{"title":"Manuscripts","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandwritten books and documents, including illuminated texts, letters, and archival materials.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"catholic-church-curia","title":"CATHOLIC CHURCH, CURIA","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn exceptional ms. copy of the papal bulls and statutes setting out the duties powers and privileges of the Apostolic Protonotaries of the Roman Church from the 1560 s until the early C19th. This was the, or an official copy used either by the Protonotarial office or by one of their number, perhaps the figure depicted in the gilt oval on the upper cover. The papal Bulls forming and reforming the office from Callistus to Adrian VI occupy the first 21 pages, the relevant statutes pp. 23-43 and further Bulls of Urban VIII and Alexander VII from pp 43-59. Pp. 60-64 comprise the agreement of the protonotaries drafted 21st September 1661 concerning the division of their emoluments, signed by each of them and formally attested by the Curial pro-secretary Giovani Manfroni and the final pages the reforms of Gregory XVI. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Protonotaries Apostolic were members of the highest college of prelates of the Roman Curia, deriving their office from the seven regional notaries of Rome in late antiquity, and the senior lawyer-administrators of the C16 Catholic church charged with the issue of Papal Bulls and other legislative or quasi legislative Papal documents. On the further development of Papal administration , secular and religious, they remained the supreme palace notaries of the Papal Chancery and in the middle ages were very high ranking officials. Sixtus V increased their number to 12, though  honories  were also appointed, Gregory XVI re-established the college of real protonotaries with seven members in 1838. The pronotarial office is of particular interest as at the same time the precursor of the modern state bureaucracy and a functional link with the ancient world. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This remarkably beautiful almost  treasure  binding is an extremely scarce survivor of a binding style typical of de luxe presentation copies from the mid C15 to mid C17 centuries . Unfortunately plush velvet is not a durable material and gilt ornaments tended to part company with their binding at the first opportunity. It is of the utmost rarity to find one on the market intact with all its ornaments in place. The eight cornerpieces (approximately 4 x 41\/2  including frame) recount sequentially the events of the Passion from the Garden of Gethsemane to Burial in the Tomb. The representations are life like, the action vivid and the relief and general condition is excellent. They were probably made for and are certainly contemporary with the binding. They are almost certainly Roman (cf Rossi Placchette 65 -151 and may derive from the frescos of Sebastiano del Piombo in the church of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome, at least one of which according to Vasari is according to designs given him by Michelangelo. The four clasps are likely to form part of the same set. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The two central ornaments are somewhat lighter in style and of sharper execution on finer metal, the work of a gem carver or expert goldsmith. The designer was clearly influenced by Renaissance Mannerism but the approach of the baroque is sensible. The upper cover figure may well be modelled on a monumental sculpture of the period whilst the lower suggests a copy of a sculptural stemma, perhaps from the wall of the Protonotarial office itself. The feeling for the monumental and architectural combined with a fineness of detail points towards the body of work generally attributed to Guglielmo de la Porta 1490-1577. There is stylistic similarity too betwenn the cornerpieces and certain of De la Porta s known work eg. the silver plaque of the flagellation now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Interestingly De La Porta also worked under the influence of Michelangelo and his workshop specialised in the manufacture of bronzes of contemporary art.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATHOLIC CHURCH, CURIA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816066556239,"sku":"L1159","price":49500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8222.jpg?v=1781795329"},{"product_id":"caracciolo-marino-ii-prince-of-avellino","title":"CARACCIOLO, Marino II, Prince of Avellino","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis splendid late humanist document conferring a law degree from Naples University to the 21-year old Giovanni Tomaso Compara (of the Neapolitan family now known as Acampora, or D Acampora) was issued under the auspices of Marino Caracciolo, member of one of the most powerful Neapolitan patrician families. Marino II was Lord High Chancellor of the kingdom, and as such had the right to grant the doctor s cap or laurea. As Prince of Avellino (1617-30) his Southern Italian town grew considerably and developed into a regional cultural centre. The court attracted artists and writers, such as Giambattista Basile, renowned for one of the earliest collections of fairy tales in Europe, the Neapolitan Cunto delli cunti. Campora passed his degree of canon and civil law  summo cum honore, maximisque laudibus  and this certificate, intended for display, entitles him to  lecture on both laws, interpret, comment and practice it . One of the coat-of-arms is that of Caracciolo, it contains a depiction of the golden fleece of the Imperial order of which he was a knight. The other is most likely the Compara family. In the upper corners are portraits of Saint Francis Xavier, the co-founder of the Society of Jesus, depicted as usual with his hands crossed in front of his chest. The other   fictitious   is that of Thomas Aquinas, one of the most notable alumni of the University of Naples.   Mss of this type are not uncommon but the dimensions, richness, and quality of the decoration of this example are exceptional.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CARACCIOLO, Marino II, Prince of Avellino","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816077631823,"sku":"CJS3","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_6779.jpg?v=1781795322"},{"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":"resurrection","title":"RESURRECTION","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis initial might have introduced the Easter antiphon \"Et respicientes\", as the representation of the Resurrection suggests. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The strength and beauty of this work is due to its fresh simplicity. The style, essential and genuine, with its palette of colour is evocative of 14th century illumination from the central regions of Italy, perhaps Tuscany.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RESURRECTION","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816088445263,"sku":"L840","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-11_ad2b4be0-e311-4e23-bbd4-7cd21dffb419.jpg?v=1781795317"},{"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":"luttrell-narcissus-seal","title":"LUTTRELL, Narcissus. Seal.","description":"A rare 17th century example of a fine desk seal with an important book collecting association. Narcissus Luttrell (1657   1732) was a member of Parliament, annalist and book collector, whose chronicles of contemporary events and parliamentary diary are particularly valuable. His very extensive library of books and manuscripts, especially political and poetical works, was dispersed piecemeal by Luttrell s descendants and many items are no longer traceable. A substantial number of the printed works were eventually acquired by the British Library, and a large number of manuscripts found their way to the Codrington Library in 1786, while more recently many items were donated to the Beinecke Library of Yale University. Luttrell married Sarah, daughter of Daniel Baker (a prosperous London merchant), in February 1682 and this seal is likely to have been made close after that date. Luttrell s silver penner with the same arms on the top is held by the Victoria \u0026amp; Albert Museum (Ref. M. 298   1975).","brand":"LUTTRELL, Narcissus. Seal.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816132059471,"sku":"L1758","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1758-Luttrell-3_burned.jpg?v=1781795257"},{"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":"korean-map-jeolla-province","title":"KOREAN MAP, Jeolla Province","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe map has been produced in the style of Jeong Cheok ( \/ , 1390   1475), a successful 15th century cartographer, himself a scholar-retainer who served several Joseon kings. The modern concepts of latitude and longitude were not understood in Korea until the early 19th century, and the flatness and distortion of the land in Jeong Cheok-style representations reflect this. Nonetheless, the shape, layout, and topographical properties of the provinces are depicted with impressive accuracy, enabling an overland traveller to plan the most direct route avoiding natural barriers. \u003cbr\u003e\n  Jeong Cheok  maps bear a number of distinct stylistic characteristics. First, further information is added in a text border surrounding the map. Second, natural topographical features are highly simplified; mountains are indicated symbolically as a jagged row of uniform peaks, and coasts and waterways are low-detail. Third, districts (always with two-syllable names) and military bases are represented by uniformly sized bubbles. In this map, these bubbles are pink; the district name is written down the centre of the bubble; to the right is the number of days of overland travel required to reach it from the capital, and to the left is its administrative classification. The Joseon administrative classification system includes, from largest to smallest, the bu (provincial capital city), mok (mid-level city), gun or su (county or prefecture), and finally lyeong or gam (small town). \u003cbr\u003e\n The lines and text of the map are drawn in black ink. Land is uncoloured, while water is depicted in a light blue wash. Strikingly, water is coloured darker blue where it meets land. Mountains are coloured brown and labelled. Islands, also named, are depicted as white ovals in the ocean. There are one military base (byeongyeong ) and two naval bases (suyeong ), left and right, in pink bubbles. Land-based outposts (yeogdo ) and offshore ocean settlements are marked in white boxes. There is a title box with  Jeolla province   six  (Jeolla do lyuk ) in the top right corner. Within the text border running along the top, left, and right sides, there are remarks about what lies beyond the map in these directions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KOREAN MAP, Jeolla Province","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133337423,"sku":"L1754","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1754k.jpg?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"ming-chinese-map","title":"MING CHINESE MAP","description":"\u003cp\u003eWithin the map, the fourteen administrative provinces of Ming China are disproportionately expanded relative to surrounding areas. They account for approximately 80% of the surface. The layout of the inland waterway network is the most prominent feature. Minor rivers are rendered as large as major ones, and named. Lakes and even the sources of some rivers are named. Also privileged are the relative positions of major waterside settlements. The map depicts them as similarly sized and spaced, illustrating at a glance the order in which one would arrive if travelling by boat. This depiction of the waterway network and its cities is distorted to fill the area of Ming China, and water-poor areas in the far west and north are dramatically shrunk or dispensed with entirely. Compensating for the distortion, the true distance between major Ming Chinese cities is stated in miles (li ) at several points. \u003cbr\u003e\n Cities and districts of greatest political, cultural, and historical significance are ringed in red: the northern and southern capitals of Beijing and Nanjing , the cultural centre and ancient capital of Luoyang , and Xianyang . Xianyang was important to the Western Zhou (1046   771 BC, remembered as a halcyon period of pre-imperial China) and as well as the capital of the first dynasty, the Qin (221   206 BC), and these dynasties are noted on the map. Also drawn and named are several mountain ranges, which would serve as markers for navigation by water. Interestingly, the name markers of many of the fourteen provinces and Joseon Korea (Chaoxian ) are accompanied by the name of corresponding constellations from among the twenty-eight lunar lodges (ershiba su ). The Great Wall (chang cheng ) is marked, but its shape is distorted. For example, Ming extensions of the Wall into the east, which reach to the modern border of North Korea, are depicted as a stub. Similarly, the western extremities of the Wall extending through modern Gansu and Xinjiang are shrunk and simplified. \u003cbr\u003e\n Water features are also the focus in the depiction of territories beyond the border. Interestingly, foreign water features are rendered as large and as clearly as those within Ming China, even if unconnected. These include Lake Baikal (Hanhai ) and, in the southwest, what appears to be the Indus river. Mountains that are near to or form the source include the Khentii mountains (Langjushan ) and of greatest cultural importance, the Kunlun mountains in the west. One of the most intriguing features is the depiction of the mythical underground river linking the Yellow River back to its imagined source in the Kunluns, drawn in faint yellow and running below the Great Wall. Many non-Han tribes, settlements, and ethnic groups are indicated in their proper locales. \u003cbr\u003e\n In addition to these natural features, also depicted are outlying foreign regions and nations, bordering China or accessible by water. These are rendered comparatively small in contrast to the provinces of Ming China itself. These include modern Tibet and Xinjiang (Xifan ), Joseon Korea, Japan (Ribenguo ), what is now Vietnam (indicated both as Annan and Jiaozhi ), Thailand ( Siam , Xianluoguo ), the Chenla kingdom (Zhenlaguo ), and modern-day Hainan (Qiongzhou ). (It is noteworthy that the character used for  country , guo , is a pre-modern simplified form.) Also included is the Xiaoliuqiu island, just off the southern coast of Taiwan. However, Taiwan is not depicted, even though it was well-known to and settled by the Ming Chinese. This is also the case in other maps of the period. \u003cbr\u003e\n Far off islands in the southern and eastern seas or circled regions in the west and north are marked in minimal detail. The Liuqiu kingdom (Liuqiuguo ), for example, refers to unspecified islands in the East China Sea, though the name is currently used for the Ryukyu Islands. The  Kingdom of pierced stomachs  (Chuanweiguo ),  Kingdom of large men  (Darenguo ), and  Kingdom of little men  (Xiaorenguo ) belong to this category. Most interesting among these, perhaps, is the country is the far southeast, N√ºrenguo ,  Kingdom of women . Some scholars believe this refers to the uncharted but rumoured areas of Northern Australia, which many Ming Chinese presumed to operate a matriarchal society. Interestingly, in the territories to the west there are circled spaces that have been left blank, anticipating unknown lands there whose names might be added.