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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT LEAVESA collection of 6 illuminated manuscript leaves, from three Book of Hours, ink on vellum, one (140 x 95mm.) with 18 lines with decoration of a bird in one margin; 2 (153 x 110mm.) with 17 lines and one vertical border recto and verso of acanthus leaves and flowers in blue, yellow and gold; 3 (120 x 104mm.) with 15 lines and one vertical border recto and verso of trailing vine and flowers in reds, blues, greens and gold, all with decorative initials in colours and/or liquid gold, line fillers in blue and red, each framed and glazed (showing recto and verso), various sizes, [?France, or Flanders, late fifteenth century]

PINDAR[Odes] Lyricorumque omnium principis, Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia, 1528; Pindari olympia, pythia, nemea, isthmia, edited by Jacob Ceporinus and Ulrich Zwingli, text in Greek (excepting title in Greek and Latin, preface in Latin), with blank leaf *6, dampstain to final 120 leaves (mostly lower margin, heavier touching letters towards end) [Adams P1222], 1526, 2 works bound in 1 vol. woodcut device on titles and final versos, woodcut initials, contemporary blindstamped calf, metal catches on lower cover (lacks hasps and straps), rebacked, retaining the ?late fifteenth century illuminated manuscript fragments used as endpapers, 8vo, Basel, Andreas CratanderThis lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

COSTUMEA large collection of nineteenth century pen, coloured ink and wash drawings of historical costumes, approximately 500 illustrations (mostly tracings, of which upwards of 250 fully hand-coloured), many uncoloured ink, grey wash or pencil drawings, several original engravings (see footnote), printed matter, and a few manuscript notes (one marked 'Introduction' on paper watermarked '1831', one with small diagrams and colour trials), most captioned, mostly tipped onto approximately 500 loose leaves, some grouped in old paper fold-over wrappers ('Priest's Garments', '16th Cent.', etc.), 4to (280 x 230mm.), [mid-nineteenth century]This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: *

ART AND COLLECTINGManuscript notebook containing an index of notable picture collections, including 'Pictures at Lord Folkstone's', Hampton Court, 'at Mr Sarjant's may place, Kent', 'Sr Gregory Page's Blackheath', Penshurst, 'Sr Geo. Colebrook's – Gatton, Surrey', Devonshire House, 'Ld Temple's at Stow', 'Sr Matthew Fetherstonhaugh's Up Park', Cowdray Place, 'Mr Child's at Edge Hill', 'Mr Hoare's at Stourton', 'Lord Waldegrave's most capital Pictures', 'Ld Spenser's at Wimbledon', 'Pictures at the D.of St Albans's at Windsor', with notes from 'Webb's Essay on Painting', on the 'Sale of Pictures at Prestage's February 1764' and 'Gems from the collection of the Elector Charles the 7th, sold at Langford's', 115 numbered pages, inscribed 'Phillipps Mss 10254' on front inside board with additional pencilled note 'Phillipps sale Sotheby's 1895 March 25, lot 887/ I think this mss is by T. Martyn – of the English Connoisseur, 1761', ownership inscription of W. Roberts, Clapham Park, original vellum, 4to (200 x 160mm.), [c.1762/3]; manuscript inventory of goods belonging to T.C. Devenish (cabinet maker and upholsterer), 33 Villiers Street, Strand, 'Mr Coomb's property damaged by fire' and other properties, listing books, plate, linen etc., 37 ruled leaves interleaved with blotting paper, calf, inscribed in ink on front board, worn, oblong 8vo (112 x 180mm.), London, February 1802; manuscript school book of Master James Pilcher of Kent, dated January 1864, with later notes on hop farming, accounts, lists of pickers etc., c.36 leaves, marbled boards, 4to (225 x 185mm.), [1864-1902] (3) This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

CHARLES I[GAUDEN (JOHN)] Eikon Basilike [in Greek]. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Maiestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings, full-page woodcut Royal Arms, 2 engraved portraits, folding engraved plate (with 'Explanation of the Embleme' in Latin and English, short tear), manuscript transcription in an early hand of the Marquess of Montrose's verse on the execution of Charles ('Great, good, and just, could I relate/Our miserys, and try too rigide fate...') on final blank, with an incomplete copy of the same poem on fly-leaf in another early hand, 2 gatherings slightly loose, contemporary black morocco gilt, elaborately tooled panelled sides and spine, g.e., preserved in velvet-lined caser [ESTC R34429; Madan 25], 8vo, [London, no publisher], 1649This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

FLACIUS (MATTHIAS)Ecclesiastica historia, integram ecclesiae Christi ideam, Parts 1-3 only (of 13) in 1 vol., woodcut device on general title, contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, sides with double roll frame, the outer with alternate falcon on a globe surmounted by the English Royal crown, and the Golden Fleece hanging by a chain from the Imperial crown, the inner with medallions with heads, including the binder's initials 'R.B.', with central lozenge made up from a narrow decorative roll enclosing a central oval cartouche contaning an armorial escutcheon with a unicorn rampant, rebacked preserving most of the original spine, without clasps, a few small areas of loss (mostly along lower margin), fragment of an illuminated vellum manuscript used as binder's waste at hinges [Goldschmidt, Gothic and Renaissance Book Bindings, 233], folio (318 x 195mm.), Basel, J. Oporinus, [1564], sold as a bindingThis lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

ORIGINES (ADAMANTIUS)Operum tomi duo priores [-tertius, -quartus], 4 parts in 2 vol., titles to Parts 1 and 3, each with a large woodcut of the interior of a printing workshop, the first printed in red and black, large woodcut initials, lacks final blank in Part 2, first six leaves (including title) and final 2 leaves of Part 4, occasional sprinkled single wormholes, second volume with some light dampstaining, final 2 leaves repaired with some loss, contemporary English blindstamped calf over wooden boards, covers with repeated design of intersecting roll borders (including Oldham 946), enclosing central panel filled with alternating vertical impressions of a dragon-and-gryphon roll, signed with initials 'W.G.' and 'I.G.' (Oldham 560) and a twisted pineapple roll (Oldham 953), spines in 5 compartments with raised bands, later lettering label within one compartment, modern endpapers but retaining original binder's waste and manuscript sewing guards (including a fragment of a ?seventeenth century French vernacular telling of the story of Troy), sides with scattered single wormholes and a few small areas of abrasion, extremities of spine repaired [Adams O280], folio (340 x 210mm.), [Paris, Jean Petit, Josse Bade, and Conrad Resch, 1522]This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

PIGHIUS (STEPHANUS VINDIUS)Annales magistratuum provinciar[um] S.P.Q.R. ab urbe condita, engraved architectural title-page, 2 engraved illustrations in the text, printer's device on final leaf, 2 small holes resulting from ink obliteration of old ink name in blank areas of title, approximately 20 leaves nibbled at upper or lower margin, light dampstain at upper margin of some leaves, contemporary Antwerp binding of polished calf gilt, sides with panels enclosing large central arabesque and cornerpieces, spine with leaf-bud and fleuron tool in six compartments, old ink lettering in 2 compartments, neatly repaired at extremities of spine and corners, some abrasions to sides (revealing boards in a few places), vellum sewing guards cut from a fourteenth century liturgical manuscript, preserved in crushed brown morocco-backed solander box by James Brockman, folio (365 x 230mm.), Antwerp, ex officina Plantiniana, Jan Moretus, 1599 [colophon: 1598]This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

PORCELAIN - MANUSCRIPTDODDS (Rev. GEORGE) '1828. Remarks on Porcelain Intended as a Companion to Mrs. Wilson's China Room', MANUSCRIPT, in black ink with footnotes in red, 125 sheets written on verso only (title within calligraphic illustration of a vase, dedication to Mrs Wilson on 2 sheets, text on leaves numbered 1-122), 4 hand-coloured lithographed plates, each captioned in ink ('Specimens of Wedgwood's Manufacture', '...the Dresden Manufacture', '...Berlin Manufacture', '...Sevres Manufacture'), with one duplicate plate loose, one transfer print for a plate (bound next to the description of the transfer technique), text watermarked 'J. Whatman, 1827', plates watermarked '1825' and '1827', contemporary green morocco gilt, g.e., 4to, [Gainsborough, 9 July 1828]This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

TRAVEL JOURNALSManuscript journal of Thomas Trench describing the sights and hardships of a European tour undertaken in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, sailing from Ireland to France where he admires the sights of Paris and describes an unacceptable meal with the wife of the Neapolitan ambassador which 'stunk so much of garlic that I did not attempt it', to Brussels, describing a visit to the field of Waterloo ('four brothers who were employed by the British army and Buonaparte's guide have made a monopoly of showing the field and I should suppose they must before this have made a fortune...'), through Germany ('for the first time since we left England had salt spoons laid down...but we had almost forgot the use of them') to Switzerland and through Italy to Venice noting the recent return of the quadriga of San Marco pillaged by Bonaparte ('to the great joy of the Venetians'), 117 numbered pages, paper covered boards inscribed in ink 'Thomas Trench./Milan Aug.6th 1818', worn, 4to (228 x 150mm.), 2 April–4 September 1818; Manuscript journal written by George Carr in a French lined notebook of a journey through France and Italy with detailed notes of architecture, museums visited and pictures seen, taking in Paris, Turin, Bologna, Milan, Parma, Florence, Rome and the excavations at Pompeii, returning via Switzerland and the Rhine, approximately 224pp, ownership inscription of 'Mr Carr/ Hotel de Breteuil/ Rue de Rivoli', paper covered boards, manuscript label to spine, 4to (202 x 150mm.); a fair copy of the same, c.120pp, reverse calf, 175 x 110mm., 18 March – 7 September 1816 (3)This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

