fourteenth century] Single very large leaf, with double column of 30 lines in a tall gothic bookhand (with text for I Maccabees 1, on Alexander the Great and Ptolomy I Sotor), with notable lateral compression, capitals touched in red, bright red rubrics, running titles in red or blue capitals at head of each page, three initials in red or blue with ornate contrasting penwork decoration, this reaching far into margins, prickings for lines visible at outer edge and thus leaf not cut down, some folds with these causing discolouration on verso, a few small holes, somewhat cockled overall, spots and stains, else in fair and presentable condition with wide and clean margins, 435 by 338mm. Provenance:1. The parent codex was most probably written for lectern reading in an ecclesiastical centre, in the fourteenth century. Inscriptions on its verso record that it was reused in 1567 as the binding of a 'Registrum frumentorum', an account of revenues (lit. 'of wheat'), for an Antonius Freissen, who is named as a 'Canonico Commissenis(?)', perhaps indicating Comesianorum conventus, a name recorded for Gams, Switzerland.2. This leaf acquired from a European private collector in 2018. Text:Petrus Comestor (d. 1178) studied at Troyes Cathedral School, where he may have come into contact with the grand scholar Peter Abelard, before travelling to Paris to study there under the celebrated theologian, Peter Lombard. He returned to Troyes as its dean in 1147 and served as the chancellor of Notre Dame from 1168. His teaching was acclaimed in his own time, and his Historia Scholastica carried on his fame after his death. It is a study of early Biblical history from the Creation to the Ascension, supplementing the narrative of the Bible with the works of Church Fathers and other sources. It was completed by 1173.

Leaf from a copy of Priscian, Institutiones Grammaticae, in Latin with occasional word in Greek, manuscript on parchment [Italy, thirteenth century] Single leaf, with single column of 31 lines in a somewhat informal bookhand strongly influenced by secretarial letterforms (with parts of book 17, ch. 19), capitals touched in red, dark-red paragraph marks made with thin pen-nib, lines of hooked penstrokes used for Greek words the scribe did not understand or were found wanting in his exemplar, recovered from reuse as a pastedown in a later binding and hence with reverse scuffed and illegible in places, slightly cockled, small spots, holes and stains, else fair condition, 200 by 144mm. Provenance:Acquired from a private European collector in 2011. Text:Priscian was born sometime before the year 500 in the North African city of Caesarea and taught Latin at Constantinople. This work was the result of those years spent teaching, and despite the author s intention that it should be used by those in the Eastern Empire to learn Latin, it became the mainstay of the Western medieval world to relearn the language of Ancient Rome. It was used by Cassiodorus in Italy, Aldhelm and Bede in England, and had a substantial following in the Insular world. Alcuin records its presence in the library of York, and became its champion once he took up a position in the court of Charlemagne. Thereafter, no monastery, cathedral- or secular-school could be without a copy, and 527 medieval manuscripts are recorded today (see M. Gibson, ''Institutiones grammaticae': a Handlist of Manuscripts', in Scriptorium, 26, 1972).

Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy, first half of fourteenth century] Single leaf, with main text in single column of 32 lines of a rounded angular gothic bookhand (with text from book II), double column used for Latin verse, capitals touched with hairline penwork, red rubrics and paragraph marks, large red initials with curling lappets from their extremities ending in red droplets, recovered from reuse as a limp parchment binding, and hence with reverse much rubbed, folds, stains and damage to edges of leaves, inscription in late sixteenth- or seventeenth-century Italian from that reuse at foot, overall fair and presentable condition, 260 by 180mm. Acquired from a private European collector in 2006. This leaf is probably all that remains of a splendid copy of the fundamental philosophical text of the Middle Ages, written at the dawn of the Middle Ages while its author, Boethius (c. 477-524) was in prison, accused of plotting against the barbarian masters of Rome. This work is an attempt to resolve the horror of what has happened to him with platonic stoicism and Christian philosophy, and formed the framework for much of the philosophical thought of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Leaf from a large Bible, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (Bologna), second half of thirteenth century] Single leaf, with double column of 47 lines in a rounded Italian university script (with Third Epistle of John, the Argument to Jude, the whole of the General Epistle of Jude, the Prologue and Argument to Revelation and the Revelation of St John the Divine 1-2), capitals touched in red, red rubrics, versal numbers and remains of running titles in red or blue capitals, small initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork (this often extending entire length of margins, two large initials in fawn, red and grey acanthus leaf sprigs on blue grounds edged with white penwork, both with sprays of coloured foliage in margins, the larger with a red human face within the marginal decoration, upper margin lost perhaps from old heat damage, uppermost lines on both sides suffering flaking from ink as a consequence of this as well, with much of running titles missing, small spots and stains, else good condition, 304 by 225mm.Acquired from a private North American collector in 2005.Other leaves from the same parent manuscript were offered in Sotheby's, 25 April 1983, lot 30, from the Rosenbaum collection. A further clutch of leaves is in Southern Methodist University, Bridwell Library, with a further leaf in the University of South Carolina.

Leaf from an early Choirbook, with a large decorated initial incorporating a dragon, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy, thirteenth century] Single large leaf, with single column of 11 lines in an early gothic bookhand, instructions in smaller hand, with music on a 4-line red stave, capitals and significant letters touched in red, red rubrics, small initials in either penwork strokes touched in red or red or blue angular strokes with penwork in opposite colour, one large initial 'D' (opening 'Deus omnium exauditor ...', the first response of the first nocturn of Matins for the second Sunday after Pentecost), in vibrant orange with white penwork, enclosing sprays of fawn, blue and orange acanthus leaves all exploding out from a central red flowerhead, the ascender of the letter formed from a blue and red dragon with a frilly 'Mohican'-like crest atop its head, whose trailing tail delicately curls around the upper part pf the initial, the whole initial on blue grounds heightened with white crosses, and within a fawn frame, slight shine through in places, some cockling, small scuffs, spots and stains, else in presentable condition, 440 by 305mm.Acquired from a private North American collector in 2019.

Leaf from an Antiphonal, most probably of Franciscan Use, with a large illuminated initial, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy (most probably Central, or perhaps Bologna), late thirteenth century] Single large leaf, with single column of 5 lines of a large and rounded liturgical bookhand, with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum 45mm.), instructions to painter who added ornamental capitals in tiny hairline script in border, catchwords within penwork frame at foot of verso, capitals encased with elaborate penwork, rubrics in red, opening letters after the large initial in tall red or blue capitals with penwork, one very large initial 'F' (opening 'Francisci pia plantua ...', the first response after the first lection in the first nocturn of Matins for the Feast of St. Clare) in grey-white acanthus leaves with blue and red leaves (the uppermost trailing off into a long curling penstroke surmounted by a large gold bezant), the cross bar and infill of the letter with geometric mirrored foliage enclosing burnished gold panels on dark blue grounds, the whole initial on burnished gold (heightened with curling white penwork) and blue grounds to its left, an apparent folio no. '56' twice in middle of vertical border of recto in seventeenth- or eighteenth-century hand, some light flaking from ink in places, small scuffs to acanthus leaves in places, a fold or two, small spots and stains, else in good and bright condition, 600 by 415mm. As the office here is that of the Feast of Saint Clare, the parent volume was most probably made for use in a Franciscan community. The geometric work within the initial and the use of white penwork overlaid on the gold grounds points to Central Italian and Bolognese work of the late thirteenth century (see the antiphonal of similar age reproduced in M.M. Manion and V.F. Vines, Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts in Australian Collections, 1984, no. 5, pp. 39-40 and fig. 27). The leaf here was acquired from a private European collector in 2018. 

