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HAY L. M. A.  Album, c.1830's. containing manuscript poetry & inscriptions in various hands, together with watercolour & pencil decorations & drawings, incl. "The Breakwater from Mount Edgcumbe", "Elizabeth Castle, Jersey" & "The Rose". Quarto in rebacked embossed bdg.

O'MEARA BARRY.  Napoleon in Exile or A Voice from St. Helena. 2 vols. Extra illus. "with sixty one extra plates". Rebacked half calf, internal browning & foxing, some damp mkg. to latter leaves. Manuscript list of extra illustrations. 1822.

BLACK ALEXANDER (Pubs).  A Manuscript found in the Portfolio of Las Cases containing Maxims & Observations of Napoleon. Three qtr. morocco, light spotting throughout. 1820; also (Richard Whately), Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Buonaparte, 60pp, orig. cloth, rebacked, bookplate of H. J. Codrington (son of Sir Edward Codrington), 1846.  (2).

Great Britain - QV (surface printed) : (SG (263)) 1902-10 DLR 5s, DIE PROOF in black on white glazed card, with manuscript initials and 25/11/01, hinge remains on reverse, fine. SCARCE. Cat £4250 (image available)

British Post Offices in Siam : (SG 20c) 1882-85 BANGKOK Double overprint 'B' 8c. Orange wmk Crown CA, Perf 14, 1882 Straits ovptd 'B' Type 1, variety overprint double, part Bangkok CDS used example, one of the rarest of the double overprints. An exceptionally difficult stamp to locate in cds condition, due to delicate colour, this being a particularly fine example, described on the BPA colour photo-certificate (2019) as bearing manuscript line at foot, creases (absolutely minimal), soiled (barely) and a little rubbed (hardly), is genuine - most of which, apart from the authenticity, is irrelevant because a better example hardly exists. Crucially, clearly defined double 'B' overprint. Exceptionally rare. Cat £4250 (image available) [US2]

Fragments of two letters in Greek, manuscripts on papyrus[Egypt, fourth or fifth and sixth century AD. respectively]Two fragments of papyrus sheets: (a) letter from Phoibammon to his father Didymus, 12 lines in Greek cursive, written across the fibres, small holes, wear from folds, overall fair, fourth or fifth century, 150 by 75mm.; (b) letter by a writer who lived in Cynopolis ('city of the dog', the site of an Anubis cult in antiquity), 4 lines in Greek cursive plus two letters remaining from fifth line, small holes, once broken laterally across middle, and laid down on another papyrus sheet to stabilise, overall fair condition, sixth century, 105 by 65mm.; both set in PerspexProvenance: Erik von Scherling (1907-1956), dealer based in Leiden, his MSS. G55 and G502; almost certainly acquired from his "Egyptian correspondent" in the early 1930s or directly by him in Egypt during his manuscript collecting trip to Cairo in 1934-1935. Catalogued for him by the papyrus scholar E.P. Wegener (1908-1958), and with photocopies of those handwritten transcriptions and notes. These items passing after von Scherling's sudden and untimely death in 1956 to Maggs Bros. of London, and acquired by the present owner from them in the early 1990s. Text: The first item here opens "To my lord and esteemed father Didymus from Phoibammon. As soon as you have received my letter please do not bother them on my account. I have received it, my lord father. I pray that you are in lasting health, my lord father". 

Two cuttings from a Noted Missal with readings for the Office of St. Willibald, in Latin, manuscripts on parchment[southern Germany, twelfth century]One large strip and a smaller piece, both from a single manuscript, with remains of 6 lines of text in two sizes of a good Romanesque hand, music added in simple neumes above words with clef or stave lines, tall capitals touched in red, marks for responses and similar in red, recovered from reuse in a binding and hence with some scuffs and losses, offset and areas with glue remaining, overall fair condition and on heavy parchment, 68 by 223 and 55 by 82mm.Willibald (d. c. 787) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary from Wessex who travelled to Rome with his father (St. Richard the Pilgrim) and brother (St. Winibald), and then on to Naples, Sicily, Greece and the Holy Land. He spent time at Montecassino and went on to serve St. Boniface in Germany. He founded a monastery at Eichstätt in 742, and then served that region as bishop for a further four decades. 

Bede, Explanatio Apocalypsis, in Latin, cutting from a large decorated manuscript on parchment[France or Low Countries, probably eleventh century]Rectangular fragment from the centre of a double column manuscript with remains of 24 lines in a handsome and skilled Romanesque bookhand with a strong st-ligature, tongued 'e' and a 'z' that descends below the line in angular zigzags, a few contemporary interlinear corrections by a second hand, a single 'Nota Bene' mark touched in red, major sections of text opening with lines of ornamental capitals, bright red rubrics and simple initials, recovered from reuse in a binding and hence with scuffs, folds and small holes, reverse scuffed and stained with sections illegible, 170 by 275mm.This sophisticated explanatio on the Apocalypse, written by the celebrated Anglo-Saxon scholar, Bede (672/3-735), is probably the very earliest of his scriptural commentaries. It was composed between 710 and 716, and was widely popularised throughout Europe by intense monastic study, and now survives in seventy-two recorded manuscripts (M.L.W. Laister, Hand List of Bede Manuscripts, 1943, p. 168). 

Leaf from a miniature Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [England, or Low Countries made for English market, mid-fifteenth century] Single leaf from a Calendar (September), with 16 lines of records of saints' death days and other religious feasts, one large initial 'KL' in liquid gold on blue and burgundy grounds, important entries in red or lined through in red, some near-contemporary additions, some cockling and small stains, else in good condition, approximately 95 by 62mm. A near-contemporary hand, perhaps that of the original owner, added five names in prickly script in black ink to this leaf, including asupplication to the quintessentially northern English saint, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (c.634-87) on 4 September. 

Cutting with armorial device and legal text, perhaps a limp parchment binding or an advertisement for a legal scribe's wares, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Italy, fourteenth century] Rectangular cutting, formed from stitching two smaller pieces of parchment together with rough twine, with a penwork initial 'L' with blank parchment designs left blank within its body and foliate sprays, this opening an inscription in a good secretarial hand: "Lacusationum mei Bonifatris in porta Sci Angeli", a large crudely painted double-headed red eagle on yellow grounds (resembling, not but precisely matching the arms of the noble Martinengo family of Milan: as here but with single headed eagle) above a second inscription in a rounded gothic bookhand: "Sub regimine domini Rodulfi de ciconibus. Capit' liber Acuxationum mei Bonifatri eius not' in porta Sancti Angeli", a few pentrials and a seventeenth- or eighteenth-century '2999' at head, reverse blank, scuffed in places, shrunk and cockled on one side, fair condition, 243 by 210mm. On first impression this leaf looks like the front cover of a limp parchment binding once around a legal case, but the fact that it comes from the same collection of fragments as two others sold in our rooms, 9 December 2015, lot 53 (with a pen sketch of a kneeling man) and 54 (with another coat-of-arms painted over a sketched standing figure), raises an alternative possibility. The two sold in 2015 were unlikely to be from bindings related to this one, or even bindings at all, and we suggested there that they were scrap parchment used by an artist or scribe for impromptu work. These leaves may be the work of an artist-scribe produced to show a range of what he could write and decorate for a client. If correct, he may well be the Bonifatrus who worked "in porta Sancti Angeli", named in the legal case ("liber acuxationum") of Rodulfus de Ciconibus. Due to their ephemeral nature, any records of commercial scribes offering their services are of the greatest rarity and importance.

Mattathias with sword raised to kill the Hellenistic Jew, here with a boar's head on a platter, in an initial from a fine Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[Northern France (Paris), mid-thirteenth century] Single leaf from a Bible, with a large initial 'E' (opening "Et factum est postquam ...", I Maccabees), in pale fawn with white penwork, enclosing Mattathias holding the Hellenistic Jew who volunteered to take his place, by the hair and in the act of killing him, on fawn and blue grounds with white foliage overlaid, small foliage sprays at corners and gold bezants, two smaller illuminated initials in same enclosing facing birds and scrolling foliage, red running titles and rubrics, double column of 53 lines, one original careless penstroke in lower margin, old water damage to head of leaf causing small losses there, else good condition, 250 by 160mm.; tipped to card mount at head The illumination here is by the Johannes Grutsch atelier, named after the canon who copied one of its Bibles in 1267 (see R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis, 1977, pp. 82-86). 

St. Paul seated and holding a golden book, in an initial from a fine Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[Northern France (Paris), mid-thirteenth century] Single leaf from a Bible, with a large initial 'P' (opening "Paulus apostolus vocatus ...", Corinthians 1), in blue interlace patterns and crosses, enclosing Paul seated and resting a golden book on his knee, on dark blue grounds with stars and pale fawn grounds with large bezants, the extensions of the initial extending nearly three-quarters of the page in height and enclosing a skilfully painted drollery animal that reaches around to bite its own neck, one smaller initial on reverse in pale fawn, enclosing foliage with lacertine animals, all on blue grounds, small red initials with blue and red penwork, running capitals in alternate red or blue, red rubrics, double column of 53 lines, some smudging to smaller illuminated initial, old water damage to head of leaf causing small losses and a tear there, else good condition, 240 by 157mm. (slightly trimmed, see previous lot); tipped to card mount at head  From the same parent manuscript as the previous lot. 

John the evangelist holding up his letter on a scroll, in an initial on a leaf from a large and fine Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[Northern France (Paris), c. 1280-90] Large leaf, with historiated initial 'S' (opening "Senior gaio karissimo ...", opening III John from the Canonical Epistles), in soft pink heightened with white penwork, enclosing a full-length portrait of John in a blue cloak, on orange-red tessellated ground within the initial and blue with white foliage overlaid outside it, enclosed within thin gold frame and with text border in blue and red-brown with animal mask, gold baubles and angular gold grounds, descending the entire length of the page and filling the space above and below the text column, one slightly smaller initial in blue containing sprays of coloured foliage, within similar frame and text borders, this enclosing a bearded animal-masked drollery, single red initial on reverse with contrasting penwork and text border of red and blue foliate shapes with scrolling penwork, running titles and versal initials in red and blue capitals, rubrics wanting but guide-text present in pale brown hairline script, double column of 41 lines, marginalia in red and blue triangle, modern pencil folio no. '455', a little inkburn causing small holes in places, slight thumbing at lower outer corner, else excellent condition, 300 by 210mm.From an incomplete manuscript sold at Sotheby's, 5 December 1989, lot 79.The art here is representative of the zenith of Parisian commercial Bible production in the thirteenth century. It was decorated by the Sainte-Chapelle group (see R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis, 1977, pp. 236-39), named for a Gospel lectionary made c. 1260-70 and used in the Sainte-Chapelle (now at the BnF., ms. lat. 17,326), perhaps by a sub-group known as the 'Henry VIII' group, who were active c. 1280-90.  

St. Peter holding the keys to Heaven, in an initial on a leaf from a large and fine Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[Northern France (Paris), c. 1280-90] Four large leaves (two bifolia), the second leaf with historiated initial 'S' (opening "Symon petrus servuis ...", 2 Peter, the following leaves with parts of Revelation), in pink heightened with white penwork, enclosing a full-length portrait of Peter, on a red-brown tessellated ground, the whole initial on blue grounds with white foliage overlaid and enclosed within a thin gold frame, text border in pink and blue with gold bezants, with a dragon-like drollery creature biting the initial and sprays of foliage into the upper and lower margins, initials in red and blue with contrasting penwork (the larger of these with text borders of red and blue foliate shapes with scrolling penwork), running tiles and versal initials in alternate red and blue, red rubrics, double column of 41 lines, modern pencil folio nos. '452' & '453' and '457' & '458', slight cockling and stains to edges, else excellent condition, each leaf 300 by 210mm.From the same parent manuscript as the previous and following lots. 

King David in the waters calling on God to save him, in an initial on a leaf from a large and fine Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[Northern France (Paris), c. 1280-90] Large leaf, with historiated initial 'S' (opening "Saluum me fac ...", Psalm 12), in blue heightened with white penwork, enclosing a half-length portrait of David in its lower compartment, naked apart from his golden crown, as God appears holding a globe in the upper compartment, these on blue grounds with tessellated patterns picked out in black and red, all on red-brown grounds with delicate white foliage overlaid, enclosed within thin gold frame and with text border in blue and red-brown with gold baubles and angular gold grounds, descending the entire length of the page and splitting in lower border into two foliate extensions, two text borders on left-hand sides of columns on reverse formed of red and blue foliate shapes with scrolling penwork, initials in red and blue with contrasting penwork, red rubrics, double column of 41 lines, early modern '68' in margin next to initial, modern pencil folio no. in corner (erased and faint, but probably '229'), some flaking from ink in places, slight stain to head, else excellent condition, 300 by 210mm.From the same parent manuscript as the previous two lots.  

Christ entering Jerusalem to cheering crowds, large historiated initial on a leaf from a noted Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[Low Countries or adjacent France, second half of thirteenth century (probably c. 1260)]Single leaf, with a large initial (100 by 55mm.) in blue with white brushwork picking out geometric patterns and circles, with Christ on a donkey approaching from the left, as crowds waving palm fronds greet him on the right, all on burnished gold grounds, the initial on burgundy-brown grounds with white penwork, with coloured foliage on chunky coloured grounds extending into margins, large initials in red or blue encased within scrolling penwork in contrasting colours, small initials in red or blue, red rubrics (some with capitals with jagged edges), main text in single column of 26 lines of a large and professional early gothic bookhand, written below top line, music in smaller version of same with Messine (Metz) neumes arranged around stave lines, contemporary folio no. 'cxl', slight chipping to paint in places, some stains to edges, else good condition, 320 by 225mm.The figures here, with their red spotted cheeks and undulating beards, are notably close to those from a copy of Gratian, Decretum, produced in Hainault, c. 1280-90 (now Walters Art Gallery, W.133: reproduced in L.M.C. Randall, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, 1997, no. 218). 

An angel embracing a supplicant, historiated initial on a leaf from a Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[Low Countries or adjacent France, , second half of thirteenth century (probably c. 1260)] Single leaf, with an initial (45 by 42mm.) in dark pink with white brushwork picking out circles, with the angel embracing a smaller figure in a blue robe, on burnished gold ground, the whole initial on bright blue grounds, initial terminating in green leaves, eleven large initials in red or blue encased within scrolling penwork in contrasting colours, one small initial in red, red rubrics, main text in single column of 26 lines of a large and professional early gothic bookhand, written below top line, music in smaller version of same with neumes arranged around stave lines, contemporary folio no. 'cclxxxi' and contemporary quire no. 'XXVI' at foot of reverse, some contemporary corrections and medieval marginalia, slight chipping to paint in places, some stains in places, else good condition, 320 by 220mm.From the same parent manuscript as the previous lot.  