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MING CHINESE MAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133402959,"sku":"L1756","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1756-1.jpg?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"korean-map-capital-province","title":"KOREAN MAP, Capital Province","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe map has been produced in the style of Jeong Cheok ( \/ , 1390  1475), a successful 15th century cartographer, himself a scholar-retainer who served several Joseon kings. The modern concepts of latitude and longitude were not understood in Korea until the early 19th century, and the flatness and distortion of the land in Jeong Cheok-style representations reflect this. Nonetheless, the shape, layout, and topographical properties of the provinces are depicted with impressive accuracy, enabling an overland traveller to plan the most direct route avoiding natural barriers.  Jeong Cheok  maps bear a number of distinct stylistic characteristics. First, further information is added in a text border surrounding the map. Second, natural topographical features are highly simplified; mountains are indicated symbolically as a jagged row of uniform peaks, and coasts and waterways are low-detail. Third, districts   always with two-syllable names   and military bases are represented by uniformly sized bubbles. In this map, these bubbles are pink; the district name is written down the centre of the bubble; to the right is the number of days of overland travel required to reach it from the capital, and to the left is its administrative classification. The capital city (gyeong ) bubble is circled twice. The Joseon administrative classification system includes, from largest to smallest, the bu (provincial capital city), mok (mid-level city), gun or su (county or prefecture), and finally lyeong or gam (small town). The lines and text of the map are drawn in black ink. Land is uncoloured, while water is depicted in a light blue wash. Strikingly, water is coloured darker blue where it meets land. Mountains are coloured brown and labelled. Islands, also named, are depicted as white ovals in the ocean. Land-based outposts (yeogdo ) and offshore ocean settlements are marked in white boxes. There is a title box with  Capital   [province] four  (gyeonggi sa ) in the top right corner. Within the text border running along the top, left, and right sides, there are remarks about what lies beyond the map in these directions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KOREAN MAP, Capital Province","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133468495,"sku":"L1755","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-1_5ef02c80-d660-4d74-a4a8-895fa0f56ca1.jpg?v=1781795252"},{"product_id":"bible-decorated-manuscript","title":"BIBLE, decorated manuscript","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a handsome and weighty thirteenth-century most probably English Bible, the format in which most readers of the Middle Ages knew the complete text. Due to its vast size, most Early Medieval Biblical books included only sections of the complete canon, but the needs of students in the fledging university in Paris in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries lead to advancements in the methods of book production in order to mass-produce complete copies for that market. Script became miniaturised and the words themselves heavily abbreviated in an effort to push resources to their limit, and at the same time libraires or master-book producers divided up master-copies to hand out in sections (or pecia) to multiple copyists at once, dramatically increasing the rate of copying. Thus they survived relatively in large numbers. However their multiple decorated initials and fine script often attracted the attentions of the commercial book dispersers from the nineteenth century onwards, and they have become fewer and fewer in the market in the last century, with examples continuing to fetch record prices. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Here the form of the text is mostly that of a more common Parisian Bible, and with the standard abbreviations of Hebrew names in the form  Aaz apprehendens    at its end. Crucially, however, the script and penwork decoration here appear English and the books of Tobit, Judith and Esther are in the order usually identifying English use. In addition, the early notes on Hebrew at the end of the book strongly indicate an early use in a medieval English scholarly setting (see below). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n What is perhaps most notable about this book is the interest of an early user in the Hebrew Bible. Additions to endleaves at the front of the volume suggest a contemporary or near-contemporary use in theological teaching or preaching, perhaps in a cathedral school (see below), but a page of notes added in the decades after the book s production to blank space before the abbreviations of Hebrew names indicates a more specific use. This begins with the words  Thorath id est lex  with five penlines drawn off to associated lines of text. These text-lines reveal that the scribe was attempting to describe the contents of the Torah   the Hebrew Bible, here described accurately as  the law [of Moses] , and each line opens with a somewhat garbled version of the opening words of the first five books of the Old Testament: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Bresith    in fact Bereshit (Genesis, ie.  In the beginning ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Ellesmoth    in fact Shemot (Exodus, ie.  Names ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Vaietra    in fact Vayikra (Leviticus, ie.  And he called ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Vagedabar    in fact Bamidbar (Numbers, ie.  In the desert ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Addabarim    in fact Devarim (Deuteronomy, ie.  The words ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n These are followed by a section of brief notes on Old Testament prophets and other figures from the Hebrew section of the Bible, as well as an observation on the absence of Baruch  In hebreo canone  ( in the Hebrew canon ). This section terminates with more usual notes on religious ideals and relative Biblical dates. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Despite Jerome s and Bede s insistence on the primacy of Hebrew as a Biblical language for Old Testament texts such as the Psalms (and indeed in some medieval accounts, the original language of all mankind), actual records of northern European interest in the language or its religious texts before the Renaissance are few[1], and astoundingly so from England which had no Jewish population before 1066 and none after Edward I expelled what Hebrew speakers it had in 1290. Indeed a memory of interacting with Jews in religious discussions as a youth and then their subsequent exile some years before the period in which these additions most probably were made might well explain these strange and fascinating additions by the present scribe, as well as their garbling from his slightly faulty memory. As such this volume would appear to bear witness to the impact of the English Jewry on theological thinking and teaching in medieval England, even after the expulsion of 1290. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n [1] We might cite here the allusions by the grand scholars William of Auvergne (bishop of Paris, d. 1249) and Alexander of Hales (taught University of Paris, d. 1245) to fleeting knowledge of the works of Maimonides either through translations from Hebrew or oral contact (on these see G.K. Hasselhoff,  Maimonides in the Latin Middle Ages: An Introductory Survey , Jewish Studies Quarterly 9 (2002), pp. 1-20). However, note that while Alexander of Hales was English by birth, he worked in Paris, and this interest is more probably a continental university phenomenon, and certainly so after 1290.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE, decorated manuscript","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816137433423,"sku":"K54","price":175000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8243.jpg?v=1781795199"},{"product_id":"walther-johann","title":"WALTHER, Johann","description":"\u003cp\u003eCrisp copy of a German poem written to commemorate the death of Martin Luther in 1546, when the volume was first printed in five impressions (no priority has been established). Johann Walther (or Walter) (1496 1570), the  father of Lutheran church music , was composer and then director of the chapel choir of Frederick III, Duke of Saxony. In 1524, he published  Geistliches Gesangbuechleinin , a hymnal for Lutheran choirs, with a foreword by Martin Luther himself; the  Deutsche Messe  followed in 1527. For two decades, Walther worked incessantly with Luther to adapt Catholic church music to the needs of Lutheran liturgy, for instance, by introducing hymns into the mass and encouraging people to sing them at home and make them part of their everyday lives. The  Epitaphium  is Walther s tribute to a religious personality who had also become a close friend. The poem depicts Luther as a heroic figure whom Death cannot overpower and the Devil s bite cannot hurt, a soul who has escaped from the hellish torments reserved to Papists to revive in the teachings of God s word and the light of Christ. The fine woodcuts after Lucas Cranach the Younger immortalise Luther and Frederick III, one of the earliest defenders of Lutheranism and founder of the University of Wittenberg, where Luther taught. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  The striking binding is made of two non-sequential leaves from the same manuscript in superb condition. It is probably a C15 German lectionary, with excerpts from the Acts of the Saints and Martyrs, associated with their calendar dates of worship. The front cover features passages from the acts of St Mathias (February 24) and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (March 10), while on the back are extracts from the lives of St Peter and Paul (including Acts 1:21-26 and 12:2-8), interspersed with orations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WALTHER, Johann","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816138580303,"sku":"L2748","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontcover_2d4127df-f89c-4889-9c1d-2abc3a65732f.png?v=1781795192"},{"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":"basil-the-great","title":"BASIL THE GREAT","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe handsome binding with phoenixes and interlaced cranes, the detail of which remains very crisp, reprises early C16 exemplars produced in Lyon (e.g., BL, C66g11). They were based on a t-p produced by the Flemish artist Guillaume II Leroy for the Lyonnaise printer-bookseller Simon Vincent. As proved by a copy of Paulus Venetus s  Summa philosophiae naturalis  (Lyon, Antoine Du Ry for Simon Vincent, 1525) present in our web catalogue  where the t-p and matching binding appear together, the latter was probably Vincent s  marque de libraire . In 1561, Antoine II Vincent (1500-68), one of Simon s grandsons, was entrusted with the establishment of a branch of the press-bookselling business in Basle. Seen the peculiarity of this binding design, it was probably still in use in Antoine II s shop. The mozarabic corner and centrepieces were probably added; they resemble the binding on BL, Add. MS 28751, produced in Spain in the C16. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The fine painted fore-edge with foliage and masques follows the mid-C16 fashion in Switzerland, where this kind of decoration lingered longer than in the rest of Europe (e.g., Davis II, 224, 225, 226). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Excellent, clean copy of the first edition of St Basil s complete works edited by the Reformed humanist Wolfgang Musculus, professor of theology at Bern. Basil the Great (d. 379AD), Bishop of Caesarea, was one of the most influential Byzantine Church Fathers, admired for his theological arguments against heresy, his preaching and exegetic skills, theorisation of communal monasticism and ideas on the value of classical education. The  Omnia sive Recens Versa  opens with his key works against heresy, with particular attention to the confutation of Arian theories on the differentiation of the nature of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Spirit. His sermons on psalms, capital sins, drunkenness, luxury and the lives of the early martyrs illuminate his moral exegesis and desire to provide practical guidance for good Christian life. The homily on the usefulness of the study of  gentile authors  like Homer and Hesiod was a landmark in the debates of late antiquity and the early middle ages concerning the spiritual value of classical readings for the education of Christian youth. The last part of the volume is devoted to his numerous works on monasticism and asceticism, with admonitions on the regulations and sacrifices required by communal and solitary life. To this revised edition, based on Erasmus s Greek editio princeps of 1532, Musculus added a long table of  loci communes  listing key theological and exegetic  commonplaces  for meditative reading and textual interpretation e.g.,  the devil s ways to lure the wealthy ,  those who sin by ignorance do not go unpunished  and  the solitude of the soul curbs passions . For their profound appeal to an all-embracing spirituality and Christian morality, St Basil s works played a fundamental part in post-Reformation theological controversy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BASIL THE GREAT","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816145920335,"sku":"L2729","price":3500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8583.jpg?v=1781794943"},{"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":"warner-william","title":"WARNER, William","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkable, completely unsophisticated copy, of the very rare second edition of Warner s poem, with the addition of two books added from the first; stab bound as originally issued, probably never with the woodcut plate.  William Warner is best remembered for his  Albions England  (1586), a verse history of Britain, covering in its final edition events from Noah to the reign of James I. .. Little is know of Warner s biography. Born about 1558   probably in London   Warner worked as an attorney of the Court of Common Pleas in the same city, where he developed his reputation as an author and most likely associated with other men of letters.. The episodic history, Albions England, written in fourteen-sylable lines, incorporates much fictional and mythical material; its structure is influenced by Ovid. This popular work went through several editions during Warner s lifetime, each adding material to the narrative. The first, consisting of four books, was published in 1586 and relates events through the Norman Conquest. The second (1589), consisting of six books, covers events to the accession of Henry VII.  Tudor England: An Encyclopedia. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Warner fills his account with many picturesque details many of which he elaborates on from the original source material.One such example is his account of Robin Hood. Warner dates the historical Robin Hood to the reign of King Richard I, but he tells the story out of sequence, under the reign of King Edward II, as an inset to another tale. The narrator is an unnamed hermit; he is addressing the opposition leader Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (like Robin Hood, a  malcontent ), who has encountered him in the woods at a time when Lancaster is a fugitive from his enemies. Warner s immediate source for his version was evidently Richard Grafton s Chronicle at Large (1569). Like Grafton, he makes Robin Hood into a nobleman. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Warner s chief work and his earliest experiment in verse was a long episodic poem in fourteen-syllable lines, which in its original shape treated of legendary or imaginary incidents in British history from the time of Noah till the arrival in England of William the Conqueror, but was continued in successive editions until it reached the reign of James I. In its episodic design it somewhat resembled Ovid s  Metamorphoses.  Historical traditions are mingled with fictitious fables with curious freedom. The first edition in four books now a volume of the utmost rarity appeared in 1586, under the title  Albion s England.   The work was brought down to the accession of Henry VII in the second edition, which included six books. ..  Albion s England  in its own day gained a very high reputation, which was largely due to the author s patriotic aims and sentiment. But his style, although wordy and prosaic, is unpretentious, and his narrative, which bears little trace of a study of Italian romance, and lacks the languor of current Italian fiction, occasionally develops an original vigour and dignity which partially justify the eulogies of the writer s contemporaries. Thomas Nash in his preface to Greene s  Menaphon  (1589), after mentioning the greatest of English poets, remarked,  As poetry has been honoured in those before-mentioned professors, so it hath not been any whit disparaged by William Warner s absolute Albions.  DNB. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Of the eight copies recorded by ESTC, the a copy at the Folger, those at Harvard and Huntington are recorded as having  woodcut plate . The copies at the Library of Congress and Illinois both do not. BL and Oxford Bodleian do not specify. A remarkable copy of this very rare work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WARNER, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816156930383,"sku":"K84","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K84-6.jpg?v=1781794906"},{"product_id":"paulus-v","title":"[PAULUS V]","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare ms. bull by Pope Paulus V, issued on April 6, 1607 at Sts Peter and Paul, conferring an ecclesiastical  beneficium simplex  revenues from ecclesiastical institutions which could be earned  in absentia , without residence, by paying another cleric, a vicar, to act  in vece  on Pellegrino Puglia,  vicario generale  of Milan in the 1590s. The  beneficiatus  could only be appointed when a vacancy arose, after an examination and declaration of suitability by the ecclesiastical authorities confirming both the merit of the recipient and the voluntary nature of the resignation, to avoid suspicion of simony. Puglia was awarded the simple benefice of  clericatus  after the  free resignation  of Giuseppe Mazocchi, at the Church of San Martino in San Salvatore [Monferrato] in the dioceses of Pavia; he was granted another as simple benefices could be accumulated from the Church of Santa Maria di Fossano (in Vignale Monferrato). Further simple benefices, called  cappellaniae  (revenue in exchange for caring for a specific chapel and saying mass), came from Santi Andrea and Nicola of Lussinio (probably the present Oratorio di Sant Andrea) near Lugo in the dioceses of Faenza, as well as San Servo (?), St Angelo de Flumine (in Terni?), San Valentino  prope et extra muros , and Sant Agata in the dioceses of Rome, and the Church of Santa Maria Foris Portas (probably near Varese). The total amounted to nearly 300 ducats a year, though presumably he would have had to employ curates to deal with the work load. The bull bears numerous autographs including that of B. de la Cabra, Archbishop of Cagliari. An interesting insight into the ecclesiastical administration of the Counter-Reformation. Papal bulls retaining their lead seals are rare on the market.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[PAULUS V]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816158175567,"sku":"L3009","price":2450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-24_d2f80112-50b1-470e-a18e-681855fe50ab.jpg?v=1781794901"},{"product_id":"scorz-geraldo","title":"SCORZ, Geraldo.","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery good copy of this remarkable ephemeral survival an important witnesses to Spain s perception of Russia during the Siglo de Oro. First issued with a slightly different title in Seville by Juan Gomez de Blas, this work belongs to the popular European genre of  relaciones , two-leaf folio news reports on major international events, here unusually concerned with Muscovy, a monarchy with which Spain still had little contact. This  relacion  reported, on the basis of an official Polish missive, the victory and basic events of the Russian siege of Smolensk in 1632-34, eventually curbed, despite the lesser forces, by W adis aw IV who had just succeeded his late father as King of Poland. The Muscovy soldiers, it recounted, brought about  great havoc  in Smolensk  by capturing people, destroying fields, stealing cattle and other things at hand . Indeed, such early C17  relaciones  were still influenced by half-fictional accounts presenting Muscovy as a place inhabited by barbarians, traitors and faithless people ruled by an absolutist regime ( Muscovy in the Golden Age in Spain , 147). From the early C17, the increasing appearance of Muscovy in  relaciones  as well as chronicles or literature, such as Lope de Vega s  El gran duque de Moscovia  (1619), revealed the Habsburg s interest in the politics of Poland, led by the expansionist W adis aw III, seen as a potential ally for curbing the Turkish and Russian pressure over Asian commercial routes ( De Moscovia a Rusia , 80). A scarce and important document.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SCORZ, Geraldo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816165351759,"sku":"L2862","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-13_42600679-127c-40de-9bda-b7b5eb47a548.jpg?v=1781794874"},{"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":"slany-kladno","title":"[SLANY\/KLADNO.]","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeautifully bound Czech ms. a rare and remarkable witness to the world of provincial guilds in early modern Europe. It is a working ledger, for quick note taking and reckoning, used by the Company of Bakers, Millers and Gingerbread Makers of Slany (or Kladno), a few miles north-west of Prague. It features over one hundred leaves of notes, in several hands, concerning payments to the guild by its members, spanning two centuries. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Half of the ms. text was written in the C17. This ms. provides a fascinating picture of the small community of bakers and millers who operated in Kladno. Whilst Prague had over 100 bakers in the early C17, it is reasonable to think a small town like Slany did not have more than 10 (Jan‚àö¬∞ ek,  Dejiny obchodu ). Bakers and millers were, historically, connected professions; in smaller cities, as here, they could share the same corporation or confraternity (Patkova,  Bratrstvie , 122). Bakers could employ their own millers to grind flour which could only be used for making bread and not for sale as such (Winter,  Remeslnictvo , 643-44). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The baker Adam Sobotka, and the millers Jan Oliwa, the Jira_eks, Jan and Waclaw Kozak and the Cynt family are among those mentioned in the first half of the C17. Their names appear with others at the bottom of several annotations, as they were, in turn, part of the company s council, renewed every year (Lacina,  Pameti , 60). Their businesses were interconnected. For instance, we know that Adam Sobotka and his wife Dorota bought a bakery from Jan Jira_ek in 1594; Dorota later sold it after Adam s death (Lacina,  Pameti , 292). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Each entry features the year, the date, a brief summary of the occasion of specific payments or donations to the company. Many are concerned with the company s devotional activities, some for specific feasts (e.g., St Lucas Evangelist or St John Nepomuk). In particular, in addition to cash payments, many record payments or donations in pounds of wax. Guilds typically owned chapels or chantries in churches, which they kept illuminated with expensive beeswax candles; the largest candles could weigh up to 30 pounds (Richardson,  Craft Guilds , 149). Members were required to contribute to expenses regularly, usually quarterly hence the regular but not too crowded entries in this ms. As here, wax was given for celebrations  for the dead  and  in good memory , to commemorate deceased members or relatives. In one case the money was donated by a furrier, outside the company, probably related to a member of the guild. Due to the high cost, payments in wax were also used as a punitive fine for the infringement of the company s regulations, including absence from commemorations, or upon someone s appointment to an office (Richardson,  Craft Guilds , 156-57), as happens in the ms. when Mathaus Ji_ka was introduced as a baker. Sometimes a different hand crossed out a note or added  solutum  or  dedit  (paid) below, meaning that this book was of official standing, but also for quick reference. Though the hands are many, they often repeat themselves in the course of a short period; also, in some notes the author refers to himself in the first person (e.g.,  the money was given to me ). He was probably treasurer in that year. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A fascinating insight into the life of the skilled artisan in early modern Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[SLANY\/KLADNO.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820342026575,"sku":"L1263","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot2026-06-27at6.23.22PM.png?v=1782581118"},{"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":"wine","title":"[WINE].","description":"\u003cp\u003eRemarkably well-preserved, ephemeral deed granting the use of a vineyard in Morales, near Zamora. This area, with the province of Salamanca, in north-western Spain, was part of the Tierra del Vino later a controlled designation of origin. The document includes a  carta de troque, cambio y permutaci‚àö‚â•n  (for exchange and permutation) and a  carta de juramento  (oath), both in the name of Bachiller Alvar Rodrigues of Sant Ysidro, son of Dr Juan Rodrigues of Sant Ysidro, resident in Zamora a member of the Council of King Ferdinand and magistrate at the Real Chanciller‚àö‚â†a in Valladolid (Dominguez,  Nobleza , 485). A  carta de troque  stated the reciprocal transfer of items of the same kind between two parties here between Rodrigues, and Alfonso Estevan and his wife Cathalina Fernandes of nearby Morales in this case, also a  permutaci‚àö‚â•n , without the need for money exchange ( Discursos juridicos , 45-8). Rodrigues gave a vineyard he owned within the boundaries of Morales and Almantaya, between the vineyards of Juan de Morales and Juan Estevan, in exchange for two, the borders of which were the vineyards of the Bachiller himself, that formerly of Diego de Zamora, and another. The rest explains, for both sides, the conditions of the exchange, including specified fines for non-compliance equalling the value of the vineyards, the degree of ownership and their responsibility concerning the management of the vineyard, e.g., tax payment to the king, prince and lords. The  carta de juramento  reinforced the first document with an official oath.