{"title":"Illuminated Initials","description":"\u003cp\u003eDecorated, hand-illuminated initials with gold, colour, and intricate ornamentation.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"five-historiated-initials","title":"FIVE HISTORIATED INITIALS","description":"\u003cp\u003e(Framed all together; on the reverses remains of text and 4-line red staves; slight rubbing in a couple of places, else in very good condition). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n FINE INITIALS FROM A LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED GRADUAL OF THE BEGINNING OF THE 16TH CENTURY: AN EXCEPTIONALLY RICH PROJECT OF DECORATION. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n According to the textual and musical fragments on the reverse of a couple of our cuttings, the five capitals come from a Gradual. Indeed, the K probably opened the Kyrie eleison (since there are remains of the Gloria on the reverse of the letter); the Q marked the Communion for Corpus Christi. The iconography also contributes to the identification. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The sophisticate acanthus staves are typical of early sixteenth century German initials in both illuminated and printed books. The illuminator of our initials, however, was aware of the rules and the power of the Renaissance painting, known in Germany through the masterpieces of Dürer, Cranach and Altdorfer. The atmospheric landscapes characterised by distant silver-blue shapes of mountains, the effect of the movement in the water, the smooth brush, the attention paid to details such as the subtle termination of the stave curled around Christ's tiny foot or the costumes in the Communion scene (the woman's one indicating a date around 1520) make this artist and accomplished painter of the early Renaissance. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Gradual from which our initials came seems to have been lavishly adorned with historiated initials, not just for the introits. This rich project was exceptional and certainly reserved for very important books.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FIVE HISTORIATED INITIALS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816078614863,"sku":"L832","price":7750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_7967_5bcc7b0b-4741-46b1-bb5f-9cb9a047b554.jpg?v=1781795321"},{"product_id":"bible-1","title":"BIBLE","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis charming and prettily decorated portable Bible is an untouched and unspoiled early example of the Parisian Bible of the 13th century. It was copied and decorated in the second quarter of the century, shortly after university theologians completed the standardization of the biblical texts. The new Vulgate had been created to facilitate university teachers and members of the preaching orders, who often travelled between universities, monasteries and church congregations in different parts of the country. It was therefore conceived as a text that could be copied in volumes of diminutive format, written on very fine parchment in the tiny formal Gothic script mostly used until then for marginal glosses. The new biblical vulgate started circulating in its final form about 1230. The present manuscript is therefore an early representative of the Parisian Vulgate. The text is complete and all the canonical prologues, each rubricated in full and decorated with an illuminated or a pen-flourished initial. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The initials are elegantly decorated with twirling rinceaux in colour and gold, and sometime include small dragons or other grotesque winged animals intertwined with the scrolling foliage. The puzzle initials, formed of interlocked scalloped segments in red and blue separated by a thin white line, are filled with curling pen-work decoration dotted in blue. A similarly curling and dotted decoration surrounds them and elongates into the margins in elegant pen strokes of red and blue. The style of the painted decoration resembles closely to works of the Parisian workshop known as the  Vie de saint Denis Atelier  (active 1230-1250) for the Benedictines of the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs in Paris and the Cistercians of Clairvaux Abbey (see Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de france, MS latin 233). It also closely recalls the style of manuscripts produced at the same time in Amiens, Northern France for the Benedictine Abbeys of Anchin, and Marchiennes (see Douai, Bibliothèque Municipale, MSS 18, 20 and 21). The small codicological feature of parchment tabs marking the beginning of books, now removed from the present manuscript, adds a further link to manuscript Bibles produced at Amiens for monastic use (see R. Branner, Manuscript Paintings in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis; a Study of Styles, Berkeley, 1977, cat. 210, pl. X). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the 13th century the manuscript was used in a monastic or ecclesiastical institution as indicated by the index of liturgical readings added at the end of the volume by a 13th-century hand which was more used to writing monastic cartularies or ecclesiastical deeds than liturgical books. The prominence given to the feast of St Vincent of Saragossa (22 January) at the beginning of the readings for the Proper of the Saints, suggests a particular devotion to the saint. St Vincent is the patron saint of Macon and Viviers in France, Berne in Switzerland and Soignies in Belgium. A particular veneration for St Vincent and the probable Flemish origin of the fifteenth century binding combine to point to the collegiate church of St Vincent at Soignies as the probable 13th-century owner. St Vincent s was built as the church of the Benedictine Abbey founded by St Vincent Madelgarius (d. 677), a Flemish nobleman. Soignies Abbey was dissolved and transformed in secular Chapter in the 11th century. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the 17th century the book was in Prussia, in the possession of Johann Friedrich Bessel, a philologist of Tilsit, respondent and praeses at the Universities of Wittenberg and Helmstedt between 1654 and 1667. Left after Bessel s death with others of his book to Christopher Horch Senior, possibly the father of the German physician Christopher Horch (1667-1754) of Berlin, it was given by Horch to an unidentifed individual on 13 February 1682 ( Hac Biblia manuscripta donata \/ mihi fuit √† Dn. Christophero \/ Horch Sen. ex libris relictis \/ B. Dn. M. Besselj \/ Anno 1682 .d. 13 Febr.  on upper pastedown). The unnamed recipient of the book was probably either Heinrich Bartsch (1627-1702), councillor, treasurer and vice-mayor of Könisberg, who gave his collection to Könisberg Stadtbibliothek, or his son Heinrich Bartsch Jr (1667-1728), a jurist at the University of Wittenberg. In 1718 the library was opened to the public by Bartsch Junior, who donated his collection of Bibles. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the 19th century the book was stamped  Stadtbibliothek Koenigsberg  twice in the lower margin of fol. 1 recto. The Bible is mentioned in the library catalogue A. Seraphim, Handschriften-Katalog der Stadtbibliothek Königsberg i.Pr., Königsberg i.Pr., 1909, p. 300. The library was destroyed by a bomb in August 1944. Since 1946 Königsberg has been part of Russia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127963471,"sku":"K36","price":150000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7999.jpg?v=1781795270"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-2","title":"BOOK OF HOURS","description":" This charming Book of Hours was produced in Bruges. These books were the result of the work of a number of different artisans and artists working separately on the different phases of production - the copying of the text, the decoration of minor initials and line fillers, and the illumination of initials, borders and miniatures. \n  \n The devotional texts were usually copied on dedicated single or multiple quires according to their length, with the beginnings of the canonical hours copied on rectos; they were then assembled in volumes whose textual sequences corresponded to the requirements of the individual customers, with dedicated miniatures inserted to face the beginning of the canonical hours and other illumination and decoration added to the clients  taste and means. \n  \n All the illuminated miniatures of the present manuscript are on the verso of added singletons whose parchment is often heavier and thicker than the soft and beautiful parchment of the quires, which shows hardly any visible difference between the flesh and the hair side. \n  \n It is therefore unusual to find manuscripts made by the same scribe, rubricator, decorator and illuminator\/s, but each of their components may find matches in different manuscripts. This manuscript shows the same textual and illustrative sequence as London, British Library, MSS Harley 1853 and Stowe 26, but for the absence of the Mass of the Virgin and perhaps of the Psalter of St Jerome at the end. The three manuscripts are also similarly diminutive. Its beautiful Italianate Gothic hand matches that of Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum MS. W. 179. The rubrication and decoration of minor initials and line-fillers is close to that of Les Enlumineures Book of Hours 61, BL Stowe MS 26, Walters MSS 190 and 196 (made for Queen Eleanor of Portugal), and the Derval Hours, Sotheby s, 5 July 2005, lot 98 (made for Jean de Ch√¢teaugiron, seigneur de Derval and chamberlain of Brittany). The accomplished decoration of the borders finds correspondence in Les Enlumineures Book of Hours 61 and possibly Chicago, Newberry Library, Case MS. 35 (the Mildmay Hours). \n  \n The sequence of miniatures for the Hours of the Virgin corresponds to the cycle of the Infancy of Christ as was customary in Southern Flanders at the time (see B. Bousmanne, \"Item a Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur,\" Bruxelles, 1997, p. 164). The manuscript was undoubtedly illuminated in the circle of Wilhelm Vrelant (d. 1481; active in Bruges from 1454), the most successful illuminator in Bruges at that time. His patrons included the Dukes of Burgundy and members of their family and court as well as French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian royalty, diplomats, aristocrats, bankers and wealthy merchants. \n  \n Judging from their surviving manuscripts, he and his collaborators produced devotional books in far greater numbers than any other text; it is therefore not surprising that at the time the so-called  Vrelant style  became very popular and had a strong impact on the production of Books of Hours. \n  \n The full-page miniatures are in the style of an anonymous illuminator singled out among Vrelant s collaborators by Nicholas Rogers and given the name of the Mildmay Master after a Book of Hours in the Newberry Library in Chicago (Case MS. 35) that in the 16th century belonged to Sir Thomas Mildmay (b. in or before 1515, d. 1566), Auditor of the Court of Augmentations for Henry VIII. The master collaborated with Vrelant in the decoration of a four-volume copy of the Golden Legend in French translation for Jean d Auxy, knight of the Golden Fleece (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MSS 672-675. \n  \n A direct comparison with the Book of Hours in the British Library (Harley MS 3000) suggests that the artist working on the present manuscript is not the Mildmay Master, even though he is seemingly the same artist of a Book of Hours attributed to him in S. Hindman and A. Bergeron-Foote, An intimate Art. 12 Books of Hours for 2012, London, 2012. He is also the same artist of another devotional manuscript (Walters MS. W. 177). \n  \n The anonymous artist of these three manuscripts managed to avoid the sharp linearity and rarefied stillness that characterise the works of the Mildmay Master and used a different and warmer palette of deeper blues and reds. The iconography of his decorative cycles follows the models employed by Vrelant and his followers, but his miniatures display distinctive delicate features for the Virgin (see here the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi on fols 24v, 64v and 78v), elongated male faces (in particular of Christ on the Cross and David in prayer on fols 1v and 124v), landscapes of rolling green hills and mountains turning to dark blue in the distance, and interiors characterised by gilt-embroidered tapestries and pink and grey walls with white-stucco decoration that includes a very distinctive element. \n  \n This element recalls the monograms in the trade-mark stamps imposed on the Bruges illuminators by the town administration to stop the import of illuminated single leaves by foreign artists who were not registered with the Guild. This decorative element is particularly similar to the stamp of Adriaen de Raedt, an apprentice of Vrelant in the years 1473-1475, who was occasionally named as Vrelant in the Guild s documents. \n  \n Almost all miniatures in the present book are a simplified version of the standardized Flemish iconography for the cycle of the Infancy of Christ disseminated by Vrelant and his followers, and found, for instance, in two Books of Hours attributed to Wilhelm Vrelant and\/or associates(Walters MSS W. 196 and 197), and in the Arenberg Hours attributed to the Mildmay Master (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig IX 8 (83.ML.104)). The fall of the idol from the column in the miniature of the Flight to Egypt (fol. 103v), in particular, is reminiscent of the Mildmay Master s representations of the Apostle Bartolomew and Felix of Ostia destroying Idols or Mamertinus of Auxerre praying to Idols in the New York Golden Legend (PML, MS. M 675, fols 22r, 51r and 56v respectively). \n  \n The representation of the Crucifixion is the only exception. In the figures of the fore-ground and the landscape in the background our artist paraphrases the Crucifixion in Vrelant s style as found in Walters MS. W. 197 (fol. 34v) and the Arenberg Hours (fol. 134r), but for the central scene of the Crucifixion with Christ flanked by the two thieves he seems to look elsewhere, possibly at the Crucifixion attributed to the so-called Vienna Master of Mary of Burgundy in the Hours of Mary of Burgundy (Vienna, √ñsterreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS. 1857, fol. 99v) and the Trivulzio Hours (The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Ms. SMCi, fol. 94v), executed about 1470-1475, which echo the Crucifixion