Leaf from the Gale 'Glastonbury Bible' with a large animal initial, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment[England (perhaps Glastonbury), thirteenth century] Single leaf, with a large initial 'A' (opening "Adam sech enoc chaynan...", I Chronicles 1), formed from an orange bodied wolf-like creature standing on its hind legs as a long blue dragon-like creature with a pale green face mirrors its posture while biting its face, two scrolls of coloured foliage between them terminating in an animal's mask which bites the body of the wolf, the tail of the dragon extending into the margin and terminating in coloured acanthus leaves, all on pale pink with white stars and within pale green frame, two large initials in variegated red and blue and blue on its own, these with red and blue penwork tracery, one-line initials in red or blue, red rubrics, capitals touched in red, double column of 50 lines of tiny university script, modern dealer's marks in pencil on foot of reverse (probably Ferrini), margins trimmed, small spots, else excellent condition, 197 by 150mm. An eighteenth-century inscription on the endleaf of the parent manuscript, now in a private collection, identified the volume as from the library of Glastonbury Abbey, one of the largest medieval libraries of England, and yet also one of the most elusive (N.R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 1941, pp. 49-50, lists only 36 items now identifiable from their once vast holdings). It then certainly belonged to the antiquary, Roger Gale (1672-1744), who did own other books from Glastonbury (these now Cambridge, Trinity College, MSS. 1450 and 1460). The parent volume emerged on the market in Sotheby's, 22 June 1982, lot 47, and was then dispersed by Ferrini and others. Other leaves from the same parent manuscript are in the Schøyen Collection, MS 1279 (some 255 leaves of an original 438), and the Jeanne Miles Blackburn collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art (The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, 1999, nos. 2 and 3). 

Large decorated initial on a leaf from an antiphoner, in Latin, manuscript on parchment[Italy (probably Bologna, perhaps Arezzo, second half of the thirteenth century]Single leaf, with a large and tall initial 'V' (145 by 130mm.; opening "Vidi dominum sendentem ...", a responsory for the first Sunday in November), in pale brown acanthus leaves with baubles and red and green knots mounted in its right-hand vertical stroke, terminating in swirling foliage, enclosing intricate interlaced grey-vine foliage with green fruit and orange and yellow leaves, all on dark pink and blue grounds and within a green and light brown frame, followed by a single line of calligraphic ornamental capitals touched in yellow (two with detailed human faces picked out in penwork), simple red initial with blue penwork, red rubrics, 6 lines of text with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum: 34mm.), seventeenth-century folio no. '63' on recto, small spots, else excellent condition, 574 by 384mm.Another leaf of this elegant and early antiphoner was offered by Maggs, European Bulletin 16 (1990), no. 26. The elongated shape of the initial and its thin swirling foliage is close to that on a leaf in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (their MS. 96.32.4: reproduced in Choirs of Angels, 2008, p. 31, and ascribed there to Arezzo).  

The Ascension of Christ in a large initial on a leaf from an illuminated manuscript choirbook on parchment [Italy (Bologna), first half of fourteenth century]Single large leaf, with a large initial 'P' (opening "Post passionem suam ...", the second responsory of the first nocturn on the feast of the Ascension), in soft white, with coloured acanthus leaves and baubles at its midpoints and extremities, all on dark blue and light brown grounds heightened with white penwork, enclosing a scene of male figures, both bearded and clean shaven, with gold haloes and wearing robes and gazing up as Christ disappears into the clouds above (just his feet visible here), the initial extending into 3 margins with luscious coloured acanthus leaves and large simple bezants (one curl of foliage infilled with light brown grounds and white openwork), one red initial with contrasting penwork, red rubrics, 6 lines of rounded text with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum: 31mm.), some small chips to paint and ink flaking from text in places on reverse, marks to edges of reverse from last framing, a little discoloured overall, else in good condition, 540 by 360mm.; in card mount This leaf is in the style of the B18 Master (formerly named the Second Master of San Domenico), and has his distinctive squat human figures with flatly modelled features formed from broad strokes of colour. He was the driving force behind a large series of choirbooks produced between 1307 and 1324/26 for the Dominican church of San Domenico, Bologna (see G. Freuler, The McCarthy Collection I, Italian and Byzantine Miniatures, 2018, no. 32). However, this leaf is more probably attributable to an associate of his, as it is almost certainly from another dispersed series of antiphonaries from the workshop of the B18 Master, produced at the same time as the producers of the San Domenico choirbooks, partly by the same team of artists, and often sharing the same scheme of illumination. The surviving leaves from this second series have been recorded and discussed by Freuler in The McCarthy Collection, no. 33 (but without the present leaf). There he suggests that they may have been produced for a female Dominican convent, probably those of San Giovanni Battista in Bologna. 

Leaf from an early Gradual with a decorated initial, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (Bologna, or perhaps Tuscany), early fourteenth century] Single large leaf, with an initial 'E' (in error, opening "[C]lamaverunt ad te domine ...", an Introit for the Feast of SS. Philippus and Jacobus, 1 May) in fawn heightened with hairline white strokes, enclosing coloured acanthus leaves in blue, green, fawn and magma-like red, all on blue grounds and with white penwork tendrils, with 7 lines of text with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum: 22mm.), capitals and significant letters touched in red, red rubrics, two simple red or blue initials with contrasting penwork, original folio no. "CCXVII" in midpoint of outer margin of verso, seventeenth-century folio no. "216" in same place on recto, small stains in places, tape marks and pinholes in blank corners from hanging, else fine condition, 442 by 305mm. From an early Gradual with finely and delicately painted initials.  

Leaf from an early Gradual with a decorated initial, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (Bologna, or perhaps Tuscany), early fourteenth century] Single large leaf, with an initial 'G' (opening "Gloria laus et honor ...", a hymn sung on Palm Sunday), in blue heightened with hairline white strokes, enclosing coloured acanthus leaves in blue, green and magma-like red, all on pale fawn grounds and with white penwork tendrils, with 7 lines of text with music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum: 22mm.), capitals and significant letters touched in red, red rubrics, 9 simple red or blue initials with contrasting penwork, original folio no. "CXII" in midpoint of outer margin of verso, seventeenth-century folio no. "112" in same place on recto, small stains in places, tape marks and pinholes in blank corners from hanging, else fine condition, 442 by 308mm. From the same parent manuscript as the previous lot.

Leaf from an opulently illuminated Book of Hours, in Latin, on parchment [France (Paris), c. 1430]Single leaf, with single column of 16 lines in an excellent late gothic bookhand, late medieval single-word correction in margin, single catchword touched with yellow wash in lower decorated border of verso, almost every other line with a one- or 2-line initial in blue and pink on burnished gold grounds, line-fillers in same in a variety of geometric and foliate designs, three-quarter border of acanthus leaf sprays in corners and other hairline and realistic foliage with coloured fruit and gold leaves, small spots, else excellent condition, 192 by 140mm.Other leaves from the same manuscript were sold in our rooms, 6 December 2017, lots 63-4.

Four cuttings from the Choirbook of King Manuel I of Portugal, from the border of an illuminated manuscript on parchment[Portugal (probably Lisbon), c. 1520] Four rectangular cuttings from the border of a large manuscript leaf, three with panels of portly strawberries, realistic stylised periwinkles, cornflowers, iris and a daisy, and caterpillars, a wasp and a ladybird, on a dull gold ground and within brown frames heightened with liquid gold to look like realistic carved wooden frames, and the other cut from the centre of the bas-de-page and with the Portuguese royal arms (with eight gold castles) beneath a gold crown and on a green and bushy landscape, framed within a grey-blue wreath and gold acanthus leaf sprays, this supported by two putti and all on burgundy and blue grounds flecked with gold, reverse with remains of music, some small chips and scuffs, the cutting with the arms cut twice vertically and then repaired, overall good and presentable condition, 150 by 52mm., 258 by 39mm., 203 by 62mm. and 45 by 85mm. Provenance: 1. From a grand Hispanic choirbook illuminated for Manuel I, 'the Great' (1469-1521, king of Portugal 1495-1521), the patron of Vasco da Gama and other explorers: his arms in form found after the emergence of the Livro do Armeiro-Mor in 1509 (with eight castles). Most probably kept in the Portuguese royal chapel.2. These cuttings first emerging with another small cutting with a bird in Sotheby's, 22 June 1999, lot 48. Text:Manuel's opulent court was noted for the prominence of music within it, and was one of the first centres of polyphony in Iberia. Indeed, the only other choirbook known to have been owned by him, apart from the parent manuscript of the present fragments, is a polyphonic choirbook commissioned by Philip 'the Fair' as a gift to Manuel (now Vienna, ÖNB, MS. 1783).  Illumination: The style of illumination here is distinctively that of the southern Netherlands, and Manuel was the principal patron of the artist Antonio de Hollanda (1480-1557), appointing him heraldic officer to the crown in 1518. He worked with Simon Bening on British Library, Add. MS. 12,531 (T. Kren, Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts, 1983, no.9, pp.69-78) and he signed the genealogy of 1534 which was sold in Sotheby's, 5 December 1989, lot 103. "Hollanda illuminated breviaries, psalters, altar books and choirbooks ... He was alive in 1553, when his son Francisco wrote about him to Michelangelo" (Kren, p. 76, citing J. Segurado, Francisco d'Ollanda, 1970, pp. 142 and 504-06; see also S. Deswarte, Les Enluminures de la 'Leitura Nova', 1504-1552, Etude sur la culture artistique au Portugal au temps de l'humanisme, 1977). These cuttings may well be the work of that artist or his workshop. 

The Trinity, in a historiated initialon a leaf, from an illuminated manuscript choirbook in Latin[southern Germany (probably Bavaria, perhaps Donau-Ries), second quarter of the sixteenth century] Single large leaf, with a large historiated initial 'B' (opening "Benedicat nos deus, deus noster ..." the responsory for Trinity Sunday), in blue with white acanthus leaves overlaid, enclosing God the Father as a crowned and white bearded man, enthroned as he cradles Christ's lifeless body on his lap and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descends, two angels in background holding up a green cloth, all within red and green realistic frame and on brightly burnished gold grounds, the gold heightened with yellow paint to pick out foliage, foliate sprays from the edges of the initial sprouting into the margin with coloured acanthus leaves, large gold bezants and gold pendulous fruit, with a green haired wildman with bare knees and elbows hanging from the branches and looking down at a bird in the foliage below, red and blue initials (one with contrasting penwork and two human faces at its side poking out their tongues), red rubrics, 6 lines of text with music on a 5-line red stave (rastrum: 35mm.; the number of staff lines an uncommon feature but not unheard of at the end of the Middle Ages, and not indicating polyphony), slight flaking from ink of main text in places, inkburn causing tiny holes in parchment in some letters and music notes, trimmed at top with losses from border there, slight stains at outer edge from last mounting, small scuffs and folds, else excellent condition, 460 by 345mm. The wildman (or wodewose in Middle English) in the border here, with his realistically bald knees and elbows, is a charming and distinctively Germanic addition to the decoration. These mythical, humanoid creatures were hairy, primitive, unable to control their desires and thought to live in the deep forests or mountains. As noted in the French epic Valentin et Orson, they were unable to speak beyond senseless mumbling, and Chrétien de Troyes has them as skilled hunters, but unable to master fire they ate the meat raw. They fascinated both medieval man as a model for everything man hoped he was not, as well as an object of envy for their simple lives outside the mores of civilised society. For more see R. Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages, 1952, and T. Husband, The Wild Man: Medieval Myth and Symbolism, 1980.Another leaf from the same parent manuscript was sold in Sotheby's, 7 December 2010, lot 10, realising £11,250, and identified as by a follower of the Bavarian panel painter and illuminator known as the Master of the Munich Saint John on Patmos, fl.1525-30 (cf. Les Enluminures cat.14, Pen to Press, Paint to Print, 2009, pp. 95-7). However, the coloured frames around the initial and borders of the leaf show affinity to an antiphoner made in 1531 for the Cistercian house of Kaisheim, in Donau-Ries (E. Hemfort, Monastische Buchkunst zwischen Mittelalter und Renaissance, 2001, p.141), and the parent manuscript may well be from that region.   

Charter recording the transfer of rights to vineyards in central Spain, in medieval Spanish and signed by Muslim parties in Arabic, manuscript document on parchment[Central Spain (perhaps Toledo or Segovia), dated October 1312] Long and thin sheet of parchment, used upright to record a lengthy land agreement, single column of 32 lines in a faded scrawling Spanish vernacular hand, followed by 5 further lines at foot of document, five signatories at the end with names in Spanish in the main hand ("Alffoy","gilnis'" and perhaps "Ruy") followed by Arabic names in a variety of hands (and thus almost certainly personally signed by the men named there), endorsements on reverse, spots and small marks, parchment not high quality, but text legible, overall fair condition, 510+35 by 205mm.This is a rare witness to the linguistic barriers of medieval Spain, and the interaction there between Spanish and Arabic in the Middle Ages. From the eleventh century onwards the rulers of the Christian kingdoms of Spain pushed back Muslim overlordship, and by the mid-thirteenth century only Granada remained under Muslim control, albeit held as a tributary to Christian Castile. Uprisings of the mid-fourteenth century were contained to the southern coastline of Spain. Thus, the men in this document were completely under Christian rule, and may even have been nominally Christian, but remained ethnically Arabic to the point of having to sign their name in that language.   

Ɵ Statutes of the Confraternity of St. Nicholas de Tolentino, in medieval Spanish, illuminated manuscript on parchment[Spain (probably Zaragosa or vicinity), sixteenth century]13 leaves, single gathering of 12 leaves, followed by a singleton to complete text, complete, single column of 20 lines in a fine late humanist hand, red rubrics, simple red initials and a small cross set within the text of fol. 1r, one gold initial with blue foliage decoration, authorised at end with 18 line addition and archiepiscopal paper and wax seal, some spots and ink splashes, else in good condition, 245 by 180mm.; contemporary limp parchment bindingThese are the statutes of an otherwise apparently unattested Spanish confraternity, dedicated to the Italian saint and mystic, Nicholas de Tolentino (d. 1305, canonised 1446). The text sets out the confraternity's duties to the saint and each other in 35 chapters. The town that the chapter was based in is named in ch. xxx as "la ciudad de Çaragoça", and the document is authorised by Mattheus de Canseco, archbishop of "Caesaraugustanus", the central region of northern Spain that encloses Zaragosa. Such confraternities boomed in late medieval Spain as an expression of local devotion to saint cults. 

