Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art

 “The Roman Catholic Church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendor of its services. The priest, dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolizing the accoutrement of Christ’s passion. These wooden saints painted with gold and bright colors, staring vacantly out of their niches; the smell of incense; the enormous crucifix with the impaled image of a man supposed to be the Son of God, scoured and dripping, with matted hair in plaited thorns. I would kneel and pray for hours. When the Sacristan came around with the collection plate I would drop on it, with great satisfaction, the large copper coin given me by my grandmother. I felt I had paid an installment for the salvation of my soul.” (F.N. Souza, ‘A Fragment of Autobiography,’ F.N. Souza: Words & Lines, Villiers Publications Ltd., London, 1959, p. 10) As a child, Francis Newton Souza suffered from a serious attack of smallpox and his Catholic mother vowed that if he ever survived she would enroll her son in the Jesuit priesthood. Although Souza never became a priest, the Roman Catholic church in Goa gave him his first ideas about images, and image making, and religious imagery remained a powerful source of inspiration for him throughout his artistic career. Souza's upbringing as a strict Catholic is well documented. The impact that this had upon the artist and the subject matter of his paintings cannot be overstated. The fact that he was so vocal and critical about the church, clergy and corruption, yet created hundreds of paintings and drawings with religious content speaks volumes about his obsession of this subject. Notable Indian and Western critics and viewers who have followed Francis Newton Souza’s almost seven-decade long career, attached great significance to his upbringing and formative years as they impacted his contemptuous and anti-clerical work regarding the Catholic Church and reflected the unshakable presence of religion in his life and his art. 'The first 12 years of an artist's life are perhaps the seedbed of his creative life. In the case of Souza, this influence may be summarized as being rural Catholic life as experienced in daily companionship with his grandmother. Her influence with the vitality of folklore gave him a sense of the animistic and spirit ridden atmosphere of fields and home. The ritual symbols of Cross, monstrance, ciborium, on a platform that resembles the Judaic Ark of The Covenant, but with surfaces which are distinctly Goan, are frequently found in Souza's paintings and represent the passion and dread of a heretic creed seeking legitimacy and acceptance. (M. A. Couto, "Souza: In communion with Goa," The Hindu, Sunday, 7 April 2002). In this early and important work, Souza adopts his formal composition from the altar at Golgotha, Jerusalem - the place where Jesus was crucified. There is no consensus on the exact location where Christ died but it is believed to be immediately outside Jerusalem's walls. When one views the image of the altar at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was built at Golgotha, it is apparent that Souza has taken this imagery as inspiration for this painting. Three large sconces envelop the altar at Golgotha and gold squares containing icons and paintings make up the background, all perfectly mirrored in this painting titled Golgotha in Goa. This designation suggests to the viewer that this painted scene is actually in Goa but is a reflection of Golgotha nonetheless. Goa was at the time a Portuguese colony, where Catholicism was the main religion so it is very likely that elements from the altar at Golgotha were also incorporated in churches in Goa. This vivid arrangement forms part of Francis Newton Souza’s iconic and extensive series of paintings where he explored the theme of religious suffering that was so central in his childhood. His early works in particular were characterized by the deliberate use of powerful impasto. These sweeping, boundless, expressionist brushstrokes also add texture and deconstruct his forms to the very edge of abstraction. Bright blocks of color pop out from these dark and deep recesses, producing a mosaic-like effect , reminiscent of the soldered cement conjoining glass panes. Similar in style to Cloisonnism in which both the figures and background are built up using thick sweeping strokes of impasto in jewel-like colors and delineated with bold black outlines, Souza is evoking the imagery and feel of traditional stained glass and yet again revealing the influence of the churches of Goa.  'Francis Newton's paintings, perturbing and bewildering to many reveal nevertheless the talent of a strong willed and imaginative artist...he confesses to the fascination of church music and stained glass windows.  The luminous mosaic technique of the latter he employs under the influence of Rouault without imitating him.  The total effect of this exhibition with its turbulence of color is exciting and soothing at the same time.'  (R. von Leyden, The Times of India, 30 November 1948) This work was completed in India in 1948, the year after India gained independence and the year after Souza founded the Progressive Artists Group and also married Maria Souza. There was a small but crucial period between his total embrace of the modern and departure from the traditional, academic style. Here we see the beginnings of his foray into Fauvism and Expressionism. Souza soon emigrated to London where his style evolved dramatically towards classic Cubism. Throughout his peregrinations Goa always remained close to Souza’s heart. He retained this painting in his personal collection until shortly before his passing. It was acquired from him in 1999 by a private collector, a fellow-Goan, who like Souza felt a deep emotional connection to the land of his birth. The painting’s bright, kaleidoscopic palette and composition recall the altars and shrines dotting the Konkani landscape as well the rich texture of Goa’s unique culture, underpinned by deep-rooted faith and pride in its Indo-Portuguese heritage. Golgotha in Goa celebrates this tradition and the unchanging values that anchor it.