in Joos van Ghent s Calvary triptych of the late 1460s. A similar dating for the present manuscript is consistent with the style of the all its other features. \n  \n The volume provides no clue towards the identification of its original owner. Like many famous Bruges manuscripts such as the Spinola Hours (Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig IX 18) and the Grimani Breviary (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS. Lat. I, 99) copied by scribes imitating Italian bookhands, or indeed by Italian scribes working in a Bruges, and decorated by Flemish artists, the present book was beautifully produced on smooth white parchment of the highest quality and copied in an elegant round Italianate Gothic hand. \n  \n The litany is of Augustinian Use, with Paul the First Hermit and Nicholas of Tolentino (canonized in 1446) among the doctors and confessors and Monica among the Virgins; other saints added to an otherwise standard text for the Use of Rome are Alexis at the end of monks and hermits, and Saints Margaret, Barbara and Elisabeth among the Virgins. \n  \n The masculine forms used in most prayers, including  Obsecro te  and  Intemerata , with the only exception of the last, suggest that the book belonged to a man; the inclusion of the prayer  Deus propicius esto mihi peccatori et custos mei sis omnibus diebus vite mee,  traditionally attributed to St. Augustine, may indicate that he was a man of some importance, possibly a member of the large Italian community of merchants and bankers in Bruges, or a major local patron.","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131764559,"sku":"K34","price":95000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_7956.jpg?v=1781795260"},{"product_id":"bible-cistercian","title":"BIBLE, Cistercian","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis large splendid volume was produced in Northern Italy in the second half of the twelfth century for the use of a monastery of the Cistercian order, established in 1098 by Robert of Molesme at C√Æteaux. The unusual order of the biblical texts (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel; Epistles, Acts and Apocalypse; the Gospels), reflects a programme of reading in the Night Office carried out in Cistercian communities from Advent to Epiphany, Lent, and Easter to Pentecost (ordo librorum ad legendum; Reilly 2005, pp. 169-170). The Cistercians included the reading of the four Gospels into the refectory element of their annual cycle, but excluded the Passion narratives as highlighted in the manuscript by the marginal notes  Hic dimittatur legere in refectorio  (fols 201r, 215r, 239r) (Webber 2010, pp. 20 n. 47, 32). The large size of the volume, the two-column layout, well-spaced lettering and use of red minor initials throughout were designed to assure legibility for reading aloud. The principal hand is a very fine example of top quality 12th century calligraphy, elegant yet clearly legible. The additional punctuation supplied by the second hand in a darker ink in accordance with the Cistercian practice of indicating short, medium and long pauses in the reading, supplied further helpful guidance (Parkes 1992, pp. 195, 197). The textual corrections by this second hand testify to the attention paid to the correctness of biblical texts in accordance with St Bernard of Clairvaux s wishes. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The sober yet elegant decoration of the initials also follows the Cistercian practice of austerity, including restrained decoration in their manuscripts. The initials to Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel are similar in style to those found in a 12th-century manuscript Bible now in the Biblioteca Civica  Angelo Mai  at Bergamo, MA 600 (olim Alpha V 17; see Zizzo), with an almost certain Cistercian origin. The three initials in red with reserved and red and black penwork decoration on leaves 110r-111v are consistent with the decoration of Cistercian manuscripts produced in Italy, as in two 12th-century codices; an Office lectionary at Harvard, Houghton Library, Typ 223 online at http:\/\/hcl.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\/collections\/early_manuscripts\/bibliographies\/Typ.cfm, from the Abbey of Morimondo (Ferrari 1993, p. 299) and from Acquafredda Abbey (see Ferrari 1993, p. 295) a 12th century Commentary on The Old Testament-Pentateuch by Isidore of Seville and Hugh of St Victor s Rex Salomon, now at Berkeley, Bancroft Library, MS UCB 16. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Both these manuscripts have covers almost identical to the present, and bear similar titles on the second spine compartment, also found on Jerome s Commentary on the Minor Prophets, now Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Gerli MS 12, identified by Ferrari (Ferrari 1999, pp. 36, 41-42, 44) as one of the manuscripts mentioned in the twelfth-century book list from the Abbey of Morimondo found on the last verso of the Abbey s Office lectionary mentioned above (Houghton Library, Typ 223). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The present manuscript shares the same 18th-century provenance, if not origin, as those three manuscripts now at Milan, Berkeley and Cambridge. From the beginning of the eighteenth century many manuscripts from Cistercian abbeys in Lombardy were collected at the monastery of S. Ambrogio in Milan to support the programme of cultural reform promoted by the Congregation of St Bernard in Italy and the Austrian government. On arrival at S. Ambrogio, they may have been supplied with new covers and a manuscript title on the spine. The present manuscript must have arrived about the same time, when the influx increased exponentially with the suppressions of the monasteries in the last quarter of the century; many of these codices were then dispersed onto the open market. A good number were acquired by the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, but many entered private collections, such as those of the marchesi Trivulzio of Milan, Count Francesco Giovio (1796 - 1873) of Como, and Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727 - 1805), Jesuit and antiquarian of Venice, further dispersed through later sales. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A twentieth-century note in English pencilled on the upper flyleaf suggests that this manuscript may have passed through the hands of the bookseller Giuseppe (Joseph) Martini of Lugano between 1913 and 1942, though it is not mentioned by Ferrari in her list of Cistercian manuscripts described in Martini s catalogues (Ferrari 1999, pp. 34-35). It was Martini who probably invented the myth of provenance from the library of the celebrated humanist Paolo Giovio (1483 - 1552) still recorded in the literature of some Italian Cistercian manuscripts (see Berkeley, University of California, Bancroft Library, MS UCB 16, in Digital Scriptorium).