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[WINE].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820348088655,"sku":"L3507","price":8750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9416.jpg?v=1781794805"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-16","title":"BOOK OF HOURS.","description":"\u003cp\u003eProvenance: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Most probably written and illuminated in Besançon for a male patron: the liturgical usage is either Autun or probably Besançon, while the Calendar is firmly the latter, with the local saint, Pierre de Bellevaux (also known as St. Peter of Tarentaise, 8 May), founder of the Cistercian abbey of Bellevaux where his relics were kept throughout the Middle Ages, as well as saint-bishops of Besançon: Claudius (early sixth century; 5 June) and Antidus the martyr (d. c. 407; 17 June). That said, St. Symphorianus, patron of Autun, appears in the Litany and so there may be some liturgical crossover between these two regions in the commission of this volume for an individual patron. The prayer, Obsecro te, appears on fol. 94 in the male form. \u003cbr\u003e\n C16 ms inscription on fly  Orants. Oudot La Verne . La Verne is a village about 30 km from Besançon.  Oudot  was a popular medieval Christian name in the region and later also a surname. Oudot La Verne, a merchant tanner, married in 1582 and a little later Alexandre Oudot was cur é of Verne. \u003cbr\u003e\n Almost certainly lost or disposed of following the suppression of religious life during the Revolution. \u003cbr\u003e\n Re-emerged recently in France \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Text: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Principally Latin with some French. The volume comprises: a Calendar (fol. 1r); Readings from the Gospels (fol. 14r); the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol. 20r), Lauds (fol. 34r), Prime (fol. 48r), Terce (fol. 55r), Sext (fol. 60r), Nones (fol. 64r), Vespers (fol. 68r), and Compline (fol. 76r); Hours of the Cross (fol. 83r); Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol. 87v); the Obsecro te and O intemerata (fol. 91v), followed by the Sept joies de la Vierge, Dulcissime domine and the Sept joies again in Latin; Penitential Psalms (fol. 103v) followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 127v); and Suffrages to the Saints (fol. 144r). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Illumination: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The miniatures here with their distinctively stout bodied figures and split eyes identify this as the work of a Besançon artist working in the second quarter of the fifteenth century (cf. F. Avril and Reynaux, Les manuscrits ‚àö‚Ć peintures en France, 1440-1520, 1993, no. 109). Our artist has been attributed to the painter of another Book of Hours, Use of Autun, now BnF., NAL. 3118, a follower of the artist of BnF., lat. 1186 (Book of Hours, Use of Langres) and New York, Morgan Library, M. 293 (Book of Hours, Use of Besançon). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The miniatures are: (i) fol. 20r, the Annunciation to the Virgin within a richly decorated interior with a burnished gold background; (ii) fol. 87v, Pentecost, with a gold and coloured tessellated background; (iii) fol. 103v, Judgement Day with Christ seated on a rainbow resting his feet on an orb, all before a dark blue night sky; (iv) fol. 127v, a funeral with hooded and tonsured monks standing before a covered coffin, all before a gold and coloured tessellated background; (v) fol. 144r, Archangel Michael striking a demon, before a gold and coloured tessellated background; (vi) fol. 146r, St. Anne and the Virgin Mary at the Golden Gate; (vii), fol. 151v, St. Nicholas. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n An attractive and unusually early bourgeois Book of Hours, remarkably preserving its original decorative binding.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820348186959,"sku":"L3364","price":37500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_7958.jpg?v=1781794805"},{"product_id":"musical-bifolium","title":"MUSICAL BIFOLIUM.","description":"\u003cp\u003eContaining readings for Palm Sunday, a prayer for the preservation of the Pope and a hymn, all to be chanted, with full musical notation for doing so.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MUSICAL BIFOLIUM.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820348219727,"sku":"L3332","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3332-1.jpg?v=1781794805"},{"product_id":"academie-des-sciences","title":"[ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES].","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn excellent ms., on thick high-quality paper, of this fascinating work a meteorological perpetual calendar from 1521 to the end of the world, and an agricultural almanac, with numerous observations on wine. It was prepared in 1680 by the Acad émie des Sciences for François-Michel Le Tellier (1641-91), Marquis de Louvois, Secretary of War under Louis XIV. In the preliminaries, the work is attributed to the mysterious Neapolitan philosopher Joseph le Juste, frequently listed, in C18 French prophetic collections, alongside Pythagoras and Nostradamus.  The figure of Joseph Le Juste was already present in prophetic literature and almanacs.   the biblical Joseph, who interpreted dreams, who had received a revelation from an angel concerning the prediction of good and bad days  (Halbron,  Vaticinations , 2014). The Acad émie had allegedly collected the prophecies which had passed their tests, hence were deemed  infallible and truthful  a witty fiction ( Journal de Paris , 1807, 445). After a brief introduction on seasonal time, the work provides a meteorological perpetual calendar, in 28-year cycles, suggesting best practices in agriculture, fishing and cloth manufacture in relation to the weather. Great attention is paid to wine-making, with St Jean, Rochelle, Soitou, Auxerre and Champagne being the most profitable, resistant and tasty wines, and to the wine trade, with observations on the fluctuations of prices according to the quality of the harvest, the supply of specific wines and the effect of the surrounding economic situation on good or bad harvests. Fodder, rye, grain, cattle and wool are also discussed, with suggestions on how to avoid losing money by foreseeing demand and supply thanks to the almanac. Louvois himself owned numerous estates, with complex gardens and water pipes. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  A contemporary reviewer of the 1807 printed edition doubted whether the Acad émie ever offered the ms. to Louvois. In fact, the only recorded institutional copy in the US may even be the presentation copy, with Louvois s illuminated coat of arms on the t-p, now at UC Davis. The few others recorded (e.g., Cochran,  Catalogue , 1837, n.237; Uni Strasbourg, Ms.0.556) were copied from this, probably upon request of members of the Acad émie. The watermark of this copy dates it probably to the early C18 (Churchill,  Watermarks , n.130), like the Strasbourg copy. A ms. note suggests that it was sold from the inventory of M. De la Jonch√®re, arguably M. Lescuyer de la Jonch√®re, academician, topographer and hydrographer in the 1710s ( Le journal des sçavans , 192;  Histoire De L Academie , 555). It was later in the library of Jean-Baptiste Huzard (1755-1838), a French veterinary doctor, himself a member of the Acad émie and later the Institut. His large library comprised over 40,000 volumes, many on natural science; the present was lot 5507 in the catalogue  Biblioth√®que Huzard  (Part I) (1843).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820348940623,"sku":"L3523","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2021-06-03-at-17.49.01-e1622739125449.png?v=1781794803"},{"product_id":"modena","title":"[MODENA].","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn exceptionally well-preserved (and probably the only surviving) copy of the first edition of this  grida  concerning taxes imposed on meat, fish, oil and their export. The  gride  were ordnances or edicts issued by the authorities, which were then  gridate  (declaimed loudly) by criers in squares to inform citizens. The present was issued to provide partial relief to the ducal coffers after difficult years including the plague of 1630-1, which killed over 40% of Modena s inhabitants, and the Thirty Years  War. By September 1636, when the  grida  was issued, Modena had first been prey to winter raids of grain and fodder by the French troops lodged in Parma, and had then participated in the invasion of Parma alongside the Spanish troops. The  grida  sought  extraordinary help  due to the  excessive expense caused by the ongoing wars . It forbad, within the walls of Modena, the killing of  oxen, cows, beeves, calves, goats, kids, lambs, sheep, pigs and gelding  anywhere but in public slaughterhouses, at the price of 4 quattrini a pound to be paid to the taxman. Fines for transgressors included the seizing of the animals, and a payment of 50 or 25 scudi, according to the size of the animal; the  snitch , if there was one, retained anonymity. Exempt was the killing for family use of pigs, kids or lambs, which had not been bought or acquired by exchange, or their killing (by anyone, except butchers) at Easter, from Good Friday to the Resurrection. Any sale or transport of oil as well as live or dead, salted or unsalted fish was subject to 6 quattrini a pound. For everyone the export, from the Duchy to or through foreign states, of the abovementioned animals plus poultry, and derived products, including  dead meat  like salame or sausages, was also banned. Exemption existed for shepherds, though they had to request a license. The  grida  included a list of fines, in Bolognini, for the export of poultry i.e., peacocks, geese, capons and pigeons. It was printed by the  stampatore ducale  Giuliano Cassiani. An esteemed printer of literary and legal works, as  stampatore ducale  he  monopolised the printing of all government acts, including grida and bandi ; he also printed the first Modenese newspaper,  Avvisi , first published in 1648 (Pugno,  Trattato , 90).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[MODENA].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820349235535,"sku":"L3515","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-23-2.jpg?v=1781794800"},{"product_id":"parliament","title":"[PARLIAMENT]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis attractive ordinance from Parliament was published during the time of political unrest arising from the beginning of the English Civil War. It calls for the preservation and organisation of books, papers, manuscripts, court proceedings and other records taken or expropriated from wider London and Westminster. It is an attempt to save important documents from being ruined, destroyed or sold off which is stated as being  disadvantageous to the publique.  The ordinance came at a time where the Parliamentary army had gained notoriety for despoiling and stealing books and documents from the aristocratic and public libraries. A list of nominees are put forth as candidates to ensure the preservation and safe keeping of this literary material. These include Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland (1602-1668), who joined the parliamentary committee of safety in July 1642, and was praised by Whitelocke for his  sober and stout carriage to the king.  At the time of the publication of this book he was lobbying against the rife mob violence and proposing methods to parliament to ensure peace. William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele (1582-1662), is also listed, who marched with Charles I in the first Bishops  War of 1639, along with John Selden (1584-1654), the prominent jurist and scholar who participated in the discussions of the Westminster Assembly in 1643, and the barrister Gilbert Millington (1598-1666) who went on to sign King Charles I s death warrant. Special emphasis is placed upon the legal records within the Inner and Middle Temples, Gray s and Lincoln s Inns being properly inventoried and catalogued. This ordinance may have prompted a number of important documents to be gathered and recorded, preserving them for the  publique  in the 17th century and perhaps today. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Edward Husbands was printer to the House of Commons throughout this era. Although little is known about his life, he was commissioned to print a prolific number of important decrees and ordinances. These included a 1643 publication of Waller s Plot, described as a  late treacherous and horrid desighne , a 1642 account of the war between the Swedes and the French, and almost two hundred others.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[PARLIAMENT]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820351922511,"sku":"L3499","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-25-1_a10cbd0e-a2b8-4169-bdae-4c40be5a064c.jpg?v=1781794792"},{"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":"capestrano-johannes-de-et-al","title":"[CAPESTRANO, Johannes de, et al.]","description":"\u003cp\u003e.This manuscript comprises copies of some of the most important regulations relating to Franciscan Tertiaries. Its Umbrian origin is proved by the names of the four notaries, copied by a secretary, who had authenticated the original documents. Three, from Gubbio, were  imperial  notaries, i.e., of the Curia Vescovile.