DODGSON (CHARLES LUTWIDGE) 'LEWIS CARROLL'Alice's Adventures Under Ground, Being a Facsimile of the Original MS. Book Afterwards Developed Into 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed 'Winifred E. Stevens from the Author, May 21./87' in purple ink on the half-title, illustrations by the author, half-title loose and opening gatherings shaken, publisher's red cloth gilt, upper joint partly split, upper joint cracked [Williams, Madan and Green 194], 8vo, Macmillan, 1886; AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ('sincerely yours C.L. Dodgson') to 'Mrs [Ethel] Stevens', apologising that he was too poorly ('... My head has been a good dealer worse...') to accept visitors, 'not even Enid! Love to her (also to Winnie if not too old to accept it!)', one page, in black ink, 8vo, 'Ch.[rist] Ch.[urch] Mar. 9/[18]91', pasted inside upper cover of a 1927 edition of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', with a note of provenance in the hand of a descendant of Mrs. Stevens next to the letter--STEVENS (ENID) Manuscript memoir of her childhood, including recollections of her first meeting, subsequent relationship and feelings for Charles Dodgson, approximately 80 pages, written in pencil (mostly, an 'addenda' in ink) on lined paper (recto only), sheets of slightly varying size, loose with old label 'E.G.S. Autobiography', 4to, [undated, but c.1942]; and 3 others by Dodgson, including a copy of Alice's Adventures ('Thirty-fifth Thousand', 1872'), with the ownership inscription of 'Miss Maud Stevens, Xmas/[18]72' and 'Given to Winifred - 1879' on half-title (6)This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

ELIZABETH IInitial letter portrait, showing the Queen enthroned with orb and sceptre, with historiated first line incorporating the Tudor rose, drawn in pen-and-ink, on what appears to be an exemplification of common recovery pertaining to the Manor of Cheppeley, or Clopton, by Chipley Abbey, Poslingford, Suffolk, held by William Clopton of Long Melford and by Francis and his wife Elizabeth Clopton of Long Melford, Suffolk, subscribed in the name of Thomas Meade, Francis Wyndham and William Periam, Justices of the Common Pleas; collection stamp on verso of Erik Borje Israelson (1881-1931), Swedish manuscript collector and bookseller, on one sheet of vellum, Great Seal and associated tab lacking, some slight marking but overall in unusually fine, fresh and attractive condition, c.320 x 615mm., Westminster, 31 May [1583]

FLORIO (JOHN)Queen Anna's New World of Words, or Dictionarie of the Italian and English tongues... Whereunto are added Certaine Necessarie Rules and Short Observations for the Italian Tongue, title within architectural woodcut border, woodcut initials and headpieces, lacking portrait, without first and last blanks and blank 3F4, G1 torn and repaired with a little obscured text supplied in manuscript, 3L4 torn and repaired with some loss, chip to upper corner of title, a few other marginal paper repairs, modern half morocco [ESTC S121353], folio (280 x 178mm.), Melch. Bradwood for Edw. Blount and William Barret, 1611This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

NEWMAN (JOHN HENRY, Saint)Autograph presentation manuscript of his hymn 'Lead Kindly Light', signed ('John H. Newman') and dated, comprising the first stanza of six lines, beginning: 'Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom/ Lead thou me on...', 1 page, contemporary envelope, oblong 8vo, 'August 15 1876'

WHEELER (JOHN)A Treatise of Commerce Wherein Are Shewed the Commodies Arising by a Wel Ordered, and Ruled Trade, such as that of the Societe of Merchantes Adventurers is provided to bee, written principallie for the better information of those who doubt of the necessarienes of the said societe in the State of the Realme of Englande, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, with lengthy inscription dated 'Middelbroughe 28 Decembris 160[1]' on initial 'A', title within typographical border with printer's device, without the errata leaf found in some copies, neat manuscript correction to printed spelling of 'Commodies' on title, light arc of dampstaining at upper margin of a few leaves, seventeenth century panelled calf, rebacked with corners repaired, modern cloth box [ESTC S119735; Kress 243 (lacking blank and errata)], small 4to, Middelburg, Richard Schilders, 1601This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

OFFICINA BODONIGIDE (ANDRÉ) Theseus, NUMBER 75 OF 210 COPIES, translated by John Russell, 12 full-page lithographs by Massimo Campigli, one signed and loosely inserted (as issued), slipcase (lower edge detached), [Officina Bodoni for] New Directions Book Published by James Laughlin, 1949--TERENCE. Andria: Commedia, NUMBER 123 OF 160 COPIES, woodcut illustrations by Fritz Kredel after Albrecht Durer, prospectuses loosely inserted, transparent wrapper, slip-case, 1971--[JAMES (EDWARD)] Carmino Amico. Opus Quintum, ONE OF 50 COPIES on Montval paper, from an overall edition of 100, woodcut vignette printed in sepia, Privately Printed [by Officina Bodoni], 1932--The Sayings of the Seven Sages of Greece, NUMBER 32 OF 160 COPIES, translated by Betty Racice, slipcase, 1976--Songs from Shakespeare's Plays, NUMBER 45 OF 300 COPIES, printed in red and black, slipcase, 1974--Ippolito e Lionoroa. From a Manuscript of Felice Feliciano in the Harvard College Library, NUMBER 29 OF 200 COPIES, slipcase, 1970--BARDUZZI (BERNARNDINO) A Letter in Praise of Verona [1489], NUMBER 86 OF 150 COPIES, slipcase, 1974, publisher's quarter vellum or cloth, 8vo and small folio, Verona, Officina Bodoni; and 4 others (11)This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

AMERICAN WAR OF 1812 – CHESAPEAKE AND SHANNONPrinted document with manuscript insertions, signed by Captain Broke of the Shannon and others, certifying to the Directors of the Chest at Greenwich that on 1 June 1813 during the 'Engagement with the United States frigate Chesapeake' Alexander McClennan, private marine, first class, was wounded on board His Majesty's 'Ship Shannon' by receiving 'a severe blow of the head from a splinter or wad producing concussion of the brain, squinting of the Left eye And slight deformity of face'; signed by Philip Bowes Vere Broke as Captain ('PBV Broke'), Provo William Parry Wallis as Lieutenant ('Provo Wm Py Wallis'), Henry Gladwell Etough as Sailing Master ('HG Etough') and Alexander Jack as Surgeon ('Alex.r Jack'), also giving details of McClennan's birthplace, age and appearance, 1 page, edges neatly trimmed, guard verso, small 4to (c.130 x 140mm.), [Halifax], 30 June 1813

FUCHS (LEONHARD)Primi de stirpium historia commentatiorum tomi vivae imagines, woodcut printer's device on title, 516 full-page woodcut illustrations with names at head in roman and gothic, 2 with early hand-colouring, B4 and last two leaves blank, opening gatherings slightly shaken, neat ink annotations in an early hand on several pages (usually a few words, more substantial on opening 3 cuts), contemporary blindstamped pigskin over boards, covers with roll-tool stamp of Lucretia, Justice and Prudence and date '1539', with larger date '1546' on upper cover, remnants of ink lettering on spine, fragment of old illuminated manuscript binding waste visible at opening hinge, slightly rubbed [Adams F1127; Nissen BBI 661], (170 x 110mm.), Basle, [Michael Isingrinius], 1545This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

CHINA - PHOTOGRAPHYThree albums, titled 'Pekin', 'Hong Kong, Macao, Canton', 'Shangha, Ningpo, Tiensin' on upper covers, together 78 albumen prints (of which 2 panoramas), mounted one per page recto only, Peking album with captions in ink beneath image, 2 with early manuscript list of images loosely inserted, images typically 275 x 185mm. or similar, early uniform half morocco, gilt lettered on upper covers, some scuff-marks, folio; and a copy of C.N. Robinson, China of To-Day or the Yellow Peril, [1900] (4)This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: *

INDIAALLEN (REV. GEORGE LOSCOMB) AND MRS. [SARAH] ALLEN. The Views and Flowers from Gugerat and Rajpootana, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, with inscription from Mrs. Allen dated August 1858 on frontispiece (see below), title and text printed in red and gilt, publisher's advertisement printed in gilt, hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece, 12 full-page hand-coloured lithographed illustrations (6 views, 6 floral groups), some spotting, gilt-printed floral endpapers, publisher's green decorative cloth gilt, g.e., gutta percha perished (contents loose) [cf. Theakston, p.2, with spelling 'Guzerat' on title], large 8vo (270 x 180mm.), Paul Jerrard, [c.1858]; together with a small group of manuscript items relating to the Allens, including a 4-page manuscript account ('Deesa [near Bombay], March 10th 1844') describing a trip to Mount Abu ('... to make arrangements for Mrs. G.A. spending the hot weather there...'), George Allen's investigation into the conversion and baptism of a man named Murrolman, and an uncomfortable uphill journey carried on a bamboo chair held by 'four mountaineeers, by no means overburethened [sic] with clothing...' (small group)This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •

Omar Khayyam Dulac, Edmund (illus.) Rubaiyat. Hodder & Stoughton, [1909]. 4to, cream buckram gilt; full colour plates tipped in. First trade ed. The Dulac Rubaiyat was an immediate critical and commercial success. It's success was such that (according to George Doran, the American publisher) when old Mr Hodder demanded of his grandson (the firm's manager) why they had published such a heathen book over his imprint, his grandson only had to mention how much they had made on it for Hodder's evangelical wrath to evaporate. S&S. Rubaiyat. Siegle, Hill & Co., [1910]. 4to, original cream cloth gilt, upper board with large gilt peacock; text pages reproduced calligraphy with floriated initials, some illuminated, some with colour illus to text, add. titles with large coloured decorated borders, full page colour plates. The text follows the Fitzgerald trans. with an introduction by A.C. Benson. The text and decorations have been reproduced after a manuscript by noted book binders Sangorski and Sutcliffe. Sangorski and Sutcliffe's name would forever be linked in book history with the Rubaiyat after the loss of the 'Great Omar' binding with the Titanic. [2]

Peake, Mervyn Letters from a Lost Uncle. Eyre & Spottiswode, 1948. 8vo, org. yellow cloth blocked and lettered in scarlet, in unclipped jacket (second issue, 7s 6d blocked out, 3s 6d below), signed by Peake on half-title. First ed. Peake was unsatisfied with the foggy reproduction of the manuscript pages and the first issue was withdrawn and later reissued at this lower price.