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE, Cistercian","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133206351,"sku":"K56","price":250000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K56-3-1.jpg?v=1781795253"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-6","title":"BOOK OF HOURS","description":"\u003cp\u003eExtremely rare, finely printed and beautifully illuminated book of hours, finely printed on good quality vellum with the cuts beautifully illuminated in gold and colour in a rectangular format. The illuminator has not simply coloured the cuts beneath but has freely painted over them or extended the painting of the figures beyond the original borders. Books of hours were used by individuals at home rather than in church. A calendar was attached to the front so that memorial days of the saints could be identified. They were typically structured around the hourly prayers observed in monasteries and Catholics would recite the appropriate liturgy eight times a day. These books served as symbols of status and were often luxurious items, gifts given on important occasions. An important point to notice in connection with the illustrations of French  Books of Hours  at this time is that they are nearly all inspired by German artists and nearly all copied from illuminated MSS.  Joseph Cundall.  A Brief History of Wood engraving.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Hardouin s workshop dominated the market of printed books of hours, in Paris between 1510 and 1550. Gillet Hardouin worked primarily as a printer, between 1500 and 1542, and German Hardouin was registered in the Guild of Illuminators. They were the only editors capable of both printing and illumination without commissioning other professionals. They often used fine, densely ornamented metal cut borders, however they had gone out of fashion by the time this vol was produced, which gives this volume a much cleaner and clearer style. Here borders have been added but have been freely painted in the margins over gilt grounds. The quality of their work is remarkable. It seems that they produced books of hours in various formats, from ordinary copies printed on paper to those printed on vellum with woodcuts and the most luxurious where the entire book was illuminated over the original cuts, most often on commission for a specific client. The addition in the final quire of the Hours of St Jerome by Giovanni Andrea Bishop of Aleria is interesting and unusual. Lacombe points out that it is difficult to understand why this volume, apparently printed in 1533, contains a calendar dating from 1520-32, though does not suggest that it was printed at an earlier date. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Georg Friedrich von Greiffenklau zu Vollrads was born in Schloss Vollrads on 8 September 1573. He was educated at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome. In 1616, the cathedral chapter of Worms Cathedral elected him to be Bishop of Worms and then elected him to be Archbishop of Mainz in 1626. As Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, Georg Friedrich authored the Edict of Restitution in 1627. The Archbishop of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince in the Holy Roman Empire and was the primas Germaniae, the substitute for the Pope north of the Alps. Aside from Rome, the See of Mainz is the only other see referred to as a \"Holy See . The beautiful velvet  treasure  binding could well have been made for him as befitting someone of his status in the Church. A very beautiful and luxurious book of hours, exceptionally well preserved.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816138645839,"sku":"K98","price":38750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8091.jpg?v=1781795190"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-7","title":"BOOK OF HOURS","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe volume comprises: a Calendar (fol. 1r); the Hours of the Cross (fol. 7r); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol. 13r); a mass for the Virgin (fol. 16v), followed by the Passion Readings, the Obsecro te (fol. 23v) and O intemerata (fol. 25v); Suffrages to the Saints (fol. 27v); the Hours of the Virgin (fol. 52r), followed by variations for the Church year; the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol. 83r) followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 96r) and prayers. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The large miniatures are: 1. The Crucifixion; 2. Pentecost with the Virgin seated with her back to us gazing to heaven out of an archway, surrounded by followers; 3. The Annunciation to the Virgin, in which she kneels in her bower before her prie-deu with a closed book in a green binding; 4. The Nativity, with the Virgin and Joseph either side of an angel adoring the Child in a grassy area before the stable; 5. The Adoration of the Magi; 6. The Presentation in the Temple; 7. The Massacre of the Innocents; 8. The Flight into Egypt; 9. King David kneeling at a window and beholding God in the heavens; 9. A Funeral, with priests and hooded mourners.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816138842447,"sku":"K57","price":65000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8058.jpg?v=1781795190"},{"product_id":"portable-breviary-and-psalter-for-roman-use","title":"PORTABLE BREVIARY AND PSALTER FOR ROMAN USE","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis rare and charming volume includes a Temporal Breviary and Liturgical Psalter, i.e. service books used in the daily offices, both for the use of Rome. The Proprium de tempore (fols 8r-190r) provides the liturgy for the celebration of the Divine Office from the first Sunday of Advent according to the rite of the Roman Curia, with no further specification but for the inclusion in the litany (fols 74v-77r) of Zenobius, bishop of Florence, among the confessors, and of the Franciscan saints Francis, Clare and Elisabeth among monks and virgins respectively. It is dated 12 February 1447 and preceded by a table of rubrics (fols 1v-7r). The Liturgical Psalter (fols 192r-268r) supplies hymns, canticles, antiphones, versicles and responses according to the Cursus Romanus of the liturgy of the Hours and it is datable to the third quarter of the 15th century. The Temporal and the Liturgical Psalter were copied by two different scribes and at different times, with the Psalter probably dating to the early 1460s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNevertheless, the pen-flourished decoration of the minor initials and the beautiful illumination of the borders and major initials are consistent throughout the book and seemingly belong to the same decorative campaign, datable to the 1460s or early 1470s. The illumination was executed by an eclectic anonymous artist who was strongly influenced by the style of earlier and contemporary illumination from Lombardy in Northern Italy as suggested by the illuminated borders on fols 8r and 192r and the portrait initials on fols 8r and 192v (see A. De Floriani, “La miniatura in Liguria nella seconda metà del Quattrocento: un bilancio provvisorio”).