- 53
Antiphoner, of Franciscan use, in Latin, vast illuminated manuscript on vellum
Estimate
1,200 - 1,800 GBP
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Description
104 leaves, 542mm. by 377mm., collation: i-xiii8, 17 lines of text in a very large rounded gothic hand, some calligraphic initials including faces, etc., music on a 4-line red stave, rubrics in red, versal initials throughout in alternately red and blue, many large or very large painted or illuminated initials in a wide variety of styles and sizes, eight large or very large historiated initials, (i) fol.1r, Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, 188mm. by 150mm., (ii) fol.15v, the Crucifixion, 65mm. by 67mm., (iii) fol.19r, Saint Peter, 140mm. by 140mm., (iv) fol.23v, a standing female saint, 142mm. by 135mm., unfinished, sketch only, (v) fol.27v, the world and the cosmos, 143mm. by 135mm., unfinished, sketch only, (vi) fol.31r, the Father and Son together, 167mm. by 175mm., (vii) fol.37v, the Visitation, 210mm. by 205mm., 2-sided border including putti, and (viii) fol.71r, the firmament, 165mm. by 153mm., very worn, many signs of use, a few leaves replaced (such as fol.73 on paper), many repairs including patches using pieces of earlier manuscripts, generally very battered but more-or-less intact, massive binding of wooden boards covered with leather, paper endleaves with further chants, large vellum indexing tabs on edges of pages, metal pegs on lower edges, remains (only) of clasps and catches, rebacking with paler leather attached by many large metal pins, binding battered and scuffed
Catalogue Note
The property of an English girls’ school charitable trust. The text consists mostly of Easter chants, with short offices for Christmas, Ascension Day, Corpus Christi, the Transfiguration, and others, with offices for Saint Clare, the Stigmata of Saint Francis, and Saint Francis himself, “pater noster”, and the Common of Saints. It is dated on the last page, “Ad laudem Domini ac Beate semperque Virginis Marie, 1603”.