Leaf from a copy of Justinian, Corpus Iuris Civilis, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Bologna), fourteenth century] Single leaf, with double column of 37 lines of main text in a rounded late gothic hand (with book V, titulus 6-9), encased within smaller glossing script, paragraph marks and rubrics in red, one-line initials in red or blue, most with contrasting penwork, larger initials in blue or pink on coloured grounds with circles of gold and short foliate tendrils extending into margin, two larger initials formed from human torsos, one pointing with his arm into the blank margin, the other with a body formed from a red animal's leg, both on coloured grounds, some corrections and overwritten sections, reused in early seventeenth century on a binding and hence with scuffs, stains, discoloured areas, scrawls from that period and trimmed at top to upper edge of main text, overall fair condition, 317 by 247mm.Acquired in the European trade in 2017.

Three leaves from Innocent IV, Apparatus in Quinque Libros Decretalium, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy, second half of fourteenth century] Three single leaves, double column of 66 lines in a rounded Italian gothic bookhand, red rubrics, running titles in alternate red and blue capitals, paragraph marks in red or dark blue, initials in red, white and pale blue, enclosing sprays of coloured foliage, with other curls of foliage in margin, one large initial in blue edged with white, enclosing a lacertine animal with an animal's mask on burnished gold grounds, all on pale pink-white grounds with angular foliate extension in margin enclosing gold bezants, some small marginalia, notable grain pattern on some sides, damage to upper edge of one leaf, small spots and stains, else excellent condition, each leaf 390 by 260mm. Provenance:These leaves acquired from a private European collector on 14 February 2020. Another leaf from the same parent manuscript was Quaritch, cat. 1315 (2004), no. 43. Text:Pope Innocent IV (reigned 1243-54) was trained as a canon lawyer, and used these skills to defend the papacy at the height of the Investiture Contest - when the pope and the emperor both claimed to have the divine right to appoint or depose each other. Thus, in this commentary on the Decretals, he argued from a legal basis that the pope had supreme authority as God's representative on earth, and went further, extending papal rule 'not just over Christians but also all infidels, since Christ holds power over all'. Thus empowered, he asserted himself against the aggressive new Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II, as well as calling for further crusades, corresponding with Muslim rulers about the truth of the Gospel, and sending Christian envoys to the powerful Mongol Empire.

Leaf from a Promissione Ducale, the oath sworn by the doge of Venice, with two historiated initials, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Venice), second half of fourteenth century, with fifteenth-century additions] Single large leaf, with double column of 24 lines of a rounded Italian gothic bookhand, capitals with ornamental penstrokes, red rubrics, two large historiated initials: (i) 'S' (opening 'Si autem ad audientiam ...', here opening ch. 90) in pink heightened with white penwork, on blue grounds with trailing white penwork, the whole on brightly burnished gold grounds, enclosing a man and a woman as he attempts to molest her (see below), extensions into the margins formed of coloured acanthus leaves with large gold fruit and bezants; (ii) 'E' (opening 'Et si aliquis ...', here opening ch. 91) as before with a woman inside the initial talking to a man who stands outside of it and appears to be trying to walk away (see below), this with more elaborate acanthus leaves in the central and upper margins again with gold fruit and bezants, some fifteenth- and sixteenth-century marginalia, small chipping to gold in places on first initial, second more seriously affected by flaking from paint of figures, two rectangular discoloured areas at outer edge from last mounting, small spots and stains, else in fair and presentable condition, 327 by 244mm. Provenance:1. Produced as a luxurious copy of the text in the fourteenth century, apparently with a historiated initial for every chapter, most probably for the doge himself who swore this oath on coming to office. The additions dated 1413 were added later. The text of these documents was progressively added to after the beginning of their use in the late twelfth century, with each new addition adding to the chapter numbers, and disturbing many earlier chapter numbers from their earlier content. The chapter numbers here place this significantly before the copy which survives for Doge Francesco Foscari (reigned 1423-1457), which has another seven chapters inserted before the text of our ch. 90.2. Gonnelli Casa d'Arte, Florence, 11 December 2015, lot 135, acquired at that auction by Roger Martin and exported in early 2016 to the United Kingdom with an export license from the Italian authorities.Illumination:The subjects of these initials are entirely secular and of great rarity. The first shows a richly dressed man as he attempts to grab a woman, perhaps intimately, as she catches his arm to push it away. This corresponds to the text on the punishment of men who have molested or defiled married women or virgins. The second shows a woman inside the initial talking to a man who stands outside of it as he appears to be trying to walk away, and corresponds to the text on the woman who lives in the house of a man who has extracted a true confession from her of causing fornication.The illuminator was a follower of two of the leading artists of fourteenth-century Bologna, the 1346 Master (fl. 1340-50) and Nicolò di Giacomo da Bologna (fl. 1349-1403), both of whom worked extensively on illuminating statutes and legal codices (see Illuminating the Law, 2001, nos. 20-22; and note the intimate depiction of a couple kissing in an initial on a leaf from a copy of Johannes Andreae, Novella, discussing marriage, that now National Gallery of Art, Washington DC., MS. B-22225). A Venetian doge is unlikely to have commissioned a volume from as far away as Bologna, and the parent codex may have been painted in Venice by an artist who trained in Bologna before practising there.

Christ before Pilate, in a finely executed historiated initial, with a human figure, perhaps a wildman, and two boars in the margins, from a known Book of Hours, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [most probably Utrecht, northern Netherlands, for an English patron, c. 1400-10 (and certainly before 1417)] Single leaf, with a large (8-line) initial in blue with white and black interior penwork, enclosing Christ bound and held by two of his captors, before a seated Pilate in softly modelled blue and pink robes, all on gold grounds, full text borders of coloured ivy-leaf foliage and angular gold bars, these enclosing a seated figure in the outer vertical panel, who watches the scene in the initial (the figure either a wildman or naked human), and two large boars in a grassy scene in the bas-de-page, two 3-line illuminated initials on blue and burgundy grounds, one-line initials in gold or blue with purple or red penwork, line-fillers in red and blue bars arranged around dots of gold, red rubrics, capitals touched in red, single column of 16 lines of an angular gothic bookhand, upper section of initial and parts of border rubbed, but leaf still notably fine, trimmed at inner vertical margin with slight losses to edges of borders there, small fold at head of leaf, overall slightly darkened, remnants of paper on inner vertical margin on reverse from last mounting, but in presentable condition, 129 by 95mm. This is the missing miniature leaf opening Prime in the Hours of the Virgin from an early Book of Hours of mixed Utrecht-Sarum use, then later adapted for York, which is now Huntington Library, HM 57340; identified as in the hand of a Utrecht follower of the Master of Margaret of Cleves  Provenance:1. The parent manuscript was most probably written in Utrecht (script, decoration, Use of Office of the Dead and localisation of some red feasts in Calendar) for an English owner (Sarum use of Hours of the Virgin and some saints in Calendar), and in 1417 was used to record the birth of a daughter to John Newsom, perhaps of the Yorkshire family of the same name (see P. Kidd, 'Supplement to the Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library', The Huntington Library Quarterly, 72, 2009, pp. 33-41; noting the present leaf on p. 38), with some later additions indicating use there. A number of leaves were removed from the parent volume, and it passed from Bruce Ferrini to Sam Fogg and thence to the Huntington in 1998.2. The present leaf acquired in the North American trade in 2004. Illumination:While the damage here cannot be ignored, the refined quality of the workmanship is clear, and this leaf is one of the oldest known Dutch miniatures. Almost no northern Netherlandish pictorial art survives before 1400, and examples as early as this are of great rarity on the market (the only other known to us is the unrelated miniature of the Scourging of Christ published by James Marrow as Horas de Margarida de Cleves, The Hours of Margaret of Cleves, 1995, pp. 53, 92 (as n. 101) and fig. 37, and then sold in Sotheby's, 7 December 2004, lot 21). As James Marrow noted in correspondence with Roger Martin soon after its acquisition, the scene of the present leaf shows noted similarities of general composition and the figure of the man dressed in red in the foreground with those on fol. 68v of the Hours of Margaret of Cleves, written c. 1395-1400 (Lisbon, C. Gulbenkian Museum, Ms. L.A..148), that volume more-or-less the earliest illustrated Dutch manuscript (J.H. Marrow, The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 1989, no. 1). Our artist must have been a close follower of that master, and perhaps even a close member of his workshop, trained by him.