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The collection opens with the final part of a key text in the definition of their legal status:  Defensorium tertii Ordinis beati Francisci  by the reformer John of Capestrano (1386-1456), a Franciscan Minor, doctor  in utroque  and major contributor in debates on the legal status of Franciscan Orders in the early C15. Written c.1440,  Defensorium  comprises  consilia  by eminent jurists, defending the clerical status of regular Tertiaries. Although they did not take orders strictu sensu, and lived outside religious institutions, these nevertheless wore the habit and followed the Franciscan rule. As such, in case, of legal complications, they would be tried according to ecclesiastical, not civil, law. This manuscript features the last few paragraphs of Capestrano s  consilium , followed by those of Cato de Saccis, Luchinus de Curte, Bartholomeus de Barateriis, Lucae de Vernaciis and Franciscus de Folengus and Augustinus de Manzariis de Castro.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The remainder of the manuscript includes whole documents or excerpts relating to the Tertiaries, sometimes copied without interruption, dating from the C13 to the C15. For instance, the Bulla Supra Montem (1289), by which Nicholas IV approved the Third Order; a letter to Jordanus, Bishop of Albano, on the Third Order (1426); several apostolic privileges issued by Eugenius IV; the immunity of ecclesiastical persons; and excerpts from a bull by Alexander IV (1258).  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The complexity of the Tertiaries  legal status required that notaries had at hand all regulations on the subject, especially in case of inheritance, bequests, etc. In Umbria, members of the Third Order both secular (living in their own homes) and regular (living in organised communities) had increased substantially since the C14. Female communities were particularly common, organised around non-claustral convents or in small groups centred around the houses of secular members (generally unmarried women or widows). Among the vows undertaken by the regulars was not that of poverty, which was problematic, as Tertiaries generally continued to purchase or sell land, pay off debts, etc. (Casagrande, 386-90). In case of inheritance, for instance, it should be determined whether the testament was made before or after the signatory joined the Order, and whether their closest relatives or the Order had priority. All documents in this collection concern  fratres  and  sorores  alike.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .A remarkable survival of the practical and legal complexities of late medieval religious communities.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[CAPESTRANO, Johannes de, et al.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859632759119,"sku":"L3563","price":20000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1_1366c61e-1756-4ba7-858a-902f6fc3509e.jpg?v=1781793789"},{"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"},{"product_id":"philip-of-spain","title":"PHILIP OF SPAIN.","description":"Fascinating legal manuscript recording the judgement of the council of Novara in a dispute between two important noble families on the one side and the extremely prominent Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma on the other. The document is dated 7th July 1566 and concerns Johannes Francicsus Tornielli and Marcus Antonius Brusati and Franciscus Maria Plotus who is named as their associate. The court proceedings are richly described with a sense of immediacy; almost in the style of a stenographer. The manuscript commences with an address to Philip II, King of Spain, Sicily and Milan, and entreats him to approve the judgement of the council as presented to him and in making his final decree, to remove all discord. It is also stated that his judgement will set a precedent for future disputes of this kind. The council members and their relative superiority and status to one another are described, naming key members as  subscripti . The scene is then set: Sunday 7th July 1566, in the evening, at the palazzo of Novara.\r \r The case concerns  Vasa Argentea , silver cups or vases, that should be given or returned to Alexander Farnese and his wife by Tornielli and Brusati. However, the two accused state  ipsa vasa penes se se non adesse, \u0026amp; nescrire quid de eis factus sit  , they don t have the vases and they don t know what has happened to them. They then state they don t want to be members of the council anymore and withdraw from proceedings. A lengthy case follows including a long history of both families, where they are described as  nobilissima e dignissima  and a list of the various honours and high positions the family members hold is put forth. This is corroborated by extensive historical evidence from as early as the twelfth century. A number of streets and monuments in the modern city still bear their name. One could compare them to the fictional Montagues and Capulets as these two families of Novara were often engaged in fierce conflict.\r \r The final decree is as follows: 500 gold coins must be paid by Tornielli and Brusati and they lose their positions in the council and therefore their voices on important matters. The official stamp of the council was affixed, and presumably a copy would have been sent to Philip of Spain s court for its ratification. The manuscript is not only a valuable record of a considerable and exciting legal dispute but also provides in remarkable detail how proceedings were conducted, naming key players and explaining concepts and events.\r \r Alexander Farnese was a prominent Italian noble and condottiero and general of the Spanish army. The Farnese family were hugely influential in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He was sometime Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. His mother was the half-sister of Philip II of Spain and Alexander was raised and educated in Spain until his marriage. This dispute occurred when he was 21 years old, a year after his marriage to Maria of Portugal, when he had just established himself in the city of Parma. Historical records indicate Farnese s time in Parma was filled with hunting, riding and other leisurely activities, until he left to fight the Turks in 1571.","brand":"PHILIP OF SPAIN.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859640000847,"sku":"L3636","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3636-2.jpg?v=1781793764"},{"product_id":"albertus-magnus-pseudo","title":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS, Pseudo.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkable copy of this treatise on human reproduction by Pseudo Albertus Magnus, bound with a 17-page manuscript containing a astronomical text on the principles of chronological computation, apparently for astrological purposes, doubtless inspired by the printed text and an intriguing example of manuscript and print at the time of their transition. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Secreta Mulierum  (On women s secrets) was composed in the late 13th or early 14th century by an unknown disciple of Albertus Magnus, the most learned and prolific writer of the Middle Ages. Although scholars proposed the names of Thomas of Brabant or Henry of Saxony, the problem of authorship remains unsolved. The main text is accompanied by, and at times mixed with, a commentary, whose attribution is also debated. Relying on ancient and medieval writings, Pseudo-Albert discusses various aspects of reproduction, including the generation of the embryo, the formation and development of the fetus, the signs of conception, virginity, chastity, defects of the womb, impediments to conception and others. In the introduction, he states that his style will be  partly philosophical, partly medical, just as seems to fit the material . By \"philosophical\" he refers to natural philosophy, or natural science, concerned with the study of the world and cosmos. Although Pseudo-Albert raises a number of medical topics   nature of the menses, birth complications, gestation   his knowledge of medicine is limited. On the other hand, the discussion on natural philosophy is complex and it explores in detail the relationship between human nature, reproduction and celestial bodies. Crucially, the author describes the effects of astrological influence on the developing fetus, also showing how the sphere of the fixed stars confers different virtues: Saturn gives the ability to reason, the Sun to remember, Jupiter grants generosity, Venus causes the separation of hands and feet, the Moon completes the skin.  Vincent of Beauvais and Michael Scot may note some of the celestial effects, but pseudo_Albert addresses himself seriously to the problem of how they come about, and this effort forms the major thrust of his writing. Although the De secretis mulierum names women's secrets as its subject matter, if we weigh the length and the level of discourse we can almost consider this to be an astrological treatise.  (Lemay) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Renaissance scholars commonly practiced astrology, and the manuscript pages at the end suggest that the early owner of this volume was particularly involved. The text is a  Computus Ecclesiasticus , which discusses solar and lunar cycles in relation to religious festivities and mobile feasts of the ecclesiastical calendar (Julian). In addition to basic knowledge (e.g. what is a lunar cicle), it provides precise instructions on how to calculate ( computare ) dates of feast days, such as  dies dominicales (Sundays). Interestingly, it is arranged around metric formulas that were traditionally used to memorise calculations: here these are underlined in red, and each word corresponds to a number or provides a letter which will be used in the computations. For example, we find  Sed, Quinque, Tred, Ambo, Decem, Doc, Septem, Quind, Quater, Dud, Jota, Novem, Sept VI, Quard , used to calculate the  Golden number  (a number from 1 to 19 which designate the year within the Metonic cycle of the moon phases). We also find:  Bonus erat homo Katho, nobilis quoque Seno , which was employed to calculate the insertion of a leap day, week or year into a calendar and the second part of the manuscript is mostly concerned with this. Learning  computus , the science of calculating times and dates, was fundamental for astrologers. This discipline, used in conjunction with astrolabes to predict the position of the planets (mentioned in the manuscript) and astronomical tables, was used to cast horoscopes, exactly like the one that we find at the beginning of the manuscript. The text was composed by two writers between the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century: in a few places, the second updates and annotates the first, including adding  ab anno 1500  and  1501  to his comments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS, Pseudo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859643801935,"sku":"L3672","price":22500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3672-5.jpg?v=1781793743"},{"product_id":"hymnal-and-antiphonal-augustinian-use","title":"HYMNAL AND ANTIPHONAL (Augustinian use)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis charming manuscript, with beautifully decorated initials, comprises the selection of chants for the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours), covering the entire duration of the liturgic year. A small and portable volume designed for personal use, it is a very unusual example containing exclusively the music and words of plainchant without any accompanying text. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Divided into two section, marked by large illuminated initials, the first is a repertory of hymns, approximately arranged according to the liturgic year. There are hymns for the major hours (Vespers, Matins and Lauds) of all feast days, and hymns for  little hours  (prime, terce, sext and none) for major occasions. In the typical book of hymns, or  hymnal , music notation was indicated only for the first strophe of each hymn, because the same melody was sung for each strophe of the text. In many cases, notation was completely absent. Exceptionally, this volume has all the strophes of each hymn melody written out in full: this uncommon feature is particularly significant considering its small format. Another interesting characteristic is that the texts of the same four hymns for the  little hours  ( Iam lucis orto sidere ,  Nunc sancta nobis spiritus ,  Rector potes veras deus ,  Te lucis ante terminum ) are copied identically for several festivities, but each time the melody changes. This allow us to appreciate that not only the text had spiritual value, but also music: certain melodies were considered appropriate for specific feasts or grades of liturgical celebration, and every institution would have its own established customs in this respect. The second section is organised as an antiphoner, containing the texts of introductory antiphons, antiphons, responsories and versicles to be sung in the correct order during the liturgy of the hours. Unusually, it encompasses only a small number of festivities, and it does not rigorously follow the liturgical calendar. Psalms and hymns are not included: this is because the former were known by heart, the latter are already provided in the first section of the book. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The presence of a few hymns written by the cardinals Silvio Antoniano (1540-1603, such as  Fortem virili pectore ) and Robert Bellarmine (1542-1561, such as  Custodes hominum psallimus ), allow us to date this manuscript approximately to the last quarter of the 16th century, possibly to the 1570s. A  terminus ante quem  for the main text is provided by  Iam Christe, sol iustitiae , which does not include the alterations introduced by Pope Urban VIII in 1632. The evidence of the script of the final additions indicate that the manuscript was expanded and used probably till the end of the 17th century. Liturgical music manuscripts continued to be produced and used long after the invention of printing in 1455. This is because in most cases, they were meant to be unique objects   such as this one: every monastic or urban foundation required different music suited to the local, and even individual, requirements of place and patron. In these circumstances, an imprint would have been uneconomical. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The book was clearly made for Augustinian use; note the hymn and the office for  St. patri nostri Augustini  ( our holy father St. Augustine , ll. 86 and 398) and the hymn for St. Monica, Augustine s mother (fol. 253). The initials of these chants are also richly decorated. The final additions include more prayers and chants written or dedicated to St. Augustine. Remarkably, ff. 551-52 contain citations from Agustine s  Confessiones  with music. The particular arrangement and number of chants and psalms in the antiphonal section reflects the so called  secular cursus  (as opposed to the  monastic cursus ), which was practiced in churches, cathedrals and some religious orders, including the Augustinian Hermits. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The pen decoration and style of the illuminated initials, as well as the rubrics in Dutch, suggest that the volume was produced in the Netherlands, possibly in the south (see Andriolo and Reynolds no. 131 and 136 for similar examples). Following the success of the Dutch revolt, the Calvinist Church became the sole officially recognized Church in the territory of the new Dutch Republic. As a consequence, in 1572, Augustinian friars were expelled from the monasteries in the north (Dordrecht, Middleburg, Enkhuizen, Haarlem) and forced to flee to their confreres in the south. The only Augustinian friary which survived was Maastricht (southern Netherlands), and it is therefore probable that this volume was produced there. It should be noticed, however, that the monastery of Haarlem remained active until 1578. The modern bookplate reads  [I belong to] Martinus the hermit . A certain Brother Martin of Padua, hermit of the order of St. Augustine, is known from a manuscript ex-libris (late 15th century hand) on a volume printed in Italy and illuminated in the Netherlands, in a style that can be attributed to artists active Haarlem (see Andriolo and Reynolds no. 132).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HYMNAL AND ANTIPHONAL (Augustinian use)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859644752207,"sku":"L3689","price":18500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_9808-copy-1.jpg?v=1781793740"},{"product_id":"marcaldi-francesco","title":"MARCALDI, Francesco.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAttractive near-contemporary manuscript account of Mary Queen of Scots  life up to 1578, the year of her husband s death, by the hand of the Italian scribal publisher Francesco Marcaldi. Over 40 autograph copies of this work are known in libraries, dating from 1579 to 1587, each introduced by a unique letter of transmission including a different dedication, date and location of writing. The present one was written in Venice and presented to Alessandro Monte, probably a member of the prestigious Bourbon del Monte family of Pesaro. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n During the second half the 16th century, Francesco Marcaldi wrote and transcribed various short accounts of Italian and foreign states, including Scotland (here), Venice, Naples, Cyprus, and Spain, and sent them to diplomats, clerics, soldiers and other patrons. The recipients of his gifts were often individuals of very high status, for example members of the Medici and Este families, and cardinal Federico Borromeo. At the time, scribal transmission   being faster and more confidential than printing   played a great role in diffusing political information: the case of Marcaldi is particularly interesting as over a hundred of his manuscript reports are preserved. Beautifully designed and personalized gifts, Marcaldi s manuscripts were  intended to give pleasure for their form as well as to provide interest through their content  (Richardson). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Marcaldi s  Life of Mary Queen of Scots  is one of her earliest biographies, dealing with  the travails, persecutions and imprisonment of the queen of Scotland, daughter of King James V, the death of Henry his husband, the destruction of the Catholic Rite and the coronation of his son the Prince . Although not stated by Marcaldi, this relation constitutes an Italian translation of a less known unpublished work by the Scottish catholic bishop John Lesley (1527-1596), titled  Relatio De statu Reginae Scotiae    (manuscript, c.1578). Following a brief introduction on Mary s birth, the historical account is organized as a series of short paragraphs dedicated to specific years, arranged in chronological order from 1548 onwards. Marcaldi s point of view is anti-protestant, supportive of Mary s cause and of the Catholic faith. The last chapter is concerned with the state of Scotland in 1578: after the fall of the last regent Morton, James VI took control while Mary was still in captivity in England. Marcaldi concludes his work expressing his hope that Mary will be freed by Queen Elisabeth and Catholicism will be restored. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n There are only two printed editions of this work (both modern):  Due narrazioni storiche del Regno di Scozia ai tempi della regina Maria Stuarda   (Florence: M. Cellini, 1876), and  La prima storia di Maria Stuarda  (Turin: Tipografia Subalpina, 1907). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Three manuscript verses in French on the first fly, written in a calligraphic hand and ending with a pen flourish, read:  All ladies to serve \/ And for only one to die \/ A secret love . The first two lines appear to be a popular motto (see Henein, Deux visages de L'Astr ée 2005-2019). If they are combined with the last, the message could be interpreted as a gift dedication of the book from a secret admirer to a woman.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MARCALDI, Francesco.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859645243727,"sku":"L3884","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3884-5.jpg?v=1781793737"},{"product_id":"socinianism","title":"[SOCINIANISM]","description":"\u003cp\u003eExcellent, clean copies of these important Latin and German works on Socinianism, printed by Sebastian Sternacki in Raków, Poland. A major theological centre, Raków hosted a community of Polish Brethren, the Arian (anti-trinitarian) minority of the Reformed Churches in Poland, who, in 1562-5, had abandoned Calvinistic doctrines to follow those of Lelio (1525-62) and Fausto (1539-1604) Sozzini. Fausto spent 30 years in Poland; his preaching led to the Brethren embracing Socinian unitarianism. The son-in-law of the Krakow printer Rodecki, Sternacki moved the press to Raków c.1600; there he continued to focus on the printing of theological works, read and sponsored by the Polish Brethren’s renowned Racovian Academy. ‘The Raków press published works of the leading Arian theologians […]. They found their way in large numbers to western Europe. Textbooks for the Raków school were also printed and used so well that little remains’ (Swiderska, p.208). Vernacular editions are similarly scarce.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eSozzini’s influential and posthumous ‘Racovian Catechism’ is here found in its first Latin edition. First published in Polish (1608) and German (1609), ‘Catechesis Ecclesiarum’ became ‘the flag-bearer of Socinian doctrines’ (Kawecka-Gryczowa, p.102). It focused, in the form of questions and answers, on major controversial points such as Christ’s divine nature and the interpretation of John 1. The scandalous dedication to James I of England led Lord Cecil to order his agents in Poland to seize copies before they left the press (Kawecka-Gryczowa, p.103). Nevertheless, the work enjoyed great popularity in England, where it was even published with a false Raków imprint in the 1620s.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eThe second (‘Warhafftige’) and third (‘Examen’) works have no imprint. ‘Warhafftige’ appears in Estreicher’s ‘Bibliografia Staropolska’ and VD17 attributes it to Sternacki, c.1612. ‘Warhafftige’ and ‘Examen’ share the same type, which appears to match some of the Gothic used by Sternacki in the 1600s-10s. Indeed, nearly half the works printed by Sternacki also bear no imprint (Kawecka-Gryczowa, p.102). Both were intended as pocket-size introductions to the Socinian creed for a German-speaking readership. Attributed to Valentinus Smalcius (1572-1622), who became leader of the Socinian church c.1610, ‘Warhafftige’, here in the second edition, first appeared in Raków in 1593. Part I explains basic Socinian doctrines; Part II connects them to the Scriptures; and Part III counteracts 6 theological objections. ‘Examen’ is falsely attributed to the German theologian Joachim Stegmann (1595-1633), rector at the Racovian Academy. It discusses the doctrines of the Polish Brethren, with painstaking reliance on scriptural passages, and opposes those of the ‘false teachers’ and of Christians, both Catholics and Protestants, who do not follow the true faith.\u003c\/p\u003e  \n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Polish Ministry of Culture has informed us that this book is NOT on the list of those looted from Poland 1939-45.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[SOCINIANISM]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859656221007,"sku":"L4005","price":7750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4005-1.jpg?v=1781793711"},{"product_id":"zeno-marcus","title":"ZENO, Marcus.","description":"\u003cp\u003eDecorated manuscript on paper. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Provenance: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Written for the use of Jacobus Menutiis\/Minutiis, with his ownership inscriptions three times on the front endleaves and his arms and initials also, clearly produced for his practical use as a lawyer in Treviso and the vicinity. One of these ex libris gives his profession as a notary. Copies of this definitively local text seem to have always been few, and this manuscript was probably made directly from the original compendium held in the regional .palatio of Treviso (see below). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Text: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This text announces in its prologue that it was called the  Zena  in Venetian Italian, and contains a compendium of laws and statutes local to the town of Treviso, a small town to the north east of Venice was under the direct rule of the Venetian doges throughout the Renaissance. It was commanded to be assembled by Marcus Zeno \"de venetii\", lord of Treviso, in 1390 (the date given here mistakenly  1290 ), and the Venetian name of the text in fact was taken from the name given to the original manuscript of the compendium kept in the regional .palatio of Treviso. That original codex is now lost, but a copy survives in another compendium of the early fifteenth-century copy (probably of .c. 1411), now in the archives of the Museo Civico of nearby Asolo (see G. Farronato and G. Netto, .Gli Statuti del Comune di Treviso (1316-1390) secondo il codice di Asolo, 1988), and that has been claimed as the earliest recorded manuscript. We have located only two others, both of the sixteenth century: in the library of St. Mark s in Venice (Cod. 182 chart.: J. Valentinelli, .Bibliotheca manuscripta ad S. Marci venetiarum, 1870, p. 124), and the Bodleian (H.O. Coxe, .Catologi codicum manuscriptorum, 1854, III, pp. 606-07, his no. 227, dated 1574). The text was published by G. Bettinelli in 1768 (.Statuta provisionesque ducales civitis Tarvisii, p. 425-511). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n It opens with a short prologue, followed by a copy of a Venetian ducal document issued by Antonius Venerius, the doge of Venice in 1382-1400. The main text is a lengthy and notably thorough legal textbook (fols. 1r-76v), giving a thorough grounding in the civil law of the Venetian Republic, including sections on notaries (public and those of the chancellor), an array of types of wills, sample legal cases and pleas, sentencing, fugitives, petitions, pledges for debts and violent criminal cases such as injury resulting in bloodshed or murder, as well as many others. It opens with a list of all the chapters, in red ink, and then subdivides its material into ten books, covering: 1. The giving of evidence; 2. Civil pleas and cases; 3. Pledges and debts; 4. Appeals; 5. Legal agents; 6. Sales and contracts, as well as the officials of the chancellery; 7. Notaries and their functions; 8. Misleading documents; 9. Criminal cases; 10. Practical statutes for Treviso, describing themselves as diverse  acts . After a single blank gathering, the volume closes with an alphabetised index (in the main hand), here named the .Ordo solutionis.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ZENO, Marcus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859657072975,"sku":"L3564","price":36000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4845-copy.jpg?v=1781793709"},{"product_id":"alchemy-1","title":"[ALCHEMY]","description":"\u003cp\u003e‚ÄòWer rechten Alchomey‚Äô, an exceptionally rare alchemical text in Low German with twenty-eight illustrations of early scientific equipment, together with two related works including a version of the Buch ysaac semys sun von Babilon, manuscript on paper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eProvenance:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWritten and decorated, perhaps by the author (see below), for use in practical alchemical experiments, in northern Germany (note use of ‚Äòvl‚Äô spellings for the more common High German ‚Äòfl‚Äô) in the middle of the fifteenth century. To this the original hand, and other later hands over the next century or so, added notes of chants and other alchemical snippets to the first leaf and blank verso of last and to the border of fol. 47r, including the phrase ‚ÄúParturiunt Montes, nascetur Ridiculus mus‚Äù (a line from a fable of the first-century Latin author Phaedrus, alluding to a farcical story in which a mountain appeared to go into labour with loud groans, and a mouse emerged from its foot as an apparent miracle birth).