Early German neumes - photo 1
Early German neumes - photo 2
Early German neumes - photo 3
Early German neumes - photo 4
Early German neumes - photo 5
Early German neumes - photo 6

Early German neumes

Lot 5
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 2 016
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1053119
Lot 5 | Early German neumes
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
Early German neumes
Missal, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Germany, 11th century]
A handsome and clear example of Caroline minuscule, produced in a German scriptorium, with a very distinguished provenance.

3 leaves, c.210 x 170mm, blind-ruled for 24 lines written in brown ink in two sizes of rounded Carolingian minuscule, ruled space c.170 x 110mm, adiastematic early German neumes, ascending into margins where space permits, without episemas or litterae significativae, initials in red, pinpricks survive (recovered from a binding and consequently stained and darkened without affecting text). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.

Provenance:
(1) Philip Bliss (1787-1857), Under-Librarian of the Bodleian Library from 1822-1828, Registrar of Oxford University from 1824-1853, Keeper of the University Archives from 1826-1857 and Principal of St Mary Hall from 1848-1857. His collection of leaves was sold at Sotheby’s, 21 August 1858, lots 100 and 119, where acquired by:

(2) Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872), English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century. Bliss’s collection of leaves became MS 15659 and at least partially MS 18133 in the Phillipps library. Sold at Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Philippica, 24 April 1911, lot 390, where acquired by:

(3) Edmund Hunt Dring (1863–1928), the first managing director of Bernard Quaritch Ltd.

(4) Edmund Maxwell 'Ted' Dring (1906–1990), senior director of Bernard Quaritch.

(5) Bernard Quaritch, cat. 1056 (1985), no 47, acquired June 1988.

(6) Schøyen Collection, MS 100.

Text:
The book from which these leaves come included the Collects, Secrets, Prefaces and Postcommunions, as well as the proper chants with musical notation. The fragment contains part of the Temporal, including the 2nd and 3rd Masses of Christmas Day; Collects for the Period between Christmas and Epiphany; part of a Mass for the 1st Sunday after Epiphany; and the beginning of the Ordo Missae.

Script:
Written in brown ink in a clear, large, bold hand. As was common in service-books of this period, the texts for the sung portions of the service are written in a smaller script than those for the spoken parts.
Place of origin:Germany
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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