Central European artists and scribes

Lot 10
30.07.2020 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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£ 3 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 381216
Lot 10 | Central European artists and scribes
Estimate value
£ 2 000 – 3 000
A COLLECTION OF MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT AND PRINTED LEAVES AND CUTTINGS, 13 leaves and cuttings from 9 manuscripts and printed books [central Europe, 13th to 17th centuries]

An eclectic collection of leaves and cuttings from manuscripts and printed books.

Comprising:

(1) A leaf from GREGORY IX (c.1145-1241), Decretals, edited by Raymond of Penyafort (1175-1275), with the Glossa ordinaria, in Latin [France, late 13th or early 14th century]. 450 x 275mm. 38 lines of text in two columns and 79 lines of surrounding commentary. The text Tit. XLII ('De Alienatione mutandi iudicii causa facta') and XLIII ('De arbitris'). 2 illuminated initals. Extensive contemporary annotations in the margins (cropping to margins, not affecting text). Double-sided frame.

(2) VIRGIN AND CHILD, miniature cut from a Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Bruges, first quarter 15th century]. 150 x 110mm (heavily stained, the lower part and outer border of the miniature excised, an oval cut around the head of the Virgin).

(3) Three historiated initials with contemporary male busts [Bologna, c.1430]. c.35-40 x 40mm. The initials are the work of an illuminator influenced by Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna (c.1325 - c.1403) and later illuminators such as Giovanni da Modena, the Master of Seneca Laurenziano and the Master of the Messale Orsini, whom Gaudenz Freuler has identified as the Master from 1446, named after the Statute book of 1446 of the Bolognese Spital S.Maria del Baraccano (Bologna Archivio di Stato, cod.min Baraccano n.1 bis). A very similar initial with a male saint, possibly from the same manuscript, was offered at Koller Auctions, Zurich, 18 September 2015, lot 149.

(4) BURIAL SCENE, miniature cut from a Book of Hours on a composite page with cut-out initials and borders [northern France, c.1470]. 192 x 140mm. The miniature would have opened the Office of the Dead in a Book of Hours. Pasted on wood.

(5) A leaf from a choirbook [Italy, late 15th century]. 155 x 98mm. The illuminated initial 'A' opening the feast of the Flight into Egypt, 'Angelus domini apparuit in somnis Ioseph [...]'. 570 x 338mm. 6 lines of text and music (burnished gold a little rubbed, marginal wear and cockling). Framed.

(6) Three roundels with a French King, probably Francis I, cut from a printed book on paper [France, 16th century]. 58-70mm in diameter.

(7) GOD ENTHRONED BETWEEN THE EVANGELIST SYMBOLS, illuminated woodcut from a printed Missal on vellum [Paris, first half 16th century]. 275 x 184mm. Framed. The woodcut is sumptuously illuminated by an unknown artist, but it is likely from the series printed by Nicolas Prévost for Arnold Birckman appearing in a 1525 Paris Missal. The composition is likely derived from a model by the prolific Parisian illuminator Jean Pichore (see for example a leaf from a Missal with God Enthroned sold at Christie's, 17 November 2004, lot 10). The same woodcut, but within a different architectural frame, is later reused by Nicolas Savetier for Jean Petit in a 1530-1 St Augustine La Cité de Dieu.

(8) A cutting with an illuminated letter 'S', on vellum. 139 x 110mm.

(9) A cutting with an illuminated letter 'E', on vellum [Spain?, 17th century]. 320 x 287mm.
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