Prayerbook, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

1,500 - 2,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

35 leaves (first blank), 143mm. by 88m., complete, collation: i^{6, ii-v^{4, vi^{2, vii-viii^{4, ix^{3 [of 4, last cancelled], with alphabetical quire signatures A-I, offsets on the first blank show that it was once bound at the end, 12 lines within a double-ruled frame 121mm. by 62mm., written in dark brown ink in a very fine calligraphic sloping italic hand, headings and small initials in red,}}}}} thirteen large illuminated initials, 3 lines high, in gold with leafy and floral surrounds in coloured penwork within double-ruled frames, first initial slightly smudged, other minor wear, early nineteenth-century mottled calf, spine gilt, marbled endleaves, gilt edges

Catalogue Note

The manuscript is signed by the well-known scribe Girolamo Bordoni, of Sermoneta, and is dated 1606 in the 69th year of his life, “Hieronymus Bordonius Sermonetanus Genuae scribebat anno salutis M.DCVI aetatis suae an. LXIX”. It is a virtual twin of an extremely comparable prayerbook sold in these rooms on 6 July 2000, lot 59, signed by Bordoni in Genoa in 1601 in the 64th year of his life. Bordoni copied three luxurious manuscripts for Gregory XIII (pope 1572-85), now Bologna, Bibl. Univ. mss. 615 and 626 (Studi italiani di filologia classica, XVI, pp.313-6), and Books of Hours dated 1566 (sold in these rooms, 7 July 1913, lot 331) and 1568 (Schiff sale in these rooms, 8 December 1938, lot 2068). He was evidently born c.1537. His script resembles that of the calligraphy master Marco Antonio Rossi, Giardino de scrittori, 1592. He may have been the father of the early seventeenth-century Milanese printer of the same name.

The text comprises prayers to the Trinity, prayers for use at confession and before and after Mass, the Obsecro te (for male use), the Litany of the Virgin, a prayer said to be inscribed in the chapel of the Virgin in Jerusalem where Christ was scourged, a prayer of Thomas Aquinas, and a prayer for use in affliction.