AUCTION – The Arcana Collection: Exceptional Illuminated Manuscripts, Part III, Christie’s (8 King Street, St Jame’s, London) Wednesday, 6 July 2011.
Scintillating, colourful, richly embellished illuminated manuscripts are meticulously crafted works of art treasured by bibliophiles, connoisseurs of Old Master drawings, prints and jewelry alike. The 6 July sale allows collectors of books, manuscripts and other forms of art to discover the universal appeal of these lovely creations, and admire every line and detail – from the luminous colours to the exquisite modelling, the distinguished provenance of each piece, and ultimately, the inherent beauty in these wonderful pieces of art.
The following entries are of particular interest:
Lot 2
ST BARBARA, miniature by the MASTER OF MONZA, on a cutting from a Lives of the Saints, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Lombardy, c.1280-85] 79 x 60mm. The saint shown holding a palm of martyrdom standing beside a tower, with an accompanying initial ‘B’, fragment of text and rubric above. Remnants of seven lines of fragmentary text in a gothic bookhand on verso (slight fading of pigment to top of tower). Card mount.
Lot 3
BISHOP SAINT, probably ST BONIFACE, miniature by the MASTER OF MONZA on a cutting from a Lives of the Saints, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Lombardy, c.1280-85] 72 x 62mm. The saint holding a crozier and standing before a tower, with an accompanying initial ‘B’. Remnants of seven lines of fragmentary text in a gothic hand on verso (slight losses of pigment to green garment and white crozier). Card mount. The text on the reverse comes from a passage early on in the life of St Erasmus (‘Post hac iubente [angelo ad civ]itatem suam rediit’, CLXXXVIII, 5) in Bartholomew of Trent’s Liber epilogorum; this miniature, bearing the initial ‘B’, must therefore have been intended to illustrate the following life, that of St Boniface.
Lot 6
ST FRANCIS RECEIVING THE STIGMATA, historiated initial ‘G’ on a bifolium FROM THE BELLUNO GRADUAL, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT CHOIRBOOK ON VELLUM [Cremona, 1489] 570 x 410 mm. Two leaves joined to form a bifolium, the first with an historiated initial depicting a rocky landscape with St Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata from a seraph, he is barefoot, dressed in a brown habit girdled by a rope with three knots representing his vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, the initial with dolphins, cornucopia sprouting green leaves, a trompe l’oeil cluster of pearls around a sapphire in a gold mount, on a burnished gold ground within a bevelled-bordered square frame, 120 x 130mm, in the left margin a roundel with a seated lion in a landscape, a border of antique vases, winged putti heads, leaves and flowers, cornucopia, burnished gold and blue coloured ‘shredding’, written with six or seven lines of text in a formal gothic script in brown and black ink, rubrics in red, music with square notation on a four-line stave ruled in red, original foliation ‘LXIII’ and ‘LXVIII’ on versos in red, indicating that this was the third bifolium from the middle of its quire, the second leaf has initials alternately red with blue penwork or vice versa, the second leaf is by a different scribe and its red initial has purple penwork; despite its differences the second leaf must be near-contemporary and includes folio references to other parts of the volume from folio ‘cxx’ to ‘clvi’ (the text with a few characters re-inked, the decoration with very minor pigment losses and small areas of gold missing). Card mount, cloth box.
Lot 7
NATIVITY, WITH THE VIRGIN IN ADORATION OF THE CHRIST CHILD, cutting from a choirbook, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [?Milan, c.1495-1500] 145 x 97mm overall. The Holy Family in an extensive and detailed landscape-setting painted in colours, liquid gold and unburnished gold leaf, the scene bordered with a fillet of brown ink; the verso with parts of a large blue skeletal initial with red penwork decoration and a foliate infill of green, blue and pink, and two four-line staves of red with music of square notation (crease across centre with small loss of pigment, tiny pigment losses in landscape above the shepherd, rubbing to gold of Virgin’s mantle). Loosely hinged on card mount, red solander box. This is the infill of the initial ‘P’ from the Introit ‘Puer natus est’ opening the Third Mass of Christmas Day, the fragmentary initial E on the recto opened the Communion ‘Exulta filia Sion’ of the Second Mass at dawn.