Leaf from an early Book of Hours, Use of Rome, with a miniature of Christ enthroned as the Salvator Mundi, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (Paris or Burgundy), c. 1400] Single leaf, with large miniature of Christ, seated on a green dais, in a blue tunic and flowing robes with red lining, one hand holding a globe and the other raised in blessing, all before a tessellated background picked out in liquid gold, all within gold frame, and above 2-line initial in pink on gold grounds enclosing foliage, and 3 lines of text (opening the Penitential Psalms, Psalm 6), elaborate decorated border of gold bars and coloured foliage sprigs ending with gold leaves and bezants encrusted in penstrokes, verso with 15 lines of text with one-line illuminated initials on coloured grounds and line-fillers in same, as well as smaller foliage sprays, some slight thumbing to borders in places, small spots and stains, else excellent condition, 140 by 102mm. Provenance:1. From an elegant French Book of Hours in the 'international gothic' style. These are usually Parisian, but the parent manuscript had a Burgundian saint (Medericus, 29 August) in its Calendar, and other textual anomalies suggested that this may have been produced in a centre there instead. It was owned by an Italian nun in 1453, and was purchased by Sir Charles Frederick in Livorna in 1738, and must have been among his manuscripts when they were sold by Gerard of London, on 5 July 1786. From there it went to John Paget (1761-1825), of Newberry House and Cranmore Hall, Somerset, and thence by descent until appearing in Sotheby's, 1 December 1987, lot 61, and again 5 December 1989, lot 107, and soon after dispersed.2. This leaf acquired from a private European collector.

Text leaf from the Chester Beatty Hours of 1408, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (Paris), parent manuscript dated 1408] Single leaf, single column of 15 lines in two sizes of a high-grade gothic bookhand (Office of the Dead, Matins, second nocturn for Tuesday and Friday), red rubrics, line-fillers in coloured geometric patterns or lines of gems on gold panels, one-line initials in blue and soft-pink heightened with white penwork on gold grounds, text borders of gold and coloured bars on three sides and densely populated full border of rinceaux foliage with coloured and gold leaves, earlier folio no. probably '123' in upper outer corner, water-damage to extremities affecting decorated borders (see below), else good condition, 175 by 130mm.Provenance:1. From a parent manuscript decorated by the Mazarine Master, which had a colophon stating that it was written in 1408 when the bridges of Paris were swept away in a storm.2. John Boykett Jarman (d. 1864), a London jeweller, and damaged in a flood alongside many other items in his collection; his sale in Sotheby's, 13 June 1864, lot 47.3. Edward Arnold; his sale in Sotheby's, 6 May 1929, lot 240.4. Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (d. 1968), his W MS.103, who took the volume apart mounting the miniatures separately and giving some text leaves to friends; the remnant was sold in Sotheby's, 24 June 1969, lots 58 and 58A-K (see M.M. Manion, V.F. Vines and C. de Hamel, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, pp.96-98, for a list of identified leaves).5. This leaf acquired from Freeman's, Philadelphia, 23 April 2015, lot 282.

Leaf from a notably early Missal, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Germany, c. 1000 or early eleventh century] Single leaf with double column of 36 lines of two sizes of a fine and rounded late Carolingian minuscule, with a strong 'st'-ligature, pronounced wedging to ends of ascenders, a distinctive 'h' with a second stroke that curves back sharply at its tip towards the preceding ascender so it almost closes the loop, and a 'z' that hangs like a '3' with its top bar just above the baseline, pale red rubrics, simple initials in same, recovered from reuse in a binding and so with stains, blank margins trimmed away, a few splits and losses at edges, overall in good and fresh condition on fine and heavy parchment, 300 by 202mm. Provenance:Acquired from a private North American collector in 2016. Script:The heavy square aspect of this script and its angularity, especially when writing leftward facing bowls of letters such as 'd', 'q' and 'g' where the uppermost part of the bowl is flat, with the remainder hanging down from this at an angle, indicates the German origin of this leaf (compare the Psalter written in the last decade of the tenth century, now Cologne, Dom. Hs. 45 Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, no. 40).

Ɵ Book of Hours, Use of Besançon, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript codex on parchment [eastern France (probably Besançon), c. 1420-40]To view a video of this lot, click here.84 leaves, wanting single leaves and groups of leaves throughout, as well as gatherings from end, collation: i8 (wants i-iv), ii3 (wanting i, ii, iv and vi), iii8, iv7 (wants i), v6 (probably missing iv-v), vi8, vii5 (wanting iii, vi and viii), viii7 (wanting v), ix6 (wanting ii and vii), x7 (wanting viii), xi4 (wants entire second part of gathering), xii3 (wanting i-iii, vi-vii), xiii7 (wanting i), xiv5 (wanting 3 leaves at end), some catchwords remaining, single column of 13 lines of an excellent and professional gothic bookhand, Calendar entries in gold, blue and red, red rubrics, one-line initials in gold on pink and blue grounds, 2- to 3-line initials in blue or pink and containing foliage on gold grounds, line-fillers in same, three-quarter decorated borders on almost every leaf (with exception of only two pages) of thin gold and coloured bars puckered at their midpoints and often with coloured and gold 'bosses' at their heads and feet, these sprouting coloured acanthus leaves and rinceaux foliage terminating in coloured flower-heads and gold leaves and seed pods in delicate circular swirls at their extremities in bas-de-page, the leaves discoloured and stained at ends and extremities, a few small spots and scuffs, else most of volume in presentable condition, 175 by 128mm.; original sewing structures present, but boards missing for some considerable time; the whole in a custom-made boxProvenance:1. This charming little volume was almost certainly made in Besançon, eastern central France, in the second or third decade of the fifteenth century. It was identified for Roger Martin by his friend Eriks Drigsdahl as of the uncommon use of Besançon, and includes the definitive capitulum, 'Sicut cinnamomum et ...' at Compline. The saints in the Calendar consolidate this impression, with SS. Ferreolus and Ferrucius of Besançon on 30 May, 16 June, 5 and 18 September (the last in gold), and a long list of bishops of the town, including Bishop Claudius on 6 June, Bishop Autidus on 17 June, Bishop Desideratus on 27 July, and Bishop Donatus on 7 August. In addition, the dedication on 5 May for St. John is in gold and this is the saint to whom the cathedral in Besançon was dedicated.2. Bukowski's Auctions, Stockholm, Sweden, 8 May 2018, no. 1017486; acquired there by Roger Martin.Text:While many leaves have been lost from this volume, this remains a good and appealing example of a lavishly decorated Book of Hours made outside the dominant book-production hub of Paris in the decades before the output of such volumes reached industrial levels. The volume comprises: fol. 1r, a Calendar beginning in May; fol. 9r, Gospel Sequences, wanting openings of Luke, Matthew and Mark; fol. 11v, prayers to the Virgin, with parts of the Obsecro te, O intemerata, Gaude virgo mater and Omnipotens sempiterne dominus; the Hours of the Virgin, with fol. 20r, Matins, fol. 31r, Lauds, fol. 43r, Prime, fol. 46r, Terce, fol. 50r, Sext, fol. 54r, Nones, fol. 58r, Vespers and fol. 70r, Vespers (all wanting openings); fol. 70r, prayers in French including the Seven Requests to Our Lord and the Sainte uraie crois; fol. 73r, Penitential Psalms (opening in Psalm 6:7, ending in 142:8).

