Western Manuscripts S/O

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Lot 56
  • 56

Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, mid-thirteenth century]

Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Vellum
a leaf, 212mm. by 150mm., 56 lines, very small gothic textura (littera textualis or 'pearl script', Nehemiah 12:29-end, and III Ezra 1:1-24, headings in red, capitals touched in red, running-titles and chapter numbers in alternately red and blue capitals, three 2-line initials in red or blue with full-length penwork in both colours, large historiated initial, 12-line, showing Josias censing the altar in Jerusalem for the Passover, some marginal notes, hessian binding

Provenance

provenance

From a Bible which belonged to the Carthusian abbey of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, founded in 1356 by Innocent VI; marked with the Carthusian punctus flexus punctuation (Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, I, 1969, p.xii, n.2, citing other leaves from the same Bible as Bodleian MS Lat. bibl. e.6); transferred in 1812 to the Hôtel de Ville in Villeneuve; sold by the municipality in 1853 to the Montpellier bookseller Félix Seguin (his cat., 1854, no.3); broken up in London c.1961 probably by Louis Bondy (1910-1993; for other leaves, cf. Manion, Vines and de Hamel, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, pp.89-90); this leaf has the pricecode of Alan Thomas (another leaf was his cat.8, 1961, no.33); Quaritch Bookhands 5 (cat. 1147), 1991, no.19, with plate; Schøyen MS 654.

Catalogue Note

text

II Ezra, as it is called here, is apocryphal, now usually 'III Ezra' (Stegmüller 94.1). The initial is in the 'Vie de Saint-Denis' style, as defined by R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis, 1977, pp.87-93.