Three early printed manuscript pages, one by Martin Luther, another by Wynkyn De Worde, circa 1493 who was apprentice to William Caxton; and another by Hendick Gran with rubricated incunable. Details verso and labels for Sotherans, Sackville Street, framed and glazed, largest page 33cm x 23cm

Two leaves from a commentary citing Aristotle, Physica and Metaphysica, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [probably France, thirteenth century]two leaves, each with remains of double column of 44 lines in a tiny, scribbled university hand with numerous abbreviations, titles of other works underlined in red, capitals touched in red, rubrics in red in main hand, space left for initials, one Arabic chapter no. ‘98’ in margin, both leaves recovered from a later binding and so with torn edges down one vertical side of each leaf, some small stains, one leaf with areas washed out, overall in fair and presentable condition, each leaf 285 by 195mm.Among the works of Aristotle translated into Latin in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and popularised by their use in the universities, the Physica and Metaphysica stand out as the most prominent of such philosophical works.

Leaf from a fine Bible, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [probably Low Countries or Rhineland, c. 1300]single leaf, with double column of 48 lines in an angular and professional early gothic bookhand (written space: 254 by 165mm.; containing end of Zacharias, and opening of Malachi; compare script to that in a Cologne Bible from the end of the thirteenth century: Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, no. 26), capitals in elongated penstrokes, red rubrics, running titles at head of page in alternate red and blue capitals (“MALAC” and “RIAS”), one large initial ‘O’ (opening “Onus verbi domini ad …”, Malachi 1:1) in blue with delicate red and blue penwork foliage (compare ibid., pl. 178), and a line of alternate red and blue capitals opening text, one natural flaw in parchment resulting in small hole in upper corner of margin, slight discolouration to edges from earlier mount, else in fresh and crisp condition, 322 by 205mm.

Leaf from a large Carolingian Passional, with readings for the Feast of St. Appolinaris of Ravenna, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [probably France (perhaps Dijon), tenth century]single leaf, with double column of 26 lines in a rounded late Carolingian minuscule, using the et-ligature integrally within occasional words and a strong st-ligature, significant capitals set off in margin, reused in a late medieval binding and hence with reverse scrubbed near blank (but remnants of a tall red initial and a rubrics still visible), offset from another manuscript fragment there, and some spots, scuffs and small holes, these with only small and occasional losses to text, overall fair and presentable condition, 305 by 222mm.St. Appolinaris was a native of Roman Antioch who reportedly became the first bishop of Ravenna, where he was persecuted by either Emperor Vespasian or Nero. He repeatedly refused to abandon the city and was beaten as he passed through its gates, dying a week later. His vita was most probably written by Archbishop Maurus of Ravenna (642-71), during attempts to promote the see and its political independence from Rome and Constantinople. He was venerated principally around Ravenna, but centres of devotion sprang up around relics in Düsseldorf and were spread from there to Aachen and other German houses by Benedictines, as well as in Dijon, where King Clovis of the Franks founded a church dedicated to him c. 500.The hand here is close to that of an Apocalypse and Avianus, Fabulae, written in France c. 900 (now Paris, BnF. Nal. 1132; see Trésors carolingiens, 2007, no. 61 for reproduction).

Leaf from an illuminated Breviary, most probably produced for use in a cathedral, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [England, fourteenth century]single large leaf, with double columns of up to 36 lines in a good gothic bookhand with pronounced wedging to vertical penstrokes, music on a 4-line red stave, lengthy red rubrics, one- and 2-line initials in blue with red penwork or liquid gold with purple penwork (this penwork picking out foliate patterns in blank parchment of margins and bodies of initials), some large initials appearing blank probably from gold peeling away, water stained down edges, scuffed and torn at edges with some small losses there, overall fair and presentable condition, 374 by 250mm.The pencil marks adding “XIV-XV” within a circle at the head of the recto of this leaf are almost certainly those of Ralph Lewis (d. 1956), a cataloguer employed by the Robinson brothers to work on the mass of thousands of single leaves and cuttings from the estate of Sir Thomas Phillipps (see A. N. L. Munby, Phillips Studies V, 1960, p. 100; P. Robinson, ‘Recollections of Moving a Library’, Book Collector 35, 1986, pp. 431-442; and C. de Hamel, ‘Phillipps Fragments in Tokyo’, in The Medieval Book and Modern Collector, 2004, pp. 19-44, at 20-21), strongly arguing for a provenance in that celebrated collection in the nineteenth century.The notes in the directions for the services here that include silk copes, altar boys, a deacon and a bishop, argue for the parent volume’s production for use in a secular setting, most likely that of a cathedral.

Leaf from a miniature prayerbook or confessional, with readings from the works of Jean Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, and the Interrogationes faciendae infirmo morienti falsely attributed to Anselm of Canterbury, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [France, fifteenth century]single leaf, with single column of 18 lines of an angular late gothic bookhand, capitals touched in red, 3-line red rubric, paragraph marks in red or blue, one blue initial, excellent condition, 89 by 66mm.

Cicero, De Finibus bonorum et malorum, in Latin, a leaf from a fine humanist manuscript on parchment [Italy (variously ascribed to Ferrara, Florence or the Veneto), c. 1460 (variously dated 1456, 1463 and 1466)]single leaf, with single column of 28 lines in a fine humanist hand, capitals starting significant section set off in margin, slight darkening at edges, 2 wormholes and a small brown mark in margins, some modern pencil marks (including fol. nos. ‘6r’ and ‘6v’ and “MS 701”, ie. the Schøyen collection number) and small strip of paper attached to inner edge, else outstanding condition on fine cream-coloured parchment, 253 by 175mm. (written space 156 by 97mm.)Provenance: From a parent manuscript probably once in the Florentine library of Cardinal Archbishop Angelo Niccolini of Pisa (d. 1567; see S. Gwara, Otto Ege’s Manuscripts, 2013, Handlist no 143): other leaves with his ex libris and stamp. The parent manuscript was offered on three occasions by Payne and Foss in London, the last February 1830, no. 1111, where it was acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps; sold in his sale at Sotheby’s, 17 May 1897, lot 198, returning in 25 July 1900, lot 1132. There it passed to Preston A. Perry, and was subsequently auctioned in New York on 21 April 1908 (lot 269), where acquired by Coella Lindsay Ricketts (d. 1941) and thence to Otto F. Ege, the Cleveland bookseller and biblioclast, who dated it 1463. Ege dispersed it from 1944 onwards, and this leaf was sold by his daughter at Sotheby’s, 26 November 1985, lot 79, thereafter Schøyen collection, sold Christie’s, 10 July 2019, lot 455. Other individual leaves can now be found in Rutgers University in New Brunswick (their MC 1220:04), the Beinecke Library, Yale (their MS. 682) and Phoenix Public Library (their MS. Fragment 40). Another was sold in our rooms, 6 July 2016, lot 38.Text: From a stately humanist manuscript of Cicero’s explanation of the Greek philosophical schools of Epicureanism, Stoicism and the Platonism of Antiochus of Ascalon (d. 68 BC.). It is dedicated to Brutus, the assassin of Julius Caesar, and was written in the summer of 45 BC. It is the least well studied of Cicero’s works. There is no extant ancient or Carolingian exemplar, and the earliest witnesses are those of the eleventh or twelfth century. All Italian copies, including the present fragment, appear to descend from ‘a small book of Cicero’ given to Petrarch by his friend Barbato da Sulmona in Naples, and which circulated among Petrarch’s close associates.

Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, extracts from ‘De Metallis’, in Latin, humanist manuscript on paper [Italy, c. 1450]single leaf, with single column of 20 lines in a fine humanist script (opening “Quantum feliciore …” and skipping a few lines that the copyist appears to have judged irrelevant at end of certain paragraphs, here following “… constat etiam Romae”, “…honoratissimi intelligebantur”, “… parte captae urbis delubris” and “… nec amplius fuisse”, numerous copying errors as common with this text), one small correction between lines, catchword on reverse showing this was once the last leaf of a gathering, heading in main hand at top of recto “ex LXX De Metallis” and copied again above it twice in slightly faded inks in near-contemporary hands, these adding author’s name and changing ch. to “xxxiii” (these titles perhaps suggesting that this leaf comes from a humanist miscellany), tear to outer lower corner with loss of a few words from last line, spots and stains, else in good and presentable condition, 198 by 137mm.Pliny the Elder’s Historia naturalis is one of the rarest Classical texts to appear on the market, and thus it is remarkable to be able to offer here in a single sale both a leaf containing parts of the text as well as an entire codex (see also lot 70). The leaf here contains parts of book 33, ch. 3, on gold, and the author’s condemnation of men’s love for it.

Franciscus Maturantius, De Componendis Versibus Hexametro et Pentametro, in Latin and Greek, manuscript on paper [Italy, sixteenth century]two long thin strips of paper, with remains from a single column of up to 11 lines in a tiny sloping hand influenced by humanist script, remains of diagrams formed from associated words on reverse, scuffs, folds, small holes and discolourations, overall fair and legible condition, 85 by 205mm. and 80 by 282mm.The text here is from a rare work by the Perugian humanist scholar Franciscus Maturantius (also Francesco Maturanzio; 1442-1518) on the composition of Latin hexameter and pentameter verse. Dissatisfied with the pronunciation of Greek in his native Perugia, he departed for Rhodes to study the language and its literature there. After that he travelled to Crete in search of manuscripts, then returned to Perugia to serve as secretary to its governor, before taking up a teaching position in the University of Vicenza and then Venice, where he acquired further Greek manuscripts. In his old age he returned to teach at Perugia, where he died in 1518. The fragments contain parts of ‘De Scansione’ and ‘De Ultimis Syllabis’, citing the works of Lucan, Horace, Tibullus and Vergil as well as some lines in Greek.

Leaf from a large copy of Gregory IX, Decretals, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy, fourteenth century]large single leaf with the main text in two columns of 34 lines of a notably tall Italian late medieval bookhand, running titles and small textual initials in red or blue, larger initials in same with elongated penwork strokes in border, this main text frame taking up perhaps only half of the available page with the remainder filled with an extensive gloss in 84 lines of smaller script with paragraph marks and initials in alternate red or blue, a few marginalia added around that in tiny script, some holes, darkened areas, scuffs and small sections of corners cut away, overall fair condition, 324 by 260mm.From a notably large and fine copy of this seminal legal collection. Here with parts of the Decretals, book I, tit. XXXI.

