Category: Illuminated Initials

GERMAN PRAYERBOOK. Illuminated manuscript on vellum.

C15th, Germany (Rhineland, poss. Cologne).

£25,000

Small octavo, 9.8 x 7.4 cm. (writing-space 6.5 x 4.3 cm.), 197 leaves (5 blank), fols. [i–xvi]8 [xvii]7 (of 8, [fol. [xvii]2 lost or cancelled) [xviii]–[xxiii]8 [xxiv]6 (of 8, 2 blanks cancelled at end) [xxv]8, plus two flyleaves cut from a thirteenth-century manuscript. 13 lines to a page, written in dark brown ink in a German cursive bookhand, rubrics in dark red, capitals touched in red, flourished initials in red and blue sometimes with contrasting penwork, five large illuminated initials with floral borders, 8 lines high on fol. 1 (somewhat rubbed), 3 lines high on fol. 5, and 4 lines high on fols. 16 (with parrot in border), 121 (with peacock in border) and 147 (with deer in border), scrolling borders, in the Rhineland style of the Göttingen Model Book. Four vellum navigation-tabs. Extremities of some borders cropped, worn and rubbed especially towards beginning, bound in modern vellum over wooden boards with metal fittings and corner-pieces in a fifteenth-century style, paper end leaves.

GENESIS 22, 11: “… [ANGEL] ‘ABRAHAM! ABRAHAM!’ ‘HERE I AM’, HE REPLIED.”

LATIN MS.. Romanesque leaf fragment from the Vulgate, decorated ms. on parchment.

France, (probably northern France), late eleventh century.

£2,250

Substantial cutting from a single column of a large two-column Bible, with 25 lines in black ink in a late Carolingian bookhand, with the test of Abraham, Genesis 22: 4-14, one large initial “H” in red penwork and red penwork running title “Genesis”, reused in fifteenth- or sixteenth-century on a binding and thus with some folds, scuffs and areas of discolouration. Mounted. 9 x 6 23 x 15 cm.

This is a fine fragment of a once vast and elegant early medieval Bible. It is doubtless the only remnant of this medieval book to survive to modern times, and did so as it was set aside in the later Middle Ages in favour of more modern manuscript copies, and ultimately cut up and reused to form the binding of another book at the end of the Middle Ages. Manuscripts from the eleventh century are of exceeding rarity on the market, and even fragments are now few and far between.

LATIN MS. Romanesque leaf fragment from the Liber Passionalis sive Historia Sanctorum, decorated ms. on parchment.

[Switzerland or Austria, late eleventh century]

£5,000

Substantial cutting from a very large Romanesque manuscript, 21,5 cm. by 21,5 cm., with remains of two columns with 18 lines remaining in a fine and rounded late Carolingian bookhand, small initials, chapter numbers and rubrics in red, one large initial “B” in red penwork “bolted” together at its extremities by drawings of bands containing small circles, infill of early white-vine decoration on pale wash green and blue grounds, recovered from reuse in a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century bookbinding and so with folds, small stains and a hole (now professionally repaired). Framed and glazed (46 x 36 cm). This is an appealing early leaf of a date which is hard to now find on the market. The use of soft colour washes echoes that of the initials and line-drawn miniatures of a complete twelfth-century German Legendary, sold by Sotheby’s, 2 July 2013, lot 49, for £450,000 hammer, but it is perhaps closest in its ‘bolted’ banding of the body of its initial to a white-vine initial on a leaf offered by Sotheby’s, 3 December 2008, lot 5 (there identified as Austrian and twelfth century; and now in a 22 European private collection) as well as other contemporary Austrian examples (see F. Avril & C. Rabel, Manuscrits enluminés d’origine germanique, 1995, no. 122, pl. cxv).

The parent book of this striking fragment would have been central to the life of the monastery or community it belonged to in the Early Middle Ages – containing the lives of the saints most sacred to the community. This part contains that of St. Leonard of Noblac, who was a Frankish noble (perhaps a royal) during the reign of the Merovingian king, Clovis I (the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, and the “clodouei regis” three lines below the initial here). He converted to Christianity alongside Clovis in 496, and after declining a bishopric, he became a hermit in the forest of Limousin, and after his prayers granted the queen of the Franks a male child was granted lands at Noblac, outside Limoges, where he founded the abbey of Noblac for himself and his followers. He fell ill while travelling and died in 559, and his feast day is 6 November. There is a Swiss town with his name, Saint-Léonard is in the canton of Valais, which is dedicated to him, and it is possible that this fragment comes from a church or monastery there.