Lot 18
THE GREAT HOURS OF GALEAZZO MARIA SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN, use of Rome, in Latin and Italian, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Milan, 1471-76] 350 x 240mm. i + 241 leaves: 1-228, 232, 24-308, 317 (of 8 final blank cancelled), COMPLETE, with horizontal catchwords and original alphabetical signatures on gatherings 1-24 running from a-aa and on gatherings 25-30 from a-f, later binder’s signatures show that gathering 31 was once bound as the first in the volume, modern pencil foliation 1-242 followed here, 30 lines written in an elegant humanistic script in brown ink with text rubrics in pink, justification: 215 x 135mm, principal rubrics in large capitals of burnished gold, one-line initials alternately of blue and burnished gold respectively flourished gold and violet, two-line ILLUMINATED INITIALS THROUGHOUT of burnished gold on grounds and infills of blue, red and green with white penwork decoration, ALMOST ONE HUNDRED LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS, mostly five lines high painted in pink on grounds of burnished gold with a flower-spray infill, three with CROWNED PROFILE HEADS (ff.61, 70v, 73v), SMALL HISTORIATED INITIAL with part-border, FIVE SPLENDID TITLE-PAGES WITH GOLDEN DISPLAY SCRIPT, HISTORIATED INITIALS AND INHABITED BORDERS WITH EMBLEMS AND HERALDRY (oxidisation and offsetting to silver and lead white, a few outer lower corners thumbed, crease on f.234, a few inconsequential marks, central bifolium of final gathering detached). 18th-century Italian red morocco gilt, spine in compartments gilt, red silk markers (hinges split, scuffing and minor losses of leather). Blue solander box. A SUMPTUOUS DISPLAY OF THE MAGNIFICENCE OF A RENAISSANCE PRINCE.
Lot 21
THE LIBANORI BREVIARY, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Ferrara, c.1475-90] 247 x 177mm. 422 leaves (the last blank), with later flyleaves, including a bifolium around the first gathering, COMPLETE: 16, 2-1810, 192, 208, 21-2510, 268, 27-4010, catchwords in lower margins of final versos, 34 lines written in a fine gothic liturgical hand in dark brown ink in two columns between two verticals and 35 horizontals ruled in pale ink, justification: 152 x 106mm, rubrics in red, versal capitals in alternating burnished gold and blue, DECORATED INITIALS THROUGHOUT, two-line initials in alternating burnished gold and blue against elaborate grounds of alternating blue and red filigree penwork extending into margins, with EIGHTY-THREE LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS in pink, green, blue and red on grounds of burnished gold with floral designs, occasionally with elaborate gold filigree extensions, TWENTY-FOUR HISTORIATED INITIALS from four to eleven lines high, usually accompanied by full-length bar borders sprouting panels of elaborate gold filigree enclosing painted flowers in upper and lower margins, FOUR FULL-PAGE ILLUMINATED AND HISTORIATED BORDERS OF GOLDEN FILIGREE containing medallions with saints, angels, birds and other animals (slight rubbing to edges of the first two borders, a few creases, occasional wear). CONTEMPORARY GILT-STAMPED BINDING of brown goatskin over wooden boards with outer arabesque border and roundel of interlace set in an extended diamond on a field of interlace, gilt edges, traces of gilding (rebacked with original spine laid down, a few small small repairs, endleaves replaced, clasps lacking). Dark green solander box.
Lot 27
THE COLONNA MISSAL, use of the Sistine Chapel, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Italy, Rome or Vatican City, c.1532, 1539, and c.1555] 370 x 260mm. 97 leaves: 18, 29 (of 10, lacking vii), 38, 412 (of 10, plus a bifolium ix and x), 5-910, 109 (of 10, lacking x), ff. 34v, 42, 69v, 97 blank, foliated in sixteenth-century ink roman numerals, and in pencil by Eric Millar c.1925, the ink foliation lacks ‘i’, ‘xvi’, and stops at ‘lxxxxiiii’, the list of contents on f.97v was probably originally at the beginning of the volume where it would have been conjoint with and facing f.i, catchwords throughout, ruled in very pale brown ink with 15 pairs of horizontals for the tops and bottoms of minims on each line, with two verticals, justification: 255 x 160mm, written in brown ink in a fine formal gothic script, rubrics in red, with up to 15 lines of text or 5 lines of text and music per page, the music in square notation on three red staves, a fourth stave occasionally ruled at the beginning of a piece of music, one-line gold initials on square grounds alternately blue or red, THIRTY-THREE THREE-LINE ILLUMINATED INITIALS, OFTEN HISTORIATED, in colours on a gold ground or vice versa, WITH LARGE BORDER ORNAMENTS, OFTEN FIGURAL, at the beginning of prayers, readings, etc., ONE VERY LARGE HISTORIATED INITIAL at the beginning of the Canon of the Mass and ONE LARGE MINIATURE at the beginning of the Mass of the Presentation in the Temple (some minor offsetting or smudges, rarely affecting the decoration). Bound in full red morocco extensively gilt and blind-tooled, each cover including the Colonna arms in the centre and a Colonna column to each side, and a doubled-headed eagle in each corner, the spine with Renaissance interlace ornament, the leaves with gilt edges, traces of four ties (spine repaired with old leather laid on, some scuffing, traces of four ties). Red morocco-backed solander box.