- 21
An album of initials on cuttings, from an illuminated manuscript on vellum [Italy (most probably Rome), early sixteenth century]
Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 GBP
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Description
- Vellum
102 initials, each approximately 50mm. by 55mm., on 52 numbered leaves (one leaf before fol.1 cancelled, perhaps due to error), laid down 2 to a leaf within simple black penwork borders, the initials in liquid gold on red and burgundy grounds with foliate sprays and lines and circles picked out in liquid gold, text visible on versos, occasional small smudges and areas of slight damage, else in excellent condition, early nineteenth-century binding of marbled calf over pasteboards
Catalogue Note
Evidently from the same manuscript as the largest cuttings in the previous lot, from the service-book made in 1562 for Pope Pius IV (1499-1565) by Apollonio de' Bonfratelli (fl.1523-72), and liberated from the Sistine chapel by Napoleonic troops in 1798.