Godefridus of Erlach - photo 1
Godefridus of Erlach - photo 2
Godefridus of Erlach - photo 3
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Godefridus of Erlach

Lot 14
11.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1349724
Lot 14 | Godefridus of Erlach
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Godefridus of Erlach
Sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum and paper [Cologne, second half 15th century]
A collection of Sermons centred around the Lord’s Prayer by the Franciscan-turned-Benedictine Godefridus of Erlach, from the famed library of the Charterhouse of St Barbara at Cologne.

215 x 145mm. i + 156 leaves, complete, collation: 1-1312 (i and vii of each gathering vellum, stitched through to form guards), 33 lines, ruled space: 191 x 99mm, catchwords survive, penwork initial in red with penwork decoration in purple, other initials in red throughout, capitals touched in red (some thumbing, marginal tear f.101, marginal repair of vellum f.106, overall in excellent condition). Bound in contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards (clasps lacking, surface rubbed, some corners slightly cuffed). In a fitted dark green morocco box.

Provenance:
(1) Charterhouse of St Barbara, Cologne: contemporary inscription on verso of front flyleaf ‘Liber domus Sancte Barbare in Colonia ordinis Carthusiensis / Sermones super orationem dominicam. S. xl.’ The Charterhouse of Cologne was a Carthusian monastery founded in 1334, which, by the 15th century, had become the largest charterhouse in Germany. By the middle of the 15th century, St Barbara’s hosted one of the most important libraries in medieval Germany (it features as a provenance for 277 records in the Schoenberg Database, 40 of these being manuscripts of Sermons). The library was lost in the fire of 6 November 1451, which tragically destroyed the chapter house and adjacent buildings. Only books which were in the monks’ individual cells, intended for copying, survived. The chapter house and library were rebuilt within two years, and concerted efforts were made to re-establish its former intellectual and bibliographical glory. New manuscripts were acquired or borrowed to be copied, and the present manuscript was likely part of monastery’s renewed library.

(2) William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister (1809-1898): Hawarden Castle library label, KK I.2.

Content: Godefridus Heriliacensis OSB, Expositio super orationem dominicam, beginning ‘Cum oratis dicite pater noster qui est in celis secundum Mattheum VI. Carissimi vos debetis scire quod inter omnia opera quae possunt fieri in hac vita’ and ending ‘Ad quam nos perducat ille qui vivit et regnat in secula seculorum, Amen’, ff.1-152; blanks ff.152v-156v.

This collection of sermons arranged around the text of the central Christian prayer, the Pater Noster, was composed in the mid-13th century by a Franciscan-turned-Benedictine from the Abbey of Erlach on Lake Biel: it survives today in some 60 manuscript copies, mostly from the 15th century. Some of these survivals contain a prefatory letter which variously identifies the author as a ‘Godefridus’, ‘Guillermus’ or ‘Gerardus’. The accepted attribution is that they were composed by Godefricus Heriliacensis (on this see B.-G. Guyot, ‘A propos de quelques commentaires sur le ‘Pater Noster’, Revue des Sciences philosophiques et théologiques, Vol. 53, No. 2 [1969], pp.245-255 and Vol.56 [1972], pp.423-432).
Place of origin:Western Europe, Germany, Europe
Auction house category:Books and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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11.12.2024 – 11.12.2024
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