Lot 1

Collection of leaves from decorated and illuminated manuscripts, in Latin, on vellum

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

14 leaves (including 6 complete bifolia), including (a) bifolium from a humanistic manuscript of Terence's 'Comoediae', end of Act IV, scene 5, lines 14-15 to Act V, scene 1, lines 1-22 & Act IV, scene 3, lines 45-71, entire fragment 315mm. by 249mm., single column (each column 174mm. by 125mm.), 27 lines in brown ink in an excellent humanistic script, rubric "Sophrona ..." and some initials in red but now much faded, 2-line initial in red with penwork (probably originally purple), some stains, a repaired tear and holes, verso scrubbed clean, Italy, second half of fifteenth century; (b) fragment from a monumental Italian Bible, Acts 14:7-15:23, 461mm. by 280mm., two columns (one trimmed down vertical edge with slight loss of text), 57 lines of black ink in a good early Gothic bookhand, three large simple initials in red, stains and holes along fold across top, verso blank, Italy, mid-twelfth century; (c) cutting from a Homilary, with reading for 11^{th Sunday after Trinity, 355mm. by 253mm., with remains of 28 lines and large white vine initial 'Q' (opening 'Quid est ceteri homines ...' Gregory the Great's Homily XL in Evangelia), with birds and foliage (bisected horizontally), Tuscany, mid-twelfth century; (d) bifolium from a Latin vita of the early aesthetic virgin martyr St. Eupraxia (d. 393), entire fragment 402mm. by 330mm., single column, 28 lines in brown ink in a rounded Italian bookhand, holes with some significant loss to text, stains on verso, vellum brittle, early thirteenth century, Italy; as well as two thirteenth-century Italian Bible leaves (Proverbs 21:1-26:1 & Deuteronomy 9:26-10:1), and 2 leaves and 3 bifolia from lectionaries of the thirteenth to the fifteenth century (one with large decorated initials and another with an illuminated initial); with exception of thirteenth-century Bible leaves all recovered from bindings and somewhat defective}