\u003cbr\u003e\nAlmost certainly owned by Emanuel Mai (1812-97), bookseller of Berlin: see his catalogue for 1854, vol. I, no. 276 (there recorded with ‚Äú48 Blatter mit roth und schwartz gemalten Figuren‚Äù with a record of the same second text as here, correctly giving that text‚Äôs Low German spellings (note that in a slight garbling of detail, Mai lists the second text as beginning on ‚Äúpag. 47‚Äù but it is in fact on fol. 46v ‚Äì opposite the leaf numbered ‚Äò47‚Äô).\u003cbr\u003e\nRecently re-emerging in a private collection in in the US.\u003cbr\u003e\nText and the alchemical illustrations of the codex:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen we think of alchemical manuscripts, especially those with any illustrations, the rarity of early examples means that the vast majority of those that come to mind are of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Yet fifteenth-century Germany was a hotbed of medieval alchemy, and produced many new texts and specialists involved in early chemical experimentation. Alchemy was a fundamentally practical subject, never a formal part of the university syllabus, and was most probably learnt as a form of craft apprenticeship, and so while its practitioners often used texts in Latin, their studies existed first and foremost in vernacular languages with masters and students conversing in those over their experiments as they worked. Thus a great part of the value of the present manuscript is in its representing the cutting edge of those studies, as an apparently authentic voice of the dawn of practical alchemy. Moreover, it stands extremely early in the German tradition of such works ‚Äì no alchemical work in German was catalogued by Herwig Buntz before the Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, written between 1415 and 1419 (see his unpublished thesis: Deutsche alchimistiche Traktate des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, submitted to the University of Munich in 1968, and the same author‚Äôs article on that work in Zeitschrift f√ºr deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 101, 1972, pp. 150-160).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe present codex comprises: (i) the text of Wer rechten Alchomey (fols. 1r-35v), with the first original leaf here once with only the title of this work, followed by the main text beginning on the next leaf ‚Äì and the remaining space on the first original leaf filled up by the main hand with later alchemical notes referring to the source as a work of a ‚Äòbeloved Christopher‚Äô (‚ÄúLieber christoff‚Äù); (ii) a text digesting the work of Isaac Judeus\/Isaac ibn Sulaiman al-Israili (an occultist and doctor, who served as court physician to the last Aghlabite prince, Ziyadat Allah, and the Fatimite caliph, ‚ÄòUbaid Allah al-Mahdi, and who died in 932\/42 in Egypt: here fols. 36v-46r), this text opening ‚ÄúDas ist die puch das ysaac semis sun von Babilon ‚Ķ‚Äù; and (iii) a short and unidentified alchemical work, opening ‚ÄúLieber vett‚Äô ich pitt dich mit vleys du wild daz puech nymant ‚Ķ‚Äù (fol. 46v-48r).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAll parts of this book are of exceptional rarity, and two of the three texts may well be unique. The first text here can be traced by us in only two other witnesses: (1) an unillustrated fifteenth- or sixteenth-century manuscript, now Vienna, √ñsterreichen Nationalbibliothek MS. 3025. (Med. 222), and with a differing ending to that here, and thus perhaps with its text in a truncated form to this witness (see Tabulae codicum manu scriptorum praeter Graecos et orientales in Bibliotheca Palatina Vindobonensi, I, 1864, p. 181, no. 3025); and (2) another unillustrated copy of the text offered by Emanuel Mai as no. 275 in the same 1854 catalogue as the present manuscript ‚Äì  perhaps sharing an origin and provenance with the present manuscript, but evidently unseen in the last one hundred and seventy years. The tiny number of copies and their apparently restricted distribution suggests that none of these stands at any great remove from the anonymous author of the text, and the probable longer version of the text here and the inclusion of an integrated cycle of illustrations, make the present copy the most complete. It may well be the author‚Äôs own copy, from which the other two were made. No other copy of this text appears to have ever been offered for sale before, and a future comparison of this witness with that in Vienna and the short readings preserved by Mai for the lost manuscript promises substantial scholarly rewards for anyone interested in this text or the German alchemical mileau that produced it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe second text here is a close variant of a work recorded in a single sixteenth-century manuscript (Munich, Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, MS. Clm 25114), and in this form may well be unique. Likewise, the third text cannot be traced elsewhere by us and may well be unique. This would accord well with the suggestion that this is the author‚Äôs own copy, containing the best version of his Wer rechten Alchomey and perhaps the only surviving copies of the last two texts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe texts here principally concern the transmutation of certain metals, elements and chemical compounds (most commonly here gold and silver, with copper and sulphur also frequently mentioned, as well as ‚Äúsalarmoniac‚Äù [Salammoniac, or ammonium chloride crystals], borax, ‚Äòwhite arsenic‚Äô and mercury, among others). In addition to this, the Wer rechten Alchomey contains an array of drawings of practical equipment for handling and changing the form of these elements, including kilns, heating pans, distillation equipment and vessels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlchemical texts of this great age are of exceptional rarity on the market, and those with any form of diagrams or illustrations far more so,  the last to come to the market the heavily fire-damaged Galletti Alchemical compendium, with twenty-two such diagrams accompanying the Summa perfectionis magisterii attributed to Geber,  written in Germany or the Netherlands c. 1489, and sold immediately after Bloomsbury Auctions‚Äô sale of 7 December 2020 (where it was lot 44).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[ALCHEMY]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859661103439,"sku":"L4014","price":150000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4014-3.jpg?v=1781793699"},{"product_id":"vulson-de-la-colombiere","title":"VULSON DE LA COLOMBIÈRE.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA deluxe, beautifully illustrated ms heraldic manual, produced in France c.1660, based on the  Science hero√Øque  (1644) of Marcus Vulson de La Colombi√®re (d.1658). To him is attributed the invention of the hatching system of tinctures, as well as the rediscovery and adaptation of the image of chivalry which would greatly influence C19 medievalism. Selections from  Science hero‚àö√òque  - with slight variations probably dictated by the patron s taste - were crafted into this delightful reference book. Heraldry is the genre whereby the attraction and  fetish  of the manuscript medium, and of hand-colouring, persisted longest into the age of print. The manual tackles the traditional heraldic matter, from the origins to the shields, the use of colours, quartering, impalement, patterns, emblems, charges, crests, crowns, and the rich vocabulary used to describe them. These are accompanied, mostly on facing pages, by hundreds of numbered shields illustrating specific examples. The sophistication and liveliness of the naturalistic devices (e.g., lions, goats, cockerels, wheels, fish bones, cats, dogs, devils, eagles, owls, bats, spiders, etc.) on numerous shields suggest the work of a skilled draftsman able to reproduce hundreds of printed illustrations faultlessly. Towards the end are the best drawings. These include 4 full-figure likenesses found on ancient monuments, explaining funeral heraldic symbolism (for princes, those who died in battle on the winning or the losing side, and those who died in prison), and two large equestrian portraits of Aymon de Salvaing (in 1505) and the Duc de Bourbon illustrating the medieval use of the  lambrequin , a piece of cloth hanging from knights  helmets, rendered in heraldic terms as  mantling . The last few pages are devoted to French royal arms, and their sundry variations, with a dozen coats of arms sketched in pencil and left blank, as in the printed manual. A very attractive ms.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VULSON DE LA COLOMBIÈRE.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859663298895,"sku":"L3982","price":16500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3982.jpg?v=1781793700"},{"product_id":"azo-of-bologna-with-blanosco-johannes-de","title":"AZO OF BOLOGNA [with] BLANOSCO, Johannes de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eDecorated manuscript on vellum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA notably large and handsome legal sammelband, from the dawn of the gothic age, containing two important legal treatises – the second of great rarity and never appearing on the market before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eProvenance:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMost probably written and decorated for use in a southern French monastic community. The later provenance strongly suggests that this was the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary of Lagrasse, in the Languedoc at the foot of the Pyrenees in south-western France. The house was founded in the seventh century, raised to abbey status in 779 by Charlemagne, and closed during the Secularisation of French monasteries following the Revolution, with its goods seized by the State in 1789 and sold.\u003cbr\u003e\nMonsieur Chapuy(?), priest (curé) of Lagrasse: his ex libris marks in pencil on front endleaf in a hand of c. 1800. Extensive antiquarian notes on second author in later pen on verso of same leaf, signed ‘Giray’. Then sold at auction, presumably by one of his heirs, in Lyon in the early twentieth century: a sale ticket of this date issued by Monsieur Guillot of the Hôtel des Ventes, 19 Rue Confort-Rue de l’Hopital 6 in that town, loose in front of volume.\u003cbr\u003e\nReemerged in sale in Nîmes 2022, the subject of several news reports and blogs.\u003cbr\u003e\nText:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA fine, large law codex with two important ms texts, produced in France between the mid-C13 and early C14. No other copy of the second work, ‘Libellus super titulo de actionibus’ – a fundamental text in feudal law – appears to have ever come to the market before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMedieval lawyers had a sizeable corpus of local\/customary, Roman and Ecclesiastical law at their fingertips by the middle of the C12, but experienced enormous problems with its practical application and interpretation. The C12 and C13 saw various grand attempts, including the works in this sammelband, at producing a workable legal system, to navigate the myriad of often conflicting legislations and interpretations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘Libellus super titulo de actionibus’ – the second text, copied in the early C14 – is a commentary on Book IV of Justinian’s Institutiones, completed in the 1250s. It survives in perhaps ten mss, none recorded outside institutional collections and none appears to have come to the market before. ‘Libellus’ is a milestone of feudal law, and, for the first time in a systematic way, it ‘raised the question of the place occupied by the French king and his officials, […] the barons, their vassals and other elements of the feudal hierarchy, within the Roman legal framework’ (Jones, p.215), with particular attention to the ‘actio’ of homage. Johannes de Blanosco (also Jean de Blanot or de Blanosque; c. 1203-81) was doctor of Canon and Civil Law at Bologna and later legal advisor to the Duke Hugh IV of Burgundy. ‘Attempts to situate Roman legal thought within the pre-existent northern French legal structure and efforts to apply Roman legal principles to contemporary circumstances brought Roman jurists in France to confront a fundamental problem: whether or not the French king could be equated with the “princeps” of Roman law’ (Jones, pp.215-16). By stating that ‘Rex Francie in regno suo princeps est, nam in temporalibus superiorem non recognoscit’ (The King of France is emperor in his own kingdom, and does not acknowledge anyone superior to him in temporal matters – here on fol.154v), Blanot discussed the independence and ‘freedom’ of the Kings of France within their kingdom and, though never explicitly, in relation to the Holy Roman Emperor. ‘Kings who held a de facto sovereign authority, even if not de iure sovereignty, over their realms were generally designated independent, or “free,” kings. What made a king “free” or “unfree” depended entirely on whether or not they complied with an antecedent rule of recognition: does the king, as a matter of fact, recognize the superior authority of another in temporal matters?’ (Lee, p.59). This remarkably important text – the basis of the concept of national sovereignty, much debated today – survives in perhaps ten mss, none recorded outside institutional repositories and none appear to have come to the market before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘Summa Codicis’ – the first, copied in the mid-C13 – was one of the favourite texts used by glossators to augment medieval law codices. Azo of Bologna (also Azzo or Azolenus; c. 1150-c. 1230) was professor of law at Bologna – the epicentre of medieval legal studies. The text itself was most probably composed between 1208 and 1210. It is an attempt to analyse and interpret the entire Corpus iuris civilis, the compilation of Roman law made by the sixth-century Roman emperor, Justinian. The work was incorporated into that of his pupil Franciscus Accursius, and forms the basis of the standard glosses found encircling and framing the text of the ‘Decretals’ in most medieval manuscripts and early printings of that text. The motto ‘Chi non ha Azzo, non vada a Palazzo’ (‘Don’t go to court, if you don’t know your Azo’) was common among late medieval Italian lawyers, foreseeing the failure of jurists who were not sufficiently prepared. Despite its fundamental importance to medieval law, the text remains unedited apart from some C16 printings and their reissues and modern facsimiles.