Compendium in Canticum Canticorum, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [northern Germany, late tenth century]cutting from a single leaf, with remains of double column of 15 lines of a notably angular and right-leaning late Carolingian minuscule (here with most of ch. 3 and the opening of ch. 4), using et-ligature integrally within words, remains of later medieval folio nos. in upper outer margin: “cc[…]” and “cxlii”, reused in a binding as a spine support, and hence with discolouration to sections once on spine of later book and small rectangles cut away to leave space for the thongs of that volume, scuffs to reverse removing much of text from ‘spine section’, some small holes and spots, later marginalia in seventeenth-century hand from period of reuse on binding, else fair and presentable condition, 172 by 215mm.The survival of this text among the works of Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636), in Escorial b.IV.17, caused its attribution to that author throughout much of the nineteenth century. However, it is elsewhere ascribed in the manuscript tradition to Alcuin in eight witnesses from the ninth century onwards, among whose minor writings it is occasionally found, as well as to Bede in two twelfth-century copies (and thus has the dubious honour of appearing in Patrologia Latina twice, in vols. 83 and 100 under the first and second authors here). The attribution to Alcuin is found in the earliest witnesses and is most probably correct, and has received recent support from R. Guglielmetti in his Alcuino, Commento al Cantico dei Cantici, 2004. Some twenty-eight manuscripts are recorded, not including the present fragment. All, apart this one, are in institutional ownership.

Nicolo de Tudeschi, Lectura in Decretales, in Latin, three leaves from an extremely large manuscript on paper [Italy, mid-fifteenth century or decades following]three leaves, each with double column of 57 lines of a small and rounded Italian bookhand, paragraph marks in alternate blue or red, two large contemporary initials in red or blue (the blue touched with later penwork), contemporary reference notes at top of each leaf referring to contents, watermark a simple three-tiered mountain in form of Briquet nos. 11652 (Rome, 1434-39), 11656 (Udine, 1452, and numerous other places), 11662-11663 (Florence and Genoa, 1440s), scuffs, discolourations, tears to edges, but overall in fair and presentable condition on heavy paper with notably wide margins, 414 by 284mm.Nicolo de Tudeschi (also Panormitus; 1386-1445) studied law in Bologna under Zaberella, before teaching in Parma, Siena and again in Bologna. He served the papacy as auditor of the Rota and apostolic referendary, before entering the employ of Alfonso V of Aragorn, king of Sicily, and being raised to the episcopacy over Palermo, Sicily. He supported the antipope, Felix V, who made him a cardinal in 1440. He was a prolific writer on the law, and respected as a great authority on it. These leaves come from an enormous manuscript of his fundamental canonical work, produced in the last years of his life or the decades following his death.

Wallet binding for documents formed from a bifolium from a legal codex in Latin on parchment, and another cutting from same codex [Italy, fourteenth century]two leaves and a cutting from a third, with remains of double column of 42 lines in a rounded Italian late gothic bookhand, each column encased in extensive gloss in smaller script on all sides, red rubrics and paragraph marks, traces of running titles in red capitals, simple red or blue initials, larger initials in blue with red penwork, these laid down on a paste-framework to form a satchel-like binding with yellow silk ties, scuffs and losses to outer sides, but some areas (flap and cutting) very legible, one small tear to pasteboards inside revealing inner face of manuscript leaves with very little damage, overall dimensions: 365 by 540mm.

Taxes on Corsican wine being transported to Pisa, in Latin, manuscript on paper [Italy (Veneto, probably Udine), c. 1449]booklet of 5 leaves (last a cancelled blank), with single column of 48 lines in a small and neat Italian hand influenced by secretarial script, opening initial ‘M’ in simple penwork, title added by near-contemporary in upper outer corner of first leaf (“De Gabellus …”), watermark a turreted tower with a gatehouse, identifiable as Briquet no. 15908 (Udine, 1449), old water damage to lower inner edge with paper bumped and woolly there, a few small wormholes and other small losses to blank margins, spots, stains, else in good condition, 282 by 215mm.This is a mid-fifteenth-century copy of a ‘gabelle’ or tax on wine from Corsica (“una barchetam vino corsici”) that was being shipped to Pisa, and a lengthy legal ruling on it from the last years of the fourteenth century. The legal ruling was commissioned by Jacopo d’Appiano, chief administrator of Pisa, from the lawyer Robertus de Fronzola, a favoured notary of Galeazzo Visconti, who appears to have been working in Rome in the 1390s.

Gideon and his fleece, miniature from the Gradual of Ferdinand and Isabella, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Spain (Castile, probably Avila), c. 1482-1492]oval topped miniature from the cornerpiece of a decorated border of a gargantuan choirbook, trimmed to edges of frame, with Gideon dressed as a young man in armour, kneeling and gazing at the sky as a blue-winged angel descends towards him holding a banderole, his sheep skin and shield before him, all before a wooded hilly landscape, within a thin wooden frame, much scuffed with small tear to lower lefthand edge, six small pinpricks to reverse in area of angel, 134 by 80mm.From a grand choirbook produced for Ferdinand and Isabella, joint monarchs of Spain, patrons of Christopher Columbus and owners of both North and South America. J.D. Bordona in his Spanish Illumination, 1930, p. 61, describes it as “one of the most sumptuous and artistic series of choir-books in all Spain”, and tentatively ascribes it to the royal illuminator Juan de Carrion, who worked in Avila from the 1470s. It was presented by the royal couple to the Dominican convent of Santo Tomás Aquino, in Avila, Old Castile, as part of a royal campaign of rebuilding there; and later their son Prince Juan was buried there. By the nineteenth century certain areas of a large number of leaves had become scuffed and damaged as here, and were partly repainted in an amateurish fashion. The book then came into the possession of Manuel Rico y Sinobias, who cut it up and dispersed it. By 1918, two cuttings were in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (MS. 293 a-b), and others emerged on the market in the Mettler sale, Mensing, 22 November 1929, lot 98, as well as with H.P. Kraus, cat. 112 (1965), no. 45, and Sotheby’s, 10 December 1996, lots 23 and 24, and again, 5 July 2005, lot 40. Other cuttings can be traced in the Museo Arqueológico in Madrid (Exposición de codices miniados Españoles, 1929, nos. civ-cvii and fig. 68) and the Zeileis collection (see Più Ridon le carte, II, 2002, pp. 414-15). The present cutting comes from a leaf sold by Pirages, cat. 51 (2004), no. 72, bought by Bruce Ferrini, who continued the process started by Manuel Rico y Sinobias a century before by cutting it up further and selling the pieces on.

Charter of Joanna, widow of Walter Chasteleyn of Leckhampsted in favour of Thomas Wodewarde, of her lands and tenements in the same place, in Latin, manuscript document on parchment [England (Bucks.), dated Feast of St. Hilary (13 January) 1410]single sheet document, 10 long lines in an English secretarial hand, one simple penwork initial ‘S’, single seal and seal tag present (red wax oval with initial ‘I’ between cross and palm of martyrdom; the initial doubtless for “Ioanna”), small holes folds and spots, but overall in good condition, 128+24 by 300mm.

Leaf from a very large copy of the Acta Sanctorum, with a monumental decorated initial 'T', in Beneventan minuscule, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Monte Cassino), eleventh century]single large leaf, with remains of double column of 34 lines in a good and regular Beneventan hand with notably large letters (cf. the eleventh-century Homiliae Capitulares leaf in Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages IV: Beneventan Script, 1990, no. 3, and perhaps also no. 8), red rubrics, one very large initial 'T' (opening Temporibus suis maximianus imperatores miserunt ..., the opening of the readings for the Passion of St. Theodore the Martyr, preceded by the end of the SS. Quattuor Coronati Romae Culti) formed of a blank parchment T-shape flanked by geometric pane of blank parchment edged with red penwork, all encased in pale green grounds, small remnants of bright yellow paint in places, leaf still in situ around a large pasteboard and so folded around extremities, tears, damage to edges and surface scuffs, small cutting from another Italian thirteenth-century manuscript pasted over upper inner corner, watermark on paper pastedown of this bookboard an anchor in a circle flattened on its lower left hand side and surmounted by a six-pointed star, almost certainly Briquet, no. 478 (recorded Bergamo in 1502, Gurk, Austria in c. 1500 and Graz, Austria, 1502), visible area of manuscript: 435 by 285mm.The present manuscript is the sister leaf of that sold in our 2 July sale this year (lot 1), and the publishing of that leaf led to the subsequent rediscovery of this one. The re-emergence of this leaf enables us to see the scale of the decoration of the parent codex, and its survival on a bookboard with a paper pastedown allows us to conclude that the parent manuscript had left Montecassino and travelled to Bergamo on the northernmost border of Italy or one of its neighbour-towns on the other side of the Alps, either Gurk or Gratz, by 1500/1502 when it was reused on a binding.Like its sister leaf, this is a large and fine example of early Beneventan minuscule, the strange and visually confounding Dark Age script formed from curling letterforms, broken lines and reliance on early medieval abbreviations, but what is of especial note here is its large Romanesque initial. This initial stands quite apart from the long and thin initials encased within whip-like vines more common in Beneventan books (see those on a Missal leaf in Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages, IV: Beneventan Script, 1990, no. 8, reproduced in colour at front and with item). Certain features, such as the small circular leaf curls found halfway around the body of the foliate finials at its terminations, are found elsewhere in Beneventan decoration (see Avril and Załuska, Manuscrits enluminés d'origine Italienne, I, 1980, no. 31), however, the initial here is notably more heavy and Romanesque than those models. Its closest parallels are found in the contemporary Italian book arts outside of Beneventan productions, in the Italian reinventions of the Carolingian Tours Bibles that became the Atlantic Bibles in the late eleventh and twelfth century (for the same compartmentalisation within the body of the initial, and the filling of the resulting panels with open intertwined designs, see ibid. nos. 65 and 74, both early twelfth century, and W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination, fig. 62, for an eleventh-century example in the Hirsau Bible). As such it represents an interesting crossover between the book arts of Monte Cassino and the surrounding centres in Italy.