Single leaf with an architectural columned building surmounted by a haloed figure surrounded by animals, from the opening of an Armenian Gospel Book, illuminated manuscript on paper[Greater Armenia (probably eastern regions), fifteenth or sixteenth century] Single leaf, the recto with a decorative page with a central green rectangle mounted on a pillar enclosing simple human faces, the rectangle surmounted by a haloed figure (probably Christ) seated between white birds, and filled with painted birds, four-footed animals and a lion's mask within a headband, below this three crane-like birds holding a book in their beaks and three simple letters formed from a bird holding a book and two sets of birds joined by their tails, a full border of stylised foliage, the verso with similar green panel supported on three columns with rotund white lions at their head and feet, and enclosing a strange long necked beast with a camel-like hump and a bird's head at the end of his tail, birds and foliage in borders, some scuffing and chipping, tears to edges, overall fair condition, 279 by 195mm.This leaf is from the same distinctive parent manuscript as two slightly more damaged leaves sold in our rooms, 9 December 2015, lot 106 (trimmed hence different sizes), reappearing as Quaritch, cat. 1434 (2016), no. 3. The art style is rustic, uncommon and hard to attach to any centre, and the presence of Armenian here in the initials supports Quaritch's assertion for the origin of these leaves. The leaves sold by us in 2015 came with early twentieth-century Norwegian provenance.The human heads supporting columns and half-length figure of Christ surrounded by birds drinking from cups are also found in a Gospel book illuminated c. 1300-10 by Sargis at Siwnik (cf. Treasures in Heaven: Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts, 1994, no. 51). However, features such as the creature with a bird's head at the end of its tail and the drapery suggest an origin in the lands to the east of Armenia proper, in an as yet unstudied Christian community there. 

Ɵ Bartholomeus de Sancto Concordio, Summa de casibus conscientiae,in Latin, large and imposing manuscript on paper[Italy, fifteenth century]155 leaves, wanting last but one gathering and a leaf from end of index, collation: i-xv10, xvi5 (wanting last leaf with final entries from index following "uxor"), double column of c. 57 lines in 2 small Italian late gothic hands, the second notably influenced by secretarial forms, paragraph marks in red or blue, simple initials in red and blue mostly throughout, with some touched in contrasting colours, extensive glossing to first third of book, watermark of three hills 'Golgotha' surmounted by a cross (see below), spaces left for some initials, lower border of first leaf once cut away and skilfully replaced, a few spots and stains, but overall in excellent condition with wide and clean margins, 355 by 265mm.; contemporary binding of red leather (now faded to pink) over massive bevelled wooden boards (12mm. thick), simple ruling to leather with brass studs at corners and midpoints (5 still present), traces of central bosses (now wanting), similar studs securing remains of leather thong ties, traces of other clasps at head and foot of volume, leather scuffed and torn on boards, with spine exposed and front board once loose (now held in place by strips of blank parchment, now splitting in places), holes from a chain hasp at lower edge of back board, title "Pisanella" in late medieval hands at head of same Provenance:Written in Italy in the early fifteenth century, perhaps for use in a Dominican chained library. The watermark of Golgotha surmounted by a cross is in a form recorded in Italian examples by Briquet nos. 11672-11721, with these ranging across the second half of the fourteenth and first half of the fifteenth century, with a close example in no. 11687 (Padova, 1415). The first leaf has an apparent code at its head in a near-contemporary hand using Arabic numerals and other symbols (perhaps of planets), perhaps containing an ex libris. Text:Bartholomaeus de Sancto Concordio (1262-1347) was also known as Barthomeo Granchi and Bartolomeus Pisanus, hence the common medieval name of this text: Summa Pisanella. He entered the Dominican Order in 1277, studied at Bologna and Paris, and taught logic in Italian Dominican convents before returning to Pisa around 1335. He gained fame as a preacher, poet and teacher of canon and civil law. This is his magnum opus, a fundamentally important penitential work created for practical use by preachers, and surveying the whole subject of moral theology with detailed examples taken from canon law. It was written c. 1338, and is based in part on the Summa confessorum of another Dominican, Johannes of Freiburg (d. 1314). What Bartholomeus added was an alphabetical arrangement of the subject matter, setting aside the older and cumbersome thematic arrangement of the topics. It was enormously popular, and hundreds of manuscripts have been traced in European libraries by J. Dietterle ('Die Summae confessorum (sive de casibus conscientiae) von ihren Anfangen an bis Silvester Prierias', Zeitschrift für Kirckgeschichte, 27, 1906, pp. 166-70), with that list revised by S. Kuttner (A Catalogue of Canon and Roman Law Manuscripts in the Vatican Library, 1986, II:25-31). De Ricci and Wilson (Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1935-40), record only seven manuscripts in American collections, to which Faye and Bond (Supplement, 1962) add another two. To these should be added a copy in the Robbins Collection, University of California, Berkeley, MS 14. In the fourteenth century it was translated into Italian by Giovanni delle Celle (d. 1394; see Yale University, Beinecke Library, MS 759), and was among the first books printed in Germany, France, and Italy.To view a video of this item, click here. 

Ɵ Thomas Aquinas' commentary on Peter Lombard, Sentences, in Latin, decorated manuscript on paper[Italy, dated 23 November 1479]133 leaves (plus a single endleaf of perhaps seventeenth or eighteenth century at end), wanting two leaves at front (probably an endleaf and the opening of the prologue), else complete, collation: i8 (wanting first 2 leaves), ii-vi10, vii8, viii7 (last a cancelled blank, and the leaf before that with all but the initial 14 lines left blank, but text continuous with following page), ix10-xiv10 + a singleton to complete the index, catchwords, double column of 55 lines of a small late gothic bookhand with influence of secretarial letterforms, paragraph marks in red, small initials in red or blue with elongated strokes terminating in baubles, larger initials in same with blank paper patterns of lines and dots left within their bodies, "YHS" and some running titles in hairline penstrokes at head of leaves at end of book, leaves at each end of volume with old water damage causing losses there to edges and some staining (this affecting legibility only on current first leaf, and the last leaf repaired with more modern paper), small holes in first 2 leaves, slight stains to edges throughout, otherwise in clean and bright condition, 338 by 235mm.; seventeenth- or eighteenth-century reversed calf over pasteboards, scuffs and bumps and holes in leather on spine, but solid in binding Provenance:Written by a scribe who dates the book and names "Fratre Ludevico de ..." in the damaged and partly missing colophon on the last leaf, this perhaps his own name. That addition notes that the book originally belonged to a Dominican convent ("Iste liber est conventus sancte L... ordine predicatorum"). Text:Peter Lombard wrote his Sentences, a comprehensive compilation and distillation of medieval theology in the late 1140s as a guide to the study of the Bible and the Church Fathers. It is one of the textual foundation stones of medieval Christianity and philosophical thought. In turn other commentaries were written on it, perhaps the greatest of these being the present work by the Dominican friar and Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74). He had spent his second and third years of his degree studies at Paris studying the text, and in the 1250s he turned to compose this monumental commentary and augmentation of it. It is widely regarded as his first great work.To view a video of this item, click here. 

Ɵ An important humanist geographical compendium with Vibius Sequester, De fluminibus, fontibus, lacubus, nemoribus, gentibus, quorum apud poëtas mentio fit, and 'Lucius Fenestella', Opusculum fragmentum, with extracts from Guido of Pisa, Geographica and the Antonine Itinerary as well as other texts, in Latin, manuscript on paper[Italy (probably Lucca), second half of the fifteenth century (c. 1477)]70 leaves, collation: i8 (including front pastedown, and 5 blank leaves at front of volume), ii-vii8, viii10 (including 8 blank leaves at end), ix4 (including back pastedown, this quire all blank leaves), catchwords, foliated in modern pencil from beginning of main texts (and followed here), complete, single column of 34 lines in a good semi-humanist hand, pale red rubrics, initials of lists in red and brown, spaces left for larger initials, watermarks of an ecclesiastic's hat and a dragon (see below), the front endleaves with entries in main hand of the opening 7 lines of Vibius Sequester's text facing 13 entries from the text on rivers (apparently the scribe began with these leaves then set them aside and started again, reusing them as endleaves), some spots and stains and discoloured areas at edges of leaves in places, small tears to edges of a few leaves, else excellent condition, 215 by 145mm.; contemporary yellow reversed calf over pasteboards, tooled with triple fillet, some holes and stains, remains of two thongs at vertical edge Provenance:Compiled and copied by a humanist scholar interested in geography, probably in Lucca around the year 1477. The first watermark here, that of an ecclesiastic's hat, has a wide usage throughout Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century and the opening of the sixteenth century. However, the second watermark of a roaring dragon with a bulging eye and straight tail is much rarer, and that here is identical to Briquet 2651, recorded in Lucca in 1477. Text:The principal text here is the De fluminibus, fontibus, lacubus, nemoribus, gentibus, quorum apud poëtas mentio fit of the fourth or fifth century AD. writer Vibius Sequester (here fols. 31r-36v). It is composed of some seven lengthy lists of geographical placenames (flumina, rivers; fontes, springs; lacus, lakes; nemora, forests; paludes, marshes; montes, mountains; and gentes, peoples) gleaned from Classical Roman poets, notably Vergil, Ovid and Lucan, as well as further geographic references taken from exegetical works on those verses. A number of these names do not occur in the known versions of the poets' works, and may indicate that Sequester had access to now-lost texts. It is recorded first in Vatican, Lat. 4929, a nearly square parchment codex of the middle of the ninth century, perhaps from Fleury and then in a house near Orléans in the later Middle Ages, that contains the earliest copies of several late Roman works (see C.W. Barlow in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, 15, 1938, pp. 87-124). The inclusion of eleventh-century additions made to that manuscript as part of the main text here demonstrates that the Vatican manuscript stands behind the present one. It was popular among humanists and approximately 50 manuscripts of the fifteenth century are known. That said, it is of extreme rarity on the market, with only a handful of copies appearing since records began, with the last at Sotheby's, 26 January 1959, lot 92 (again an Italian fifteenth-century copy on paper), which reappeared last in Christie's, 28 June 1961, lot 206.The text that precedes this appears on first inspection to also be a Classical work, but is in fact the work of a humanist scholar who disseminated his work under the name of a Roman writer recorded by Pliny the Elder. The rubric here identifies it as a small work by "Fenestrelle", meaning Lucius Fenestrella (d. 19 or 36 AD.; fol. 1r-30r). It is in fact the work of a mysterious humanist author named Andrea Domenico Fiocchi (d. 1452, also 'Andreas Florentinum'), who here is noted as the author of the 4-line dedication of the work in this form to the mid-fifteenth-century Florentine cardinal, "Franciscus tituli S. Clementis". Fiocchi served as canon of San Lorenzo in Florence and was an associate of Pope Eugenius IV. The text opens "Ocioso pridem mihi ac monumenta ...", and is also recorded by O. Kristeller (Iter Italicum I, 1963, pp. 80, 91, 140 and 186), in four manuscripts in the Laurenziana in Florence (Rinuccini 19; Laur. Ashburnham MS. 897 [828]; Magliabechiano XXVIII 51; and 138 [M1 11]) all of the fifteenth century and with the same preface as here).To this the main hand has added the Notitia Galliarum, a short text from c. 400 that lists all seventeen provinces of Roman Gaul, with their 115 civitates, seven castra and one porta (here fols. 36-39r; see J. Harries in The Journal of Roman Studies, 68, 1978, pp. 26-43). This includes at its head a short geographical glossary named De Verbis Gallicis or as here De Urbibus Gallicis (see A.H. Blom in Études celtiques, 37, 2011, pp. 159-81). The section of Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, listing islands and mountains follows (fols. 39r-43v), and after this come extracts on Italy from the Geographica of Guido of Pisa (d. 1169; here fols. 44r-46v), itself an updated version of the eighth-century encyclopaedia of the so-called Anonymous of Ravenna. Only a handful of manuscripts of this text survive, with a twelfth-century copy once in the library of the grand Florentine humanist Coluccio Salutati (now British Library, Egerton MS. 818), Brussels, Bibliothèque royale mss. 3897-3919 of the same century, Florence, Riccardiana MS. 881 of the thirteenth century, and fifteenth-century copies in Rome, Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele, Sessorianus 286 and Vatican, Lat. 11,564. One of those must stand behind this witness. No manuscript, or part of one, seems ever to have come to the market before.An extract from the Antonine Itinerary completes the geographical compendium (fols. 46v-47r), again focussed on Rome (including a section on its libraries). The only non-geographical texts here are a list and discussion of Greek verse metres on fols. 47v-50v., and the addition of 17 lines from Cicero, Rhetorica, Orator 1, addressing Brutus, opening "Utrum difficilius aut maius ...", to the back endleaf.To view a video of this item, click here. 