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA connection with Northern Italy, and more specifically Liguria, is also suggested by the escutcheon in the bas-de-page and the depiction of a peacock in the border of the first page of the Breviary (fol. 8r), respectively identifiable as the arms and the emblem of the Cybos, a patrician family of Genoa. The nature of the text (a breviary for members of regular and secular clergy) and the cross above the shield, indicates an ecclesiastic of high status as the original owner. Two members of the Cybo family were created bishops and cardinals in the second half of the fifteenth century: Cardinal Giovanni Battista Cybo (1432-1492) bishop of Savona (1466-1472) and Molfetta (1472-1484), and his young cousin Cardinal Lorenzo Cybo de Mari (1450\/1-1503), archbishop of Benevento (1485-1503). As the cross above the arms shows the single horizontal limb of an episcopal cross, rather than the double traverse of the archiepiscopal one, the owner was Giovanni Battista Cybo before his election to the papacy as Pope Innocent VIII on 29 August 1484.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn November 1466 Giovanni Battista was made bishop of Savona, a town to the west of Genoa in the region of Liguria in Northern Italy; at the time under the government of the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza. These political circumstances favoured the arrival in Liguria of artists from Lombardy who imported new models and a more sophisticated artistic style to provincial Liguria. It is therefore conceivable that the two texts, the Temporal Breviary and the Liturgical Psalter, were brought together, decorated and assembled in a single volume in Liguria (Savona or Genoa) as a gift to Cybo as Bishop of Savona. Through the depiction of Cybo’s peacock and of the partridge and white rabbits in the margins of the opening of the Temporal Breviary, the decoration of the book seems to bestow upon the bishop a life of splendour, wisdom and knowledge, purity and truth, resurrection and ultimately immortality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis high quality manuscript for Cybo’s private devotion and therefore after his death probably remained in the possession of his family, whereas books belonging to him as pontiff were kept in the papal library (now the Vatican Library). The volume was certainly in use after the pope’s death as an unprofessional hand added two notes relating to the death of Innocent VIII and the election of his successor Alexander Borgia in August 1492 to fol. 272v. It was possibly passed on to the pope’s cousin Cardinal Lorenzo Cybo de Mari, who had the pope’s tomb in the Vatican basilica completed by the leading painter and sculptor Antonio del Pollaiuolo in 1498 and his body buried in the bronze monument on January 1498. It is worth noting that the pope’s arms on the tomb are identical to those found in this book [see A. Wright, The Pollaiuolo brothers: the arts of Florence and Rome, New Haven, 2005, chapter XIII].\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs the book is not listed in the inventory of the books bequeathed by Cardinal Lorenzo to the Cathedral of Benevento (see A. Zaro, “L’Inventario dei libri antichi della Biblioteca Capitolare di Benevento”, Samnium, viii (1935), pp. 5-25, in particular pp. 23-5), it is probable that it was passed on as a prized possession to other members of the Cybo family, including Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo (1491-1550), the grandson of Innocent VIII, appointed as cardinal by his uncle Leo X in 1513, and Cardinals Alderano (1613-1700) and Camillo (1681-1743).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PORTABLE BREVIARY AND PSALTER FOR ROMAN USE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816138875215,"sku":"K4","price":45950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7972.jpg?v=1781795189"},{"product_id":"psalter","title":"PSALTER","description":"\u003cp\u003eText and Illumination: The volume comprises Psalms 15-150, followed by the Magnificat, a Litany and other prayers. The initials here compare well with the refined works of this region in the last decades of the thirteenth century (such as the Psalter for the use of Ghent, mid-thirteenth century, now Getty MS. 14; 85.MK.239, and the Bestiary from Flanders, c. 1270, now Getty, MS. Ludwig XV 3;83.MR.173: see Kren, Illuminated Manuscripts from Belgium and the Netherlands, pp. 40 and 44-6; and the Bute Psalter, made north east France c. 1270, now Getty MS. 46;92.MK.92: see same series for French manuscripts, pp. 31-32), and sets it well above the more commonly found rustic examples. The historiated initials contain: 1. fol. 30v, David as a crowned king with a long staff, touching his eyes as God blesses him (opening  Dominus illuminatio mea ... , Psalm 26); 2. fol. 50r, God appearing from a cloud and blessing an enthroned David (opening  Dixi custodiam vias ... , Psalm 39); 3. fol. 67v, David brandishing a sword before a Jewish religious leader, probably representing Ahimelech to whom the text is addressed (opening  Quid gloriaris in ... , Psalm 51); 4. fol. 68v, King David standing before a fool representative of those  who work iniquity, who have devoured my people like a loaf of bread , who holds a staff and bites from a circular piece of bread (opening  Dixit insipiens in ... , Psalm 52); 5. fol. 86v, Christ and David in different compartments of an initial, with Christ blessing while David is half-submurged in water (opening  Salvum me fac ... , Psalm 68); 6. fol. 109v, David with a stick ringing the bells hanging from a stone church (opening  E[xultate] deo nostro ... , Psalm 80); 7. Fol. 130r, three tonsured monks singing from a book on a lectern (opening  Cantate domino canticum ... , Psalm 97); 8. fol. 133r, David in prayer on the Mount of Olives (opening  Domine exaudi orationem ... , Psalm 101); 9. fol. 153v, the Crucifixion, with God the Father holding Christ on the Cross (opening  Dixit dominus ... , Psalm 109).   An elegant and high quality psalter   rare.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PSALTER","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816138940751,"sku":"K50","price":125000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1_41047cf4-e7a1-46b2-b778-a39551b09177.jpg?v=1781795190"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-9","title":"BOOK OF HOURS","description":"\u003cp\u003eText: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The volume contains a Calendar (fol. 1r); the Passion readings from the Gospel of John (fol. 7r) and prayers including the  Egressus est dominus   ,  Ave mundi spes maria    and  Saluto te sancta virgo   ; the Hours of the Virgin (fol. 14r), with Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers and Compline; the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol. 30r) followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 40r; Use of Angers) followed by prayers and suffrages to saints. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Illumination: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The single miniature in this volume is that of the Annunciation to the Virgin, in which the high dome-like heads of the figures, as well as their ivory-white skin-tones and the close composition of the scene, show the strong influence of the royal court artist Jean Bourdichon (1457\/49-1521), whose style dominated the art of the northern French elites throughout the first half of the sixteenth century. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n What is remarkable here, and unlike most other Books of Hours, is the influence of French Renaissance decoration in the larger initials and script which would be more at home in a grand illuminated text manuscript (cf. the contemporary Haimo of Auxerre, Expositio in epistolas Pauli, made for Jean Bud é, royal secretary: sold in Sotheby s, 29 June 2007, lot 37, then Les Enluminures, cat. 15, France 1500, no.16). This opulent art style was brought to France by François Ier from Italy, and popularised by his court as part of a programme to plant  une nouvelle Rome  on French soil. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Provenance: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n 1. Written and illuminated in High-Renaissance style during the period in which the extravagant patronage of François Ier and his court established the French Renaissance as an art movement in itself. The commissioner was from Angers in Central France (both uses of Hours of the Virgin and Office of the Dead in that form), but the decoration, the presence of SS. Genevieve and Denis in red in the Calendar, and the history of the book, all suggest an origin in Paris. The last pages, originally blank, have sixteenth-century devotional material added to them as well as the apparent signature  De Nully (?) of that date. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n 2. Thence donated to the library of the royal Abbey of Saint-Antoine, Paris (also Saint-Antoine-des-Champs-lèz-Paris; see H. Bonnardot, L Abbaye royale de Saint-Antoine des Champs de l ordre de C√Æteaux 1882, and É. Rauni é,  Abbaye royale de Saint-Antoine-des-Champs , in Épitaphier du vieux Paris, 1890): their seventeenth- or eighteenth-century ownership inscriptions at head and sides of first leaf of Calendar,  Ex Libris Domus S. Antonii Parisiensis ; they also owned a thirteenth-century Gospel Book, now Paris, Bibliothèque de l Arsenal, MS. 613, but otherwise books from their library appear to be rare. The absence of St. Anthony suggests that the book was made for a patron outside of this community and then given to it later. The abbey was founded by the mid-twelfth century as a community of Cistercian women, following preaching by the reformer Foulques de Neuilly at a chapel dedicated to St. Anthony just outside the eastern gate of Paris   the present suburb of the city named Faubourg St Antoine grew up around them and is based on their estates. The house came under royal protection and enjoyed the patronage of wealthy citizens of Paris and leading members of the university there, and by the end of the Middle Ages it was one of the wealthiest female communities within the Cistercian Order. It was suppressed in 1790, and its goods and chattels dispersed.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816146051407,"sku":"K118","price":39500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7998.jpg?v=1781794942"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-10","title":"BOOK OF HOURS","description":"\u003cp\u003eProvenance: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Written and illuminated c. 1480, most probably for a patron in Autun: Calendar with local saints, Nazarus and Celsus (28 July, with octave, to whom the original cathedral of Autun was dedicated), St Lazare (1 September, with  Hic fit de sancto Lazaro  on 2 and 3 September), the revelatio of St Lazare (20 October, with octave), Proculus (4 November), the adventus reliquiarum of Nazarius and Celsus (6 November), Amator (26 November), and the dedication of the church of St Lazare (20 December), with these and further local saints in the Litany (SS. Martial, Trophine, and Saturnine). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Text: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The volume comprises: a Calendar (fol. 1r); the Obsecro te (fol. 13r) and O intemerata (fol. 17v); the Gospel extracts (fol. 21r); the Hours of the Virgin (fol. 25r); the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol. 86r) with a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 106r); seasonal variants for the hours (fol. 153r, wanting last leaf).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816169316687,"sku":"K141","price":19500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7964.jpg?v=1781794857"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-12","title":"BOOK OF HOURS","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe volume comprises: a Calendar (fol. 2r); the Passion Readings (fol. 7r); the Obsecro te (fol. 12r) and the O intemerata (fol. 14r); the Hours of the Virgin (fol. 16v), opening “Hore intemerate virginis marie secundum usum rothom[agum]”, interspersed with the Hours of the Cross and Holy Spirit, with Matins (fol. 16v), Lauds (fol. 23r), Prime (fol. 32r), Terce (fol. 36r), Sext (fol. 39r), None (fol. 41v), Vespers (fol. 44r) and Compline (fol. 46v); the Penitential Psalms (fol. 50r), followed by a Litany; the Ofiice of the Dead (fol. 62r); followed by the Doulce dame (fol. 80v), the Doulx dieu (fol. 84r) in French, and Suffrages to the Saints.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rich palette of reds, gold and even black (used as a background for the Tree of Jesse miniature, as well as dark shading underneath the branches of trees) as well as the distinctive border decoration is redolent of Rouen work of the last decades of the fifteenth century, most notably miniatures often attributed to Robert Boyvin (c. 1470-after 1536), who worked for Cardinal Georges d’Amboise (archbishop of Rouen from 1493 until his death on 25 May 1510) as well as many other clients (see I. Delaunay, ‘Le manuscrit enluminé à Rouen au temps du cardinal Georges d’Amboise: l’œuvre de Robert Boyvin et de Jean Serpin’ in Annales de Normandie 45e année, 3, 1995, pp. 211-244). Of particular note here are the striking image of the Tree of Jesse and the uncommon image of the meeting of three living and three dead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe large miniatures are: 1. fol. 8r, St. John on Patmos seated before his attribute the eagle, writing on a scroll; 2. fol. 16r, The tree of Jesse, with Jesse as a bearded sleeping fifure reclining at the foot of the leaf, with a twisted tree emerging from his chest and branching off with half-length portraits of the various kings in gold and coloured robes emerging from the buds at the end of some of its branches, the highest stalk containing the Virgin and Child, all on black ground and within architectural columns and architrave containing Adam, Eve and the Serpent in the centre; 3. fol. 23r, the Vistation of the Virgin to St. Anne before a medieval walled city; 4. fol. 30r, the Crucifixion, with a crowd at the foot of the Cross; 5. fol. 31r, Pentecost, with the Virgin standing within a gothic interior as the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descends; 6. fol. 32r, the Nativity, with two peasants gazing up at the star in the background, with a bird and a drollery-creature in the border; 7. fol. 36r, Annunciation to the Shepherds, one with a bagpipe and another with a staff and a long tall hat; 8. fol. 39r, the Adoration of the Magi, all in rich robes; 9. fol. 41v, the Presentation in the Temple, set within an opulent gothic ecclesiastical interior; 10. fol. 44r, Flight into Egypt, with a soldier greeting a peasant before a field of ripe corn in the background (an apparent reference to the miracle of the instantaneous harvest, in which the soldier returns to the field only a few months after harvest to discover the peasants