Large Tudor arbitration settlement, resolving the “stryffe & debate … stirred between Thomas Stubbes of Thorpe in the Contye of Derbye yoman … and Wyllium Stubbes of the same twn & contye … abowte the ryght tytle of a lytle parcelle of lande”, manuscript document in Tudor English, on parchment [England (Derbyshire), dated 4 August 1550]single sheet, with 31 long lines in a good and calligraphic vernacular English secretarial hand with curling descenders, significant phrases in larger script, cut at top to form indenture, 3 seal tags at foot (but seals absent) each seal tag signed at foot of document by the 2 parties involved and the principal judge, some folds and slight rubbing causing a few small areas of illegibility, but overall in fair and presentable condition, 210 by 307mm.A good and affordable example of Tudor English. This feud over a “lytle parcelle of lande”, perhaps between the representatives of warring factions within a single family, had clearly raged for many years and perhaps generations before they sought the arbitration of the noblemen, Robert Fitzherbert, Thomas Okayn and John Flackett. This document is thorough, and awards Thomas Stubbs 3 shillings damages, but bans him from “at any tyme herafter cleame any right interest or tytle of the seyd parcell of lande”.

Charter issued by Landulphus, deacon of the church of San Nicholas at the Mamertine Prison in Rome and Cardinal of Bari, in Latin, manuscript document on parchment [Austria (Vienna), dated 4 March 1409]single sheet document, with a single large opening initial ‘L’, 22 long lines of a good late medieval Germanic secretarial hand, a few cadels and pen flourishes, contemporary endorsements on reverse, seal and seal tags wanting, twentieth-century pencil notes to reverse (including apparent price “25”, perhaps in Marks), some small spots, stains and folds, overall in excellent condition on fine and heavy parchment, 245+38 by 440mm.Landulphus Maramaurus was a Neapolitan noble who was raised to the cardinalate by Pope Urban III, and acted as papal legate for that pope and his immediate successors until his death in 1415. The Mamertine Prison (here “carcere tulliano”) was an Ancient Roman dungeon in the Comitium at the heart of Rome, constructed in the seventh century BC., and was the site of the incarceration of St. Peter. In medieval times the site was reused for a series of churches.

Doctoral diploma issued by the University of Bologna, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy (Bologna and probably Milan), dated 24 March 1461]large single sheet document, with 24 long lines in a humanist hand (including 2 line subscription of notary at foot), capitals in split bar penwork with wheatstalks emerging and human faces picked out along their edges, one full length initial ‘I’ (opening “In Christi nomine …”) in pink architectural columns encased within delicately painted red, green and blue acanthus leaves (these dotted in yellow paint along their veins), the whole column set on wide burnished gold grounds edged with bezants and coloured leaves, reverse with subscription in same humanist hand with large initial ‘P’ enclosing a male and a female face, the gold flaked away in places and the paint also (the latter from originally having been painted over the surface of the gold), a few small holes and corners cut away (but without damage to text), folds, seal and seal tags wanting, overall good and legible condition, 390 by 592mm.This is an extremely early example of a Bolognese university diploma. The university in Bologna was founded in the eleventh century, and must have been granting such documents as lavish commemorations of their students’ achievements from the fifteenth century at least. However, those that survive are overwhelmingly of the sixteenth and seventeenth century and in book format in fine gilt bindings. Other examples in this early format can be found in the Archivio della Fabricceria di S. Petronio, Bologna (who held the records of the university; now 4 extant examples), Archivio di Stato, Bologna (2 examples) and were once in the Biblioteca comunale dell’Archiginnasio (3 examples recorded of 1417, 1467 and 1472, these lost during the Second World War). Another, issued in 1472 for Kasper Back, praepositus at the Chapter of Spisz, was recently discovered in the Spisz chapter archive, and is now in the Slovakian State Archive in Levoči (S.A. Sroka, ‘Dyplom doktorski Uniwersytetu Bolońskiego z 1472 r.’, Studia Źródłoznawcze, 50, 2012). Other small collections can be found for the universities of Padua, Perugia, Ferrara, Pavia and Siena.The present manuscript was issued for Grisantus Johannes de Ancinis for his studies in Canon Law, and notarised by Nicolaus “quondam Tadei de Mamelinus”. Grisantus was evidently a member of the influential Milanese Ancini family. The document is near-identical in hand, penwork decoration, name of notary and style of subscription on reverse to that now in the Slovakian State Archive, but the illuminated initial is not to be found on the latter, and was probably added in Milan on the student’s return to that city.

Conveyance of the title and privileges of the Priore d’Urbino to Giovanni Battista Zanchini da Castiglionchio, granted by Ferdinand Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, grand illuminated manuscript charter in Italian on parchment [Italy (Florence), dated 8 November 1589]large and impressive single sheet document, opening with liquid gold capitals: “NOI FERDINANDO MEDICI” (each letter about 34mm. high), above 37 lines of capitals ruled in liquid gold, with ending of sentences marked off with gilt floral sprays, rows of gilt fleur-de-lys down each side of text, and entire text framed within concentric bands of liquid gold (in outermost layers these laid over turn up at foot to continue striking visual impression), contemporary endorsements at foot including scrawled signature of the Grand Duke, brief endorsements on reverse, cords for lead bulla attachment present but broken, lead bulla with Medici arms also present (but loose with item), natural flaw in parchment hidden by turn up with contemporary patch repair, some folds resulting in small scuffs, else outstanding condition, 487+10 by 740mm.Giovanni Battista Zanchini da Castiglionchio (d. 1590) was a sixteenth-century Florentine senator, who greatly enlarged the Palazzo Zanchini-Corbinelli in Florence. He commissioned a statue of Giasone from Pietro Francavilla, a pupil of Giambologna (now Muzeo Nazionale, Bargello), and is recorded as a substantial art collector by Francesco Bocci’s 1591 guide to Florence. This is most probably his own lavish copy of this grant.

Charter issued by Archbishop Sigismund of Salzburg, in German, manuscript on parchment [Austria (Salzburg), dated 15 June 1455]single sheet charter, opening with large initial formed of calligraphic strokes, and 21 lines in a fine Germanic late medieval secretarial hand with ornamental penstrokes on capitals and cadels on uppermost line, seal tag (but no seal), small spots and folds, later endorsement in German on reverse, overall good condition, 187+51 by 337mm.The issuer here is Sigismund I of Volkersdorf (c. 1395-1461), prince-archbishop of Salzburg, and as he notes here, papal legate. He served initially as a canon of Salzburg from 1424, before becoming cathedral provost in 1429 and archbishop in 1452. As a churchman he is remembered as a benefactor of the poor of impeccable reputation and humility, and as a ruler he championed the mining industry, issuing the Ramingsteiner mountain edict in 1459.

Leaf from a noted Missal, in Latin, decorated manuscript on Romanesque parchment [Germany, eleventh century]single leaf, with single column of 24 lines of a rounded Germanic early gothic bookhand, sung parts in smaller script with neumes, capitals touched in red, red rubrics (perhaps added by two hands: see below), simple red initials, a few late medieval marginalia, margins trimmed (note losses to contemporary marginalia), tears to one edge, else good condition, 285 by 222mm.One strange aspect of this leaf is that while the main hand is a skilled one, producing fine and legible script, that of some of the rubrics is clumsy to the point of incompetence (note in particular the upside-down lollipop shape for the ‘d’ in “Ad Corinthios” and the oddly curling letter forms in “Scdm Matheum”). This combination can be found in other German manuscripts of this date (see Divina Officia, 2004, fig. 104, for an example). However, here it is quite pronounced, and we might conclude that the rubricator for the present leaf was an elderly and infirm, but highly respected, member of the scriptorium.

Record of the sale of properties by Michael Chlainsweindl (doubtless a Jew) to pay the Grand-Jewry tax and other necessities, manuscript document in German on parchment [Austria (Melk), dated 30 December 1366]single sheet, with 22 long lines in a German vernacular hand, simple penwork initial, archival numbers on reverse, tag from one seal present (but no seal) other tag wanting, small holes and folds, else good and legible condition, 150+15 by 238mm.In this document Michael Chlainsweindl, a citizen of Melk, as well as Gattin and his brother Hans, record the sale of properties according to the “Purchrechtz” (Bürger rechts) of Melk, in order to pay the “grozzen Judengelt und besunder Nothurft”. The document is ratified by Abbot Johann I Radebunner (d. 1371) of the grand abbey of Melk. The early fourteenth century saw anti-Semitism in Austria as in Germany grow steadily, and in 1306 the Jewish inhabitants of Korneuberg were killed or expelled over accusations that they had desecrated the host. When Frederick ‘the Fair’ was elevated to the imperial throne in 1308, he levied taxes on the Jewish population and cancelled debts owed to them. When his brother, Albrecht II, took command in 1330, he transferred to the Austrian dukes the right to own and tax the Jews, and under fear of attack, the Jews of Vienna volunteered to greatly reduce the rate of interest on loans (see Wolf, Studien zur Jubelfeier der Wiener Universität, 1865, p. 170). In the early 1360s, the rights of the Austrian dukes were extended further and Jews were forbidden from moving away without recompensing the duke for his supposed financial interest in them. This is the “grozzen Judengelt” referred to here, and the three young men named in this document were attempting to liquidate their assets in order to buy their freedom and escape.

Leaf from a large Lectionary, in Coptic with a few Arabic characters, manuscript on paper [Egypt, fifteenth century or c. 1500]single large leaf, with double column of 25 lines in bold Coptic liturgical hand, punctuation marks and rubrics in red, one large initial enclosing simple human face, some small holes through ink-burn, tears to edges and small losses at edges, else in fair and presentable condition, 327 by 220mm.Another leaf from the same parent codex was in our sale, 4 December 2018, lot 36.