golgotha in goa

“Shoeless Joe Jackson” Joseph Jefferson Jackson was the eldest of George and Martha Jackson's eight children. As a child Joe worked alongside his father in a textile mill in Brandon Mill, S.C. devoting little time to school. Outside of the mill his interests centered on the game of baseball, and by 13 Joe was starring on the mill's baseball team. Of the formal education he’d all but dismissed, Joe would later say, “I ain't afraid to tell the world that it don't take school stuff to help a fella play ball." Jackson began playing semipro ball at age 18 and quickly advanced to the minors. It was here that he earned his nickname "Shoeless Joe," after playing a game in his stockings because a new pair of spikes had given him blisters on his feet the previous day. Jackson plied his trade as a minor leaguer, (playing occasionally in the big leagues from 1908-1910) developing a swing so pure that Babe Ruth would later admit to copying it. For a man of average size, Jackson showed profound strength, wielding a bat of unusual size, that he affectionately dubbed “Black Betsy”. His unlimited gifts for the game included an arm that could throw a runner out at home plate from 400 feet, and a glove that was called “the place where triples go to die.” In 1911, his first full season in the majors, Jackson batted a remarkable .408 for the Cleveland Indians, setting a rookie record that still stands. In 1915, Jackson was traded to the Chicago White Sox for two undistinguished players and $31,500 to help the financially foundering Cleveland franchise. The trade paid off for owner Charles Comiskey as Jackson went on to help the White Sox to a six-game victory over the New York Giants in the 1917 World Series. At the height of his career, Jackson was an indomitable force at the plate, poised to leave a legacy as one of the game’s all-time greats. Banishment The illiterate mill worker’s son from the hills of South Carolina, gave every shred of himself to the game of baseball and became one the sport’s most celebrated stars. In spite of this, the legacy of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson remains a sad one, tainted by association with the infamous "Black Sox Scandal" of the 1919 World Series. In response to suspicions that the White Sox had thrown the series under the influence of sports bookies, baseball commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis banned Joe Jackson and seven of his teammates for life, sending a no-tolerance message regarding the presence of gambling in baseball. Of all the players, Jackson's involvement in the conspiracy seemed the least plausible, as his on-field stats were sparkling -- a .375 batting average and a perfect fielding percentage during the series. A jury later acquitted Jackson of the charges, and despite holding the third highest lifetime batting average in baseball history at .356, the legendary outfielder remains permanently barred from induction to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He could run, hit, and throw the best of them in both leagues, but he lacked judgment, education, and common sense. Being unable to read and write put this Southerner at a distinct disadvantage. Totally out of place in the big city, Joe probably did accept the promise of $5,000 to fix the games. If he chose to ignore the promises, his .375 World Series batting average was not enough to exonerate him. It was a pure tragedy of baseball and the American way of life.   Joe Jackson's “Black Betsy” Game Used Bat From Jackson Estate   “Black Betsy” After his expulsion from the majors, Joe and wife Katherine settled in Savannah, Georgia, where he opened a successful dry cleaning operation and continued to wield his “Black Betsy” for semipro and industrial league teams in the area. The game was ingrained in his heart and soul and, in 1929, the Jacksons moved to Greenville, SC, where Joe would don the uniform of the local nine, the Greenville Spinners. Jackson had fallen from grace in the eyes of some, but had become a folk hero to many. His nickname “Shoeless Joe”, his infamy, and even the identity of his famous bat “Black Betsy” contributed to that folklore. Of the latter, no other player in sports history ever had a piece of equipment with its own identity of the magnitude of Joe Jackson’s bat. It was during Joe’s time with the Greenville Spinners in the early 1930’s, that the story was recorded of this historic “Black Betsy” bat. Joe Thompson, who would later author the book “Growing Up With Shoeless Joe - The Greatest Natural Player in Baseball History” was the Sports Editor of the Greenville News-Piedmont newspaper at that time and conducted several personal interviews with Jackson concerning his life in baseball. One such interview resulted in an August 1, 1932 column bearing the headline “Famed Chisox Slugger Here; In Good Shape – Recalls Early Playing Days in Greenville; Tells True Story of How He Got ‘Black Betsy’. The article included the following excerpts; “Shoeless Joe" Jackson - one of the greatest sluggers of them all, the man who taught Babe Ruth how to hit - strode the streets of the old home town again today and recalled his early playing days here with Brandon Mill and the Greenville Spinners. Joe will don his baseball harness again Wednesday to give the home folks an eyeful of the modern Joe Jackson. He will play in his old position, center field, for the Greenville Spinners here Wednesday afternoon. Joe has his famous bat "Black Betsy" with him, and he will use the bludgeon in the game Wednesday. The bat is 24 years old, and has never