OPULENTLY ILLUMINATED ANTIPHONAL LEAF

MINIATURE. Illuminated antiphonal leaf, from a vast manuscript in Latin, on parchment.

[Italy, late sixteenth century]

£1,000

Single vast leaf, 550 mm by 395 mm., with 4 lines of text in an elaborate calligraphic hand with music in diamond-shaped notes on a 4-line red stave, a single calligraphic initial touched in yellow wash, other initials in colours enclosing sprays of foliage, one very large initial ‘K’ in highly burnished gold on deep blue grounds enclosing realistic sprigs of flowers with a full ‘frame’ decorated border in same with thick gold bands on innermost and outermost edges and gold acanthus-leaf sprays at corners and midpoints of frame, direction of relevant reading for 5 October: “S. Placidi” in main hand at foot of page. Excellent condition.

This is a visually striking example of late illumination in an excellent state of preservation. Parallels for the style of the sumptuous decoration here can be found as far back as the early sixteenth century (cf. R. Watson, Victoria and Albert Museum. Western Illuminated Manuscripts, II, 2011, no. 142, dated c. 1510-1520, especially illustration on p. 758; and no. 157, dated 1500-1515), other features here such as the form of the smaller red initial (cf. ibid, no. 173, dated 1565-1575) suggest a date late in that century.

MINIATURE. Leaves from a Book of Hours in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment.

[France, c. 1460-1470]

£5000

Six single leaves (ca. 18×13 cm; 26×21 cm framed and glazed), plus one double leaf framed separately (31×24 cm), with 22 lines in a fine gothic bookhand with readings from the monastic offices for the various liturgical hours of the day. Five leaves (including the double leaf) with small initials in blue or liquid gold with contrasting red or black penwork; 3 leaves with larger initials in colour on gold grounds enclosing vividly coloured foliate sprays, the text enclosed within with gold and coloured text bars, border decoration of coloured swirls of acanthus leaves and single hairline foliage terminating in a wealth of painted flowers and golden leaves.

These are leaves from perhaps the most fundamental and popular type of book produced during the Middle Ages: the Book of Hours. During the fourteenth century, the explosion of wealth and piety pushed the affluent secular classes to adopt the monastic liturgical hours – certain hours of the day which began with recitations of prayers and parts of the liturgy predominantly in Latin – and ever increasingly opulent copies of these texts were produced for secular patrons to keep with them at all times and to use when the local church or monastery chimed the correct hour. By the time of the production of this copy gold was frequently used to catch the light as the reader turned the book in his hands and heighten the visual impact of the page.

A FINE AND SPARKLING LITURGICAL MS. BY THE MASTER OF GUYOT LE PELEY

BREVIARY. The Breviary of the Augustinian Abbey of Saint-Loup, Troyes, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

[north-central France (Troyes, dept. Aube), c. 1475-80]

£75,000

152 leaves (plus 3 paper endleaves at front and back), wanting seven gatherings (revealed by catchwords) and slightly misbound (gatherings 8, 9 and 10 misbound), and thus since turn of nineteenth century at least, collation: i-viii8, ix6, x-xiii8, xiv6, xv-xviii8, xix6, xx4, xxi2double column of 33 lines, capitals touched in yellow, rubrics in red, numerous small initials in burnished gold on blue or pink grounds heightened with white penwork (some enclosing coloured foliage), hairline foliage emerging at edges and terminating in gold leaves and coloured flower-heads, ten column-wide miniatures (each approximately 60 by 50mm.), each accompanied by full decorated borders of stylised foliage and acanthus leaf sprays, all set within hairline foliage with gold leaves and bezants enclosing peacocks, other birds and insects, staining and smudging to fol. 1 and other leaves, occasional flaking of paint elsewhere, else in good condition, 220 by 160mm.; early nineteenth-century brown calf, gilt-tooled with frame of scrolling fern-leaf foliage and profusely gilt spine with title “Cartæ / Extractæ / Breviarii / Sti Lupi”, by Pierre Courteval (of Carmes Street, Paris, where he worked from 1796 to 1836: his printed label pasted to endleaf), with blue wateredsilk pastedowns and doublures (split to upper joint of binding, spots and rubbed in places).