A funeral scene, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours, Use of Paris, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (probably Paris), c. 1440] Single leaf, with large miniature of a funeral scene in which the priest reads from an open book dolefully, as two men lower a body stitched into a shroud into an open grave before mourners, all before a medieval church, within thin gold arch-topped frame, above 3-line initial in blue heightened with white penwork, enclosing foliage and on burnished gold grounds, and 4 lines of text with capitals touched in yellow, red rubrics and coloured panels with gold circles forming line-fillers, full decorated border of densely packed acanthus leaves and rinceaux foliage terminating in gold and coloured leaves and seed-pods arranged around gold and coloured double bars, blue inkstamp of Kushelev-Bezborodko in lower outer margin (see below), verso with 16 lines as before with one-line initials in gold on burgundy or blue grounds, small spots and stains, else excellent condition, 180 by 120mm. Provenance:1. From a Book of Hours owned in the eighteenth century by 'Mr Jourdan Secrétaire de Mgnr l'ancien Evêque de Limoges Precepteur des Enfans de Françe', and passing thence to several Russian libraries before coming into the collection of Count Nicholai Alexanderovich Kushelev-Bezborodko (1834-1862), an art collector who inherited his father's large art collection and substantially added to it during a long tour of Europe after the Crimean War, but cut short by his untimely death; much of his collection surviving in the Kushelevskaya Gallery in the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg: his small inkstamp in corner of this leaf.2. The codex sold Christie's, 7 December 1988, lot 22 (then imperfect and with only three miniatures).3. Reappearing Sotheby's, 5 December 2000, lot 61, and then dispersed.4. This leaf acquired from North American trade in 2005.

Miniature of Pope St. Gregory's vision, on a leaf from a Book of Hours, Use of Angers, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [France (Angers), late fifteenth century] Single leaf, with a large miniature enclosing the saint celebrating Mass as a vision of Christ as the Man of Sorrows supported by an attendant appears on the altar before him, as he holds up the host and reads from an open book on the altar next to his papal crown, all within a rich gothic interior with followers behind and a city visible through the window, all within a red arch-topped frame, above a 2-line initial in liquid gold on burgundy grounds and 2 lines of text (this and what follows containing the Seven Prayers of St. Gregory on the Passion of the Lord), full border of acanthus leaves and other foliage on dull gold grounds enclosing a butterfly, a four-legged drollery animal and two monkeys in the bas-de-page playing the bagpipes and a shepherd's shawm, verso with six one- and 2-line initials as before and 14 lines of text, small spots and stains, occasional smudge, corner once folded in, else good condition, 150 by 105mm. From a Book of Hours, made for a young woman who lived in the region of Angers in the late fifteenth century. That sold Sotheby's, 5 December 1995, lot 52 (already imperfect) and dispersed soon after. This leaf acquired in the North American trade in 2018.

Leaf from a Book of Hours, Use of Rome, with a notably realistic painting of a frog in the margin, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern France (probably Rouen), c. 1470] Single leaf, with single column of 18 lines of angular late gothic bookhand, rubrics in deep burgundy-red, one-line initials in liquid gold on blue and burgundy-red grounds, line-fillers in panels of same or coloured circles or diamonds, decorated border panels of coloured acanthus leaves and other foliage on blank parchment decorated with tadpole-like penmarks, these within dull-gold frames, enclosing a knight in full armour with a shield with a human face and a large realistic green frog with bulging eyes, small spots and stains, overall in excellent condition, 180 by 118mm. Acquired from a private UK collector in 2015. Medieval European art was rarely realistic, and this is perhaps most noticeable when it came to depict animals. These often consciously follow stock models to represent different species or parts of them such as their faces, or reference verbal plays on their names, rather than attempt to depict their actual appearance, even when the artist and audience regularly came into contact with such animals. However, what we see here is a remarkable break from form, and the artist has attempted to closely capture the image of a frog, conveying its colouring, shape, posture, bone structure, bulging eyes and feet and toes. This is the most accurate representation of a frog known to the present cataloguer from any medieval manuscript. With the image on the other side we return to medieval form, and the knight here is in jousting armour, with a helmet known to the Early Modern world at least as a 'frog-mouth helm', perhaps nodding at the subject on the verso.

Two leaves from a Calendar, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [France (perhaps central), fifteenth century] Two separate leaves (for February and September), ruled for 33 lines of text, with entries for the number of day and night hours, the Golden Numbers, the Dominical Letters and the Nones, Ides and Kalends in a late gothic bookhand in red and black, but saints' feasts not filled in, one large 'KL' initial in blue or red on each leaf, repairs to splits in parchment at foot of each leaf, a few marks at edges of leaves from tabs or last mounting, a few spots and stains, slight cockling, else in good condition, 180 by 124mm. These leaves have pencil annotations at their foot in the hand of Otto Ege (1888-1951): 'France 1320 AD'. However, they are not part of any known manuscript dispersed by him. They may well be occasional purchases of his, or perhaps leaves received from an associate of Ege's such as Philip C. Duschnes (see S. Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, 2013, pp. 67-80 on such 'rogue leaves'). These leaves acquired from a private North American collector in 2019.

Small fragment of Geremia da Montagnone, Compendium Moralium Notabilium, citing Cicero, Seneca, Horace, Aristotle and Ovid, among others, in Latin, decorated manuscript on paper [France, fifteenth century] Rectangular cutting, with remains of double column of 30 lines in a rounded gothic bookhand, paragraph marks in red or blue, initials in same with contrasting penwork, opening line of text of significant sections in ornamental capitals, recovered from reuse in a binding and hence with stains, scuffs, folds and a small hole, an indistinct modern inkstamp showing the parent book once in the holdings of an archive and presumably deaccessioned before the present leaf was removed, overall fair condition, 152 by 169mm.Acquired from a private European collector in 2019.The author was a judge active in Padua at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and involved in the proto-humanist literary circle of Lovato Lovati there. This work is best known for its mining of Classical sources, including some of the earliest references to Catullus' work soon after its rediscovery.

Leaf from Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 27:47-56, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [probably Germany, eleventh century] Single leaf, with losses to margins and upper outer corner, single column of 25 lines in a good Romanesque hand, with occasional features suggesting German origin (note distinctive 'z' in 'lazarus' in last but one line on recto, formed from a 'h'-like letter with an extra half-loop at head of ascender, identical to that in the Pericope of St. Erentrud, made in Salzburg c. 1150: see Pracht auf Pergament, 2012, no. 58), pronounced grain pattern, a few small scrawls at edge from reuse on an account book (probably in sixteenth century), used as a pastedown and so with spots, stains and discoloured areas to reverse, overall fair and presentable condition, 212 by 171mm. The measured and square hand here, without the angularity or tendency to lean so common of German hands, finds its peers in a hands of the eleventh century, such as that of a Gregory the Great, Expositio in Canticum Canticorum, and a Moralia in Iob, both produced in Echternach in the eleventh century (now BnF., Latin 9737 and 9558; reproduced in F. Avril and C. Rabel, Manuscrits enluminés d'origine germanique, 1995, nos. 21-22, pl. xv-xvi).