been broken. It was with this bat that Jackson made all his hitting records, one of them, a World Series record, still standing and tied only by Pepper Martin in the last series. Jackson recalled today how he first showed Babe Ruth how to stand properly at the plate to hit. The Babe borrowed Joe's Black Betsy on several occasions, and loaned Jackson one of his bludgeons. Babe was with the Boston Red Sox at the time. For our own special benefit, Joe explained just how he secured "Black Betsy." There had been so many conflicting stories of the famous bat, that we were naturally curious to know the true story. ‘The bat was given to me by old Cap'n Martin, who drove one of the first street cars in Greenville,’ Joe said. ‘The bat was whittled out of hickory, but I don't know just where the Cap'n got hold of it. I sent it to the Spaulding baseball company and they finished it for me and stamped their label on it. I've had it ever since and it's never been broke, although it's getting old now and I expect it any time. I used to keep it soaked in a barrel of oil, but lately it's just been thrown by my desk in Savannah." He will don a Greenville uniform Wednesday for the first time in 20 years. He broke into baseball here in 1908. Other publicly documented references to “Black Betsy” include a September 23, 1951 article in the New Orleans Times Picayune that documents the bat’s distinctive feature of having a slight curvature. Soon after Joe’s banishment, he played in Bastrop, LA (1922) and in Americus, GA (1923). The article recounts the great teams in Bastrop during 1922 and 1923, mentioning Joe’s days with them in 1922 and describing “Betsey” in the article; “’The bat was incidentally something else’, Says Montgomery (teammate): ‘In that old leather case Joe carried two bats, one of which- his favorite –was a home-made affair slightly sprung with a curve in it. He wouldn’t let anybody touch it. He sure made it talk. I remember once I ordered two new Louisville Sluggers. We were practicing when they arrived and I handed one to Joe to try. He hit a couple balls with it and silently added it to his leather case, I never saw it again’” Two photographs that were taken of Jackson in 1932 show him in uniform with the Greenville Spinners holding “Black Betsy”.  In both, the bat’s immediately identifiable characteristics, including its curvature and distinctive handle tape provide an exact photo match. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and his wife Katie would reside in Greenville, S.C. until Joe’s death on December 5th, 1951. At that time “Black Betsy” and the rest of Joe’s property were bequeathed to his widow. Upon her passing in 1959, Katie Jackson willed the bat to her 13 year-old cousin Lester Erwin who would be its keeper for 42 years. In a notarized letter drafted and signed by Erwin in 2001, he states in part;     “Mr. Jack Abbot, the Executor of the estate of Katie Jackson, delivered the bat to my house shortly after Katie’s death in 1959. I was 13 years old at the time. This bat was in the home of Joe Jackson until his death and it was his favorite bat. My cousin Katie would tell the family, including myself as a small boy, that Joe kept this bat because it was special to him and he referred to it as “Black Betsy”. Joe instructed Katie to leave it to me upon her death and it has been in my family, either at my Dad’s house as I was growing up, or at my house for the last 42 years. This has been enjoyed by my friends and family in remembrance of my cousin’s husband Joe Jackson, the greatest ball player of all time.” Lester Erwin sold “Black Betsy” at public auction in 2001, where it was bought by a private collector for a then record price of $577,610. It has been consigned to this auction on behalf of its current owner. To this day Joe Jackson remains one of baseball’s most mythical figures. Baseball historians remember him as one of the games most gifted performers, and growing legions of forgiving fans campaign relentlessly and fruitlessly to have him officially recognized as such in Cooperstown. Estimate Upon Request   Articles of Provenance Included: A copy of the Greenville Piedmont article from Aug. 1, 1932 as well as a notarized document from The Greenville County Library acknowledging its source. Copies of two circa.1932 photos of Jackson holding the bat with the Greenville Spinners. A notarized letter from Jack Abbot, executor of Katie Jackson’s estate. A notarized letter of provenance from Lester Erwin. A copy of Katie Jackson’s will, specifically referencing the bat.  A copy of the September 23, 1951 New Orleans Times Picayune article. Two separate letters of authenticity from independent bat authenticators MEARS (Troy Kinunen and Dave Bushing, Grade A 9.5) and PSA/DNA.   Bat Specifications: manufacturer: Unknown, and was sent to the Spalding Sporting Goods Co. for finishing, wherein said company stamped their logo on the knob and “Old Hickory” label on the barrel. bat weight: Approximately 40 ozs. bat length: Approximately 34.5 in. wood: Hickory finish: Slightly darkened on the barrel as a result of oil soaking, hence the “Black” in “Black Betsy”    cracks/repairs/features: Slight handle crack, repaired by Jackson with tape. Jackson was known to continue using the bat after it was cracked, however its most significant feature is that it is curved. The curve has been referred to by Jackson’s contemporaries as having been “slightly sprung with a curve or crook”. The curve is believed to have been caused by the “seasoning” of the wood, which was originally made from “unseasoned” hickory.

