St Gall neumes (Early German neumes) - photo 1
St Gall neumes (Early German neumes) - photo 2

St Gall neumes (Early German neumes)

Lot 17
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 1 500
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1053131
Lot 17 | St Gall neumes (Early German neumes)
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
St Gall neumes (Early German neumes)
A leaf from a Breviary, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Germany, second half 11th century]
A fine and very clear example of Carolingian script and neumes in transitional form from a German scriptorium.

c.270 x 210mm, 33 lines written in dark brown ink in a late Carolingian minuscule of 2 sizes, ruled space: c.260 x 170mm, stylised St Gall neumes in transitional form, rubrics and initials in red (a few stains). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.

Provenance:
(1) Walter Goldwater (1907-1985), American antiquarian bookseller and founder of University Place Book Shop, New York. Acquired from him in January 1967 by:

(2) Bernard Rosenthal, his ‘I/206’.

(3) Bernard Quaritch, Bookhands V, cat. 1147 (1991), no 34, acquired in 1990 by:

(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 641.

Text:
The leaf contains the end of the Feast of St Michael (29 September) and the beginning of the Feast of Sts Remigius, Germanus and Vedastus (1 October) from '[principem Persarum contradicen]tem tuis precibus et meae legationi verumtamen Michahel archangelus [...] to the rubric: 'In nativitate Sanctorum Remigii Germani Vedasti [confessorum?]'.

Script and music:
The script, written in dark brown ink in a thick, bold hand, can be compared to Bernhard Bischoff, Kalligraphie in Bayern, 1981, no 9, p.27, also from the second half of the 11th century, and a leaf from a Gregorian Sacramentary sold at Christie's, The History of Western Script, Important Antiquities and Manuscripts from the Schøyen Collection, 10 July 2019, lot 434. The St Gall notation here is slightly stylised, with Psalm tone differential musical cues in the margins.
Place of origin:Germany
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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