St. Catherine of Siena, as Christ and a host of saints appears to her, and offers her a bejewelled wedding ring, miniature on a leaf from a copy of the French translation of the Legenda Maior of Raymond of Capua, this leaf from a illuminated manuscript on parchment made for the grand Burgundian patron, Louis de Gruuthuse [French Flanders (doubtless Bruges), c. 1475] Single leaf, with half page gold framed miniature attributed to the Master of Margaret of York or his workshop (see below), above a single pale pink initial containing coloured foliage, and 6 lines of elegant Burgundian lettre bâtarde by a professional scribe as yet unidentified but close to that of Colard Mansion, all within gold text frame and full border of acanthus leaves and other foliage, reverse with single word from previous chapter ('personnes': see below) at head, followed by line-filler in gold, blue and pink, above 5 lines of rubric opening with large and fine calligraphic initial (with human face poking out it's tongue picked out in brown ink at its edge), some flaking and scuffing to gold, brown stains to upper margin, else fine condition, 276 by 197mm. This leaf has a sublime provenance from Louis de Gruuthuse, the greatest art patron of the Burgundian Netherlands aside from the ducal family, to two kings of France, including François I, the father of the French Renaissance Provenance:1. This is a long-lost leaf from BnF MS. fr. 1048 (olim Regius 7336; on the manuscript see I. Hans-Collas & P. Schandel, Manuscrits enluminés des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux. I. Manuscrits de Louis de Bruges, Paris, 2009, no. 36, pp. 144-45), a copy of the anonymous Légende de la Vie de Sainte Catherine de Sienne, made for Louis de Gruuthuse (1422-92; also known as Louis de Bruges), courtier to Philip the Good and the wealthiest and most important art patron in the Burgundian Low Countries outside the reigning ducal family. The loss of leaves from the parent volume removed the frontispiece with his armorial devices, but an offset of them can be seen on fol. 4v there. The present leaf contains the last word of book I, ch. 7, and the opening of book II, ch. 1, and once sat before fol. 35 in the parent manuscript (see the gallica.bnf.fr website for a black-and-white facsimile).2. Louis XII (1462-1515, king of France from 1498), who was given the entire Gruuthuse library c. 1500, most probably by Jean V de Gruuthuse, the son and heir of Louis de Gruuthuse, as well as Louis XII's chamberlain. 3. François I (1494-1547, king of France from 1515), the father of the Renaissance in France and one of that nation's most important bibliophiles. He had the Gruuthuse arms overpainted in many of the volumes from that library and moved them along with the rest of the royal library into the treasury of the château of Blois (note the parent manuscript has the sixteenth-century note 'Bloys' at the head of its first original flyleaf above a description of its contents, doubtless from this move). There the royal chaplain, Guillaume Petit, recorded them in an inventory of 1518, and again in 1544, with the present leaf part of no. 1510, described as 'Ung autre livre, en parchemyn, intitule: Vye de saincte Catherine de Sennes; couvert de veloux incarnat' (see H. Omont, Anciens inventaires et catalogues de la Bibliothèque nationale, I, 1908, p. 235). These then passed to the royal library in Fontainebleau, and after the Revolution and foundation of the First Republic in 1792 to the Bibliothèque nationale. Depredations were made early into the Gruuthuse sections of the royal library, and in fact only 155 volumes of the 180 extant from this library now remain in the Bibliothèque nationale. All bar one of the leaves with miniatures were abstracted from the volume in question here before 1831, when the first comprehensive inventories of the Bibliothèque nationale were made (where the parent manuscript is no. 1683: see Omont, Anciens inventaires, p. 344). Where such miniatures were on a recto, a French hand of the eighteenth century added the preceding rubric in the parent volume (this is the case with the leaf in Dartmouth College and the leaf now in a European private collection), indicating that these leaves were removed while the collection was in Blois, and probably before the French Revolution.4. Three leaves from the parent manuscript (most probably including this one) appeared for sale in a Philip C. Duschnes catalogue of May 1970, with one of these reappearing in Sotheby's, 21 June 1994, lot 33 (but with the parent manuscript misidentified, and thus Gruuthuse provenance obscured), and another now in an important European private collection. Two further leaves with miniatures are now in Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, North Hampshire, USA (Rauner Library, 470940, gift of Madelyn C. Hickmott [1897-1988], both reproduced online).5. The present leaf owned by a private North American collector, their sale in Cowen's Auctions of Cincinnati, in March 2013, lot 51; acquired there by Roger Martin.Text: Raymond of Capua (c. 1330-99) served as spiritual director and confessor to St. Catherine of Siena, and thus his account is of paramount importance as an eye-witness record of her life. After her death, he undertook the restoration of the Dominican Order, and was named its second founder. This translation was made by an anonymous Dominican friar, sometime immediately after the canonisation of St. Catherine of Sienna in 1461. It had a short and closely focussed distribution as a text, and may well have been produced under the patronage of the Burgundian court as all five extant witnesses are associated with members of that court or their highest followers. See J.F. Hamburger & G. Signori, 'The Making of a Saint: Catherine of Siena, Thomas Caffarini, and the Others', in Catherine of Siena: The Creation of a Cult, 2013, pp. 8-10. Artist and patron: The identification of the artist as the Master of Margaret of York or a member of his workshop was made by the authors of the Manuscrits de Louis de Bruges volume published in 2009 (working from the single miniature remaining in BnF. fr. 1048 and those in Dartmouth College). The artist was active in Bruges from about 1470 to 1480, and takes his name from a book produced for Margaret of York, wife of Charles the Bold (now Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, nos. 9305-06). However, his surviving works indicate that his principal patron was Louis de Gruuthuse, with some fifteen extant works produced for Louis' apparent personal reading (mostly French translations of Latin works, as here). See S. McKendrick & T. Kren, Illuminating the Renaissance, 2003, p. 217-18.Items from this illustrious library, quintessentially of the late Middle Ages and made to inspire secular piety and demonstrate bourgeois opulence in equal measure, are of enormous rarity on the market. The last significant codex was that of a manuscript from Chatsworth, containing the Deeds of Sir Gillion de Trazegnies, and dated 1464, sold at Sotheby's, 5 December 2012, to the Getty Museum, for £3,849,250. Otherwise a somewhat battered copy of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, with three miniatures, from the final remnant of the Thomas Phillipps collection, appeared at Christie's, 7 June 2006, lot 19, and realised £45,600. Perhaps the closest comparables to that here are a series of three grisaille miniatures produced by the Burgundian artist Lievan van Lathem for a grand manuscript made for Duke Philip the Good, Louis de Gruuthuse's ...(for full text, see catalogue PDF).

Two decorated borders, most probably cut from an Epistolary-Evangelary, manuscripts on parchment [southern Netherlands (most probably Bruges), c. 1480-1490] Two borders, trimmed to their outer edges, and with the main contents of each page (doubtless an arch-topped miniature and text) cut away, these now comprising: (i) variety of realistic flowers, strawberries and woody stems of white-grey acanthus leaves, enclosing two realistic bluebottles and a swordsman who raises his weapon to strike at a fierce and snarling drollery dragon, as its tail curls playfully around his leg, all on dull gold grounds with tiny flecks of gold overlaid; and (ii) similar variety of flowers, strawberries and bunches of grapes, enclosing a butterfly, three birds, a skull and legbone with a snail slithering over it, a figure with a bow and arrow perhaps hunting the snail, and two mourners dressed in black and reading from a book while standing on a tussock, the number 'cc.xxx.' set in a box at the head of the border; both reverses blank, some small areas of chipping and rubbing, else in good condition, 267 by 179mm. (inner aperture 223 by 132mm.) and 263 by 178mm. (inner aperture 216 by 130mm.) Provenance:1. Most probably from the same parent manuscript as the leaves bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, as Lehrman bequest 1975.I.2471 (see S. Hindman, Illuminations in the Robert Lehman Collection, IV: Illuminations, 1997, no. 10, pp. 77-83), and those in the Adalbert von Lanna sale (Catalogue der Sammlung Baron Lanna-Prag, Gilhofer and Rauschberg, 3-4 April 1911, lot 33: image reproduced by Hindman, fig. 10.2; one of those also once in the Lehrman collection and now Musée Marmottan, Paris, Wildenstein collection, 187). Their dimensions are nearly perfectly in alignment, and they share sufficient features such as the realistic flies, white acanthus sprays, bunches of grapes and speckled dull-gold grounds to be linked to the same parent codex (see Hindman, op cit., pls. on p. 78 and 80). The leaves once owned by Adalbert von Lanna (1836-1909), were sold in his sale in Gilhofer and Rauschberg, 3-4 April 1911, lots 32-34 (with lot 32 there to the dealer C.G. Boerner of Leipzig: his sale, 28 November 1912, lot 51, to Édouard Kann of Paris, and via Wildenstein and Co. of New York, to Robert Lehman in March 1927). However, the borders here are not detectable in the Lanna or Boerner sale, so it is possible that these were acquired by a different route by Robert Lehman, and reunited with the other leaves in his collection.2. Robert Lehman (1892-1969), and recorded in his collection by S. de Ricci in 1937 (Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States, II, p. 1716, no. A13, along with a border in a similar style but of greatly different size and from another parent manuscript). These among the large group of items that passed by descent to his family and thus not in the bequest to the Metropolitan Museum in 1969. Then dispersed by Jörn Günther in 2004.4. Reiss and Sohn, Königstein, 26 October 2005, lot 1879, offered together with the third border as recorded by de Ricci.5. These two cuttings acquired from the European trade in 2006.