cutting the second and miraculous crop); 11. fol. 46v, the Coronation of the Virgin, as she kneels before God the Father; 12. fol. 50r, King David kneeling, his harp before him, as God appears in the sky through a window; 13. fol. 62r, the Meeting of the Three Living and the Three Dead, with the living on horseback as three grinning skeletons greet them at the crossroads before a medieval walled town; 14. fol. 80v, the Virgin and Child enthroned with the original owner kneeling before them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820148302159,"sku":"K97","price":125000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1_8b3897f2-12b3-474a-b0c0-f61082479bda.jpg?v=1781794853"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-13","title":"BOOK OF HOURS","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe volume comprises: a Calendar (fol. 1r); Gospel Readings (fol. 14r); the Hours of the Virgin (fol. 22r); Seven Penitential Psalms (fol. 105r), followed by a Litany; the Hours of the Cross (wanting opening, fol. 128r); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol. 131v); the Office of the Dead (fol. 136r); the Suffrages to the Saints (fol. 178r), followed by prayers. To this has been added the prayer to St. Hubert (fol. 199r), followed by blanks (fols. 200-203, once the original end of the book). The volume now finishes with a single leaf with a prayer to the Virgin most probably from the original text block, and added prayers once among the additions at the end of the volume.  \u003cbr\u003e\n Illumination:  \u003cbr\u003e\n The miniatures here are the work of a notably close follower of the Master of the Chronique Scandeleuse, who flourished in Paris between 1490 and 1510, working for elite patrons there, and the quality and richness of the illumination suggests the direct influence of the master himself. Here are his distinctive ivory-skinned women, figures with half-closed eyes and ruby red lips, as well as his love for gilded architectural frames. The wealth of imagery in the border is impressive, with riotous wildmen fighting and being shot in the bottom with an arrow, men-at-arms with shaggy legs hunting, and perhaps strangest and rarest of all, a white bear on fol. 88v. While elephants, whales and similar are of staggering rarity in medieval manuscripts, no other example of a white bear is known to the present cataloguer.  In the medieval world white bears (whether polar bears or albino versions of mainland European breeds) were of astronomical rarity, and where they occur in our records it is always in connection with royal or near-royal status (King Cnut the Great was supposed in the late medieval Ramsey Abbey Chronicle to have given them twelve white bearskins to set before their altars; in 1252 Henry III of England received one as a gift from Norway; and in the fifteenth century Louis de Gruuthuse presided over tournaments named the  White Bear jousts , but these were confined to wealthy burghers of Bruges). No white bear is recorded at any European court in the fifteenth century, but it is possible that the artist had seen a polar bear skin or that the original owner owned one (if so it would be an equal treasure to this opulent volume). Alternatively the bear may have been included here as an example of the strange and fantastical world beyond the boundaries of mainland Europe, which gripped the mind of medieval man.  \u003cbr\u003e\n The large miniatures comprise: 1. fol. 22r, Adam and Eve standing beside the Tree of Knowledge as the serpent (a green bulbous snake with a human head) looks down at Eve as she bites the apple, Adam raising his hand to his throat in horror, another scene of the Annunciation to the Virgin, two angels supporting the text frame, all set within ornate architectural borders; 2. fol. 47r, the Visitation of the Virgin to St. Anne, the borders with a snail and a dragon with a face in its chest; 3. fol. 62r, the Nativity, with Mary, Joseph and a female attendant adoring the Child inside a dark interior, two wildmen with clubs and bucklers in the margin; 4. fol. 67v, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, with a kneeling angel looking on from the border as two armed men fight below (one spearing the other from the back of a long-necked quadruped animal; 5. fol. 72v, the Adoration of the Magi, with wildmen with clubs and shields carved with human faces in lower border; 6. fol. 81r, Flight into Egypt, with a man-at-arms with shaggy legs firing an arrow from a longbow at the moment the arrow lodges in the bottom of a wildmen whose faces contorts in surprise; 7. fol. 88v, the Coronation of the Virgin, with the Virgin seated beside God the Father as he crowns her, a tiny wildman riding a white bear flecked with liquid gold penstrokes in the margin next to them, above another man-at-arms who fires a blow? at a surprised wildman; 8. fol. 105r, King David enthroned and surrounded by female attendants, above another scene of him receiving his vision in the wilderness, two angels supporting the text frame and a golden archer picked out in the initial, all within finely painted architectural frame; 9. fol. 131v, Pentecost, above another scene of the Pascal sacrifice, the lamb burning on a hillock before a crowd of followers and a Benedictine monk with his hands clasped in prayer, text frame supported by two knights in armour, all within architectural frame; 10. Fol. 136r, Judgement Day, with Christ in blessing in the upper compartment and the dead rising from their graves in the lower, two wildmen supporting the text frame, all within architectural frame.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820189917519,"sku":"K51","price":85000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7982.jpg?v=1781794851"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-illuminated-manuscript","title":"BOOK OF HOURS, illuminated manuscript","description":"\u003cp\u003eProvenance:  \u003cbr\u003e\n 1. Written and illuminated in Bordeaux around the opening of the sixteenth century, with the use of the Office of the Virgin that of the exceptionally rare Saint-Andr é de Bordeaux, with the Office of the Dead in general agreement with use of Bordeaux. The Calendar includes a number of southern French saints, such as Quiteria (22 May), and Genesius (25 August, in red), Bertrand of Comminges (16 October) and Fronto (25 October), as well as specifically Bordeaux saints (such as Beraldus and Amand).  \u003cbr\u003e\n 2. Richard de Lom énie (collection dispersed before 1938): his late nineteenth to early twentieth-century armorial bookplate engraved by Bouvier, with motto:  Je maintiendray ; a family member of Étienne-Charles de Lom énie (1727-94), finance minister of King Louis XVI, bishop of Condom, archbishop of Toulouse and finally archbishop of Sens. Another Book of Hours once owned by him now in The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 77 L 59, Pierpont Morgan Museum, M.1073, and others sold in Christie s, 7 July 2010, lot 36; and 15 July 2015, lot 28, as well as widely in the French trade in the last decade.  Text:  This volume comprises: a Calendar (fol. 1r); the Gospel extracts (fol. 7r); the Hours of the Virgin (fol. 13r); the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol. 63r) followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 80v); the Obsecro te (fol. 109r) followed by prayers.  \u003cbr\u003e\n Illumination:  The source of the richly illuminated scenes here is most probably a printed copy of the text with miniatures designed by the Master of Anne de Bretagne, a Parisian artist named after an opulent Book of Hours illuminated for the queen of both kings Charles VIII and Louis XII of France. His workshop illuminated manuscripts and produced designs for printed copies (R. Wieck, Painted Prayers, 1997, p. 57, no. 38), and one of those presumably stands behind this work by a Bordeaux illuminator.  The subjects of the large miniatures are: (1) fol. 13r, the Annunciation; (2) fol. 24v, the Visitation; (3) fol. 32r, the Pentecost; (4) fol. 38v, Nativity; (5) fol. 43r, the Annunciation to the Shepherds; (6) fol. 46r, Adoration of the Magi; (7) fol. 49r, Presentation in the temple; (8) fol. 52r, Flight into Egypt; (9) fol. 63r, David in prayer; (10) fol. 80v, Job on the dungheap.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS, illuminated manuscript","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820343206223,"sku":"K140","price":75000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190813_174619-scaled.jpg?v=1781794830"},{"product_id":"sermons","title":"SERMONS","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe use of gold and blue half-fleur-de-lys devices in the decoration of this large and impressive volume identifies it as part of a small group of surviving manuscripts which were produced for Charles V, the Duc de Berry and other members of the French royal family   that is, the single greatest bibliophilic family of the entire Middle Ages. The distinctive decoration in known in the French royal inventories as  enlumin é tout au long des colombes de fleur de lis d or et d assur  (Delisle, Cabinet des Manuscrits, III, p.139), and seems to have been a preserve of a group of manuscript artists when working solely for this noble and bibliophilic kin-group. The copy of Les Grandes Chroniques with one full-page miniature and 33 small miniatures sold by Sotheby s, 8 December 1981, lot 94, was made c. 1380 by Parisian court scribes and painters for Jean, Duc de Berry (1340-1416), son of Jean le Bon and brother of Charles V, and has near-identical decoration, variegated initials using gold, and dimensions (see Sotheby s cat. p. 120). The contemporary fragmentary Histoire Ancienne, now British Library, Egerton MS. 912, is part of this same group, and to these should be added the Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, sold by Sotheby s, 7 December 1982, lot 53, later Schoenberg collection (see Transformation of Knowledge, 2006, no. IX:11, p. 137), and the present volume. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In addition, the present volume has great individual merit. While it, like the Vincent of Beauvais listed above, cannot be easily located among the French royal inventories, it is unlikely to have been produced for a patron outside the royal house. The scribe and artist will have known the French royals intimately, and careful study will probably detect their influences in other books made for the court. The sermon collection is also apparently unrecorded and unstudied, and may contain further links to the devotions of this noble family which could point towards to a particular individual.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SERMONS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820384657743,"sku":"K45","price":75000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7508.jpg?v=1781793810"},{"product_id":"krakow","title":"KRAKÒW","description":"\u003cp\u003eStunning illuminated manuscript granting the citizenship of Krak√≥w to Ioannis Stephanus Pusterla Venetus, i.e. the Italian Giovanni Stefano Pusterla Veneto. The text of the diploma states that he is ‚Äònobilis ac famatus‚Äô, meaning noble and famous, and that he provided sufficient evidence of his genealogy. The Pusterla family is an ancient and noble family of Milanese origin, related to the powerful Visconti: among its most notable members are four archbishops of Milan, several politicians, military leaders and benefactors. In the 13th century, the family obtained from Emperor Otto IV the right to have a black Imperial Eagle on their coat of arms, depicted in beautiful detail on this document. Giovanni Stefano, however, is ‚ÄòVenetus‚Äô, meaning that he comes from the Veneto region in the north-east of Italy. The Italian historian Giambattista Pagliarino (1415-1506) records branches of the Pusterla family in Vicenza, a city not far from Venice, at least from the 14th century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to the grant, Giovanni Stefano is now entitled to ‚Äúuse, enjoy and benefit from‚Äù all the ‚Äúlaws, privileges, freedoms, prerogatives and immunities‚Äù of the citizens of Krak√≥w, and that he also must preserve and respect them. Most interestingly, he is officially allowed to ‚Äútrade goods freely and without customs duties‚Äù. In the 17th century, several members of the noble families of Vicenza were merchants. The ‚ÄòBianchi-Pusterla Company‚Äô, led by Ludovico Bianchi and Carlo Pusterla, was one of the biggest Venetian companies based in Krak√≥w. Giovanni Stefano was Carlo‚Äôs brother, and we know from various sources that he continued to trade in Poland even after his brother‚Äôs company failed in 1629. The text is signed by Ioannes Rorayski, a ‚Äòsecretarius‚Äô (secretary) of Krak√≥w whose name is attested in other contemporary documents issued by the city (Piekosinski).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe illumination of diplomas, certificates and official documents was optional, and usually requested by wealthy persons as a way to emphasize the value of the document. This example has small holes on the upper edge, suggesting that it was displayed on a wall for everyone to see. Illuminated citizenship diplomas are very rare compared to degree certificates and official decrees, and this one was decorated by a skilled illustrator. His name appears, signed in a small and neat hand, in the middle of the calligraphic initial: Daniel Rode. In this period, zoomorphic and floral elements began to appear ‚Äì as here, where grapes, foliage, different species of birds, dogs hunting, fishes, goats, deers, snails and other small animals are rendered with fresh vividness. These realistic elements interact with charming human characters (including prisoners, a knight, a philosopher and a bagpipe player), symbolic objects and fanciful mythological creatures such as chimeras and dragons.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis document is not only an outstanding work of art, but also an extremely interesting witness of the political and commercial relations between Italy and Poland in the 17th century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KRAKƒW","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859639673167,"sku":"L3652","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1_25474eac-386b-4a5c-818d-44f37373ab79.jpg?v=1781793772"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-13_at_6.33.20_PM.png?v=1781372023","url":"https:\/\/sokol-books-ltd.myshopify.com\/collections\/illuminated-initials.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}