Anonymous German scriptorium

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£ 2 772
Auction dateClassic
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +01:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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United Kingdom, London
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ID 870847
Lot 1 | Anonymous German scriptorium
Anonymous German scriptorium

Two partial bifolia from a noted Missal on vellum, in Latin, surviving as pastedowns in Hieronymus, St (c.342-420). Omnium Operum, edited by Erasmus, vols. 3 and 4 bound in one volume. Basel: Johann Froben, 1516. Adams J-113 [southern Germany?, late 10th century]

Two very handsome and substantial early survivals from a Missal likely produced in a 10th-century German scriptorium, surviving in a contemporary Germanic binding of Froben's 1516 Omnium Operum of St Jerome, edited by Erasmus.



235 x 373mm (the bifolium). Two partial bifolia with consecutive text containing the Feast of Martin of Tours (11 November), Clement (23 November), and Andrew (30 November) surviving as pastedowns on upper and lower boards, 35 visible lines of text and St Gall neumes, with added notation continuing into the margins, the script a fine caroline minuscule in brown ink, enlarged initials touched in red, rubrics in red (left margin cropped, affecting text, some marginal browning and staining). Binding: 16th-century Germanic half pigskin over wooden boards, remains of 2 fore-edge clasps, large rosette painted on fore-edges (somewhat scuffed and rubbed).



Provenance:

(1) The handsome letter-forms are very similar to the southern German hand of a broken-up Missal, the bulk of which is now in Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Frag. 63, which was catalogued by Harmut Hoffmann as in a Regensburg hand of the last third of the 10th century (a leaf of which appeared at Christie’s, 13 December 2017, lot 2).

(2) The 16th-century binding is Germanic, and an ink stamp on the title leaf reads: ‘Bibliothek des Franziskanerklosters Miltenberg’: the convent, founded in 1630, was dissolved in 1983.





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