Ɵ Cicero, Topica, in Latin, fine humanist manuscript on parchment[Italy (perhaps Florence), mid-fifteenth century]25 leaves (plus endleaves and pastedowns formed from a single bifolium added at front and back, these recovered from a thirteenth-century manuscript of a text citing Augustine and numerous other authors), wanting a leaf from end with final 15-20 lines of text, else complete, collation: i2 (with finely painted initials, text continuous across this bifolium and to next gathering), ii8, iii8, iv7 (wants last leaf), catchwords, single column of 22 lines of a good and professional humanist minuscule, small capitals set in margins where they open new sections, two decorated initials in burnished gold on split green and blue grounds, heightened with white and yellow scrolling penwork, sprays of blue and burgundy flowers emerging from these in the border, spaces left for Greek words, blue pencil "X782" at head of frontispiece, small spots and stains, some offsetting of paint from initials to adjacent leaves, else excellent condition, 180 by 115mm.; contemporary binding of brown leather over thin wooden boards, tooled with ropework designs, flower heads and crosses, all laid out in concentric frames on boards, numerous holes and scuffs to edges, the binding skilfully restored, some splits at head and foot of spine and coming loose from front of bookblock, exposing thongs there, remains of metal clasp, overall solid in binding Text:The Topica was composed in 44 BC. by Cicero (106-43 BC.), in the last year of his life and reportedly from memory while he was sailing from Velia (in Salerno) to Regium (on the mainland side of the Strait of Messina). It was composed to fulfil an old promise to a friend as a commentary to Aristotle's work of the same name, using as an intermediary source either a commentary by Antiochus or now-lost works by Philo. It is a work on logic, specifically dialectic, the invention and discovery of arguments in which the propositions rest upon commonly held opinions. It found instant fame and was vigorously studied in Antiquity. It survived into the Middle Ages by the slimmest of threads, as the only part of the Carolingian 'Leiden corpus' of Cicero's philosophical works that was rejected and left out by all but one ninth-century copyist. Moreover, the sole copy that did include it (Leiden, Voss, Lat. F. 86) omitted sections, which were thankfully restored by the addition of further leaves later in the ninth century. Most Renaissance copies descend from a ninth-century witness (now Florence, Laurenziana MS. 257), which was used at Corbie in the eleventh century, immediately before being given to the cathedral library of Strasbourg. There it was discovered in 1417 by the grand manuscript-hunter, Poggio Braccolini, and taken to Italy where it passed into the library of the early humanist Niccolo Niccoli (for the stemma in full see M.D. Reeve in Texts and Transmissions, 1983, pp. 128-30, and G. Di Maria's edition of the text from 1994). It is extremely rare to the market, with the vast Schoenberg database listing the last copy as that sold by Sotheby's, 11 December 1961, lot 190, reappearing in Alan Thomas' cat. 10 (1962), no. 3, 11 (1962), no. 4, and 13 (1964), no. 1.To view a video of this item, click here. 

Ɵ Legal compendium, including Castellanus de Bononia, Arbor syllogistica, the anonymous Liber propositionum and a commentary on Justinian's Digestum novum, in Latin, decorated manuscript on paper[Italy (most probably Bologna), closing years of the fourteenth century or the opening years of the fifteenth century] 162 leaves (plus a parchment endleaf at each end recovered from a twelfth-century Italian Breviary with remains of a large red foliate and geometric initial and 13 lines of text with Beneventan neumes, used upside down in current binding), complete, collation: i12, ii6, iii-v10, vi-vii12, viii-xii10, xiii8, xiv12, xv-xvi10, some catchwords and quire and leaf signatures, first text (fols. 1r-12v) with double column of 38 lines of a squat Italian late gothic bookhand showing strong influence of secretarial hands, simple red initials, second text (fols. 13r-152v) in single column of 47 lines in different hand, important sections of text underlined in red, some running titles in red, paragraph marks and initials in red or dark blue, larger initials with foliate penwork in contrasting colour, explicit on fol. 60v with penwork animal head in profile, one large initial 'R' enclosing coloured foliage, a long grass stem in centre of eighth gathering (most probably an informal medieval book mark plucked from some plant while reading volume outside in cloister), watermarks of crown and a hunting horn (see below), some water stains at edges and worm holes (more pronounced at ends, but not affecting legibility or appearance of this monastic manuscript), some small spots and stains, but overall clean and presentable condition, 313 by 215mm.; contemporary binding of heavy oak boards with red pigskin spine, remains of three clasps on lower board with corresponding marks from straps on upper board, wood cleaned and partly restored, some splits and wear to leather of spine, overall solid in binding Provenance:1. Most probably written in Bologna in the closing years of the fourteenth century or the opening years of the fifteenth century for use in either a monastic or university setting there: the watermarks here range in date from 1397 to 1403 and firmly focus on Bologna and its vicinity: I: Crown of type found in Briquet4619 (Bologna, 1390-99), as well as Piccard51099 (Ferrara, 1401), 51126 (Bologna, 1398), 51127 (Bologna, 1398), 51128 (Bologna, 1397), 51129 (Castelfranco, 1400), and 51131 (Castelfranco, 1400); II: Hunting Horn as in Piccard119374 (Pavia, 1397), 119376 (Bologna, 1396), 119377 (Bologna, 1397), 119471 (Bologna, 1397), and 119498 (Bologna, 1403). The manuscript then evidently remained in Bologna through the next century, during which period it had inscriptions mentioning the city added to its last endleaves.2. From the library of the noble Sales family in Château de Thorens (commune Thorens-Glières) in Savoy. The castle was confiscated by the duke of Savoy from the lords of Compey in 1476, passed to Marie de Luxembourg and in 1559 was sold to Lord François de Sales de Boisy, father of the Saint François de Sales (1567-1622; Jesuit, bishop of Geneva). The castle is still inhabited by the Roussy de Sales branch of the family, who recently sold the archives of their house to the French state and deaccessioned the few remaining manuscripts from their library at the same time (including this volume). Text:This is a large and weighty monastic legal sammelband, bringing together rare practical texts, of an apparent German origin. The codex opens with the Arbor syllogistica, which identifies its author as Castellanus, "son of Nicholas de Bonarellis of Bologna", noting his studies in Perugia in 1346 (fols. 1r-18v, opening "Quoniam affirmantis ut negantis aliquid fore iuridicum ..."). The text is also known as the Modus arguendi in iure, and is a treatise on syllogistic logic, dialectic, and rhetoric in legal arguments, a popular courtroom approach among fourteenth-century jurists. It is recorded elsewhere in at least five manuscripts, mostly from German libraries with one from Épinal near the French-German border (Seitenstetten, Benediktinerstift Cod. 35; Bonn, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek MS S 794; Braunschweig, Stadtbibliothek MS 52; Épinal, Bibliothèque municipale MS 8 [108]; Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz MS lat. fol. 865, item no. 17). This is followed by the Liber propositionum, which offers an alphabetical commentary on the differences between the canons in the Decretals and those in the Decretum (fols. 19r-58v, opening "Quoniam omne artificium per exercicium recipit incrementum ..."). This text has been identified in only two other witnesses, again German in origin (Lüneburg, Ratsbücherei Cod. Theol. 2° 87; and Greifswald, Geistliches Ministerium [Dombibliothek St. Nikolai] MS 18.C.I). The volume closes with a discussion on the titles used in the Digestum novum (fols. 61r-148v with completion of text on 151r-152v), which is the most heavily annotated section of the volume. The author of this text cites legal authorities from the middle and second half of the fourteenth century, including Guillelmus de Cugno, Jacobus de Belvisio, Dinys de Mugello, Petrus de Bellapertica, Raynerius de Forlivio, Odo de Senonis, and a "Roffredus". This last text has not been identified by us elsewhere, and may be otherwise unrecorded.To view a video of this item, click here. 

Ɵ Giovanni da Capestrano, Collection of legal opinions in defence of the Franciscan Order Minor and the penitent sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, in Latin, manuscript on paper[Italy (perhaps Milan), second half of the fifteenth century] 13 leaves, complete, collation impractical, but in 2 units of 10+3 leaves, single column of approximately 54 lines in a series of late gothic secretarial hands, description of contents in sixteenth-century Italian at head of first leaf, some marginalia and lining through, small spots and marks, splits to edges of a few leaves, else good condition, 290 by 220mm.; contemporary limp parchment binding with flap, small amount of rodent damage at foot, eighteenth-century inscription on front (ink of this mostly fallen away with impressions on surface only remaining)This small codex brings together the legal councils (consilia) of some important medieval notaries and lawyers, at the request of Giovanni da Capestrano (1386-1456), in defence of the Franciscan Order Minor and Third Order of Franciscan nuns. They include in the order copied here, the consilium of Catone Sacco (fols. 1r-3r), the consilium of Luchinus de Curte (fols. 3v-4r), the consilium of Bartholomeus de Baratheriis (fol. 4r), the consilium of Lucius de Vernatiis da Cremona (fols. 4v-5r), the consilium of Franciscus de Folengis (fol. 5r), the consilium of Augustinus de Martariis de Castro Novo (fols. 5rv), the consilium of Bertoldus Helmici di Colonia (fols. 6r-9v), and the names of four lawyers without legal comment (perhaps intended to be filled in later, but not completed). This is followed by a series of papal concessions to the orders, namely the Privilegium confirmationis et approbationis regule supradicte et occasione status fratrum de penitentia predictorum (fols. 11rv), the Privilegium pro prelatis et ecclesiasticis vel secularibus quorumcumque ordinis condictionis occasionis collectarum vel talliarum decime viciesime non solvende (fols. 11v-12v), the Privilegium status fratrum et sororum de penitentia (fols. 12v-13v), and the attestation of Giovanni di Tommaso of Riccardo d'Assisi for these privileges. The Franciscan Order was founded in 1209 as a monastic movement based on poverty and humility. Its founder, St. Francis of Assisi died in 1226, and the movement quickly descending into factional fighting over the strictness of their ideals of poverty and abstinence. In the second decade of the fourteenth century the Pope weighed in on their squabbles, with unyielding and ascetic members of the Order committed to the Inquisition and four of their number burnt for heresy. At the time the present documents were brought together, the Order was beginning to fracture into several sects, such as the Fraticelli, who drew the attention of the Pope and the anti-pope alike as heretics. This collection was doubtless put together to lobby for the protection of the traditional members of the Order in such confusing times. The division carried on throughout the fifteenth century and into the early sixteenth century, necessitating the present copy. 

Ɵ A practical manual of the laws of the Venetian republic, in Latin, decorated manuscript on paper[Veneto (either Venice or Treviso), late fifteenth century or early sixteenth century]84 leaves (plus 3 endleaves at front, and a single endleaf at back), complete, collation: i-x8, xi4 (these blank), xii4, catchwords and contemporary quire and leaf signatures, single column of approximately 30 lines in a semi-humanist hand, red rubrics and contents list, simple red initials (some in thin and crude red penwork), some running titles for a few leaves (now faded to fawn), first endleaf decorated with full page coat-of-arms between and beneath sets of initials 'JM' and within a wreath with coloured dots perhaps indicating gemstones, this page showing trimming of volume during last binding, small spots and stains, some text faded or washed out at edges, but overall in presentable and solid condition, 192 by 150mm.; sixteenth-century limp parchment binding with flap, reusing small scraps of an early printed religious work as binding material, this binding with some repairs to holes and splits, remains of two paper labels laid onto spine Provenance:Written for, and perhaps by, Jacobus Menutiis/Minutiis: his ex libris marks three times on the front endleaves and his arms and initials also there. The text is thoroughly that of the Veneto (see below) and Jacobus must have practised law in that region. The text:The origin of this book in the Veneto is beyond doubt. It opens with a copy of a document dated 1290 that addresses Christ, the Trinity, the Virgin and St. Mark (the patron of Venice), citing the Venetian doges and texts to do with instruments of their authority there, as well as the scholar Marcus Zeno "de venetii". Within the main text itself, it cites sample documents of Venetian origin, such as that issued by Antonius Venerius, the doge of Venice in 1382-1400. However, there are also legal cases and explanations here that mention Treviso, a town a few miles to the north east of Venice and also under the rule of the doges, and the book may well come from there.The main text here is a lengthy legal textbook (fols. 1r-76v), arranged in ten chapters, which gives a thorough grounding in the civil law of the Venetian Republic, including sections on notaries (public and those of the chancellor), an array of types of wills, sample legal cases and pleas, sentences for these, fugitives, petitions, pledges for debts, violent criminal cases such as injury that results in bloodshed and homicide, as well as many others. We have not been able to trace another copy. After a single blank gathering, the main hand then added an alphabetised index of solutions to legal problems covered in the text, this named the Ordo solutionis and ascribed to the city of Treviso.To view a video of this item, click here. 

Ɵ Guido Bentivoglio, Relazione della fuga di francia d'Henrico di Borbone Prencipe di Conde Primo Prencipe del sangue Regio di Francia e di quello che ne segui sino al suo ritorno a Parigi, in Italian, manuscript on paper[Italy, seventeenth century] 107 leaves (plus single endleaves at front and back), complete, single column of approximately 17 lines of an italic hand, titles in same, last 12 leaves with 25 lines in another hand, these leaves suffering a little from ink burn, otherwise small spots and stains, else good condition, 275 by 200mm.; in 'Middle Hill' marbled boards with dark leather spine and corners, some scuffs and splitting of leather, but solid in bindingProvenance:1. Frederick North (1766-1827), 5th Earl Guilford, politician, British governor of Ceylon, traveller and formidable book collector, often purchasing entire libraries of ecclesiastical institutions in Italy and Greece with the aim of forming a university on Corfu: his armorial printed bookplate on pastedown. However, problems with his will forced the sale of the library by auction at Evans of 93 Pall Mall in 1828-1835, including this volume as part of lot 399 there.2. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), the greatest manuscript collector to have ever lived; this his MS. 5677: with his pencil and pen inscriptions of this number on front pastedown. Offered in his sale in Sotheby's, 10 June 1896, lot 542, but unsold, and with the Robinson's stock no. 'A-2675' subsequently added to front pastedown; offered again in Sotheby's, 29 October 1962, lot 167, and sold to S.W. Edwards, his cat. 105 (1963), no. 7.3. E.H. Dobrée, of Adney Hall, Teddington: his twentieth-century bookplate on front endleaf.4. Harry and Virginia Walton; their sale in our rooms, 9 July 2009, lot 19.Text: Guido Bentivoglio was born in Ferrara in 1579, and studied in Padova, where he met Galileo. He travelled to Rome and established himself as a churchman, diplomat and historian, serving in high rank as nuncio to Flanders and France in 1607-1615 and being elevated to the cardinalate in 1627. His works are important eyewitness accounts to early seventeenth-century history, and this one in particular seeks to explain the fractious relationship between the increasingly powerful French aristocracy and the demanding absolutist ruler, Henry IV of France.To view a video of this item, click here.  

