Lot 33

Carolingian Lectionary, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [most probably northern France or Low Countries, second half of the ninth century]

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

a single leaf, 220mm. by 152mm., with a colossal initial 'F' (205mm. high; opening "Fratres Paulus seruus ...", ie. Romans 1:1-6, the reading for the eve of the Nativity), in red penwork with elaborate interlacing bands at its midpoint and terminations, with red and green infill, the whole contained within a row of red dots in the Insular style, with 2 lines of red penwork capitals (each 20-25mm. high) infilled with gold, and 7 lines of ornamental capitals (the last once red, now oxidised to silver), the verso with 23 lines of fine Carolingian minuscule, with rubrics in ornamental red capitals and two simple 2-line initials in red, scuffs and folds with some damage to the large initial, gold now crystalline and scuffed away in places, slightly trimmed, hessian binding

Provenance

provenance

Sold in our rooms, 10 December 1969, lot 1, to Maggs; acquired by Martin Schøyen from Sam Fogg in 1994: Schøyen MS 1932.

Catalogue Note

the illuminated initial

Although slightly damaged, the opening leaf with its vast initial 'F' is still a remarkable piece of early medieval book-art. Gold remained difficult to master throughout the Carolingian renaissance and was reserved only for the finest books. The quadrilobed interlace terminals were most probably ultimately taken from pre-Carolingian Insular art (cf. the Cuthbert Evangeliary: H.J. Hermann, Die frühmittelalterlichen Handschriften des Abendlandes, 1923, pls.19-20), but were rediscovered and developed in the northern Frankish scriptoria (ibid., figs.40-43, 47, 55 and especially no.17, pl.24 and 26), reaching their highpoint in the Ebo Gospels (Reims, 816-35; now Épernay, Bib.mun.MS 1: Mütherich and Gaehde, Carolingian Painting, 1977, pl.15), the Psalter of King Louis the German (St.-Omer, second quarter of the ninth century; now Berlin Staatsbibl., Theol.lat.fol.58: Mütherich and Gaehde, pl.17) and the Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (Palace School, 869-70; now BnF. ms lat.1141: Trésors carolingiens, 2007, no.18).

The outline of coloured dots is another feature inherited from Insular art which is also found in productions from this region (cf. Hermann, pl.24 and 26, and Trésors carolingiens, no.7), as well in other places where English or Irish missionaries and their books had penetrated in the sixth to eighth centuries.