ƟTheotokarion, the readings and chants for the Divine Services dedicated to the Virgin Mary Theotokos, in Greek, decorated manuscript on paper [Byzantium, late fourteenth century]345 leaves, uncollatable, but wanting first 4 leaves, a few leaves from end and single leaves from a few places throughout, single column of 14 lines of a fine and scrolling Greek bookhand with long gently curling penwork cadels in margins, contemporary marginalia in a smaller version of same, red rubrics, small red initials, occasional decorative headbands of interlacing penwork bands ending in stylised acanthus leaf sprays, these touched with pale yellow and red wash, the more important of these with grey bands intertwined and with spiky seed-pod-like growths rising from the decoration, many pages discoloured at corners from thumbing, leaves at each end with old water damage, a few tears, spots and stains, else good condition, 200 by 140mm.; later medieval binding (perhaps fifteenth or sixteenth century) of dark leather over heavy wooden boards with central ornamental lozenge, holes and cracking to leather in places, especially spine where there are splits and small losses at head and foot, remains of metal clasps, volume once perhaps coming loose from this binding and then glued back into itThis is a fine Greek medieval manuscript, in an early binding and with a well documented provenance, first appearing on the market in Hartung, 28 May 1973, lot 121 (when it was sold for DM 4100). As well as the standard parts of the text focusing on the Virgin Mary Theotokos, this manuscript also contains hymns and refrains for the liturgical year, and pericopes for the praise of the Prophet Elijah. A near contemporary hand has added musical notation in the Greek Kalophonic style with the ‘great signs’ (megala semaia) above the text on fol. 111r (for these see the manuscript in our sale, 4 December 2018, lot 38). Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information.

ƟDecretals of Gregory IX, or ‘Liber Extra’, with commentary of Raymond Peñafort, in the extremely rare Old French translation, decorated manuscript on parchment [northern France, (probably Paris), dated 1280]72 leaves, wanting leaves at front and back and a few single leaves throughout, collation: i5 (wanting first 2 leaves and last leaf from quire), ii5 (wanting first, fourth and last leaves), iii8, iv8 (wanting first leaf), v8, vi-vii8 (both wanting first leaves), viii-ix8, some catchwords, double column of 40 lines of a professional and precise early gothic bookhand, quotations underlined in red, red rubrics (these in Latin for fols. 1-40v, and Old French for fols. 41r-72v), running titles in alternate red or blue capitals, one-line initials in alternate red or dark blue, larger initials in same with long scrolling penwork in contrasting colour extending far into the margins, one large variegated initial ‘A’ in red and blue with foliate penwork infill (fol. 53v), some leaves with near-contemporary notes in Old French in ink and dry-point glosses at their lowermost extremities explaining legal concepts, another with a scrap of parchment with same stitched to bas-de-page (fol. 14r), mid-twentieth-century pencil foliation and a few marginal notes in modern French on codex, first leaf detached and stained, tears to edges of a few leaves, slight cockling at extremities throughout, but overall in clean and solid condition, 317 by 225mm.; binding structures in place at spine (four double thongs and part of a foot-band), these showing that volume was originally not much longer at end than at presentProvenance:Most probably completed in 1280, as a practical reference work for a legal practitioner. A tiny contemporary inscription at the head of fol. 29r records the apparent date of the completion of the book: “anno domini m cco lxxxo”. Certainly it was in existence within months of that date, when a near-contemporary hand added to it: ““Martinus episcopus servus servorum dei” (Pope Martin IV, of French origin, was elected on 22 February 1281). The wave of Old French translation in the thirteenth century is associated with a shift of the use of the written word away from the traditional centres of the Church (see below), and we might postulate an origin for this in a university teaching centre rather than a religious community.Text:The poor condition of this book cannot be avoided, but its textual contents ensure that while it is a relic, it is a noble one which still inspires fascination. The text was issued by Gregory IX in 1234 as an adjunct, or ‘extra’, to the encyclopedic Gratian’s Decretum. It contained the whole body of canon law as edited by Raymond Peñafort, who had gathered, organised, and edited the papal decretals that had established legal precedent since the time of Gratian in the mid-twelfth century. The present witness contains a relatively early fragment of Books II and III, on oaths, witnesses, and testimony, and the personal lives of the clergy.The text filled a practical need, and was greatly popular, surviving now in 675 recorded medieval copies. However, what sets this particular copy apart from almost all of its peers is the fact that it contains the text translated into vernacular Old French. Apart from the present witness, only eleven recorded manuscripts contain this vernacular version (Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque municipale MS. 123; Bourg-en-Bresse, Bibliothèque municipale MS. 9; Brussels, BR. MS. 11082; Caen, Bibliothèque municipale MS. 49; Montpellier, BU section Médecine H. 51; Paris, Arsenal 5215; Paris, BnF. ms. français 491, 492, 493 and n.a. français 5120; Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale ms. 726), all in French or Belgian institutional ownership.The translation of this text was undertaken as part of the great renaissance of the French language in the thirteenth century, during which the Vulgate Old Testament was translated as well as a number of the Classics such as Ovid’s Heroides and historical works such as William of Tyre. As part of this, Roman law was translated in the 1220s and Canon Law in the 1230s, with the Liber extra appearing in French between 1234 and 1245 (see E. Fournier, in Acta Congressus Iuridici Internationalis VII saeculo a Decretalibus Gregorii IX et XIV a Codice Iustiniano promulgatus, 3, 1936, pp. 247-67). This linguistic shift is usually associated with a cultural one in the use of written texts exclusively by the Church towards increasing use by the laity, but it also witnessed the ‘coming of age’ of Old French as a language that would eventually lead to its recognition as the European ‘lingua franca’. While one can still obtain fragments of leaves or charters in Old French from the dawn of this period (see the leaves from the Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avenes of c. 1300, sold in our rooms, 8 July 2015, lot 29, and the charter dated 1307, also sold in our rooms, 9 December 2015, lot 92, for examples), actual codices, even in a damaged state, are remarkably difficult to find on the market. The last thirteenth-century codex in French to appear in Sotheby’s was a vernacular Apocalypse, sold on 25 February 1946, lot 60; while Quaritch offered an early Book of Hours, in their cat. 629 (1945), no. 6; the Robinsons offered a Romance of Waldef, ex Heber and Phillipps, in their cat. 77 (1948), no. 77; Kraus offered a Roman de Garin le Loherin, also ex Phillipps, in his cat. 153 (1979), no. 29; and a Romans de Carite was sold in a Van Gendt auction in Amsterdam on 23 October 1972, lot 1473. Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information

ƟFranciscan Rule, with associated texts, in Latin, decorated manuscript on paper [Germany (probably Bamburg), second half of fifteenth century (after 1456)]139 leaves (plus a parchment endleaf at front and back), complete, collation: i8, ii-ix12, x13 (wanting last leaf, but text continuous), xi12, xii10 (with small strips of parchment bound in to strengthen central gutter of initial few and last quires), traces of catchwords (mostly trimmed away), single column of 16 lines in a series of late medieval bookhands, quotations underlined in red, capitals touched in red, simple red initials and rubrics, prickmarks for lining visible on many leaves, some small spots and stains, a few small splits and tears to edges of a few leaves, else good condition, 103 by 78mm; contemporary binding of tooled leather over beveled wooden boards, sewn on three double thongs, scuffs in places with losses to spine exposing head, foot and edges of thongs, remnants of later monastic paper label on spine and brass clasp at midpoint of boards, solid in bindingProvenance:Written and decorated in Germany for use by an itinerant Franciscan friar. The use in Bamberg is suggested by a seventeenth- or eighteenth-century inscription to the head of fol. 1 identifying it as then in the library of “FF: Min: Bamb: ad S. Annam”, that is the Franciscan community of Minorites of Strict Observance dedicated to St. Anna in Bamburg. Other books from their library survive in Bamburg, Staatsbibliothek (their Msc. Class 52), Leipzig, Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum (II, 82,43a), Glasgow University Library (Sp Coll Veitch Eg8-b.9), and Harvard, (Incunable 2140). The house was suppressed during the early years of the Secularisation, and by 15 June 1799 Sotheby’s was already offering a large collection of incunabula and early printing mostly drawn from their library.Text:This charming little monastic book contains: Gonsalvus Hispanus, De praeceptis regulae ordinis fratrum minorum, opening “Regula nostra socie praeclare …” (fol. 1r); Pope Honorius III’s confirmation of the Franciscan Rule (fol. 9r), followed by the Rule itself; the testament of St. Francis (fol. 18v), followed by a list of crucial dates for the Order ending with the death of Johannes de Capistrano in 1456 (fol. 23r); the declaration and endorsement of the Franciscan Rule by Pope Nicholas III (fol. 25r); the declaration and endorsement of the Franciscan Rule by Pope Clement V (fol. 57v); formulas for the profession of novices and other services (fol. 81r); a short collection of readings and prayers on the Passion, the first ascribed to St. Bernhard of Clairvaux (fol. 105v; without rubric and perhaps added soon after book was created into space between original texts); the Meditaciones de Passione Domini, erroneously ascribed to St. Bernhard (prologue fol. 107r, main text 111v), and an alphabetical list of subjects within the Franciscan Rule and associated endorsements (fol. 130r). Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information.

ƟNicolas d'Osimo, Quadriga Spirituale, in Italian, decorated manuscript on paper [Italy (probably Venice or vicinity), dated 13 April 1445]161 leaves (plus one modern paper endleaf at back), perhaps wanting an endleaf at front with opening of contents list added to it, main text complete, collation: i12, ii10, iii-xi12, xii16, xiii15 (last a cancelled blank), catchwords, single column of 26 lines of an Italian bookhand with influences of humanist and secretarial script, paragraph marks, rubrics and reference-marginalia in red (including some manicula), chapters numbered in red Arabic numerals alongside rubrics, small simple red initials, one large initial 'd' (opening Dice lo apostolo quello ...) in blue enclosing red penwork, frontispiece opening with red Ihs and 6-lines of text announcing the work, its author and the date of its composition, printed woodcut of St. Francis holding a Crucifix and exposing his stigmata pasted to verso of last leaf of contents list at front, strips from other medieval manuscripts used to reinforce outermost and innermost leaves in each gathering, some spots and bumped edges throughout, small tears and slight discolouration to first and last leaves, overall good condition, 214 by 145mm.; white parchment over stiff pasteboards, Raccolta di Sermoni in pen with calligraphic flourish on spine, as well as paper labels with P73 and 758A COPY OF AN IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL WORK ON SIN AND CONFESSION, WRITTEN ONLY TWO YEARS AND FIVE MONTHS AFTER THE COMPOSITION OF THE TEXT, AND SECURELY WITHIN THE LIFE OF THE AUTHORProvenance:1. Written by the scribe Nicholas de Romanis, a Franciscan friar, and completed on 13 April 1445: his colophon at end of text. The watermark is a rare type, a horseshoe with circular nail holes visible in its body, in a form found in only one Italian example (Briquet, no. 6167, recorded Venice, 1464). If this watermark can be taken to indicate a Venetian origin then the book may have been written for use in either the Franciscan convent of San Francesco del Deserto (founded 1233 on the site where St. Francis reportedly spoke to birds, suppressed by Napoleonic troops c. 1808) on the lagoon island south of Burano, or the convent whose church still stands as the imposing Santa Maria Gloriosa del Frari (founded 1231, the Order expelled from the site in the early nineteenth century).2. By the seventeenth century the book was in the library of a Franciscan convent dedicated to Sanctissime Annunciate, and has their scrawled ex libris marks at head and foot of text, with actual site of house completely erased in both places. Probably in their monastic binding of the same date, and with their P73 on the spine.Text: Nicholas of Osimo (d. 1453) was a native of the Marche, and studied at the University of Bologna. He joined the Observant branch of the Franciscan Order, and held a number of key positions in the Order (including Vicar-Provincial of Apulia and Superior of Palestine, the last probably not taken up) as well as being a prolific author on moral theology. This text is a form of Christian manual on the consequences of sin in four parts: the need for charity, faith, confession and prayer. It was finished in December 1442, just two years and five months before the present copy was made, and within the life of the author. It was most probably distributed within Franciscan communities fairly rapidly after its composition, and a near identical copy supposed to be from Florence with a notably similar frontispiece was sold in Christie's, 12 December 2018, lot 15. The text here is preceded by a contents list. Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information. 