Ɵ Collection of Biblical readings, in Latin, modern illuminated manuscript on parchment attempting to emulate a late medieval manuscript [probably Britain or Europe, most probably late nineteenth century] 20 leaves, a single gathering, many leaves with ascending numbers in modern pencil on their versos often in centre of text, each leaf with a miniature on the recto showing scenes of courtly life with knights fighting and on horseback, kings in judgement, monks reading and martyrs being burnt at the stake, before scenes from an apparent saint's life with a young man pointing to a star, being executed while at prayer and lying in state, ending with scenes of hanging, a man in chains and a headless kneeling corpse with his executioner showing his head to two nobles , full border of coloured and gilt foliage on crystalline gilt grounds, text in red and black in 11 lines of script imitating a late medieval bookhand, numerous errors showing the copyist's inability to follow medieval abbreviations and text often breaking off at end of verso of each leaf, text block framed in orange, first leaf with full-page miniature of bearded king, each miniature with sheet of red satin tipped in as guard, cockled and with some leaves varnished and on less than best quality parchment, overall fair condition, 140 by 85mm.; bound in parchment over pasteboards with two knotted tags, spine covered with pasted on strip of parchment Provenance:1. Most probably produced as a forgery for sale to a manuscript collector in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Some bungled abbreviations and characters show that the forger was inexperienced with medieval writing, but seems to have selected an actual medieval book or images of it for his template. The volume first appears in the hands of Alfred Trapnell (1838-1917) of Bournemouth, England: with his detailed printed paper bookplate with scene of late medieval reader, above his burgundy circular leather label with gilt edge and number "2165" in gilt. He was a sea captain and industrial metal producer who used his travels and wealth to assemble collections of artefacts such as porcelain, before selling them in large single-category sales in London to great financial success. The Times reported on 17 March 1914, that he had "probably formed and sold more collections than any other man now living". His collection of illuminated manuscripts was sold at Sotheby's, 6 April, 1910, doubtless including this lot.2. Captain Thore Virgin (1886-1957) of Qvarnfors, Sweden; his gilt and blue bookplate dated '1911'. From his heirs to the current owner.To view a video of this item, click here. 

 Ɵ Two leaves with a homily discussing adultery and citing a patristic text, in Greek, decorated manuscript on parchment[Greece (perhaps Constantinople), eleventh century] Two leaves, each with double column of 30 lines in a fine Greek minuscule, each leaf complete apart from trimmed at head with losses of uppermost line or so, stains from reuse in a later binding (that on second leaf with damage to two thirds of text), overall fair condition and on fine and heavy parchment, 320 by 240mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance:1.Written in Greece in the eleventh century, and by the seventeenth- or eighteenth-century in Italy and reused on bindings: inscriptions of "282" and "E" in Italian hand of that date.2. Sotheby's, 5 December 1994, lot 50 (part).3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1979/3, acquired in Sotheby's. Text:From a large format homiliary. The script here is an excellent example of medieval Greek minuscule, which was developed as a book hand in the ninth and tenth centuries as a less formal and quicker to write form of uncials, with many ligatures. The hand here is close to that of 14 leaves of homilies by Gregory of Nazianus and John Chrysostom offered in Quaritch, cat. 1270, Bookhands of the Middle Ages IV, 2000, no. 59.  

‡ Psalter, in Sahidic dialect of Coptic, in Coptic Uncials, manuscript on parchment[Upper Egypt (probably the White Monastery, Sohag), first half of fifth century] Single leaf with a stub from its sister leaf on the other half of the bifolium, with remains of a single column of 27 lines of elegant Coptic Uncials set on unusually long lines, text partly indented 'per cola et commata', losses to upper and outermost edges (with damage to a few lines of text at head), stains in places, set in modern conservation paper, 200 by 160mm. Provenance: 1. Most probably produced for use in the White Monastery (or the Monastery of St. Shenouda), Deir el-Abiad, near Sohag, Egypt, a Coptic Orthodox monastery near the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag. It was founded by St. Pigol in 442, and grew substantially in importance after his nephew St. Shenouda the Archimandrite (d. 466) took over in 385. He was a gifted administrator and during his abbacy the monastery grew in size from 30 monks to 2200 monks and 1800 nuns. He was also a prolific writer, and launched a literacy campaign within the monastery, producing a large library and establishing the house as perhaps the most important in the Coptic Church. When the first European visitors reached the monastery, the library was housed in a room to the north of the central apse called the 'Secret Chamber', which could be entered only through a hidden passage. It seems likely that the first such visitor allowed into the library was J. Maspero, who arrived in 1883 and who documented his visit (as well as his acquisitions there) in 1897 ('Fragments de manuscrits Coptes-Thébains', Mémoires publiés par les membres de la mission archéologiques française, 6). Others followed, and so many leaves flooded out of the monastery that when Canon Oldfield visited in 1903 the 'Secret Chamber' was completely empty (W.E. Crum, 'Inscriptions from Shenoute's Monastery', Journal of Theological Studies, 5, 1904). Some were no doubt legitimately bought from the monks, and the British Museum acquired a large collection through their agent Wallace Budge, and the BnF. obtained a vast hoard of 4000 leaves through Maspero and an antiquities dealer named Freney. However, records exist of more nefarious acquisition methods, including that of Charles Wilbour who came to the region in 1890 on a buying trip for the Brooklyn Museum, and reports that "Mr. Frenay told us Abbé Amélineau tried to burgle the White Monastery ... after drugging the monks" (Travels in Egypt, 1936, p. 561). The modern scholars Tito Orlandi and Alin Suciu have further suggested that some of the monastery's codices were more systematically dispersed as part of the suppression of Christianity in the region.2. Maurice Nahman (1868-1948), French collector-dealer, and Head Cashier at the Crédit Foncier d'Egypte in Cairo, who used this position to establish himself as the foremost antiquity dealer of Cairo in the 1920s and 1930s in his exquisite Arab-style home there. He was visited there by egyptologists and institutional collectors such as Howard Carter and Lord Carnavon (presumably during their excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun), as well as Hollywood actresses such as Ruth Selwyn and celebrities such as Henry E. Ringling of circus fame. A sale of part of his collection was held by Christie's, London, on 2 March 1937. After his death his son kept the business going until 1953, and then the remaining stock was offered in Hotel Drouot, Paris, in 26-27 February and 5 June 1953, with the remainder apparently passing to Erik von Scherling. 3. Re-emerging in Sotheby's, 5 December 1995, lot 28.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 114/25, acquired in Sotheby's. Text and script:From an early Coptic Psalter, and containing Psalms 77:25-34 in the Sahidic dialect of Upper Egypt, translated in the third or even late second century (see E.A. Wallis Budge, The Earliest Known Coptic Psalter, 1898, and P. Nagel, 'Der sahidische Psalter', Der Septuaginta-Psalter, ed. Aejmelaeus and Quast, 2000, pp.82-96).The script here is a fine Coptic Uncial, derived from Greek Uncial, and showing its ultimate debt to Ancient epigraphic letterforms in its monumental and rounded majuscules and absence of spacing between words. Published:Online as TM/LDAB 828617 

‡ Hebrew Bible, Amos 5:7-7:11, manuscript on parchment [Oriental (Near East), tenth or eleventh century] Single large square leaf, with three columns of 22 lines of large square script with nikkud, Masora magna above text and Masorah parva below text, small Masorah inserted between the columns, small stains and tears to edges, else excellent condition and on fine and heavy parchment, 395 by 350mm. Provenance:1. Most probably from the famous Cairo Genizah, the repository of the Jewish community located in the Ben Ezra Synagogue of Fustat (established in 882 AD.). This storehouse of obsolete books fell into disuse and was forgotten until renovations to the building in 1891 opened the hoard and released some leaves onto the antiquities market. The linguist Archibald Sayce was in Cairo in 1892, and records that the Genizah was being dispersed leaf-by-leaf to dealers and collectors. Sayce repeatedly attempted to acquire the entire collection for the Bodleian, but the negotiations fell through, and he left Cairo blaming the constant inebriation of the local officials for the failure of his attempt. Subsequently, a leaf from the long-lost Hebrew version of Ecclesiasticus found its way via the redoubtable twins and early Bible hunters, Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson, to the Cambridge scholar Solomon Schechter. He mounted a rescue mission and acquired the remaining 140,000 fragments for Cambridge University. The discovery captivated public imagination in Europe in a way comparable only to the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. For half a century, until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, these were the oldest Hebrew manuscripts known.2. Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London, their MS 1630: acquired from Quaritch, November 1992. A sister leaf with Amos 7:11-9:8 was sold in the Schøyen sale at Sotheby's on 10 July 2012, lot 12, for £42,000, and another in our rooms with parts of Zechariah and Malachi, 10 July 2018, lot 6 for £37,500. Text:This is a noble relic of one of the earliest surviving codices of the Hebrew Bible. Its text is set in three columns and it is nearly square, the oldest extant codex format, echoing early papyrus codices, and perhaps fixed in this format from the cutting up of Ancient scrolls and binding them together down one edge. The earliest surviving Hebrew biblical books date to the ninth or tenth century, such as the surviving parts of the Aleppo Codex (c. 920, now Jerusalem, Shrine of the Book), the Damascus Pentateuch (c. 1000; also Jerusalem, Hebrew University), the St. Petersberg Codex (dated 1008/09, now National Library of Russia, MS.B19a), British Library, Or. 4445 (Pentateuch only, tenth-century), and the near complete ninth- or tenth-century codex, ex D.S. Sassoon, sold in Sotheby's, 5 December 1989, lot 69, for £2,035,000. These are the fundamental witnesses to the format of the text as selected by the Masoretic scholar, Aaron Ben-Asher (d. c. 960), in Tiberias, modern Palestine. The resulting text was accepted by Maimonides as the most accurate, and remains in use today. The late Professor Chimen Abramsky assigned the script of this leaf to the scribe of the tenth-century British Library, Or. 4445, and the lack of a eulogistic acronym for Aaron Ben-Asher in that manuscript has been taken as an indication that Ben-Ascher was alive at the time it was written. Moreover, Kahle has suggested that Or. 4445 was the work of Ben-Asher himself in the early period of his work on the text (The Cairo Genizah, 1959, pp.117-18), placing the scribe of this leaf within the circle of Ben-Asher himself, at one of the formative stages of the Hebrew Bible. 

Ɵ Substantial fragment from two closely related codices of the Hebrew Bible, with the short weekly readings from 2 Kings and the Major and Minor Prophets, in Hebrew, manuscript on parchment[Near East (most probably Egypt or Palestine), eleventh century, or just perhaps early twelfth century] 24 leaves, each with single column of approximately 13 lines in Hebrew square script, with nikkud, headings in larger version of same script or in calligraphic flourishes in margin, some more modern (probably early twentieth-century) pencil marks, scuffs and slight damage to edges of leaves, else good condition, first 4 leaves full size:185 by 130mm., and remaining leaves with upper and lower margins slightly trimmed, thus:170 by 130mm.; cloth-covered card binding (one gathering bound upside down) A substantial fragment of a remarkably early Hebrew Bible with a provenance that definitively stretches back to the celebrated Cairo Genizah; and perhaps a hitherto unrecognised part of a sister codex to that sold in our rooms on 6 July 2016 Provenance: 1. Most probably written for use by the Jewish community of Fustat, Cairo, in either the eleventh or early twelfth century. Owel David pronounced the bifolium once in the Sassoon collection as definitely from the Cairo Genizah and "not later than the 11th century" (Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, 1932, I, pp. 27-28; it had been acquired by Sassoon in Egypt in 1922).2. Thereafter most probably entering the famous Cairo Genizah, the repository of the Jewish community located in the Ben Ezra Synagogue of Fustat (on this see lot 14), and among the leaves that spilled out onto the market after the discovery of the hoard at the end of the nineteenth century until Solomon Schechter secured the bulk of it for Cambridge University. The discovery captivated public imagination in Europe in a way comparable only to the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. For half a century, until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, these were the oldest Hebrew manuscripts known.3. Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London, their MS 2083/1, acquired piece by piece in Sotheby's, 5 December 1995, lot 27; 18 June 1996, lot 41; and again 2 December 1997, lot 86. A further bifolium with readings from the Psalms, and with its borders trimmed away, was in the 5th sale of the collection of David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) at Sotheby's, 21 June 1994, lot 1 (part 9 of a composite bound manuscript [Sassoon MS 566], and now Schøyen MS 1858/9, and thus remaining with that sammelband). Text:From a remarkably early and important Hebrew Biblical codex, used for ritual weekly readings. If this fragmentary codex dates to the eleventh century then it is among the very earliest witnesses to the Hebrew Bible. If instead it is of the twelfth century then it is a direct contemporary of Maimonides (born 1135 Spain, moved to Fustat in 1168, dying there in 1204), and certainly the codex was there when he was head of the Jewish community in Fustat, working on the Mishneh Torah. It seems very likely that he saw, and perhaps even used, these leaves.Another fragment of 127 leaves from a contemporary Hebrew Bible also from Egypt, was sold in our rooms on 6 July 2016 (lot 45, realising £86,800). That was tentatively attributed to the Cairo Genizah and of near identical measurements to the present leaves. The hands of these two sections of small codices are distinct, but extremely close, and crucially the texts do not overlap. Moreover, at least two scribes were involved in the production of the present leaves. Thus, these leaves and those sold in 2016 may well be sections of a large series of volumes once used in Fustat, and divided up after the discovery of the Genizah there. If so, the present leaves are of great importance to the whole in securely locating them in the Cairo Genizah, and it should be noted that those sold in 2016 were of significant textual importance, containing a textual tradition otherwise known from only one Yemenite sixteenth-century codex.The leaves here contain readings from: 2 Kings 5:18-20; Ezekiel 22:1-5; Hosea 2:5-15; Joshua 2:16-24; Judges 11:2-12; Micah 5:10-6:8; 1 Samuel 1:20-2:12; 3:19-20; 1 Kings 7:44-51; Isaiah 43:21; 43:27; 2 Kings 7:1-14; Zechariah 2:16-17; 3:1-10; 14:4-14; Joshua 2:14-24; Micah 5:11-14; 6:1-8; 1 Kings 18:46; 19:1-21; Jeremiah 1:1-19; 2:4-9; Isaiah 1:1-27; 1 Samuel 1:2-15; Jeremiah 2:4-19; 9:22; 30:4-22; and Isaiah 1:1.To view a video of this item, click here.  