joe jackson's “black betsy” game used bat from jackson estate

In 1936, America was held tightly in the grip of the Depression. Babe Ruth had retired. Lou Gehrig still continued his excellence but in a quiet manner, inspiring more genuflection than excitement. Then, that May, the rookie from the Pacific Coast League arrived in New York and provided a transfusion of awe and electricity to the Nation’s favorite game. The bulk of Joe DiMaggio’s legend was created during his first tour in the majors, before his country's call to arms during World War II robbed him of three prime seasons. Heralded beyond any rookie in the game before him, DiMaggio somehow exceeded unsurpassable expectations. Had there been a Rookie of the Year Award in 1936 it would have been Joe's. He hit .323 with 29 HRs and 125 RBI and helped bring a World Series title to New York in his first season. From the moment Joe DiMaggio first put on his pinstripes, he made the Yankees “his” team --- in some ways, they are still his team.

joe dimaggio's 1936 new york yankees rookie home uniform

SASSOON: A Golden Legacy

SIDDUR OF THE BEN ISH HAI WITH LURIANIC KABBALISTIC COMMENTARY, [BAGHDAD: 19TH CENTURY]

SIDDUR OF THE BEN ISH HAI WITH LURIANIC KABBALISTIC COMMENTARY, [BAGHDAD: 19TH CENTURY] 262 folios (7 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.; 200 x 137 mm) (foliation: 1-34a, 34b-163, 165-219, 221-263) (collation indeterminate) on paper (ff. 14r-v, 28v-29v, 32v-33v, 36r-v, 63v, 68r-v, 78r-v, 91v-93v, 111v-112v, 127r-v, 148v, 154r-v, 156v, 165r-v, 167r-v, 175v, 176v-177v, 189r-v, 211v, 262v blank); early foliation in pen in Hebrew characters in upper-outer corners of recto (except ff. 1-10, which are foliated in pencil in Arabic numerals); written in Baghdadi square (prayer texts) and semi-cursive (instructions and commentary) scripts in black ink; generally eighteen lines of prayer texts per page (number of lines of commentary varies); ruled in blind (prickings visible on, e.g., ff. 131, 211-213); justification of lines via dilation or contraction of final letters, abbreviation, and hyphenation; occasional headers; catchwords at foot of most pages (though not as much at head of manuscript); intermittent vocalization and corrections; some text circled on ff. 160r, 248r, 255r, 262r. Enlarged incipits; numerous prayers laid out decoratively (see, e.g., ff. 51r-52r for the Song of the Sea); floral ornaments on f. 37r; unfinished menorah illustration on f. 37v; some letters embellished with tagin on ff. 224v, 232r. Slight scattered staining, dampstaining, and smudging; ink biting; some ink chipped or worn; periodic dogearing; short tears in lower edges of ff. 5, 210 and in upper-outer corner of f. 145; f. 137 loose and worn at upper and lower edges; nick at foot of f. 213; lower-outer corner of f. 223 and upper-outer corner of f. 262 lacking; ff. 235-237 were stuck together and subsequently pulled apart, causing damage to parts of ff. 235, 237, which are now glued to 236, obscuring its text; small holes and puncture on f. 238, affecting several few words. Nineteenth-century red Morocco, tooled in blind, worn around edges, and stained; paper ticket with shelf mark on spine; wear to spine, especially headband and tailband; some paper edges speckled blue; nineteenth-century marbled paper flyleaves and pastedowns. A daily prayer book owned by the great Rabbi Joseph Hayyim of Baghdad, author of Sefer ben ish hai, with his manuscript notes. Rabbi Joseph Hayyim of Baghdad (ca. 1834-1909) was one of the most prominent halakhic authorities and kabbalists of Iraqi Jewry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born into a rabbinic family, he was selected to succeed his father as de facto spiritual leader of the Jews of Baghdad in 1859, a post he held for half a century until his death. In addition to serving as the community’s primary halakhic decisor, he delivered daily lectures and weekly sermons to its members, often attracting large crowds. Despite his substantial educational and pastoral duties, however, R. Joseph Hayyim never took a salary, relying instead on his four brothers for financial support. His prodigious knowledge, charisma, piety, and literary output earned R. Joseph Hayyim esteem and accolades far and wide, making him the subject of legends and folktales told down to the present day. In the words of one of his admirers, “His place in the lives and hearts of Sephardim throughout the world is analogous to that of the Vilna Gaon or the Ba’al Shem Tov in the hearts of the Ashkenazic Jews – and the number of his followers is continually growing.” Perhaps R. Joseph Hayyim’s most famous work is Sefer ben ish hai, first published in Jerusalem in 1898. Like several of R. Joseph Hayyim’s other books, it takes its name from a phrase in II Sam. 23:20, which describes Benaiah ben Jehoiada, the chief of King Solomon’s army, in dominating terms. (R. Joseph Hayyim perceived that his soul was connected to that of