TEXT FROM THE VIGIL OF STS. PETER AND PAUL (28 JUNE) AND THE FEAST OF STS. PETER AND PAUL (29 JUNE)

late 13th or early 14th century · Northern France, perhaps Beauvais or Amiens

by A MEDIEVAL ILLUMINATED VELLUM MANUSCRIPT LEAF FROM THE BEAUVAIS MISSAL

Northern France, perhaps Beauvais or Amiens, late 13th or early 14th century. 286 x 199 mm. (11 1/4 x 7 3/4"). Double column, containing a mixture of staves and text (approximately 21 lines) in an excellent formal gothic book hand.
Attractively matted. Rubrics in red, chant text containing black penwork initials with red and yellow geometric elaboration, BEAUTIFULLY ILLUMINATED with five two-line initials painted blue or pink with white tracery on a ground in the contrasting color, two of the initials filled with grotesques and swirling vines (and two with the filler design traced out but never completed) each initial with blue and pink extensions (truncated) terminating in orange leaves or spiky shapes; the verso featuring AN IMPRESSIVE SIX-LINE "N" (58 x 50 mm.) in the same style, filled with an intricate knotwork design and orange leaves, with long extensions, including a horizontal extension across the upper margin. Margins with light offsetting of the designs from the facing leaf; remnants of mounting tape on recto corners and bottom edge; verso apparently with a barely visible Medieval "14" in lower margin. An area measuring 5 mm. at edges just faintly yellowed (from mat burn?), but IN FINE CONDITION, the vellum otherwise quite bright, the paint rich, and the gold brightly glittering.

This sumptuously decorated leaf--which is beautifully preserved and contains a particularly large and handsome initial--comes from the last volume of a three-volume Missal presented to Beauvais Cathedral by Canon Robert de Hangest (d. 1356). The Missal remained at the cathedral at least through the 17th century, when it is noted in an inventory, but was removed from the church at some point, likely in the aftermath of the French Revolution. The parent volume eventually entered the collection of Henri-Auguste Brölemann (1775-1854) of Lyon, who passed it to his grand-daughter Etienne Mallet, who then sold it at Sotheby's in 1926. It was then acquired for the collection of William Hearst, where it remained for the next 25 years. In 1941 it was again sold at auction, and subsequently dismembered. Though long thought to have been the work of famed biblioclast Otto Ege, recent scholarship suggests that it was actually Phillip Duschnes who was responsible for breaking up the book, keeping some leaves for himself and selling others on to his colleague Ege for inclusion in his portfolios of "Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts." The Beauvais Missal has been a subject of interest for many notable scholars (chief among them being Christopher de Hamel--see: "Otto Ege and the Beauvais Missal" in "Gilding the Lilly: A Hundred Medieval and Illuminated Manuscripts in the Lilly Library"), and it is currently the focus of a major effort to "reconstruct" the manuscript digitally--a project spearheaded by Lisa Fagin Davis. Other leaves from the parent volume are in the collections of the Morgan Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Houghton Library at Harvard, among many others. Although there is some dispute among art historians, the illumination has been tentatively attributed to the artist of the Hours of Yolande of Soissons, produced in Amiens ca. 1280 and now held by the Morgan Library (MS M.729). It is worth noting that the town of Hangest, home to the original owner, is only 10 miles from Amiens, and is a likely place of origin for the Missal. The present leaf contains a text for a major feast day, and thus contains a large and extravagantly decorated initial for its opening, "'Nunc scio vere." It is not too much to say that the decoration here is masterful, but, curiously--and of special interest to us from a modern perspective--the illuminators seem to have forgotten to put the finishing touches on the two smaller initials above, which still contain sketches of the preliminary design.. (Inventory #: ST20214)

$14,560.⁰⁰ add to cart or Buy Direct from
Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books

Offered by

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books & Manuscripts

1709 NE 27th St. Suite G
McMinnville, OR 97128

info@pirages.com

(503) 472-0476

Specializing in Bindings, Medieval Manuscripts, Early Printed Books, STC & Wing Books, Incunabula, English & American Literature, Fine & Private Press, Illustrated Books, Medicine.

More from this seller

SCHOLASTICA HISTORIA MAGISTRI PETRI COMESTORIS SACRE SCRIPTURE SERIEM BREVEM NIMIS ET EXPOSITA[M] EXPONENTIS

by (INCUNABULA). COMESTOR, PETRUS

Strassburg : [Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg (Georg Husner?)] , post 24 Feb. 1485
(click for more details)

First Edition

CHRISTOPHER PLANTIN AND THE PLANTIN-MORETUS MUSEUM AT ANTWERP

by (BINDINGS - SANFORD). (PLANTIN, CHRISTOPHER). (EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED). DE VINNE, THEODORE L.

[New York] : Grolier Club , 1888
(click for more details)

The ABAA
Promise

You can be confident that when you make a purchase through ABAA.org, the item is sold by an ABAA member in full compliance with our Code of Ethics. Our sellers guarantee your order will be shipped promptly and that all items are as described. Buy with confidence through ABAA.org.