Ɵ Canon of Odes 3-7, celebrating the appearance of the Cross in the sky over Mount Golgotha in the reign of Emperor Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, in Middle Georgian, in nuskuri script, manuscript on parchment[Georgia, thirteenth or fourteenth century] Single leaf, with 28 lines in a formal nuskuri hand influenced by cursive letterforms, red rubrics, small initials in alternate red and black (set in margins), small spots and darkening to edges, else good condition, 200 by 150mm.; in cloth-covered card binding (with copy of report by Prof. Emeritus J. Neville Birdsall, dated 1992)  Provenance: Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London, their MS 1598, acquired from Sam Fogg, London, in July 1992. Text: Georgian is the principal surviving example of the South Caucasian language group, completely unrelated to the Indo-European languages of Europe. It has a rich heritage, and was first mentioned as a spoken language by the Roman grammarian Marcus Cornelius Fronto in the second century AD., who noted its incomprehensibility. The script used to commit it to writing is derived from Greek. It was one of the earliest languages into which the Bible was translated, with the Gospels, the Epistles of Paul and the Psalms certainly existing in Old Georgian by the second half of the fifth century.The vast majority of medieval manuscripts in Georgian are in libraries in Tbiblisi and Kutaisi in Georgia itself, with a handful found in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the Greek patriarchate in Jerusalem, St. Catherine's on Mount Sinai, and Yerevan, Armenia. 

Bede, Homilies, in Latin, cuttings from a manuscript in a fine Anglo-Saxon minuscule on parchment[most probably north-eastern France (perhaps Arras), first quarter of the ninth century]Large fragment of a single leaf bisected laterally into two equal halves, remains of double column of 25 lines in a pointed Anglo-Saxon minuscule, with an open 'g' with a zig-zagging tail, an oversized 'e', uncial style 'd', an 'r' descending below the line and both pointed and 'oc' forms of 'a' (for the same features cf. the contemporary hands of Basel, UB F III 15a and Kassel, 2o Ms. theol. 25: reproduced in Fuldische Handschriften aus Hessen, 1994, nos. 19 and 29), containing parts of book 2, homily 7, of the text, areas partly painted blue-green and tooled with fillet on outside and traces of red staining inside (probably from reuse around in north-European binding around outer board edges of a later book), together 180 by 180mm.; set individually in glass and within fitted case These are substantial cuttings from a copy of a work by Bede, the foremost Anglo-Saxon author, here in Anglo-Saxon miniscule, copied on the Continent in a house under English influence or by a visiting English scribe Provenance: 1. Written for use in a Continental scriptorium, perhaps by an English scribe, in the first quarter of the ninth century. In 1994 the script was identified by Prof. G. Schrimpf, Herrad Spilling and Wesley M. Stevens of the Theological Faculty of Fulda as from a centre in north-east France.2. Private American collection, dispersed by Quaritch in 1993.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1654; acquired from Quaritch. Text and scriptorium:The use of Anglo-Saxon script in Continental Europe during the close of the Early Middle Ages is a testament to the influence of English missionaries there in the eighth century. At the close of the seventh century, Ecgberht of Ripon inherited the proselytising ambitions of the Irish and sent monks to convert Frisia, followed by the missions of SS. Wihtberht, Willibrord and Boniface, each of whom founded monasteries and established connections to early Anglo-Saxon England. Soon after the death of Bede in 735, his scriptorium in Wearmouth-Jarrow was supplying copies of crucial Christian texts to communities there, and annotations to the celebrated Moore Bede reveal that it was in France perhaps as early as the reign of Charlemagne. Bischoff studied the Continental houses producing Anglo-Saxon script, with the majority in German scriptoria and only a handful in France (B. Bischoff, Mittelalterliche Studien, III, 1981, pp. 5-38), but the influence of these Anglo-Saxon hands and scribes did not widely survive the script reforms of the early Carolingian era, and by the early ninth century the practise was kept on only in the larger German centres such as Lorsch, Echternach and St Gall, and "[f]rom 820 on, Fulda is the only stronghold of Anglo-Saxon script in Germany" (B. Bischoff, Latin Palaeography, 1990, p. 94). If the identification of the present cuttings as French in origin is correct, then these would be a remarkable witness to the survival of the script in at least one house in France in the early ninth century.No surviving manuscript of the text definitively predates this witness to the text, and it is one of only nine recorded manuscripts of the ninth century. Of these, two are connected to Arras in north eastern France (Arras, Bibliothèque municipale, 739 [olim 333], & Boulogne-sur-mer, Bibliothèque municipale, 75 [83], both of the second quarter of the ninth century), with further French examples in nearby Cambrai (Bibliothèque municipale, 365), and much further afield near the German and Austrian borders in Lyons, Bibliothèque municipale, 473. This suggests that a house in the north eastern corner of France may have been behind the earliest distribution of the text there, and lends weight to the palaeographical suggestion that a scriptorium there was the origin of this fragment. The choice of text and script makes it likely that the scribe of our manuscript was working from an exemplar sent from England, and may himself have been a monk visiting from there. Published: K. Gugel, Welche erhaltenen mittelalterlichen Handscriften dürfen der Bibliothek des Klosters Fulda zugerechnet werden? Teil II: Die Fragmente aus Handschriften, Fuldaer Hochschulschriften 23a-b, Frankfurt, 1995-1996, pp. 51-52 (as "Fulda?" and based on description made before the work of Schrimpf, Spilling and Stevens). 

Ɵ Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, in Latin, large cutting from a manuscript on parchment, surviving in situ on the binding of a printed copy of Introductionis ad artem Rhetoricam, Libri II, ex Cicerone potissimum depropti et ad usum puerorum usum accommodati (Perugia: Vincentius Columbarius, 1596)[Southern Italy (most probably Apulia), first half or mid-eleventh century] Cutting from a leaf with double column of 29 lines in a rounded and proud Beneventan minuscule, initials in larger capitals in same pen, some holes and scuffs concomitant with reuse in binding (with some small affects to text on spine and one board), upper margin surviving with medieval book number 'L[iber]' and 'XXXI' (the text here is XXXI, 45:89-91) and notes on moral contents (both of these perhaps thirteenth century), one hole strengthened on inside with very small cutting of contemporary Italian manuscript, overall fair and presentable condition, in total 310 by 270mm.; in fitted case Provenance: 1. Written for use in a southern Italian centre under the influence of Montecassino, most probably in Apulia, in the eleventh century, and still in active use there in the thirteenth century. At the close of the Middle Ages the parent volume had been set aside (perhaps due to the strange eccentricities of the script) and was cut up for reuse as binding material.2. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1587, acquired Maggs Bros., London, in June 1992. Script:Beneventan minuscule is perhaps the most well-known of the Early Middle Age 'local' scripts, and to some extent this is because it was not swept away like its peers by the Carolingian script reforms of the late eighth and ninth centuries. In fact, most examples postdate that event, and it thrived throughout the tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Monte Cassino and other Italian centre southwards to Naples, Salerno and Bari and eastwards to Abruzzi and across the sea to Dalmatia. Although Lowe thought it ended in the thirteenth century (The Beneventan Script, 1914, p. 41), Brown has traced a handful of later fragments (one in lot 25 below), with its final use in Naples in the sixteenth century (in Monastica. Scritti racolti in memoria del XV centenario della nascita di S. Benedetto, 1981).It holds a particular place of honour in The Schøyen Collection due to the collector's long fascination with its swirling letterforms and broken penstrokes that give it an otherworldly appearance. He has bought almost every scrap, leaf and book that he has encountered in the last forty years, making the collection the largest private repository of examples of this script. It is to reflect the range of this material in the collection, that we offer five examples here, each reflecting a different aspect of the history of this enigmatic script. This leaf contains a fine and early example of the script, from the zenith of its maturity of palaeographical form. Published:V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (III)', Mediaeval Studies, 56 (1994), p. 317.BMB. Bibliografia dei manuscritti in scrittura beneventana, 1994. 

Ɵ Five small cuttings from Augustine, Tractatus in Johannem, 10:9-12, in Beneventan minuscule, in Latin, from a liturgical manuscript on parchment[Southern Italy, eleventh century] Five rectangular cuttings, each with remains of double column of 5 lines of text in a fine Beneventan minuscule, recovered from reuse as spine supports of a later binding and with holes and damage to edges, overall in fair and presentable condition, each cutting approximately 40 by 80mm.; bound within individual sheets of paper in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Written in southern Italy in a centre dependant on Montecassino in the eleventh century, and discarded and cut up for reuse in bindings at the close of the Middle Ages. They were evidently reused as spine supports on a series of volumes, which were later scattered widely; with other small cuttings from the same parent manuscript as Geneva, Comites Latentes, MS 224 (V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (II)', Mediaeval Studies, 50, 1988, p. 599), and 272, and a private UK collection (Brown, 'A Second New List III', pp. 343 and 315).2. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1356, acquired in Sotheby's, 6 December 1993, part of lot 8, with a further fragment added later by gift. Published: V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (III)', Mediaeval Studies, 56 (1994), p. 317.BMB. Bibliografia dei manuscritti in scrittura beneventana, 1994. 

Ɵ Three small cuttings from a single leaf from a portable Collectarium with the Offices for St. Bartholomew and the Decollation of St. John the Baptist, in Beneventan minuscule, in Latin, from a liturgical manuscript on parchment[southern central Italy (perhaps Sulmona), c. 1200] Three fragments, with remains of a single column of 15 and 6 lines in a good and angular Abruzzi type Beneventan minuscule (from a double column manuscript), capitals edged in red, small initials in graceful red penstrokes touched with bright yellow wash, remains of bottom half of one large initial 'A' in coloured acanthus leaves, infilled with red, yellow and blue, all recovered from reuse in bindings and hence scuffed and stained, with folds and small tears and holes, repaired at edges with modern paper, the larger two 135 by 68mm. the smaller piece 65 by 40mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1780; acquired in Sotheby's, 6 December 1993, lot 11, and 21 June 1994, lot 5 (part). Text:The parent volume of these cuttings was probably a Collectarium, containing psalms, litanies, prayers and hymns, the precursor of the modern breviary. They are uncommon survivals from the Middle Ages, even in fragmentary form. Published: V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (III)', Mediaeval Studies, 56 (1994), pp. 318. BMB. Bibliografia dei manuscritti in scrittura beneventana, 1994. 

Ɵ Leaf from a vast Passional, with a large and finely decorated animal initial, manuscript in Latin, written in Beneventan minuscule on parchment[Southern Italy (probably Abruzzo), c. 1100] Single enormous leaf, with double columns of 37 lines of a fine and regular Beneventan minuscule (with parts of the readings for the lives of SS. Praxedes and Symphorosa and her seven sons, and the Passion of St. Apollinaris), capitals touched in bright red, red rubrics in same script, one line of ornamental capitals in elaborate penwork with baubles suspended in the bodies of the letters and in the space between the letters, these touched in red and yellow, small red foliage initial with biting beast masks (this partly obscured by cockling), one large initial on reverse in green, red, yellow and pale blue geometric compartments and a circle with interlace foot an animal mask, another larger initial on obverse formed of yellow and red bands densely entwined in geometric knot at foot, terminating in acanthus leaves and two beast heads with gaping maws, another teal green beast entwined with geometric interlace at foot and a pale blue beast within the initial itself twisted around and biting its own body, recovered from a binding and hence with folds, tiny holes, scuffs and cockling overall, notably scuffed and darkened on reverse with damage to text and initial there, overall fair and presentable condition, 560 by 370mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Probably from a house dependent on Montecassino, perhaps in Abruzzo. Brown notes that the leaf was reused at the close of the Middle Ages as a wrapper on an account book: it has sixteenth-century scrawls on extremities of outer side: "Assoluzioni 1548 ..." and "1576", and reports the description of the owner from 1992 that this account book was from a Benedictine convent in Penne, Abruzzo.2. Paolo Francesco d'Aloisio of Herisau, Switzerland.2. Christie's, 2 June 1999, lot 21.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 2785, acquired in Christie's. Script and decoration:The script here is a proud and confident example of Beneventan minuscule, from a parent manuscript of monumental proportions. However, what sets this leaf apart from most of its peers is the size of the codex and quality of the animal initial. It is larger than any other manuscript in Lowe's survey, with the single exception of Vatican Library, Vat. lat.4222 (p. 288). The initial stands alongside the finest decorated Beneventan manuscripts to survive, with the long and thin coloured bars of acanthus leaves inhabited with strange creatures coloured with pale washes distinctive to the mature style of manuscript production there (cf. Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages: Beneventan Script, 1990, nos. 8, a Missal from late eleventh-century Puglia, later Christie's, Schøyen sale, 10 July 2019, lot 421, with sister leaves recorded there and in G. Freuler, The McCarthy Collection: Italian and Byzantine Miniatures, 2018, no. 1). Published: V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (III)', Mediaeval Studies, LVI, 1994, p. 313.F. Bianchi & A. Magi Spinetti, Bibliografia dei manoscritti in scrittura Beneventana, 1995, III:28 & 187. 

Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of St. Anthony the Great, in the Latin translation of Evagrius of Antioch, large cutting from a manuscript leaf on parchment[France, second half of the ninth century] Cutting from the top half of a leaf, with remains of double columns of 20 lines in a fine and rounded Carolingian minuscule with et-ligature used integrally within words and a capital 'q' whose tail curves to the right presumably following Insular influence, remains of upper margin at head of cutting, some losses to edges of columns at sides and upper corners, recovered from a binding and hence darkened, scuffed and with damage, parchment slightly translucent in places, 150 by 240mm.; housed within Rendells' printed paper sleeve and within fitted cloth covered case A hitherto unidentified early-Carolingian witness to one of the fundamental texts of medieval monasticism Provenance: 1. Written most probably for use in a monastery in Carolingian France in the second half of the ninth century; and later reused on the binding of a book.2. Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery, cat. 146 (1979), no. 1.3. Sotheby's, 17 December 1991, lot 2.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1541; acquired in Sotheby's. Text and script:With this lot we begin a short selection of manuscripts in Carolingian minuscule. It is fitting that this new script, so closely associated with the return of Christian study to Europe, should be used here for this work, which was of fundamental importance for the development of monasticism in Western Europe. It was composed in Greek by Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373), himself one of the four great fathers of Eastern Christianity, while on his third exile from his episcopacy of Alexandria in the deserts of Upper Egypt. It is the most important source for the life of St. Anthony the Great (251-356), whose life is often thought of as the template for all future monastic callings. The work is thus both a study of a crucial figure for early Christianity, as well as a semi-autographical work of one of the earliest Church fathers to withdraw into a contemplative life in the wilderness. An early Latin translation prepared during the life of the author survives in a single manuscript, and this was superseded by that produced by Evagrius of Antioch in the aftermath of the author's death in 373. In this form it championed the spread of monasticism in the West, and was essential reading in every medieval monastic foundation. It was the subject of a new edition in the Corpus Christianorum series last year by P.H.E. Bertrand and Lois Gandt, and the present cutting contains parts of chapters 80-81 in that edition (chapters 50-51 in Migne, Pat. Lat. 73, cols. 162-3). As Bertrand notes, approximately 400 manuscripts survive from the Middle Ages, but these are overwhelmingly from a boom of interest dating to the eleventh century and later when monastic foundations reached their peak in the Middle Ages. Only fourteen Carolingian witnesses survive, with only Bern, Burgerbibliothek 376 and Munich, Bayerische Statsbibliothek, Clm 6393 (both of c. 800), certainly predating the present witness. 

