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THE AUTHOR PRESENTING HIS WORK TO POPE GREGORY IX, FROM AN INCUNABLE IN LATIN [FRANCE (PARIS?), LATE 15TH CENTURY]
Estimate
800 - 1,200 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Miniature from an incunable Glossed Decretals of Gregory IX, in Latin [France (Paris?), late 15th century (not before September 1491)]
c.65x130mm (miniature) on a folded cutting c.145x140mm, paper, the miniature depicting Gregory enthroned, dressed in papal garments and triple tiara, holding a staff topped with a patriarchal cross, attended by three cardinals, being presented with a book by a kneeling cleric, presumably the 15th-century glossator, Hieronymus Clarius, lawyer of Brescia, above two columns of text printed in red and black with an 8-line illuminated initial; some worm-holes, otherwise in very good condition; framed and glazed
Catalogue Note
Provenance
(1) The printing of the Venetian incunable from which this cutting comes was finished by Baptista de Tortis on 20 September 1491 (ISTC ig00467000); it was doubtless exported to France and illuminated there within a few years. (2) The frame has a label recording its purchase ‘en 1950 chez Marius Mutelet, bouquiniste à Metz (200 frs)’, and a Metz framer’s label. This is a closely datable secular image, and an interesting witness both to the trade in printed books from Venice to France, and to the cultural transition from manuscript to print.
(1) The printing of the Venetian incunable from which this cutting comes was finished by Baptista de Tortis on 20 September 1491 (ISTC ig00467000); it was doubtless exported to France and illuminated there within a few years. (2) The frame has a label recording its purchase ‘en 1950 chez Marius Mutelet, bouquiniste à Metz (200 frs)’, and a Metz framer’s label. This is a closely datable secular image, and an interesting witness both to the trade in printed books from Venice to France, and to the cultural transition from manuscript to print.