Bonhams 1793 : ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT BREVIARY, Franciscan

BREVIARY, Franciscan, manuscript on vellum, in Latin, 366 leaves (one on paper), plus a printed calendar on 6 paper leaves (c.1500) at opening, wanting 9 leaves (see below), the manuscript in double columns of 23 lines each, brown ink in a gothic bookhand, ruled lightly in brown, rubrics in red, numerous blue and red initials, 2 six-line floral intials in blue, red and green, with penwork and gold flower centres, 10 five-line, one four-line and nine 2-line initials in the breviary and several further initials in the continuation, 2 parts bound together in early sixteenth century blind-tooled calf with remnants of two brass clasps, 29 turks-head knotted coloured vellum page tabs (a few more lacking), minor loss to head of spine, upper joint repaired, 175 x 125mm., [Flanders, c.1425-1450, with later additions]

Sold for £9,600 inc. premium

Footnotes

Contents: 6 leaves of printed calendar on paper, ff. 1-256 Breviary of the Friars Minor (Franciscans); 257-366 near-contemporary or early continuation in another hand with textual additions in several other early hands.

Text: the core of the manuscript is a carefully-written Franciscan breviary which has been bound together with an early or contemporary continuation in a slightly less accomplished hand with more basic illumination. To these two parts have been added a printed calendar (c.1500) which perhaps replaced an original manuscript calendar. There are several textual additions (notably to the paper leaf 359) on previously blank sections or on inserted slips. Nine leaves are potentially missing, but not all of these would have borne text: a stub between ff. 182 and 3 indicates removal of a (possibly blank) leaf; blank portion of f. 254 has been cut away with no apparent loss of text or illumination; wo stubs between the end of the main breviary and the continuation (i.e. between ff. 256 and 7, again possibly blank) indicate two leave excised; in the continuation as many as 6 leaves between ff. 328 and 9 have been removed with loss of some text. See illustration at page 90.

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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