Medieval Manuscripts
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[ANTIPHONAL.]
Antiphonal, with neumes, containing music for the blessing of the Paschal Candle on Holy Saturday.
Southern Germany or Bohemia, mid-fifteenth century.
An unusual and striking antiphonal leaf written entirely in red and notated entirely in burnished gold, signalling the importance of the text for Holy Saturday.
£4250
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BEDFORDSHIRE – ARLESEY.
Charter of William Hoye of Arlesey (‘Auricheseya’) granting to Robert of Wewenshal for seventy shillings...
Bedfordshire, 1st half of 13th century.
Witnessed by Roger Burnard, William Rixpaud, Roger his brother, Richard the clerk, Robert Rixpaud, Henry son of Odo, Walter son of William, Ivo of Stodfaud, Geoffrey his son, Simon of Estwich, Andrew of Qurisco, William son of Gerard, Roger son of Walter son of William Hay, and many others. Various place-names...
£1400
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WORMALD, Francis; Jonathan ALEXANDER, editor.
An Early Breton Gospel Book: A ninth-century Manuscript from the Collection of H.L....
Cambridge, ‘Printed [at the University Press] for presentation to the Members of the Roxburghe Club’, 1977.
First edition, dedicated and presented to the Roxburghe Club by Philip Bradfer-Lawrence, a member’s copy presented to Adrian McLaughlin.
£175
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[SPINELLI.]
Illuminated arms of the Spinelli family of Florence.
Italy (Florence), c. 1460s.
Florentine border decoration of very high quality from what must have been a luxurious manuscript produced for a member of the wealthy Spinelli family. Sadly there is no indication of the contents of the parent manuscript, nor have we been able to identify a likely candidate, but ruling just visible...
£3000
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[CHOIRBOOK.]
Large historiated initial ‘I’.
Italy (Umbria), c. 1300.
A very elegant initial in a style characteristic of Umbrian illumination of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. It can be compared to the oeuvres of the First Master of the Gubbio Choir Books and the Master of the Deruta-Salerno Missals, the latter named after two Missals made...
£4500
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SARUM BREVIARY,
in Latin.
England, 1st quarter of 15th century.
A fragment of 21 leaves from a portable Sarum Breviary, with nineteenth-century Staffordshire provenance.
£4250
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BOOK OF HOURS,
in Latin, from the Hours of the Virgin and including the beginning of Psalm 97.
Flanders or northern France, early 14th century.
An exquisite leaf from an exceptionally early Book of Hours. The defective parent manuscript, which also contained a Vie de sainte Marguerite in French rhyming verse, was lot 76 in Sotheby’s sale ‘Western Manuscripts and Miniatures’ of 17 December 1991, subsequent to which the leaves...
£2250
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BIBLE,
in Latin, Jeremiah 30, 6–32,19 and 44,21–48,24.
Germany or perhaps Switzerland, mid-12th century.
From a folio Romanesque Bible, this fragment contains one of the most significant passages by the seventh/sixth-century BC Hebrew prophet Jeremiah. ‘Jeremiah’s most important prophecy concerning the future is one regarding the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34) … He prophesied of a time...
£3750
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LA SALLE, Jean-Baptiste, Saint.
Les règles de la bienséance et de la civilité chrétienne, divisées en deux parties.
Rheims, Le Batard [– Barbier], 1808.
Rare edition of La Salle’s pedagogical work, printed in civilité type and bound in printed and manuscript waste.
£750
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BORSO D’ESTE, Duke of Modena, Duke of Ferrara.
Letter in his name in Italian, addressed to Feltrino Boiardo.
Modena, 3 July 1453.
A letter from early in Borso d’Este’s rule as first Duke of Modena. It is addressed to the condottiero Feltrino Boiardo, instructing him to raise taxes from the territories of Casalgrande, Dinazzano and Montebabbio for the support of a brigade of men-at-arms.
£750
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CORRADO III TRINCI, Lord of Foligno.
Letter in his name in Italian to Cipriano, ‘lieutenant of the territory of Trevi’,...
Foligno, 9 February, no year but c. 1430s.
The family of the Trinci ruled over Foligno, first as independent princes and then as vicars of the church from 1305 to 1439. The sender of the present letter is probably the third Corrado, last of the dynasty, ‘detested for his cruelty’ (Litta, Celebri famiglie Italiane vol. I fasc. 6,...
£600
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DE CICON, Marguerite.
Manuscript regarding the seigneurial rights of Marguerite de Cicon.
Montureux-lès-Baulay, France, 1627.
A remarkably detailed manuscript, and a very attractive object, detailing the seigneurial rights of Marguerite de Cicon in the small town of Montureux-lès-Baulay, situated between Nancy and Dijon in the Burgundy region of eastern France.
£4750
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[MISSAL.]
Missal, in Latin, with readings for the first Sunday in Advent.
Southern Netherlands or northern France (Arras?), c. 1425.
A remnant of what must have been an exceptionally grand missal, with illumination of considerable finesse. We have been unable to trace any other leaves from the same manuscript.
£3250
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ANTIPHONAL,
with neumes, containing antiphons, responses and versicles for Trinity Sunday, the Octave of Pentecost, Sundays after...
Germany, 1st half of 12th century.
Two bifolia from a notably early antiphonal.
£5000
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ITALY – SAN GEMIGNANO.
Petition to Pope Clement VII.
Rome, St. Peter’s, 19 June in the pope’s second year, i.e. 1525.
The petition explains that Filippo di Benedetto Buondelmonti is rector of the church of St. Geminianus, and Bartolomeo Zelli is rector of St. Columbanus, both churches being at present in the hands of the pope (these are presumably the churches of San Gemignano and San Colombano, both near Lucca)....
£250
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SPENCER, Eleanor P.
The Sobieski Hours: A Manuscript in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.
London, [Rampant Lion Press for] Academic Press, 1977.
Limited edition, dedicated and presented to the Roxburghe Club by Robin Mackworth-Young, a member’s copy presented to Adrian McLaughlin.
£475
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JOHN OF FREIBURG.
Summa confessorum [and] Tractatus de instructione confessorum, in Latin
France, mid-fourteenth century.
From a large and well-decorated manuscript containing the Dominican theologian John of Freiburg’s massive Summa confessorum (written in 1297–8) and his smaller Tractatus de instructione confessorum (also known as the Confessionale and written shortly after the Summa)....
£1500
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MASTER B.F.
Three very large historiated initials cut from a set of choirbooks.
Italy (Lodi), early sixteenth century.
Three extremely fine initials by the enigmatic artist known as Master B.F., one of the most inventive and accomplished illuminators of the Italian High Renaissance. They come almost certainly from a magnificent set of about twenty choirbooks belonging to the Olivetan monastery of Santi Angelo...
£150000
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[GRADUAL.]
Vast historiated initial ‘A’ cut from a Gradual.
Italy (Umbria), end of thirteenth century.
A spectacular initial on the scale of a small panel painting. The verso includes the text ‘[neque] irrideant me inimici mei […] [un]iversi qui te expectant’ and the versicle ‘Vias tuas domine de[monstras]’, indicating that the initial would have introduced the introit ‘Ad te levavi...
£20000
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[FIREFIGHTING.]
Verneuerte Feuer-Ordnung / Eines edlen ehrenvesten Rahts allhie zi Nürnberg / wie es zur Zeit / wann bey Tag oder...
Nuremberg, Michael Endter, 1656.
Scarce expanded edition of this guide to preventing and mitigating fires in Nuremberg, bound using a musical manuscript fragment and Hebrew printed waste.
£3500