Benaiah ben Jehoiada while praying and meditating at his grave during his only visit to the Holy Land in 1869.) Arranged according to two cycles of the weekly Torah portion, the volume combines two genres for which its author was particularly well known: homiletics and halakhah. Each section begins with an exposition of an idea from the Torah portion, which then introduces a series of halakhot related to that idea. Having grown up in a home and cultural milieu suffused with Kabbalah and having become, according to Gershom Scholem, “the preeminent kabbalist of Baghdad,” R. Joseph Hayyim naturally incorporated Jewish mystical teachings into much of his literary work. His liturgical poetry, sermons, biblical commentaries, and even halakhic rulings betray pervasive kabbalistic influence, with figures like Rabbis Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, Hayyim and Samuel Vital, Shalom Sharabi, and others frequently quoted, especially in the context of prayer and its associated rituals and intentions. His publications, particularly the tikkunim (mystical rites) that he compiled, played an important role in simplifying and popularizing kabbalistic concepts and practices among the masses throughout the Middle East. The present lot, a Baghdadi siddur containing the prayers for much of the liturgical year accompanied by an anthologized kabbalistic commentary, is distinguished not only by the high quality of its penmanship and its excellent state of preservation but by the presence on several folios of notes and prayers in the hand of none other than R. Joseph Hayyim of Baghdad! These texts, which appear yet to have been published, focus mainly on the liturgy of the High Holidays and Sukkot, including a discussion of the process of nesirah (separation and reconfiguration of the Sefirot) that takes place during this period. Sources cited include the Sefer emet le-ya‘akov (Livorno, 1843-1844) of Rabbi Jacob Shealtiel Ninio, the Sefer zimrat ha-arets (Jerusalem, 1892) of Rabbi Abigdor Azriel, as well as the works of Luria Ashkenazi. It would seem, then, that these handwritten notes were added by R. Joseph Hayyim sometime in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. R. Joseph Hayyim wrote on several occasions that he was not able to print significant parts of his oeuvre due to financial constraints. Indeed, though over a century has passed since his demise, many works remain in manuscript, scattered in collections in Israel, America, and elsewhere. The present prayer book not only bears the distinction of having been used by the Ben ish hai himself but also contains a treasure trove of his unpublished reflections on the liturgy of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar. While any original handwritten material from R. Joseph Hayyim is considered by many to be imbued with an ineluctable level of sanctity that serves as a source of both metaphysical protection and blessing, how much more so would this be true of the comments in the present siddur, which, if printed, would surely bring great merit to all those involved! Sotheby’s is grateful to Shalom Hillel for providing information that aided in the cataloging of this manuscript. Provenance Gifted by Rachel, wife of Moise Abraham Sassoon, to Solomon David Sassoon, July 1958 (annexed documentation), and assigned shelf mark 1279 Literature Michael Gross, “Ha-reah ha-tov bein morav le-talmidav: mekomo shel ha-rav yosef hayyim be-shoshelet ha-kabbalah ha-bagdadit,” in Avishai Bar-Osher (ed.), Ha-reah ha-tov: rabban shel kol benei ha-golah ge’on yisra’el rabbi yosef hayyim zetsuk”l (Jerusalem: Avishai Bar-Osher, 2009), 263-276. Moshe Hallamish, “Yahaso shel r. yosef hayyim la-rashash,” Masorah le-yosef 6 (2009): 438-440. Yaakov Moshe Hillel, Ben ish hai: toledotav, korot yamav u-morashto le-dorot shel rabbeinu ha-gadol … yosef hayyim (Jerusalem: Shalom LaAm Center, 2011), 409. Yaakov Moshe Hillel, The Ben Ish Hai: The Life and Legacy of Rabbi Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad (Jerusalem: Kehillot Yisrael Institute, 2018), 384-388. Jonatan Meir, “Toward the Popularization of Kabbalah: R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad and the Kabbalists of Jerusalem,” Modern Judaism 33,2 (2013): 148-172. Nehama Consuelo Nahmoud, Parables from Bagdad (Brooklyn: Lightbooks, 1981), 9. Shaul Regev, “Hanhagot u-minhagim she-hiddesh ha-rav yosef hayyim (ben ish hai) be-bavel – bein halakhah le-kabbalah,” in Avi Elqayam and Haviva Pedaya (eds.), Hallamish le-ma‘yeno mayim: mehkarim be-kabbalah, halakhah, minhag ve-hagut muggashim li-prof. moshe hallamish (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2016), 516-541. David Solomon Sassoon, A History of the Jews in Baghdad (Letchworth: Solomon David Sassoon, 1949), 149-156. Mosheh Sofer, Ari mi-bavel: pirkei hod mi-massekhet hayyav ha-mufle’ah shel ha-ga’on ha-gadol maran rabbeinu yosef hayyim ztsuk”l (Jerusalem: Yerid ha-Sefarim, 2010), 174.