Ɵ Conflictus veris et hiemis, a verse in hexameters on the debate between Spring and Winter, attributed to Alcuin of York, with the translations and miracles of St. Lomer, with further additions of Carolingian music, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[France (most probably Blois), c. 873 and tenth century]Fourteen leaves (plus a nineteenth-century parchment endleaf at each end), all conserved in nineteenth century and many remounted on guards and thus uncollatable, wanting 2 leaves after fol. 4 and another 2 leaves after fol. 12 as well as an 8-leaf gathering (now Vatican, Reg. Lat. 479: see below), last 4 leaves smaller than others (measuring 245 by 167mm.), the verse added to original endleaf at front in double column of 41 and 20 lines in a small and legible Carolingian minuscule with an extended ct-ligature and the characters' names in margin, one descender in lowermost line extended to form an ornate penwork leaf with a bauble mounted in its stem, and main texts relating to St. Lomer in single column of 29-36 lines in two closely related precise and refined Carolingian minuscules, both with et-ligature used integrally within words (but variant forms of capital 'q'/'Q'), the second with an NT-ligature and an uncial 'N' used in main text, crucial names in capitals, some capitals touched in red and others infilled with yellow wash, text opening major sections in capitals touched with red, rubrics of elongated red capitals, small red initials, larger initials in penwork, some with baubles set within their bodies or coloured in green and red, one large initial in delicate blank parchment penwork touched in red and set within dark brown initials terminating in floral flourishes, seventeenth-century scholarly marginalia, endleaf at front reused from a sixteenth-century French choirbook with music on a 4-line red stave, some stains to areas of text, spots from old mould damage at head, margins trimmed often to edges of text, overall good and solid condition on heavy and good quality parchment, 300 by 190mm.; nineteenth-century French brown calf over pasteboards, gilt-tooled with arched frames with floral sprays at corners, with spine gilt with "De S. Launomaro - MS IXe S" An important Carolingian monastic codex, containing a celebrated verse attributed to Alcuin, the leading intellectual light of the Carolingian renaissance, as well as the earliest witnesses to prose and musical texts relating to the Merovingian saint Lomer; this probably one of the last ninth-century codices to appear on the market Provenance:1. The main texts here on St. Lomer (also Laumer and Laudomarus) must have been written immediately after the translation of the saint's relics to a church in Blois in 874 (an event these leaves record), but before the foundation of the Benedictine abbey dedicated to the saint there in 924. Another eight leaves from the centre of this manuscript are the first part of a sammelband assembled in the seventeenth century in Italy (now Vatican, Reg. Lat. 479; A. Wilmart, Codices reginenses latini, 1937, pp. 651-2, with the whole manuscript reproduced online). Those contain the opening of the life of the saint, which ends abrubtly and is completed by the two words at the top of fol. 10r here.Crucially the opening of the text in the Vatican leaves refers to the saint as 'our patron'. In addition, there is a hitherto unnoticed contemporary or near-contemporary name added to the foot of the first of the present leaves, probably identifying "Raginoldus feldracanum" as an early user or perhaps donor of the codex. The second part of his name is hard to decipher, but a late medieval hand has added "Raginoldus feldra carutasis", suggesting Carnutum/Carnotum or Chartres as his town of origin (the monastery of Saint Martin au Val du Chartres was one of the temporary resting places of the relics and the community on their way to Blois: see N. Mars, Histoire du royal monastère de Sainct-Lomer de Blois, 1646, p. 29). His name does not occur in the published research of Dom Mars, but there is an unpublished and mostly unstudied six-volume cartulary of the eighteenth century for the house in the Archives départementales de Loir-et-Cher, ms. 11 H. 128, and search for this name there may reveal much.St. Lomer was born c. 530 at Neuville-la-Mare, north of Chartres, where he was ordained as a monk, before withdrawing into the forest of Perche where he founded the monastery of Corbion in 575, becoming its first abbot. He died in 593 while visiting Chartres and was buried near there, until monks from Corbion stole his relics a few years later to return him to his own community. Following a Viking attack on Corbion in 873/4 the community and their relics fled to Parigny near Avranches and then Le Mans before being offered sanctuary within the walled town of Blois. In the tenth century they moved outside the city walls to the church of St-Lubin, and then again in 1186 to the larger adjacent site they occupied for the remainder of the Middle Ages.2. Dom Noël Mars (1612-1702), the Benedictine monk and Maurist historian of Blois; with his marginal notes and signature, including one on fol. 10r referring to the Acta Sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, Paris, 1668, in which footnote 'a' on p. 338 evidently refers to this manuscript: "Haec ex MS. Historia S. Launomari Monasterii Blesensis a nostro Natale Mars erudite composite didicimus". The central leaves of the manuscript may well have become detached by the seventeenth century (see below), and Dom Mars conducted much antiquarian research in the archive of St-Lomer in the last decades of that century, and this may explain this section of it ending up in his possession. In 1789 the revolutionary government of the region suppressed the abbey, and seized its church for the parish of St-Nicholas two years later. Its goods and library were dispersed at the same time, with the Vatican leaves then beginning their journey towards Rome. Delisle notes four manuscripts in the BnF. as well as another in the collection of Herzog August in Wolfenbüttel from this medieval library (Le cabinet des manuscrits, 1868, II, p. 406).3. Louis de la Saussaye (1801-1878) of the Château de Troussay, near Blois, local historian, archaeologist, and numismatist, with a note of "un manuscrit du Xe siècle ... dant la bibliothèque de M. de la Saussaye" in Dom Mars' Histoire du royal monastère de Sainct-Lomer de Blois, p. 66, n. 2 and 7, n. 2, doubtless referring to these leaves. His sale, 30 September 1887, lot 1148.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 5577; acquired Sotheby's, 5 July 2016, lot 57.Text:Alcuin of York (c. 735-804) was the central intellectual figure of the Carolingian renaissance, and was educated in the renowned cathedral school at York under Archbishop Ecgbert (himself a pupil of Bede). By the 750s he was teaching in the school and came to the court of Charlemagne at the emperor's invitation, serving as 'master of the palace school' from 782, taking over the teaching of the emperor himself and his children, and becoming a guiding hand of the religious and intellectual revolution that was to follow. In 796, when entering his old age,... read more....  To view a video of this item, click here.

Ɵ Pseudo-Marcellus, Passio sanctorum Petri et Pauli, an apocryphal text based on the Acts of St. Peter, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Italy (probably Bobbio), tenth century] Single leaf, with single column of 27 lines in local variant of an angular Carolingian minuscule which leans to right and has noted lateral compression, with et-ligature used integrally within words, ligature for 'ri' formed from an 'r' with a final flick of the pen descending far below the line, the hand also preserving Insular-derived features in long 'r' and a flourished 'g', very faded red rubric at head of recto, one large acanthus-leaf initial in Insular-style penwork with pale orange-red wash, formed of elaborate scrolling leafy and petal designs, reused on a later binding of a later printed book and hence with torn edges, holes, scuffs and folds, trimmed at outer vertical edge with loss of a few letters there, much of text rubbed away on reverse with later inscription "Verrati / Contra / Luther", overall presentable condition, 290 by 200mm; in cloth-covered binding A fine tenth-century witness to a rare and strange early medieval text; and probably the last surviving relic of a book recorded in the library of Bobbio Provenance: 1. Probably produced for use in the celebrated Benedictine Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul, Bobbio, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The abbey was founded by St. Columban in 614, and by the tenth century housed one of the finest libraries in the West. While the form of the initial and other Insular influences in script here can be found in pre-Carolingian books produced in Irish foundations throughout Europe (see St. Gall, MS 51: J. Duft and P. Meyer, Irish Miniatures in the Abbey Library of St. Gall, 1954, pl. IX), the present leaf is north Italian, and in 1993 Prof. Rosamund McKitterick noted the parallels between this initial and those in tenth-century books produced at Bobbio (see for example: Milan, Bibl. Ambrosiana, E. 20 inf., a Homiliary of the tenth century: A.L. Gabriel, The Decorated Initials of the IXth-Xth Century Manuscripts from Bobbio in the Ambrosiana Library, Milano, 1982, pp. 180-1). The text is an unusual one to find in a volume on its own, and we can be certain that Bobbio did indeed have a copy as it was recorded in their tenth-century library catalogue as "libros de passione apostolorum Petri & Pauli I" (G. Becker, Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui, 1885, p. 69, no. 319; note, this is the only apparent copy of this work in the whole of Becker's survey). It may well have been of particular interest to the community at Bobbio as their house was dedicated to these two saints. Thus, that may well be a contemporary record of the parent manuscript of the present leaf. Bobbio was suppressed during the Secularisation during the period of French occupation, and its books and chattels scattered.2. Sotheby's, 23 June 1993, lot 3, sold for £6900.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1679, acquired in Sotheby's. Text: This is a strange late fifth- or early sixth-century narrative, apparently intended to project Paul into the events of the Acts of St. Peter, in which it describes his journey from the island of Gaudomeleta to Rome and erroneously states that Peter was Paul's brother. It claims to have been written in part by one Marcellus; intended to be the namesake disciple of Simon Magus, whose confrontation with Peter is recorded in Acts 8:9-24. It was known to Jacobus de Voragine, and widely disseminated in the West in the Middle Ages, appearing in two Anglo-Saxon translations (Ælfric's Passio Apostolorum Petri et Pauli and Blickling homily no. 15, Spel Be Petrus & Paulus). 

Ɵ Lectionary leaf, with readings from Luke 10:17-24 and John 15:12-16, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[probably Italy, tenth century] Single complete leaf, with double column of 20 lines in a late Carolingian minuscule including an et-ligature used sporadically integrally within words, a tongued 'e', and pronounced angular wedging to ends of ascenders, text opening with simple capitals, red rubric (mostly oxidised to silver), one large 8-line initial 'I' (opening "In illo tempore dixit Iehus discipulis suis...", introducing John 15:12) in red penwork (mostly oxidised) enclosing panels of simple ropework panels on striking black ink grounds, terminating in a scroll of acanthus leaf with red dots at head and a twist of foliage at foot, reused in a book binding in seventeenth century and with concomitant damage and scrawls in Italian of that date including the date "1660", darkened and stained on reverse (but legible), overall fair and presentable condition, 310 by 230mm.; in cloth-covered binding  Provenance: 1. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/188, probably acquired in 1965. 2. Quaritch cat. 1088, Bookhands of the Middle Ages III, 1988, no. 34.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 97, acquired from Quaritch in June 1988. Text and script:Both the large and rounded script here and the initial owe much to earlier Carolingian models. The initial in particular is a continuation of simple initials of the early Carolingian period which used black grounds for visually striking affect. Examples occurred throughout the Carolingian world, with comparisons to that here in a Tours Bible (now St. Gall, Stiftsbibl. MS 75: reproduced in W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination, 1982, p. 43, fig. 20), an Evangeliary-Homiliary made c. 800 in Murbach (Bayerishe Staatsbibl. Clm. 14379: Pracht auf Pergament, 2012, no. 7), and a Gospel Book made in the region of Paris in the first decades of the ninth century (BnF., latin 11959: Trésors carolingiens, 2007, no. 30). Cahn theorises that such initials at Tours were ultimately derived from Insular models, perhaps influenced by Alcuin's own manuscript library carried from York to Tours. 

Ɵ Leaf from a Missal, from the Temporal, with Masses for the 3rd Sunday in Lent and the Monday following, in Latin, manuscript on parchment[Low Countries or perhaps Germany, early to mid-eleventh century] Single leaf, with single column of 26 lines in two sizes of a tall and rounded Romanesque bookhand, with a strong st-ligature and occasional et-ligature used integrally within words, one- and 2-line initials in red, reused in a later binding and hence with wear and trimming to edges of text, one side particularly worn, overall presentable condition, 270 by 210mm.; in cloth-covered binding  Provenance: 1. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/97, acquired from Maggs Bros., London, in 1960.2. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 28.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 629, acquired June 1990. Script:The appealingly large letters of this script are thoroughly Romanesque, but include a few of the last remnants of certain distinctively Carolingian features, such as the et-ligature used integrally within words, a feature usually eliminated by the eleventh century (but note very late examples from Germanic centres in an Egbert of Liège, Fecunda ratis, made in Liège c. 1050: reproduced Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, no. 71; and a Gospel book from Regensburg c. 1030-50: reproduced in Regensburger Buchmalerei, 1987, no. 20, pl. 100; E.A. Lowe, The Beneventan Script, 1914, pp. 143-44, comments in passing on the same phenomenon, recording there a single late eleventh-century example in Vatican, lat. 3741). 

Ɵ Leaf from a Augustine, Sermones, 233:2-3 and 242:1, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Low Countries, second half of eleventh century] Near complete single leaf, with single column of 29-30 lines in a good Continental Romanesque bookhand, with pronounced fishtailing to ascenders, strong st- and ct-ligatures (including elongated examples), capitals touched in deep red, rubrics in same, one simple red initial, recovered from reuse as a pastedown in a later book and hence with scuffs, small holes, stains from reuse in a binding, overall fair condition, 270 by 190mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California. 2. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 85.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 642, acquired from Quaritch in June 1990. 

Ɵ Bifolium from a Vita Sancti Stephani, including an abridgement of Evodius, Miracula Facta Uzali, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Germany (perhaps Rhineland), c. 1100] Bifolium (consecutive leaves and hence innermost leaves of a gathering), each leaf with single column of 30 lines of a rounded proto-gothic minuscule,with slightly tremulous aspect, an ampersand whose loops sit high above the baseline and trailing undulating penstrokes at beginning of some capitals, one large initial 'V' in red, reused in binding and hence slightly trimmed at foot of both leaves (text wanting at beginning and end), overall good condition with marginal prickings for ruling present, 220 by 170mm.; in cloth-covered binding  Provenance: 1. Dr. Helmuth Wallach (1901-1989), of Munich and New York, the eminent antiquarian bookseller and art dealer. 2. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/211, acquired in 1970. 3. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 87.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 633, acquired June 1990. Text and script: While many of the letterforms here echo those of late Carolingian manuscripts, the script compares most closely to those of the late eleventh or early twelfth centuries (cf. the Augustine, Commentary on Genesis, of the first half of the twelfth century, now Cologne, Dom Hs. 61: reproduced Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, no. 27, especially the form of the ampersand). 

