Caius Laelius presented by his father to Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the augur, large miniature from an illuminated manuscript of Cicero, De Amicitia, in French translation, on vellum [Central France (perhaps Nantes or Tours), third quarter of the fifteenth century]

upper portion of a leaf, 220mm. by 180mm., with a large arch-topped miniature enclosing Laelius as a young, clean-shaven man presented by his bearded father to the seated Scaevola the augur who sits between them on a large throne draped in a blue cloth with golden fleur-de-lys, two ornamental pillars to the rear and groups of men talking, border on two sides of coloured acanthus leaves and foliage, enclosing a man and a woman, verso with 7 lines of text from end of introduction to Cicero's text in lettre bâtarde , one initial in liquid gold on burgundy ground and line filler to match, excellent condition, perhaps once laid down on board, nineteenth-century “474” on verso, carved gilt frame

From the same manuscript as the previous lot. This miniature illustrates the words of Laelius at the opening of the introduction to the text: “Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the augur, used to relate with an accurate memory, and in a pleasing way many incidents about his father-in-law, Gaius Laelius, and, in every mention of him, did not hesitate to call him ‘the Wise’. Now, I, upon assuming the toga virilis, had been introduced by my father to Scaevola with the understanding that, so far as I could and he would permit, I should never leave the old man's side. And so it came to pass that, in my desire to gain greater profit from his legal skill, I made it a practice to commit to memory many of his learned opinions and many, too, of his brief and pointed sayings”.