siddur of the ben ish hai with lurianic kabbalistic commentary, [baghdad: 19th century]

English Literature, History, Science, Children’s Books and Illustrations

The Property of the Downside Abbey General Trust

The Property of the Downside Abbey General Trust JAMES OF MILAN, TRANSLATED BY WALTER HILTON(?) The Prickyng of Love, and Pore Caitif, illuminated manuscript in Middle English, and short texts in Latin [England (London area?), 15th century (2nd quarter)] vellum, c.235×170mm, i (paper) + 2 (medieval, the first formerly a pastedown) + 173 + i (paper) leaves, foliated ‘a’ (a wide stub), I–III, 1, 1*, 2–174; written in a professional anglicana script, with 30 lines per page in a ruled space c.170×100mm (except ff.94–101, quire 13, which has 31 lines in a ruled space c.175×110mm), rubrics and running headings in red, quotations underlined in red, paraphs alternately red or blue, complete, with catchwords and leaf signatures, in 22 quires each of 8 leaves except that the 6th & 7th (blank) leaves of quire 12 have been excised after f.93 (the central bifolium of this quire, ff.91–92, is also upside down and back to front, a binder’s error that predates the 17th(?)-century foliation), quire 13 is contemporary but was apparently added as an afterthought, as it has different parchment, script, ruling, and number of lines of text; illuminated with two foliate borders springing from large gold and foliage initials, and decorated with two-line initials in blue with red penwork flourishing throughout; with typical thumbing, stains, scribbles, etc., but generally in good condition throughout, with wide margins, and entirely legible. Sewn on five (medieval?) bands and bound in plain brown 17th(?)-century calf over pasteboards, with plain blind fillets and no spine title, the edges of the leaves speckled red, the joints repaired (the final page with a note recording ‘Spine repaired by Fifield of the Bodleian, 1961’), the bands and most of the spine leather broken between ff.87 and 88. A COMPLETE 15TH CENTURY MANUSCRIPT IN MIDDLE ENGLISH BY A NAMED SCRIBE, STEPHEN DODESHAM: ONE OF ONLY TEN COMPLETE COPIES OF AN IMPORTANT WORK OF RELIGIOUS MEDITATIONS IN ENGLISH AND THE ONLY ONE REMAINING IN PRIVATE HANDS. PROVENANCE (1) From the only Dominican nunnery in England, at Dartford, in Kent, which was founded immediately after the Black Death in the mid-14th century (for a history of the house, see A History of the County of Kent, 2 (VCH: London, 1926): inscribed in the early 16th century, ‘This book is youe to Betryce Chaumbir’. And aftir hir decese to sustir Emme Wynter. and to \sustir/ Denyse Caston’ nonnes of Dertforthe. And so to abide in the saam hous of the nonnes of Dertforthe for euere. To p(ra)y for he(m) that yeue it’ (f.IIIv). Curiously, for a text that does not exist in many copies, one other surviving example also comes from Dartford, and was owned by Alice Brainthwaite, who was prioress in the 1460s. Of the eight books known to have been owned by the house, one is a Book of Hours, and five others are in English, including a Brut chronicle, the poems of John Lydgate, and the Rule of St Augustine (which the Dominicans followed). The house was dissolved in 1539, and the inhabitants pensioned-off; perhaps one of them took the present manuscript with her. (2) Owned by 16th-century female members of the Haberley family; inscribed ‘Ellen Haburlaie est verus possessor’ (f.III), and ‘Marye Haburley’ (f.53v) (Ker cites H. Foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vols. 1, 5, 8, and Catholic Record Society, 51, 8). (3) Late 16th(?)