Ɵ Two leaves with Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive originum, book 20, with readings on wine, and Pubilius Syrus, Sententiae, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Northern France (most probably Cercamp, Amiens), third quarter of the twelfth century] Bifolium, each leaf with double column of 44 lines of a small and precise proto-gothic bookhand, written above topline and without biting curves, faded red rubrics, one-line initials of capitula for next book on second leaf in alternate pale green and red, large pale and green initials with foliate penwork decoration, reused on a binding in late medieval period and with folds across middle of leaves, corners of blank margins clipped away and slight damage through heat exposure to upper outer corner of first leaf, else good condition, each leaf 395 by 285mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Most probably written for use in the Cistercian Abbey of Cercamp, diocese of Amiens, founded 1141 with monks from Pontigny, ransacked in 1415 during Agincourt, but re-established before being forcibly converted to stables and a military hospital in the 1630s during the Thirty Years' War, then seized for military use again in 1710 by the troops of Field Marshal d'Harcourt. At the Secularisation there was little left to suppress. By the nineteenth century the buildings were in use as a wool factory, and later became the residence of the Barons de Fourment. This bifolium certainly reused there at the end of the Middle Ages, and with a sixteenth or early seventeenth-century ex libris of the house, upside down at the foot of the rectos of both leaves: "Abbey de Cercamp", most probably from reuse there around a set of accounts. No other manuscript or fragment of one from this medieval library can be traced by us.2. André Simon (1877-1970), wine merchant, gourmet and one of the most important twentieth-century authors on wine, who voraciously collected books on the same subject. 3. Sotheby's 6 December 1993, lot 5. 4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1777, acquired in Sotheby's. Text and script:This bifolium is from an elegant monastic copy of the most important encyclopedia produced by the Middle Ages. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) was part of the intellectual renaissance in the seventh-century Visigothic court, and was notably close to King Sigebut (c. 565-620/1), to whom the first version of this work was dedicated. It has been suggested that he composed it as a form of summa for his recently-civilised barbarian masters, but it quickly found other more conventional readers in mainland Europe and became the most widely consulted scientific reference work of the Middle Ages. It survives today in nearly a thousand manuscripts (Barney et al., Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 2006, p.24), and by the year 800 copies of it could be found in almost all the cultural centres of Europe. The leaves here contain discussions of food, oils and greases, beverages (prominently including wine) and vessels for food. The second leaf contains the entries from 'M' to 'T' of the Sententiae of Pubilius Syrus (fl. 85-43 BC.), a Syrian slave freed by his Roman master due to his talent as an author and playwright. All that now remains of his work is this text: a series of moral maxims in iambic and trochaic verse arranged in alphabetical order. He was admired greatly by Seneca the Younger, quoted by Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing, sc. 1: "if she did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly"), and his work is the origin of the expression "a rolling stone gathers no moss". 

Ɵ Small cutting from Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin of Tours, in Latin, manuscript on parchment[England (St Albans Abbey, Hertfordshire), mid-twelfth century] Rectangular cutting, with remains of single column of 12 lines of Anglo-Caroline minuscule by 'scribe B' of the St. Albans' scriptorium during the abbacy of Ralph Gubiun (1146-1151), one large initial 'I' in blue on reverse, recovered from reuse as an endleaf in a sixteenth-century printed book (8o), slight darkening to edges through contact with leather of binding, one small split along old fold, else good and presentable condition and on strong and heavy parchment, 90 by 120mm.; in cloth-covered binding A fine example of English twelfth-century monastic script, written by a hand securely identified as the head scribe of St Albans Abbey Provenance: 1. The parent manuscript of this cutting was written by Scribe 'B', probably the head of the scriptorium of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Albans, in the mid-twelfth century, and the book presumably remained in use there until the close of the Middle Ages. The site of the monastery was Roman in origin, and an Anglo-Saxon church stood there by the time of Bede. A double-monastery was founded there in 793 by Offa of Mercia. Apart from some decades in the tenth century when it was abandoned after a Viking attack, it grew steadily to rank as one of the wealthiest English religious sites of the Middle Ages. Its scriptorium in the twelfth century produced such glorious examples of the book arts as the St Albans Psalter, and a century after the present manuscript was written was the place in which the famous medieval chronicler Matthew Paris worked. It is perhaps humbling to think that he may well have held and read the parent codex of this fragment. The abbey was dwindling by 1521, and was surrendered on 2 December 1539 and its abbot and inmates pensioned before the valuables of the abbey were looted. The sixteenth-century printed volume in which this fragment (and its sister fragment now in Keio University library, Tokyo) survived presumably left the abbey's holdings then and passed into private hands and the English booktrade.2. Dr. George Salt (1903-2003), entomologist and fellow of King's College, Cambridge, his MS 8.3. Sotheby's, 17 December 1991, lot 8 (part).4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1554, acquired in the Sotheby's sale. Scribe:Scribe 'B' of the abbacy of Ralph Gubiun (1146-1151) is "distinguished by the elegance and flamboyance of his hand, which is highly disciplined and with very distinctive flourishes" (R.M. Thomson, Manuscripts from St Albans Abbey, 1066-1235, 1985, I, p. 29). He copied all of Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 244; Pembroke College, MS 180; and St. Petersburg, Q.v.I, 62; as well as parts of Cambridge, Trinity College, B.2.19 and B.5.1; British Library, Egerton, MS 3721 and Royal MS 2.A.x; Bodleian, Laud MS misc. 370; and the rubrics in British Library, Royal MS 19,590. He also copied a St. Alban's charter, datable to between 1151 and 1154. His role was often that of the master of the scriptorium, taking charge over crucial texts such as charters, and copying rubrics as well as extensively correcting texts. He appears to have been the chief scribe of the scriptorium around the midpoint of the century. The cutting here contains part of chs. 13 and 16 of the text. Published: J. Griffiths, 'Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection Copied or Owned in the British Isles before 1700', in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, vol. 5, eds. P. Beal and J. Griffiths, British Library, London, 1995, pp. 36-42.C. de Hamel, 'The Life of Saint Martin', in Papyri Graecae Schøyen (PSchøyen II): essays and texts in honour of Martin Schøyen, ed. R. Pintaudi, Papyrologica Florentina 40, Edizioni Gonnelli, Firenze, 2010, pp. 117-122. 

Ɵ Leaf from Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, for Psalm 41:6-8, in Latin, from large manuscript on parchment[England, mid-twelfth century] Complete single leaf, with double column of 39 lines in a formal and angular proto-gothic bookhand, with pronounced wedges to ascenders and a residual ct-ligature, pale red rubrics, English pencil notes on text in lower margin of recto, recovered from a binding and so darkened on verso, and small scuffs, folds and holes, overall good and presentable condition with wide and clean margins, and on heavy parchment, 390 by 260mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance: 1. Alan G. Thomas (1911-1992), London bookseller.2. Leeds' Public Library; de-accessioned and sold by auction at Phillips, 28 February 1990, lot 54. 3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 659, acquired from Sam Fogg, London, in June 1990. Text and script: The Enarrationes in Psalmos is the longest of Augustine's major works; measuring twice the length of his more well-known De Civitate Dei. It was composed between 392 and 418 as a long series of sermons and perhaps copied down initially by secretaries as Augustine actively preached.The script here is a fine example of an English proto-gothic bookhand from the period of the shift between the final phase of the Romanesque and the beginning of the early Gothic.  

Ɵ Vergil, Georgics III:259-458 and IV:393-564, in Latin didactic hexameter verse, leaves from a decorated manuscript on parchment in situ in an Oxford binding by Dominique Pinart[England, c. 1200] Remains of two bifolia, trimmed at edges with losses to one column on each, each leaf with single column of 48 lines in an early gothic book script, with initials set apart in margin as common for verse, simple red initials with baubles and pen flicks added to their bodies, one dark pastel green initial, contemporary running titles, some contemporary marginalia, modern pencil marks giving textual notes, some staining, scuffing and small holes, else in good condition, each leaf 190 by 100mm.; in situ in binding of a copy of a printed book: William Thomas, The historie of Italie, London: Thomas Berthelet, 1549, binding of blindtooled calf, using rollstamps identified as nos. XII and XVIII in S. Gibson, Early Oxford Bindings, 1903 (see also Ker, Pastedowns in Oxford Bindings, 1955, pp. 210-11), suggesting a binding date of c. 1581 or before, sewn on 3 thongs, by Dominique Pinart, a French immigrant and the principal Oxford binder of this period, skilfully rebacked; with a letter from Neil R. Ker to a "Mr Edwards" dated 21 March 1964, noting that he had "not found Virgil before in Oxford bindings, save in one insignificant late manuscript" Provenance:1. Most probably written and decorated for English scholarly use around the turn of the thirteenth century, probably in Oxford. Later discarded and reused there for binding material at the close of the Middle Ages.2. Various English owners, with ex libris marks from "Peter ...son" in a sixteenth-century hand on the back pastedown, and another partly erased name dated 1676 on the front pastedown.3. William Charles de Meuron, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam (1872-1943): his armorial bookplate on front pastedown; his library sold in the Wentworth Woodhouse sale at Sotheby's, 27 April 1948, doubtless including this volume.4. Quaritch cat. 664 (1949), no. 289.5. Hodgson, 19 March 1964, lot 254, to "Mr. Edwards", an apparent bookseller.6. Quaritch, London, November 1991.7. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1395, acquired from Quaritch. Text:The celebrated Roman poet, Vergil (70-19 BC.), wrote the Georgicsc. 29 BC. for Maecenas, the ally and political agent of Octavian, to whom it was reportedly read after his return from defeating Anthony and Cleopatra in 31 BC. The text surveys the field of agriculture, namely raising crops and trees, livestock and horses and beekeeping, set within the context of farming as a noble and senatorial pursuit in Roman society. It enjoyed great popularity and had enormous literary impact from its composition onwards, surviving in numerous fifth- and sixth-century manuscripts as well as an explosion of Carolingian witnesses, these demonstrating serious study and careful correction of the text in eighth- and ninth-century France.To view a video of this item, click here.

Ɵ Matthaeus Platearius, De Medicinis Simplicibus, a medieval herbal, in Latin, manuscript on parchment[England or France, second half of the twelfth century] Single leaf, with double column of 35 lines in an angular and prickly gothic textualis libraria bookhand, one- or 2-line simple red or blue initials, some small marginalia and manicula marks, recovered from a binding and hence trimmed at head and foot, stains, small holes, overall fair and presentable condition, 210 by 160mm.; in cloth-covered binding  An extremely early witness to an important medical text, composed in the Salerno medical school only decades before this manuscript was copied, and attesting to its rapid spread throughout Europe Provenance: 1. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), San Francisco, California. 2. Quaritch cat. 1088, Bookhands of the Middle Ages III, 1988, no. 80. 3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 703, acquired November 1990. Text:This text was fundamental to the medieval study of herbs and their medicinal applications. It was composed in the celebrated medical school of Salerno about 1150 by one of the foremost physicians of the school. "Copies were circulated throughout Europe, where its value was instantly recognized and where it shaped the literature of botany and pharmacy for the next 300 years" (F.J. Anderson, Illustrated History of the Herbals, 1977). Copies were so sought after that it appears that early manuscripts of the text were used to pieces by the centres that had them, and they are of enormous rarity, with none definitively predating this witness. Apart from this leaf, the oldest recorded extant manuscript is that of the library of the New York Botanical Garden, their MS A, dating to c. 1190; while that of Wroclaw University Library, MS M1302 (the Codex Salernitanus) dating to c. 1180, was destroyed during the Second World War.The text here is that of chs. 17-23, describing: "Camodreos", used for vomiting, catarrh and scurvy; "Carui" (caraway) for flatulence; "Cuminum" (cumin) for coughs; "Cicuta" (hemlock) for gout, spleen complaints, redness of the eyes and scrofula; and "Ciperus" (cyperos, a kind of rush). 

Ɵ Leaf from an Atlantic Bible with a large white vine initial, text from Job 1:1-4; 1:7-3:2 with prologue of St. Jerome, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Italy (Tuscany), first half of the twelfth century] Large cutting from lower part of a once vast leaf, with a large initial 'V' ("Vir erat in terra ...", the opening of Job) in pale red and blank parchment band, intertwined with and enclosing a swirling mass of thin acanthus leaf sprays on pale pastel blue, red, dark green, beige/yellow, brown and perhaps once silver grounds (the latter now oxidised and crystalline with areas of metallic sheen), red and black tall ornamental capitals opening text, remains of double column of 25 lines in a bold proto-gothic bookhand, showing many earlier features such as a ct- and NT-ligature and a 'r' that descends below the baseline, torn at edges, some spots and stains, darkened on reverse, but overall a good initial in bright condition, 300 by 230mm.; in cloth-covered card binding, with Bernard Rosenthal's cataloguing Provenance: 1. Erwin Rosenthal (1889-1981), of Berkeley, California, art historian and antiquarian bookseller; personal gift to his son Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017) in 1956, "to encourage me in the formation of this collection".2. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 12.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 668, acquired from Quaritch in June 1990. Decoration:The initial here, with its thin white vine branches that cross the body of the initial in several places, compares closely to other Tuscan examples, such as those in a Passional, probably made in the second quarter of the twelfth century in San Gimignano (now San Gimignano, Bibl. Comunale, cod,1: K. Berg, Studies in Tuscan Twelfth Century Illumination, 1968, fig. 66), another Passional, made in the second quarter of the twelfth century in Florence (Florence, Laurenziana, Mugel. 13: Berg, fig. 74) and a copy of Augustine's commentary on the Gospels, made in Siena in the first half of the twelfth century (Siena, Bibl. Comunale, F.I.2: Berg, fig. 461). However, none of those employ silver alongside their pastel palettes. Silver is notoriously difficult to use in book arts, but had enjoyed some popularity in the Carolingian centuries, and appears in occasional grand Romanesque volumes (cf. the Genesis page of the Bible of St. Mary de Parc which has silver beast masks at its corners and silver interlace around the main initial: reproduced in W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination, 1982, fig. 90).