Leaf with a miniature from a Book of Hours, with stamp-signature of the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, from an illuminated manuscript on parchment [southern Netherlands (Bruges), soon after 1427] Single leaf, with a delicately painted full-page rectangular miniature of tonsured monks singing from an open choirbook and mourners dressed in black, standing before a coffin within a gothic church with silvered windows and black and silver floor tiles and a burnished gold background, all within a thin gold frame and a full decorated border of coloured foliage with gold leaves and gold seedpods, a small gothic 'b' in a pale red circle in the upper inner margin up against the decoration announcing that the work is that of the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht (see below), reverse with 19 lines of French devotional text added in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, some chipping and scuffing to gold and a few small spots and stains, else excellent condition, 176 by 120mm. Provenance:Acquired in Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, 4 September 2013, lot 143 (part). Artist and illumination:Unlike the vast majority of medieval art, this miniature is signed with the small red stamp in its upper inner corner, bearing a gothic 'b'. J.D. Farquhar in a ground-breaking paper in 1980 argued that this was the stamp signature of the artist Claes (Nicholas) Brouwer, but it has been more recently identified as the mark of the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht group instead (Farquhar, 'Identity in an Anonymous Age: Bruges Manuscript Illuminators and Their Signs', Viator, 11, 1980, pp. 371-92; and S. van Bergen, 'The Use of Stamps in Bruges Book Production', in Books of Hours Reconsidered, 2013, pp. 323-337, with lists of all known manuscripts with these stamps).What is certain is that the use of these marks, often stamps as here, was a response to the influx of cheap miniatures on single leaves painted elsewhere into the Bruges book production market, aimed at protecting local painters from the effects of this unscrupulous practise. From 1421 Bruges illuminators were required to identify their works with signs registered with the guild. However, they are rare and in fact this statute may only have been applied in cases where workshops were of non-Bruges origin and had to prove that they were operating within the city legally. Close inspection reveals that the stamps were added before the miniatures, ensuring such marks were made by the artists and workshops, rather than by local 'customs officers' (see van Bergen, p. 325).Thus, this miniature is evidence of an important phase in the development of the commercial book trade in the Low Countries and a rare example of an early artist's or workshop's signature, as well as an extremely early example of the printing of script in the West, a few decades before the xylograph printing of blockbooks and Gutenberg's use of moveable type to print his 42-line Bible.

Two leaves from an Antiphonal, of Carthusian Use, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [southern Netherlands (Ghent or Bruges), c. 1500] Two separate leaves, each with 10 lines of text in two sizes of a highly ornamental and calligraphic late gothic liturgical hand, with music on a 4-line red stave (with Antiphons and Psalms during the third nocturn on Good Friday and the Responses and Verses for Holy Saturday; and Benedictions, Psalms and Antiphons for the Octave Days of Easter, together with instructions relating to other feasts), original folio nos. 'CXIX' and 'CXXXIIII' at head of rectos, capitals touched in red, red rubrics, large initial in split penwork bands touched in red or simple red, one leaf with a large initial 'A' (opening 'Astiterunt reges terre ...') in red woody stalks, from which hang pendulous globe-like blue fruit, on a pastel blue ground, decoration in bas-de-page of a panel enclosing realistic foliage, fruit and a colourful bird on dull-gold grounds, the other with a large initial 'D' (opening 'Dignus es domine ...') formed from twisted green foliage on a green ground with liquid gold penwork, another border panel in bas-de-page with realistic foliage on dull-gold ground, second leaf rubbed at top with small losses to text there, both leaves trimmed at top and with water damage to lower margin causing some staining and cockling with affect to bottom edges of border panels, overall fair and presentable condition, each approximately 480 by 340mm. Provenance:1. The presence of two responses from Matins in the version of the plain chant used by the Carthusians in one of the dispersed leaves offered by Maggs Bros in their cats. 1283 and 1319 (see below), indicates that the parent volume was made for use in a house of that order, and this also explains why another leaf offered by the same company in 1967 included the antiphon and response for the feast of Saint Hugh of Lincoln (a Carthusian monk and bishop of Lincoln, d. 1200). The parent codex appears to have been dispersed in London in 1960s, with leaves offered by Maggs Bros, in their Bulletin 5 (April 1967), nos. 45 and 46 (folio nos. 'CCXL' and 'CXXVI'); Folio Fine Art, cat. 47 (June 1967), no. 201; Sotheby's 20 June 1989, lot 2 (two leaves, folios 'CCXXX' and 'CLXXII'); Les Enluminures, cat. 5 (1996), no. 5; Sotheby's, 17 June 1997, lot 36 (folio no. 'XXXVI', and now in a private collection in New York); Sotheby's 7 December 1999, lot 17 (two leaves, folios 'CI' and 'CLXLI'); Maggs Bros., Illuminations, cat. 1283 (1999), item 36 (folio 'CCI'), and again cat. 1319, item 57.2. The present leaves acquired in North American trade in 2009 and UK trade in 2014.

Two leaves from an opulently illuminated Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [southern Netherlands (probably Bruges), c. 1450-70] Two single leaves, each with single column of 18 lines of a good late gothic bookhand, red rubrics, one-line initials in gold or blue with contrasting penwork, 2-line initials in gold on blue and burgundy grounds, one large initial on each leaf in blue or dark pink heightened with white penwork, enclosing complex geometric knots of foliage and on burnished gold grounds, both with full decorated borders of intertwining coloured acanthus leaves on thin stems that pass through coloured beads and terminate in coloured seed pods or gold bezants, small spots and stains, else excellent condition, each 240 by 169mm.These leaves acquired from private European collectors in 2006 and 2017.

Leaf from a Psalter-Hours or Prayerbook of Brigittine Use, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Low Countries (most probably Marienwater), fifteenth century (most probably after 1434)] Single leaf with a large variegated initial 'A' (opening 'Ave Maria gratia plenia ...') in red and blue geometric designs, enclosing foliage, with a wide text border on all sides in same, that incorporating two squat blue fleur-de-lys in upper border and two wheel-like blue roundels in lower border, the bas-de-page with an angel with blue robes with red trim and green, red and blue wings, holding a staff topped by a fleur-de-lys, one large blue initial on verso encased within and enclosing red penwork, smaller alternate red or blue initials, red rubrics, single column of 18 lines of an accomplished late gothic bookhand, slightly trimmed at edges with slight affect to border decoration at head and foot, cockling at edges in places, small spots, remnants of four small rectangular mounting points in margins on verso from last framing, else excellent condition, 177 by 126mm.  Provenance:1. The decoration here, with distinctive paired lobed flowers at the head of main pages, and paired roundels at their feet, is markedly close to a close-knit group of devotional books produced in the Brigittine foundation of Mariënwater at Rosmalen in the diocese of Liège in the opening decades of that foundation (founded 1434, relocated to Uden from 1713 onwards), such as a Psalter (now The Hague, KB, 134 C 60), a Psalter-Hours (now BnF. n.a.l. 688) and two Breviaries (Schøyen MS. 39; and British Library, Egerton 3271). This, along with the fact that the text here ends on the verso with has a rare versicle elsewhere recorded in Brigittine use ('Venit deus in mundum ...', compare R. Geete, Jungfru Marie örtagård. Vadstenanunnornas veckoritual i svensk öfversättning från år 1510, 1895, p.93, and Psalterium Davidicum Monasticum Benedictinum pro Ord. Sanct. Brigittae, 1650, p. 297, where this is followed by the second versicle here as well: 'Ut in caeli gloriam ...'), strongly suggests an origin in that medieval convent, and use there throughout the Middle Ages in the daily devotions of the inmates of that house.2. The majority of Mariënwater books to appear on the market can be traced back to the collection of Dirk Cornelis van Voorst (1752-1833) and Jan Jacob van Voorst (1791-1869), father and son evangelical preachers of Amsterdam, and dispersed in their auction by Frederick Muller & Co. in Amsterdam in 1859-60, with many books there listed as from the 'monastère de Brigittines S. Marien water près de Bois-le-Duc, fondé en 1434'. Lots 122-136 in the sale were a group of 'heures' described as united by their decoration 'sans ornaments dorés' with initials 'prédomine la rose calligraphique de cinq, six et huit feuilles'. As U. Sander Olsen notes lot 122 from that list is now BnF. n.a.l. 688; 123 is The Hague, KB, 134 C 60; 124 is Schøyen MS. 39, listed under its last appearance at Sotheby's, 1 December 1987, lot 38; 127 is Leiden, BPL 2856; 129 is Utrecht, Catharijneconvent ABM 45; 136 is Amsterdam, Universitetsbibliothek, I F 50; and 132 last appeared in the catalogue of Six von Hillegom for 1928, no. 217 (see 'Handschriften uit het Birgittinessenklooster Mariënwater te Rosmalen bij 's- Hertogenbosch', in Serta devota in memoriam Guillelmi Lourdaux, pars posterior: Cultura Mediaevalis, 1995, pp. 225-54). To these should be added lot 126 that is now British Library, Egerton 3271. The parent manuscript of the present leaf is most probably one of the other three codices in this section of the van Voorst sale, described as quarto in size.3. Acquired in 2018 from the North American trade.

