Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

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Lot 105
  • 105

Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands (Ghent), second half of fifteenth century]

Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 GBP
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Description

  • Vellum
280 leaves, 210mm. by 155mm., complete, collation: i6, ii-iii8, iv5 (last a singleton), v-xvi8, xvii7 (first probably a singleton), xviii8, xix-xx6, xxi3 (last a singleton), xxii9 (viii a singleton), xxiii-xxiv8, xxv6, xxvi4, xxvii-xxxvii8, xxxviii-xxxix2, single column, 15 lines in black ink in a number of textualis hands, capitals touched in red, rubrics in red, one- and 2-line initials in red or blue, two 3-line initials in same with contrasting penwork (that on fol.36 with a small human face in the penwork), one large initial (5-line) in variegated red and blue on fol.189r, with penwork infill picking out foliage on green ground, three large initials (4-line) in blue or pink heightened with white penwork with coloured ivy-leaf infill, on brightly burnished gold grounds, extensions in gold and colour forming a text frame on one side with hairline foliage with coloured and gold leaves and flowers (fols.124r, 145r, 154), full-page miniature of the Crucifixion with a full border of hairline foliage with coloured leaves and gold flowers, and enclosing roundels at the corners with the symbols of the Evangelists, a large gold cross in the bas-de-page, some small smudges to text and slight cockling to a few leaves, else in breathtakingly fresh condition on clean and white vellum, modern red leather over wooden boards

Provenance

provenance

1. Written and illuminated for use in the Benedictine abbey of St. Bavo (Sint-Baafs), Ghent: Litany on fol.18r with SS. Bavo, the founder of the house, Landoald, Macarius and Pharahilda, and other notices of their feasts on fol.139r and 174r. The abbey was founded in the seventh century, and attracted influential and wealthy patronage, reaching its zenith as an important cultural centre and patron of the arts under its bibliophilic abbot, Raphael de Mercatellis (1437-1508; abbacy from 1478). The house was forcibly dissolved in 1539 for its part in a rebellion against Emperor Charles V (1500-58), but the abbot and monks were allowed to become canons in a Chapter attached to what was later the Cathedral of St. Bavo. In an act of reconciliation Charles V was baptised there, and the present manuscript has a prayer for Charles added on fol.152v in a sixteenth-century hand. The library was transferred with the abbot and monks, and remained intact until 1680, when in a rash decision much bewailed by the librarian, it was emptied to make room for a comfortable waiting-room within the Chapter, and much of its holdings were sold on the justification that it had fallen out of use and "contained nothing but obsolete books". The present manuscript was most probably among those dispersed.

2. Washington Irving (1783-1859), American author and historian.

3. Gouverneur Kemble (1786-1875), United States Congressman: by gift from his friend Irving, and passing by descent until sold to J.C. Meghby.

4. Rev. Dr. Roderick Terry (1849-1933) of Newport, Rhode Island, a bibliophile and collector of Washington Irving memorabilia. His collection was disposed by his son in 1934-35 in a series of sales by Anderson Galleries, New York, not apparently including the present volume.

5. Henry S. Borneman (1870-1935) of Philadelphia; his sale by Parke Bernet, 2 November 1955, lot 820.

6. Bergendal MS.65; bought by Joseph Pope in our rooms, 3 July 1984, lot 52: Bergendal collection no.65; Stoneman, 'Guide', p.161; illustrated in Christopher de Hamel, History of Illuminated Manuscripts, 1986, p.192, pl.197.

Catalogue Note

text

This Missal opens with a table of contents (fol.3r); followed by the exorcism of the salt and water and the order for visiting the sick (fol.7r), a Litany (fol.15v), the funeral and burial services (fol.20v), prayers ascribed to St. Thomas Aquinas (fol.28r) and an invocation of St. Macharius against pestilence, the Temporal (fol.36r) and Sanctoral, special Masses of the saints "locis istius" (fol.139r), for the dead, St. Benedict and others, and the Canon (fol.155r).