- and 17th-century inscriptions on the front flyleaves include the names ‘William Richardson’, ‘William Emelaw’(?),‘Richard Baxter’, ‘John Vavasour’, and ‘Ald: Metcalfe’, and (f.3v) ‘Roberte’; these suggest that the book was in Yorkshire. (4) ‘It is believed that the Manuscript found its way to Downside from the ancient family of Holme-upon-Spalding Moor in the East Riding [of Yorkshire]’ (Watkin, 1941, p. 83). (5) Dom Odo Langdale, né Marmaduke Joseph Grattan Langdale (1861-1934), Benedictine monk of Downside from 1880, whose family had lived at Houghton near Beverley in Yorkshire since at least the 14th century; from his estate to: (6) Downside Abbey, accession number 26542, with their printed booklabel, ink stamp, and shelfmark TEXT (1) Prickyng of Love, opening with a rubric, ‘In the honoure and worship of our lord Ihesu here begynnith the boke. callid Prickyng of Loue. & conteynith xxxviij. chapitres. of ye whiche. The first is’, followed by a list of 38 numbered chapters, ‘Hou a man shal haue Cristis passion in mynde …’ (f.1r–v), and main text, ‘Al forwoundred of our self ought us forto be . . . mote louen our lord in the blisse of heuene Amen. Amen. Deo gracias. Here endith the tretyse. that is called Pryckyng of loue. that was maad by a frere menour Bonauenture. that was a Cardynall of the Court of Rome’ (ff. 1*r–90r; most of the final chapter is printed by Watkins, 1941, pp. 76–77). (2) ‘How a man shal knowe. whiche is the speche of the flesshe in his hert. and whiche is of the world. and whiche is of the fende. [i.e. fiend] and also whiche is of god almighty. our lord Ihesu Cryst. Seynt Bernard techith and seith thus. If thou feele a thought or a stirying … yt is spekyng of god. and not of thy self. Ihesu mercy. lady helpe.’, followed by a couplet in red, ‘To whom I beseche. for me specialy p(ra)ieth for g(ra)ce / And of my synnes amendeme(n)t. tyme. wille & space’ (ff. 90v, 92v, 92r; 91r–v and 93r–v are blank). This text also follows the Prickyng of Love in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B. 14. 9, and New Haven, Beinecke Library, MS 223. (3) Prologue, contemporary but added, to Pore Caitif: ‘This tretyse suffisith to eche cristen man and womman. This tretyse compiled of a pore caityf. & nedy of gostly help of al cristen peple. … hou mai he loue god. when he seeth nat. as seint John seith’ (ff.94–101v, i.e. quire 13); (4) Pore caitif, a somewhat variable collection of tracts, tracts about the Ten Commandments, Paternoster, Creed, etc.,:‘The first heest of our lord god. The first commandement. god hotith in these wordes. … and lastyng chastite. that we mown regne with the yn endeles blisse merciful lord. Amen. Explicit.’ (ff.102–168). (5) An extract from part V (which concerns the art of dying, mortification, reading, prayer, and meditation) of Speculum spiritualium: ‘Quomodo verus cristi discipulus debet se configurare passionibus elus. et quod frequens memoria passionis cristi precipue valet ad tristiciam inordinatam repellendam etc. Nunc adest tempus ait sapiencia. vt omnis qui vult venire . . . vnde salubriter vulneratur. Hec in reuelacionibus predicte Matildis’ (ff.168v–172). (6) A final short treatise in Latin: ‘Sermo beati Augustini notabilis ad parachianos. Rogo vos fratres karissimi. vt attencius cogitemus quare cristiani sumus … et vos feliciter peruenietis ad regnum. Amen.’, followed by a couplet, ‘Predicat actiua dat egenis martirisatur. / Contemplatiua vigilat orat meditatur’, with ‘vita’ written in red above ‘activa’ and ‘contemplativa’ (ff.172–173v). The main text is a translation into Middle English of the 13th-century Latin Stimulus Amoris by James of Milan (alias Pseudo-Bonaventure), a meditation on the Passion and wide-ranging treatise on the spiritual life. The current text has clarifications and many expansions added by the translator. The translation is attributed in five manuscripts to Walter Hilton (d.1396), the English Augustinian mystic and author; manuscripts in Cambridge (University Library, MS Hh.1.12) and New Haven (Beinecke, MS Osborn fa46), for example, specify that it ‘was translate oute of Latyn in to Englyssh by the travayle and diligence of a religious persoone maister waltir hilton chanon and governoure of the house of Thurgarton biside Newark’. Ten complete, and six incomplete manuscripts are recorded (plus two fragments sold in our rooms, 7 December 2010, lot 17). All other copies are in institutional ownership (the former Heneage copy having been acquired by the Beinecke Library from Quaritch in 2005; it is now MS Osborne fa46), and we are not aware of a complete copy being offered for sale at auction since we offered the Stonor copy in our rooms, 29 June 1938; it is now University of Pennsylvania, MS Cod. 218. A somewhat modernised version of the text