Two leaves with the Crown of Thorns and the Wounds of Christ in historiated initials, from a Book of Hours, Use of Sarum, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [southern Netherlands (probably Bruges), for the English market, c. 1465] Two consecutive leaves, with six large historiated initials in dark pink or blue with white penwork, on burnished gold grounds, enclosing (i) Christ's head wearing the Crown of Thorns (this opening the hymn Ave caput inclinatum), (ii) Christ's right hand, showing his stigmata, before four wavy blue beams (opening Ad vulnus dextre manus domini nostri), (iii) Christ's left hand, showing his stigmata (opening Ad vulnus sinister manus), (iv) Christ's side as an oval of flesh, showing his bleeding spear wound (opening Ad vulnus lateris Christi); (v) Christ's right foot, with stigmata, before four wavy blue beams (opening Ad vulnus dextri pedis); (vi) Christ's left foot, with stigmata (opening Ad vulnus sinistri pedis), these leaves with three-quarter borders of acanthus leaves and other foliage terminating in coloured flowerheads and gold bezants, one 2-line initial in gold on pink and blue grounds (opening a hymn to the Virgin ('Ad beatam virginem manam ...'), red rubrics, 21 lines of a late gothic bookhand, early folio nos. '55' and '56', slightly trimmed at edges, some small spots and stains, each leaf approximately 195 by 147mm. Provenance:1. From a Book of Hours made for English use, that once with an early ex libris of a female owner named Bridget Low and a short Middle English inscription. The scoring through of the names of Thomas Becket and Popes Gregory and Silvester in the parent codex demonstrate its continuing use throughout the English Reformation.2. The parent codex then appeared at Christie's, 15 November 2006, lot 16 (when it had 115 leaves), and thereafter dispersed.3. The present leaves acquired from a European dealer in 2012. Decoration:These are uncommon devotional images, favoured in the late Middle Ages by artists in the Low Countries and to a lesser degree in England, offering the supplicant an image of the individual wounds to focus their attentions on during prayer (see P. Binski and P. Zutschi, Western Illuminated Manuscripts, 2011, no. 386, pp. 360-61, p. cxlvi, for another contemporary Flemish Hours made for the English market with near-identical miniatures). An early Book of Hours made in Cambrai c. 1300 contains rubrics alongside such images that direct the reader how to pray to each image, suggesting that such images were used in a highly ritualised devotional way (see A. Bennett, 'Christ's Five Wounds in the Aves of the Vita Christi in a Book of Hours about 1300', in Tributes in Honor of James H. Marrow, 2006, pp. 75-84).

Two leaves from a notably large English Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [England, second quarter or mid-fifteenth century (probably c. 1440)] Two consecutive leaves, each with single column of 20 lines of an angular and compressed late gothic English bookhand (with part of Office of the Dead), these ruled in pink, paragraph marks in dark blue, bright red rubrics, one-line initials in gold or blue with penwork in black or red penwork, nine 3-line initials in gold on brown, blue or green grounds, each enclosing realistically shaded coloured single leaves of acanthus, hairline foliage from these initials ending in coloured fleshy leaves decorated with lines of white dots and mirrored green leaves and gold bezants, ink flaking a little from fleshside of leaves (as is common with fifteenth-century English manuscripts), a fold to one corner, some shine-through from decoration on other side, small spots and stains, else in good condition, each leaf approximately 230 by 153mm. Provenance:Acquired from different members of the European trade in 1999 and 2018. Illumination:These leaves are from an exceptionally large and handsome English devotional volume, and must have been produced for a patron of considerable importance. The finely shaded coloured acanthus leaves in the initials find very close parallels in a Bible in Middle English produced in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, now Cambridge University Library, Dd.I.27 (P. Binski and P. Zutschi, Western Illuminated Manuscripts, 2011, no. 228, p. 213), while the simple foliage, with mirrored green leaves and ending with twists of coloured petals, points to a medical compendium probably produced in Salisbury in 1448-55, now Bodleian, MS. Bodley 362 (reproduced in K.L. Scott, Dated & Dateable English Manuscript Borders, 2002, pp. 66-7); a John Bury, Gladius Salomonis, probably from Suffolk and c. 1460, now Bodleian, MS. Bodley 108 (ibid., pp. 84-5); and a Postillae super Evangelia Dominicalia, made in Lincoln c. 1425, now Cambridge University Library, Gg.IV.19 (Binski and Zutschi, no. 214, pp. 201-02).

Australia (Tasmania) Van Diemans Land 1855 definitive SG 17 4d manuscript cancel and 1871 definitive SG 151 used 2d. Cat £270

British Forces Egypt 1942 envelope posted airmail to Bombay cancelled FPO No 114 (Qassim Egypt) 8a definitive censor cachet with manuscript declaration. Reverse has Skinner's Horse Recce Regt of the 10th Indian division emblem

USA 1861 definitive SG 74b 24c grey Manuscript cancel. Cat postally used £375

AN ANTIQUE THAI BUDDHIST ILLUSTRATION Rattanakosin Period 1782-1932 Watercolour and ink, depicting a scene of Buddha's life with baby Sidartha on the head of the ascetic 63cm x 45cm; 81cm x 63cm with frame Condition: Some wear and thin cracks in the painting, folding visible along the middle of the manuscript - See additional images

Mid 20th century mahogany music cabinet, fitted with six manuscript drawers with fall fronts, right-hand cupboard enclosing record storage compartments, on cabriole supportsDimensions: Height: 91cm  Length/Width: 76cm  Depth/Diameter: 37cm