THIS FINE AND SPARKLING LITURGICAL VOLUME WAS PRODUCED IN THE LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY BY THE MASTER OF GUYOT LE PELEY FOR USE IN THE GRAND AUGUSTINIAN ABBEY OF SAINT-LOUP IN TROYES; AND IS THE ONLY MANUSCRIPT FROM THIS IMPORTANT MEDIEVAL COMMUNITY EVER RECORDED ON THE OPEN MARKET

Text: Breviary, with the Temporale opening with the first Sunday of Advent, and ending imperfectly with Gospel readings for the Sundays from Pentecost to Advent running to the twelfth Sunday (fols. 1r-108r); followed by the Sanctorale, opening imperfectly before the feast of St Vincent and ending just after the feast of St Clement (fols.109r-152v). This is most probably the last manuscript codex from this important medieval library which remains in private hands, and thus the only one which could be acquired still. As noted above, the rest of the library seems to have passed directly into institutional ownership, and the vast and comprehensive Schoenberg database records no other manuscript from this library on the open market since records of auction sales began in the seventeenth century.

Illumination: The miniatures are the work of the Master of Guyot Le Peley, named for the Troyes citizen whose commissions, along with those of his family members, would occupy the artist in c. 1475-80 (see F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1995, pp. 186-188). They resemble most closely a miniature added by the artist to a Book of Hours now Paris, S.M.A.F., ms. 79-5 (see also F. Avril et al. Très Riches Heures de Champagne, Paris, 2007, pp.144-145), depicting St Nicholas before the Le Peley family. Particularly distinctive are his very beautiful female faces, with almond-shaped eyes and high-arched brows. The borders, inhabited by birds, are those seen in two versions of Guillaume de Nangis’ Chronique des rois de France (now Paris, BnF, Français 2598 and Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, W.306).

Miniatures: (1) fol. 1r, Isaiah; (2) fol. 18r, Nativity; (3) fol. 31v, Adoration of the Magi; (4) fol. 48r, Resurrection; (5) fol. 64v, Ascension; (6) fol. 76r, Pentecost; (7) fol. 115r, Presentation in the Temple; (8) fol. 121r, Annunciation; (9) fol. 132v, Assumption of the Virgin; (10) fol. 141v, Mary enthroned as Queen of Heaven.

Provenance: (1) Written and illuminated for use in the Abbey of Saint-Loup, Troyes (with rubric: “Incipit br[e]v[i]ariu[m] s[e]c[un]d[u]m usu[m] ecc[lesia]e et monasterii s[an]cti lupi trecen[sis]”, and with St. Sabianus of Troyes in the Sanctorale). In about 841 the monastery was the custodian of the relics of St Lupus of Troyes, a former bishop of the town who legendarily defended the site against the incursions of Attila the Hun in the fifth century. Later the community was moved inside the town walls for safety, and converted to a monastic community in 1135 by Bernard of Clairvaux. They converted to Augustinian rule soon after and through the efforts of their scriptorium and library came to be one of the most important cultural centres of the region around Troyes. The house was suppressed during the Secularisation at the end of the eighteenth century and the opening of the nineteenth century, and the vast majority of the library of this crucial centre passed directly into municipal ownership, with the vast majority of surviving manuscripts now in the Médiathèque du Grand Troyes. The present manuscript, however, escaped, and perhaps left the community with one of its last members, being carried away by a retiring Augustinian friar. (2) It was presumably in an early and deteriorating binding at the time it left Saint-Loup, and was perhaps rebound for its first secular owner, perhaps of Paris (note named Parisian binding). (3) Maurice Burrus (1882-1959; his MS. 105), with his printed bookplate dated 1937 by “Stern GR”; acquired at auction: GiraudBadin, 3 May 1937, lot 1. Thus, this codex has most probably had only four owners in the last half millennia, and the final three of those in the last century.