was printed in 1952 by Clare Kirchberger, and it has been edited by Harold Kane (Prickynge of Love, 2 vols, Salzburg, 1983), but his work was based almost entirely on microfilms, and is thus reported to be highly inaccurate (cf. the review by Sarah M. Horrall in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 8 (1986), pp. 211–13); it is therefore probably fair to say that the text still awaits a critical edition. The content is wide ranging and addresses many areas of late medieval life and spirituality; the passages concerning images within the treatise on the Ten Commandments, for example, are of particular interest to the art historian: ‘Alle suche similitudes and ymages shold be as kalanders [i.e. guides] to leude [i.e. common] folke; that right as a clerk seeth by his boke what he shold do so leude men, whan they lacken teching, sholden lerne by ymages … if thei see ony likenesse of crist don on the cros have they minde on the bittre peynes and passion that he suffrid … if they se ony liknesse or ymage made yn mynde of ony other seynt, rere they up her mynde of her soul to hevene prayeng all the seintes … nat bilevyng either trustyng that thilke ymage or likenesse shal bringe ony man oute of gostly meschif or bodely …’ The other main text, Pore Caitif, survives in more than thirty copies and is largely derivative from other texts (including Richard Rolle’s Form of Living). Manuscripts vary considerably, but the most characteristic version consists of fourteen tracts on subjects similar to those covered in the Prickyng, including the Creed, Ten Commandments, Pater Noster, Name of Ihesu, and Myrour of Chastite. A good recent introduction to the text and its manuscript transmission is Diana Denissen, Middle English Devotional Compilations, 2019, chapter 2. SCRIBE AND DATE Ian Doyle identified the copyist of this manuscript as the well-documented scribe Stephen Dodesham: A.I. Doyle, ‘Stephen Dodesham of Witham and Sheen’, in Of the Making of Books: Medieval Manuscripts, Their Scribes and Readers. Essays Presented to M. B. Parkes, ed. by Pamela Robinson and Rivkah Zim (Aldershot, 1997), pp. 94–115, at pp. 102–03; in his later ‘The Speculum Spiritualium from Manuscript to Print’, Journal of the Early Book Society, 11 (2008), 145–143, at footnote 26, he reaffirms this attribution and explains that he accidentally omitted this manuscript from the list of Dodesham’s works on p.115 of the earlier article. Neil Ker dated the manuscript to the second half of the century, but Doyle, who paid more attention to illumination and was more familiar with Dodesham’s handwriting, thought that it is ‘probably of the second rather than the third quarter of the century’. Dodesham probably started his career as a lay scribe, to judge from the fact that he wrote at least three copies of Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes, (discussed and reproduced in A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Beinecke MS 661 and early fifteenth-century English manuscript production’, Yale University Library Gazette, 66 (1991), pp.181–96), but for the final decades of his life was a Carthusian, first at Witham in Somerset, from at least 1462 until at least 1469, and then at Sheen, by 1471 and until his death about a decade later. The lack of the characteristic Carthusian ‘punctus flexus’ punctuation is another element in favour of a date early in his career; an example of his rather different late hand, c.1475, is reproduced and described by M.B. Parkes, English Cursive Book Hands 1250–1500, 1969, p. 6 and facing plate. LITERATURE: Aelred Watkin, ‘Some Manuscripts in the Downside Abbey Library’, Downside Review, 59 (1941), pp. 15–92 at 75–83: ‘The Dartford MS.’, with extensive quotations. N.R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (1941), p. 35; 2nd edn. (1964), p. 57 N.R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, II (1977), pp. 444–45. The manuscript is cited, and aspects of it discussed, in a very large number of other studies.

View 1 of Lot 1: JAMES OF MILAN | Pricking of love, illuminated manuscript in Middle English [England, fifteenth century]

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