ƟJohannes de Andrea, Lectura super arboris consanguinitatis et affinitatis, on the table of consanguinity, manuscript on parchment and paper [northern Italy (probably Venice), late fifteenth century]five leaves (4 parchment with a contemporaneous paper singleton added at end), with two full-page genealogical diagrams (the Arbor consanguinitatis as a stylised tree with naturalistic roots touched in brown wash, and the Arbor affinitatis as a series of interconnected roundels beneath a single arched yellow bar), text in two columns, approximately 65 lines in a late fifteenth-century hand showing influence of humanist script, initials and paragraph marks in red, watermark of the paper leaf a capital ‘F’ surmounted by a flower, a close variant of Briquet no. 9397 (recorded in Venice, 1477), printed blue nineteenth-century label with ‘35’ on back pastedown, some small stains and worm holes, else good condition, 235mm. by 172mm.; modern parchment over pasteboards, boards bowed, splitting at spineJohannes de Andrea (c. 1270-1348) was an expert in canon law who wrote extensive commentaries on papal decretals, and who was closely associated with the University of Bologna. He is reported to have died there of the Black Death in 1348. This manuscript includes the first part of the text, followed by the diagrams for the Arbor consanguinitatis and Arbor affinitatis. It closes with the Specialis benedicto cuius libet indumenta, and the Declaratio novum arbor consanguinintatis in a later hand as an index.  Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information. 

Niccolo Sagundino, Ad serenissimum principem, an eyewitness account of the Fall of Constantinople and its seizure by the Ottoman Empire, in Latin, humanist manuscript on paper [Italy (perhaps Naples), mid fifteenth century (most probably soon after 1453)]12 leaves (plus 2 modern paper endleaves at each end), complete, single column of 20 lines in a practised semi-humanist hand, with some long descenders into margin from letters of lowermost lines, watermark in form of a hat (ecclesiastical galero) in form found in wide range of Italian watermarks (see Briquet nos. 3363-3408, recorded from 1411 to the 1550s, the simple form of hat and long conical tassels suggest an earlier date, but the circular bobbles at end of cords can only be found from examples from 1455: Briquet no. 3369, recorded Pisaro), a few pages with line numbers lightly added in nineteenth-century pencil, leaves at each end slightly discoloured, small spots and stains, else excellent condition, 205 by 145mm.; modern binding of marbled pasteboards with white parchment spine, corners and name-plate on front boardA COPY OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WITNESSES TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE; IN THE SOLE MANUSCRIPT WITNESS WITH ANY CLAIM TO BE ONE OF THE INITIAL WAVE OF COPIES SENT OUT FROM NAPLES TO INFORM EUROPE OF THIS CLIMATIC EVENTText:Niccolo Sagundino was born in Chalkis, the main urban centre for the Greek island of Eubea/Negroponte, in 1402. The formative moment of his life was his capture by the Turks during their invasion of Venetian controlled Thessalonica. He remained hostage there for thirteen months, but used the time to closely study his captors, and when redeemed probably by the Venetian State, he was put to use by the authorities of Negroponte as a translator and probably also as a diplomat. He served again in this capacity at the Council of Florence, where he drew the attention of Pope Eugenius IV who immediately appointed him apostolic secretary. In 1440 the Venetian State appointed him chancellor of Negroponte, and he was there on 29 May 1453 when the Ottoman forces overran Constantinople. Venice despatched him to the sultan and he remained in Constantinople during the entire summer and autumn of that year, returning only to update the Venetians and from there the Pope and the Neapolitans. His long speech given at the Neapolitan court at the end of January 1454 (here written in error as “M.cccc.Liii.”) is what is contained in this manuscript, and was committed to writing and disseminated on the order of King Alfonso 'the Magnificent’ of Naples due to its crucial importance. In addition to its function as a form of Renaissance news despatch, the text was one of the very first reports on the Ottoman Empire produced in the West and gives a detailed portrait of the young emperor, Mohammed II, as well an assessment of the military strengths and potential weaknesses of his forces. The Venetians continued their anti-Ottoman dialogue with the Neapolitan court through Sagundino, and in 1461 sent him back to the sultan while he was on campaign in Anatolia crushing the last vestiges of Byzantine power there. His last active diplomatic work was to the Pope in 1462 to secure additional funding for Hungary and their new border with the Ottoman Empire. He died in 1464.The text was recently edited by C. Caselli, Ad serenissimum principem et invictissimum regem Alphonsum Nicolai Sagundini oratio, 2012, who lists 31 manuscripts (not including the present one). To those should be added: (i) Brescia, Biblioteca Civica Queriniana, B.VII.34, fols. 27r-40r, and (ii) Innsbruck, Universitätsbibliothek 636, fols. 264r-267v. All of these are in institutional ownership, and only the single copies in the John Rylands Library, the Stiftsbibliothek of Melk, the BnF in Paris, and the three in the ÖNB in Vienna are outside of Italy. None is recorded in the United States. Crucially, all these witnesses include the text as part of compendia, often among numerous other related texts, most probably produced as reference copies from the initial productions of the Neapolitan court. The present manuscript is the only one to survive in a discrete booklet, apparently produced quickly. It may well be the sole surviving witness to that initial Neapolitan campaign of copying and distribution, committed to paper in the court of Naples on the orders of Alfonso ‘the Magnificent’ and before the author himself.  

Ornately tooled carrying case, probably for a ledger, made up from manuscript leaves from fourteenth-century paper documents or accounts [Italy (perhaps Florence or its vicinity), second half of fifteenth century]leather covered pasteboards, tooled on front and flap with concentric bands of patterns of chevrons and crosses (close to those found on copies of Suetonius & Marsiglio Ficino’s commentary on Plato, both bound in Florence in c. 1450-60 and c. 1470-80, respectively, as well as a copy of Livy probably bound in Gimignano immediately after 1476: reproduced A. Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders, 1990, figs. 12, 14 & 50), and simple roll-stamped diagonal lines on reverse, small stars stamped along foot, the parts sewn around a wooden frame to form a fitted case for a rectangular object of approximate dimensions: 285 by 235 by12mm., the underside of the flap and opening of the case revealing the pasteboards made up from numerous layers of paper documents in Latin from the fourteenth century, holes remaining for tie and button on front to secure flap, two suspension handles once on reverse held in place with iron rivets, one of these now torn away, edges of pasteboards torn and bumped with some losses there, some tears to edges of leather and numerous wormholes on boards, and somewhat fragile, but leather supple and easy to handle, and overall in fair and presentable condition, overall dimensions when closed: 310 by 255 by 25mm., flap 100mm. long when folded outThis is a rare survival of a book-related object, here formed from the reuse of early paper documents, in a remarkably good state of survival.

