Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

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Lot 28
  • 28

Prayerbook, in Dutch and Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands (perhaps Ghent or Maastricht), sixteenth century]

Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description

  • Vellum
69 leaves, 148mm. by 110mm., complete, collation: i11 (xi a singleton), ii12, iii-viii8, ix7 (vii blank and cancelled, viii used as a flyleaf), single column, 18 lines in a late gothic lettre bâtarde in black ink, rubrics in red with initials touched in yellow, numerous small initials of coloured acanthus-leaves on contrasting grounds, twenty-five larger initials in same with details picked out in red or liquid gold (some slightly smudged), one historiated initial, 42mm. by 35mm., enclosing King David in brown heightened in gold, eighteen contemporary coloured and gilded engravings by the celebrated Dutch engraver, Lucas van Leyden, 1494-1593 (those on fols.2v, 3v, 5v, 6v, 8v, 9v, 11v, 12v, 14v, 16v, 17v, 18v and 19v with his initial 'L' and the date '1521', thus from his Small Passion series, created shortly after meeting Albrecht Dürer, who toured the Netherlands in 1521; those on fols. 13v, 21v, 24v, 40v, 49v by other engravers), discolouration to first page and minor scuffing throughout, else good condition, eighteenth-century gilt-tooled dark leather over pasteboards

Provenance

1. Written for a patron in the eastern Netherlands, perhaps from the region bordering Germany: with ick instead of ic and zwette with a 'z'.

2. Anna Goedela Lefebure of Breughlen (probably Breukelen, dioc. Utrecht), and at least two members of her immediate family, including Isabelle de Paddeschoot and the Monseigneur de Turnhout, chevalier, seigneur de Arcle (these families intermarrying in the early eighteenth century: Nobiliare des Pay-Bas et du comté de Bourgogne, 1865, vol.xii, p.1935): eighteenth-century ownership inscriptions on fol.70r.

3. Henry Curwen (1783-1860), high sheriff of Cumberland: his armorial bookplate with motto "Si Je Nestoy".

4. Ampleforth MS.278.

Catalogue Note

text

The text comprises: vernacular prayers on the life of Christ and his Passion (fol.1r), most accompanied by contemporary engravings facing the opening of each supplication; further prayers to the Virgin (22r); and the Mass of St. Gregory in Dutch (24r) for which the reader earns an indulgence of 18,000 years; instructions to say 5 Pater Nosters and 5 Ave Marias for 100 days and nights (29r); as well as prayers by St. Augustine (37r), Pope Alexander V (39r), Pope Innocent III (44v), and Pope Sixtus IV (48r); Penitential Psalms (51r) and a Litany in Latin.