Ⓦ AN IMPORTANT SOUTH GERMAN ETCHED^ GILT AND EMBOSSED CLOSED BURGONET^ AUGSBURG^ CIRCA 1555-60^ THE ETCHING ATTRIBUTED TO JÖRG SORG THE YOUNGER¦formed of a rounded one-piece skull rising to a high notched medial comb^ pierced at the nape with five small rivet-holes for the attachment of a missing plume-holder and to either side of it with four lace-holes^ peak^ face-guard and bevor attached by common pivots with domed foliate heads^ the broad peak of ogival form^ the face-guard pierced with four large trapezoidal apertures and secured at the right by a spring-catch^ the bevor pierced at each side with a circular arrangement of seven holes^ shaped to the chin and secured to the right of the skull by a hook acting on a pierced spring-catch with push-button release^ fitted with falling buffe of three lames^ each secured by a spring-catch on the right^ the bevor flanged outwards at the base to receive a single front lame (the lowest missing)^ the nape fitted at the rear with two neck-lames^ the principle edges notched en suite with the skull^ decorated throughout with embossed^ etched and gilt designs comprising on each side of the comb^ the skull^ the peak and the gorget-plates broad bands filled with large expanded flowerheads and foliage on a blackened and stippled ground within a framework of interlace^ the latter issuant with tulip-shaped flowerheads^ the face-guard decorated with cherubic masks^ foliage and trophies-of-music on the vertical bars^ the bevor with a rosette on each side^ the secondary borders decorated with matching interlace (areas of pitting and patination)¦34.5 cm; 13 ⅝ in high¦¦Part proceeds to benefit The Wallace Collection¦¦Provenance¦A private European Collection¦¦This previously unrecorded helmet belongs to an elaborate garniture including a close helmet^ gauntlet for the left hand^ breast and backplate^ now preserved in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (acc. no. 1977.167.109a-n)^ a front skirt lame preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art^ New York (acc. no. 04.3.278)^ a vamplate preserved in the Musée de l~ Armée^ Paris (K.Po.2341)^ and a saddle sold Christie~s London^ 18th April 1985^ lot 40.¦¦Its distinctive ornament identifies it as part of a group of at least five very closely related designs including that occurring on an armour made for Don Garcia de Toledo^ Marqués de Villafranca and Viceroy of Sicily^ by Anton Peffenhauser and decorated by Jörg Sorg. The design on the present helmet closely matches it with the added embellishment of tulip-like flowerheads emerging from its borders. The inclusion of tulips is possibly a reference to the Ottoman empire^ the flowers having been documented^ apparently for the first time^ in the spring of 1555 by the Imperial ambassador at the court of Suleyman the Magnificent. The decorative scheme is also comparable to that of the celebrated ~Flower pattern~ and ~Burgundy Cross~ armours of Philip II made in 1550 and 1551 respectively (inv. nos. A217^ A 219 and A263). See Don Juan 1898^ pp. 74-75 and pp. 86-89.¦¦Jorg Sorg^ the son of a painter of the same name^ was born in Augsburg around 1522. His mother was the daughter of the celebrated armourer Kolman Helmschmied. It is likely that he learnt his trade in his father~s studio and was received into the Augsburg Painters Guild as a master in 1548. In 1564 he is recorded living next door to the armourer Wilhelm Seusenhofer and in 1575 he became guardian of the motherless son of the armourer Matthäus Fraunpreiss II. His importance as a decorator of armour is documented by an album of his designs dating to 1548-63 in which a number of armourers and patrons for which he worked are recorded. The latter includes a number of prominent members of the Hapsburg courts in both Austria and Spain. Don Garcia de Toledo is represented by a garniture of three armours dated 1551 in the manuscript.¦¦The armour garniture reached its greatest and most elaborate extent around the middle of the 16th century. The |Eagle| garniture made for Ferdinand II^ Archduke of Tyrol^ in 1547 comprised eighty-seven interchangeable pieces that could produce twelve different armours for different forms of combat. Though clearly functional such armours had become increasingly powerful status symbols.¦¦See Becher^ Gamber and Irtenkauf 1980^ pp. 64-7^ fol. 19-20; Del Campo 2009^ pp. 228-92 cat. nos. 46-7 and pp. 239-243^ cat. no. 50; Kienbusch 1963^ pp. 37-38^ no. 23; Norman 1986^ pp. 83-86; and Tavares 2014^ p. 118. Laking^ Vol. 3^ pp. 310-17.¦

Ⓦ AN INVENTORY OF WORKS OF ART & ARMOUR AT HERTFORD HOUSE^ MANCHESTER SQUARE. BEQUEATHED TO THE NATION BY LADY WALLACE^ PHILLIPS^ SON & NEALE^ 73 NEW BOND STREET¦¦33.0 cm; x 22.0 cm. ¦¦Typed inventory manuscript^ 110 pages^ marbled endpapers^ tooled leather covers^ gold lettered title on front and old lines on spine (light wear).¦¦Impressed stamp |Library of Richard B. Allen|. Pasted typed note |By direction of Miss Mary K. T. Scott^ removed from Eccleston Street.| ¦¦Together with three letters dated 20th January^ 4th and 10th February 1943 from Sir James Mann to the owner of this volume^ Mr Burton Jones^ discussing its content and also touching upon other subjects including Boutet. ¦¦Part proceeds to benefit The Wallace Collection¦¦Provenance¦Mary K. T. Scott^ 30th July 1942¦¦Mary Scott was the sister of Sir John Murray Scott^ secretary to Sir Richard Wallace.

A 19th century wax portrait, of a gentleman, in profile facing to dexter, 7cm x 5cm, inscribed to verso in ink manuscript: Died April, Thursday 14th 1859 at Mayfield ** our dear friend T. C. Windle Esq, aged 70, God Father to Jane Margaret Haslewood, contemporary Rococo Revival gilt gesso frame, 25cm x 21.5cm overall

The House of Stuart and The Jacobite Cause - a late 17th century brass mounted painted tin circular snuff box, stand-away hinged cover set with a William & Mary silver half crown coin, enclosing an enamel portrait miniature of King James II, engraved leafy pendant borders, 6.5cm diamAn ink manuscript note addressed to Mrs Bosworth of Loscoe near Repton from Rev. William B Pratt and dated April 15th 1910 records that this box 'is said to have belonged to Wycherley the dramatist', and makes reference to an article in The Connoisseur

Major G.E.Hiks, Devonshire Regiment. Interesting typed draft manuscript 24 pages "National Service and Beyond" A "thesis" on the post WWII army with handwritten note indicating it was written in hospital in 1944. A further 21 pages entitled "Citizen Training",

Grigorij Filippovski (Russian, 1909-1987)Portrait of Boris Pasternaketching30 x 22cmARRFootnoteBoris Pasternak (1890-1960) is best know for his seminal novel Dr Zhivago. Seen as anti-communist by the Soviet authorities, publication was denied in the USSR. The manuscript had to be smuggled to Italy for publication in 1957 which further enraged the authorities. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize the following year but was told he would not be allowed to return to Russia if he travelled to accept it and thus refused the award.

A 19th century double-sided Persian or North Indian Islamic manuscript, nasta’liq script in black ink on paper in four columns, borders in gold ink, floral decoration, H.36.5cm W.25.5cm

A 19th century double-sided Persian or North Indian Islamic manuscript, nasta’liq script in black ink on paper written horizontally and diagonally, borders in gold ink, floral decoration, H.36cm W.25.5cm

Helmut Eisendle(1939 Graz - 2003 Wien)Ungeheure Frauen. 1988. Skizzenbuch und Manuskript mit 27 Aquarellen auf chamoisfarbenem Papier. Blattmaße je 30 x 24 cm. Signiert, datiert und ortsbezeichnet. Das Manuskript 1 Bl. typographisch beschriftet u. gefaltet. - Insgesamt etw. atelierspurig, sonst wohlerhalten. Österreichischer Schriftsteller und Psychologe und Mitglied d. "Grazer Autorenversammlung" u. Grazer "Forum Stadtpark". Er zählte zu d. avandgardistischen Schriftstellerszene d. Gegenwartliteratur und lebte in den 1980er Jahren in West-Berlin. Einsendle nahm mehrmals am "Steirischen Herbst" teil, einem Festival für zeitgenösssische Kunst. Die hier vorliegende Arbeit entstand in Einsendles Zeit in West-Berlin. Sketchbook and manuscript with 27 watercolours on buff paper. Signed, dated and locally inscribed. Manuscript 1 sheet typographic inscribed a. folded. - Overall a little studio-tracky, all in all well preserved.

Charles Walter Berry Bound original typed manuscripts and one printed book from the library of their author, with each containing his bookplate: "Ghost Stories" manuscript dated 1925; "An Arthurian Reverie" a printed book dated 1939; "The Green-Eyed Monster" a play manuscript dated 1925; 7 manuscript volumes from a series of "Birthplaces of the Illustrious" dated 1933 - 1 vol "Wales", 3 vols "Scotland", 3 vols from "England" series.'