ƟBook of Hours, Use of Paris, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern France (doubtless Paris), c. 1450]204 leaves, collation impracticable, wanting a single leaf (once with a miniature), else complete, written in two sizes of script in single column of 14 lines of lettre bâtarde (ruled in burgundy, and with Calendar in red, liquid gold and blue), capitals touched in pale yellow wash, dark burgundy rubrics, one-line initials in blue or liquid gold with penwork in contrasting colour, larger initials in blue heightened in white, enclosing swirls of coloured foliage and on burnished gold grounds, most pages with decorated border panels of coloured and gilt acanthus leaves and stylised foliage terminating in leaves and seedpods, Calendar with each leaf decorated with decorated border panels and roundels in bas-de-page with zodiac symbols and monthly occupations set within borders of loosely intertwined coloured vines and coloured foliage (the interstitial spaces between these vines filled with gold in style reminiscent of work of the Bedford Master), twenty-four small arch topped miniatures set within gold frames and with three-quarter decorated borders of foliage as before, five three-quarter page miniatures set within gold frames, with thick gold frames with coloured foliage surrounding text, all within a full decorated border of foliage as before, all growing from green pastures at foot of bas-de-page (many with trees set in corners), the foliage enclosing birds and on one leaf a phoenix rising from the ashes of a fire and an erased coat of arms suspended from a tree and supported by two hairy wildwomen sitting within a wickerwork enclosure, some chipping to a few miniatures and small thumbing in a few places, a few leaves with slight cockling, else good condition, 118 by 86mm.; eighteenth-century morocco over pasteboards, gilt tooled with arms of Prondre de Guermantes below a ducal coronet and supported by lions rampant on both boards (see below), and gilt spine with monogram formed from initials PP beneath coronets in each compartment with floral stamps, title gilt: Heures set within hearts, gilt edges, splits at edges of boards and small losses from edges (especially foot of spine), but overall solid in binding, in card dropboxProvenance: 1. Written and illuminated in Paris around the year 1440: note the prominence of St. Geneviève (the patron saint of the city) in gold on 3 January in the Calendar. The original patron appears in the miniature accompanying the prayer Ave alius conceptio, on fol. 174r, fashionably dressed and with a sword, kneeling in devotion before the Virgin and Child with this book open before him, his coat-of-arms (erased by a later owner), surmounted by a helm and a phoenix, hanging in a tree in the border, supported by hairy wildwomen within a withy enclosure.2. Paulin Prondre de Guermantes et de Bussy (1650-1723), seigneur de Guermantes, Conseiller secrétaire du roi, receiver general for Lyons, president of the Chambre des comptes in Paris and celebrated French bibliophile: in his gilt armorial binding, and perhaps with his pen 'No 4862'. At the opening of the eighteenth century, he reconstructed the palace at Guermantes to the immediate west of Paris, and among other collections housed his vast library there. His dynastic line went extinct in 1805, and the contents of the house were widely dispersed.3. Hannah Eliza Roscoe (née Caldwell; 1785-1854), received as a gift from her famous father-in-law, W. Roscoe (1753-1831), the prominent abolitionist of the slave trade, art collector, writer on Lorenzo de Medici and briefly MP for Liverpool, whose remaining book collection (including a Shakespeare First Folio, two block books, printing by Gutenberg, Furst & Schoeffer and Sweynhem & Pannartz, and a small collection of manuscripts) was sold by Winstanley of Liverpool on 19 August 1816. Her inscription to front endleaf records that the gift was made on the occasion of her marriage in 1818 (to Roscoe's eldest son William Stanley), as well as noting that she wrote the inscription in 1851 when she was 65 years old. The date 1819 28 Mai added in her hand at the end of text.4. Thereafter in the English-speaking trade, with notes on contents added in English by mid-twentieth-century hand to first endleaf.Text and illumination: The book comprises: a Calendar (fol. 1r); the Gospel Readings (fol. 14r); the Obsecro te and O intemerata (fol. 22r); the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol. 33r), Lauds (fol. 59v), Prime (fol. 71r), Terce (fol. 76r), Sext (fol. 80r), Nones (fol. 84r), Vespers (fol. 88r) and Compline (fol. 92r); the Seven Penitential Psalms, ending with a Litany and prayers (fol. 98r; wanting first leaf with large miniature); the Hours of the Cross (fol. 117r); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol. 126r); the Office of the Dead (fol. 130r); followed by the Suffrages to the Saints, including a number of masses and prayers.Despite the selection of small miniatures to open the Hours of the Virgin (an apparent attempt to economise on the commission) this volume has an impressive array of decoration. In addition to the Calendar with its twenty-four marginal miniatures, the book has twenty-seven small miniatures and five large miniatures, all by a skilled artist who worked in Paris in the years after the 1420s and 1430s. There is much here from the early decades of the fifteenth century, including the trees set on grassy mounds at the corners of the bas-de-page of some miniatures, as well as the intertwined frames of the roundels of the Calendar with their interstitial spaces filled with gold, which echo those of the Bedford Master, and the tall and angular stylised flowers in the bas-de-page of some of the large miniatures, which are close to the work of the Dunois Master (see F. Avril & N. Reynaud Les Manuscrits à Peintures en France, 1140-1520, p.37). Some of these features were reborn in the midpoint of the fifteenth century in the work of the Maître Francois and the Maître de Rambures, and our artist's human figures, with their oval faces, drooping noses and eyes formed by black dots hanging down from single-stroke eyelids, are of that period.The larger miniatures comprise: fol. 33r: the Annunciation to the Virgin, with small birds and a peacock in margin; fol. 117r: the Kiss of Judas, with flying birds in margin; fol. 126r: Pentecost, with small birds in margin; fol. 130r: Judgement Day, with birds in margin; fol. 174r: the owner kneeling before the Virgin and Child surrounded by angels, a peacock, a phoenix and arms supported by wildwomen in margin. The smaller miniatures comprise: (i) John writing his scroll; (ii) Luke writing; (iii) Matthew writing; (iv) Mark seated at his writing desk; (v) the Virgin and Child adored by angels; (vi) the Pietà; (vii) the Visitation of the Virgin to St. Anne; (viii) the Nativity; (ix) Annunciation to the Shepherds; (x) the Visitation of the Magi; (xi) the Presentation in the Temple; (xii) the Flight into Egypt; (xiii) the Virgin being crowned by God; (xiv) Christ before Pilate; (xv) Christ being nailed to the Cross; (xvi) the Raising of the Cross; (xvii) Golgotha; (xviii) the Deposition from the Cross; (xix) the Entombment of Christ; (xx) the Trinity; (xxi) the Scourging of Christ; (xxii) a Pope kneeling before an apparition of Christ; (xxiii) the Cross, with smalls birds and a peacock in border; (xxiv) St. John the Baptist; (xxv) St. Christopher; (xxvi) St. Sebastian; (xxvii) St. Michael. Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information.

Augustine of Hippo, Epistolae, in Latin with a single word in garbled Greek, manuscript on parchment [France, late twelfth century]single leaf, double column of 32 lines of an elegant and professional early gothic bookhand, with long penstrokes extending into margins, written below topline and with pronounced biting curves, ascenders capped with horizontal penstrokes, capitals formed of elaborate penstrokes and touched in red, three small natural flaws in parchment, recovered from a binding and so with folds, small scuffs and areas once on outer boards of later book painted bright yellow, overall fair and presentable condition, 335 by 233mm.The scribe here attempted to copy the single Greek word here, in the opening words of epistola XL:7, but badly garbled it, and returned to gloss it “palmodiam” in tiny script interlineally.

ƟPractical and medical recipes, in Italian, manuscript on paper [Italy (perhaps Vicenza or just perhaps Syracuse), last decades of sixteenth century]12 leaves, single gathering with outermost bifolium forming binding and last 6 leaves blank, single column of about 19 lines in a loose italic hand, watermark only partial but discerning a goose-like bird notably close to Briquet nos. 12209-12210 (recorded Vicenza 1579 and Syracuse 1591), stains, spots and bumped edges to leaves, overall fair and presentable condition, 160 by 115mm.This booklet contains a series of ‘secret methods’ to divine practical and somewhat mundane matters such as how to know if a woman can become pregnant, how to induce lactation in women, as well as advice on how to remove stains from cloth and skin and to cure a cough and burns. Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information.

ƟTreatise on Chiromancy, in Italian, illustrated manuscript on paper [Italy, seventeenth century]54 leaves (including 2 blank endleaves), single column of 21 lines of a scrolling hand, faded red rubrics, titles in faded red capitals, 27 full page illustrations of hands with their various lines and marks (many of these neatly pounced, apparently to make copies), some spots, stains and very occasional pentrials, else good condition, 155 by 110mm.; bound in later marbled paper boards with green leather spineOwned by a Giuseppe Coletti in the nineteenth century: his ex libris mark to front endleaf.Chiromancy, or the art of divination using the lines and marks on a subject’s hands, was popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, despite condemnation by the Church. The works of Gaudentius Tarvisinus on the subject were on the list of prohibited works in the Tridentine Index of 1564, some decades before the copying of the present manuscript. Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information.

Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, Ynstrucion que el Conde de Gondomar dio al Padre Fray Diego de la Fuente para informar a S.M. en España de las cosas de Inglaterra, in Galician Spanish, manuscript on paper [Spain, or just perhaps England on Spanish paperstock, years immediately following 1617]18 leaves, complete, collation: i10, ii8 (these including the outermost leaves which serve as covers), single column of 26 lines in a scrolling bookhand, opening words of text in larger script, ornamental frontispiece with title in calligraphic penstrokes headed by a cross, watermark three small circles topped by a Cross and the middle and upper ones containing the initials ‘DM’ and a crucifix (probably Spanish paperstock, and closest in Heawood’s survey to no. 257, that taken from a log book of a seventeenth-century Spanish ship, once Phillipps 11875), part of first word of title replaced with paper patch (presumably over scribal error), some inkburn causing losses to a few letters (mostly affecting frontispiece), some leaves partly split along gutter, 304 by 215mm.This manuscript contains an unpublished report by an important Spanish diplomat, ambassador to London in 1613-18 and 1619-22, and friend of James I of England, who promoted the unity between the two nations in the prelude to the Thirty Years’ War. The two were very close and reportedly referred to themselves as the ‘two Diegos’, and drank from the same cup. The historian J.P. Kenyon called Gondomar “a cleverer man than any in England”, and his personal links with James kept England from joining with Protestant states against Spain and Habsburg Austria as well as halting English attacks on Spanish colonies in the Americas. In connection with the latter, Gondomar’s pressure on James was the deciding factor that stood behind the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh for the sacking of San Thomé, in modern Venezuela.This document is known in only two other copies, one in the Biblioteca Nacional de España, Ms. 18.430/2, and the other British Library, Add. MS. 28,470.

Ɵ The Music Book of Wilhelm Honinghaus, in German, manuscript on paper [Germany, seventeenth or eighteenth century, with additions in America in nineteenth century]40 leaves (including 5 blank leaves at end), contemporary pagination in upper outer corner, pages mostly with staves and corresponding words in German giving vocal parts for singing (these partly identifiable in the historical music collections published by Johann Thomson in 1745), set out across each double opening, spots, stains and small marks, some leaves and gatherings loose from binding, overall fair condition, 145 by 238mm.A near-contemporary German ownership inscription records that this was once the book of “Wilhelm humrighaus”, and in the nineteenth century the first part of this name was copied again in the anglicised form “William”. Other inscriptions record its ownership by an apparent descendent, Mary Homrighaus (as well as under her married name: Mary Beck), of Lithopols, of Fairfield County, Ohio (dated 9 April and 25 March 1869). It is worth noting that the first permanent settler in Ohio is recorded as establishing a home there in 1788. At the turn of the nineteenth century a Homrighaus who was most probably Mary’s grandfather was remembered by one Daniel Crumly as among his childhood neighbours in nearby Bloom township (see H. Scott, Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, 1877, p. 217), and he may have been the William who once owned this book, and perhaps brought it with him when he emigrated to America in the very last years of the eighteenth century. If so, this must be among the very first European objects to have arrived in Ohio, and may well be the first recorded manuscript from that state. Ɵ indicates that the lot is subject to buyer’s premium of 25% exclusive of VAT (0% VAT).  Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information.