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AZO OF BOLOGNA [with] BLANOSCO, Johannes de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859665690959,"sku":"L3988","price":275000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3988-7.jpg?v=1781793695"},{"product_id":"gerard-of-cremona","title":"GERARD of Cremona.","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery curious French ms on astrology and numerology – a late C17 astrologer’s compendium of several works, medieval and modern. The ms ‘1699’ within a few horoscopes may suggests a date for composition. The first half is a selection from the influential ‘Geomancie astronomique’ by the Italian astrologer and physician Gherardo da Sabbioneta’s (fl. early C13). He was often mistaken for the great translator from the Arabic, Gerard of Cremona (fl. C12); in 1662, when it was first published in French, ‘Geomancie’ was attributed to the latter. Geomancy is the art of divination through the interpretation of random patterns or markings obtained by tossing soil or other materials randomly; numerology, or arithmancy, assigns numerical values to words or letters for divination purposes. This ‘fine work’ shows how the Geomantic characters – the 16 figures of geomancy, each representing a different state of the world – can be treated astrologically’ (Gardner, ‘Bib. Astr.’, 502). There are minor variations here from the first printed edition (1662), in phrasing and content; the section excluded, e.g., referring to kings, bishops, etc., were probably irrelevant to the writer. The detailed workings and aspects of the 12 Houses and the 7 Planets are first explained, then applied to everyday problems such as how to tell whether a woman is pregnant, an illness will turn for the better or worse, a war will last long, or whether a traveller will make a safe return. Halfway through the source of the ms changes to Peruchio’s ‘La chiromance, la physionomie et la geomance’ (1657). Thence the scribe copied a charming engraving showing correspondences between astrological and geomantic symbols, and their effects, as well as, with slight variations, a diagram applying the geomantic figures to the days of the weeks and the planets. There follows a section on ‘judgements by figures’, matching the 16 geomantic symbols with interpretations, e.g., ‘la figure du chemin’ denotes travel, the prison figure denotes external ailments, etc. A large table summarises the text with judgements applied to family members, health, voyages, etc. The final part returns to Gerard’s ‘Geomancie’, with rules for divination using the alphabet with various strings of numbers, for specific questions, e.g., which of two men shall win a contest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe early owner was doubtless an astrologer. Whilst we have not traced the abandoned castle where this ms was allegedly found, Plouvorn suggests a Breton provenance. Considering that both Gerard’s and Peruchio’s are now scarce, they probably had a low print-run and were hard to get hold of outside Paris. This copy was also in the library of the C20 Breton illusionist and historian of magic Fanch Guillemin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GERARD of Cremona.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859666084175,"sku":"L4020","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8852.jpg?v=1781793690"},{"product_id":"carmelite-breviary","title":"CARMELITE BREVIARY.","description":"\u003cp\u003eProvenance:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWritten and decorated for use by a Carmelite friar in the fifteenth century, main text opening ‚ÄúIncipit breviarium secundum ordinem fratrum gloriose virginis marie de monte carmelli‚Äù and entries in the Calendar specific to that Order. In March for the saint-doctors ‚Äúordinis Camelitarum‚Äù; St. Albert of Jerusalem on 7 August as ‚Äúordis car‚Äù (introduced in 1411); St. Martial of Limoges on 7 July, whose feast was introduced by the Carmelites; St. Blaise on his distinctively Carmelite feast on 23 January, ‚Äúmontis carmelli‚Äù; St. Cyril of Constantinople an early prior of the Order, ‚Äúordinis camelitarum‚Äù on 6 March; among others. Due to the movement of Carmelite friars over large distances, their books often reflect influences from a number of places; here the script and most of the decoration is Italian, while a single initial, bicoloured grounds with very French looking spiky seed pods, points towards France. The Calendar reflects the geographical distribution of the Order (see below) with predominantly Italian, southern and central French saints, and very occasional Englishmen such as St. Richard of Chichester. The book was most probably carried by its original owner from Italy to southern France, and then survived the following centuries in a French convent until the secularisation of religious houses around 1800, and the spilling of the libraries of religious institutions onto the open market.\u003cbr\u003e\nMost probably owned by Amans Alexis Monteil (1769-1850), French historian; the records of the BnF. connect his library to that of Janin (the next owner of this book, who also posthumously re-edited Monteil‚Äôs magnum opus) suggesting that the ‚ÄúRituel a l‚Äôusage des Carmes petit in 8v MS. du 15 si√®cle sur vélin‚Äù in the sale catalogue of Monteil‚Äôs library in Paris on 11 June 1850, lot 14, is the present volume.\u003cbr\u003e\nJules Gabriel Janin (1804-1874), journalist, critic, author and book collector: his gilt tooled leather bookplate (pencil notes on flyleaf say this is no. 19 in his catalogue, and it is indeed in the Catalogue des livres rares et précieux composant la biblioth√®que de M. Jules, 1877, as that number, misdescribed as a ‚ÄúHorae Beatae Virginis‚Äù of the ‚ÄúXIIIe si√®cle‚Äù, following the title on the spine and nineteenth-century pencil notes on the flyleaves). Most probably rebound for him by E. Neidrée (recorded in the Janin catalogue).\u003cbr\u003e\nT.B. Neely (1841-1925), Methodist Episcopal bishop of of Philadelphia, PA: his ex libris on flyleaf. Presumably passing by descent, and still in Philadelphia in 1962 when examined by Dr. James J. John of the Institute for Advanced Studies of Princeton for the Free Library of Philadelphia (correspondence enclosed in book).\u003cbr\u003e\nRe-emerging recently in the US. Purchased by a US individual from a local auction house in Philadelphia, around 1990s.\u003cbr\u003e\nPurchased at Swann galleries auction in May 2022, Sale 2603, Lot 198.\u003cbr\u003e\nText:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Carmelites were a religious Order most probably founded on Mount Carmel in Palestine during the short period in which Europeans founded and held the Crusader States in the Holy Land, they initially inhabited caves once used by Old Testament and Early Christian hermits. The Carmelites came to Europe only in the 1230s, and were not a notable presence before the fall of the Holy Land to the Mameluks. They changed their way of life from eremitic to mendicant, and committed their energies to preaching missions similar to those of the Franciscans and Dominicans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHaving spent their formative years in the Holy Land, the Order never had the widespread European success of the Franciscans and Dominicans, their houses predominantly in southern France, Italy, Sicily and Cyprus, with outliers in England. Thus, Carmelite books are of significant rarity, the last on the market was a Breviary from the Carmelites of Semur-en-Auxois sold by Sotheby‚Äôs, 6 December 2016, lot 29, and then dispersed in the trade the leaves with the ex libris marks ending up in the Roger Martin collection; a devotional compendium sold in the same rooms, 5 July 2011, lot 96, as part of the Bergendal collection; and a Book of Hours and Prayerbook sold in Sotheby‚Äôs, 5 December 2006, lot 46, to the American arm of the present Carmelite Order. Of those, only the book once in the Bergendal collection predated the fifteenth century, and that by only a decade or so. Christie‚Äôs has had none since a fifteenth-century Breviary sold on 2 December 1987, lot 170, as part of the Doheny collection, and Bloomsbury Auctions sold only a single Prayerbook of the sixteenth century on 9 December 2015, lot 120.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe focus of these books on the breviary is interesting. The vow of poverty and travel entailed in a mendicant lifestyle prohibited the ownership of large libraries by individuals, and a breviary was frequently the only book owned by a Carmelite friar as his sole practical tool in celebrating the ecclesiastical year. These books were commonly bought with an allowance from the Order at the end of the novitiate, and could not be sold or given away, but were recoverable after his death by the convent where he first said Mass and given to another to use in turn. As such, Carmelite breviaries are the very core books of the life of the friars, central to their experience of a religious life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe text here comprises: a Calendar; records of various feasts arranged by the ecclesiastical year (here ‚ÄúMemorie per totum annum‚Äù), followed by benedictions and prayers; the Sanctoral; and the Temporal.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CARMELITE BREVIARY.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868673253711,"sku":"L4036","price":27500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7450.jpg?v=1781793658"},{"product_id":"cambridge-university-1","title":"[CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.]","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A most interesting, serendipitous survival   a collections of verse, quotes, doodles and a coded text, produced most probably by university students in Cambridge c.1526-35. On fol.2v is the date 1526, in an early hand. The numerous ms invocations such as  In nomine dei  etc., suggest these notes were written pre-1535, the year when Cambridge University subscribed to the new Reformed regulations. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..An early owner, Jhamys Pyckeryge, noted (fol.1r) the price he paid for a book (2s 8d), when these were endleaves. The transaction was witnessed ( teste ) by Nicholas Pylgrame (Pilgrim), perhaps the same Dutchman (d.1545), with an Anglicized name, who was stationer and bookseller for Garrett Godfrey in 1534, and later inherited his business. We have not traced any James Pickering matriculated at Cambridge pre-1535, though early records are not always complete and names were often recorded only when students took their degree. The book once joined to these endleaves changed hands a few times, other early owners including one from 1526 (and, from the handwriting no later than 1540), a  Doctor Neveson  (perhaps Christopher Nevinson, later Royal Commissioner, B. Civ. L. 1533), who also acquired the book for 2s 8d, and a  Master Wally  [or Wallis].. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..A 1530s owner jotted down verse on his fellow students: Wallis  Master of Arts , Cay  senior fellow of Fys[wick]s [or Fy[swic]ks] hall , Mason  batc [i.e., bachelor] of law , Waker  good fellow , Ralinson  p(?) of [misplaced] Fys[wick]s [or Fy[swic]ks] hostel , Nicholas (?) Martchall, and James Tottell (related to the printer\/publisher?). Founded in 1393, Physwick Hostel   the most plausible name for that abbreviation - was one of several medieval halls in Cambridge, for the external accommodation of students. Physwick was first attached to Gonville Hall and, in 1546, was one of several hostels and halls merged to form Trinity College.  Some of the Hostels were especially noted for riots and quarrellings  (Stokes, p.40). In 1533-7, the Principal (and a fellow) of Physwick was John Caius, MD in 1533 and Fellow at Gonville Hall - probably the  Cay  in the poem. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.. ..Among the notes jotted down by the students are one, dated 1526, on wars between Italy and France and another on the difference between  fures  (thieves) and  latrones  (bandits, robbers). None have been traced to specific works, though the subject is legal or theological. The most interesting (fol.1r) is a curious text (in Pickering s hand?) in what appears to be an unusual coded technique, halfway between cryptography and shorthand. It is apparently composed of the first syllable of Latin words (e.g.,  ne spo[n]  for  ne spondes ?), forming meaningful sentences, with occasional repetitions of the same syllable (e.g.,  ne con co[n] ma cog cog ), which make the text sound meaningless at times. We have not traced the original text. However, some of the abbreviations   e.g.,  bap  (baptismus?),  ad iud  (ad iudicium? Ad Iudaeos?),  fid' (fidei?),  de  (deus?), and 'pac' (pacem?) - suggest a canon law or religious text. The late 1520s to mid-1530s were a period of turmoil in England, which culminated in the new Reformed regulations approved in 1535. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868676563279,"sku":"L2740\/1\/2","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3327-2-copy-1.jpg?v=1781793650"},{"product_id":"medical-ms","title":"[MEDICAL MS]","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn interesting ms likely by an early C16 Italian physician   probably a young student - as a reference in his daily work. Organised alphabetically, it was intended to summarise the nature, symptoms and treatments of common illnesses, although never completed. The first leaf provides a brief explanation of units of measurement as they would have appeared in medical recipes. He mentions Rhemnius   the author of a work on weights and measurements   as a source for the  obolus  and  semiobolus , ancient Greek weights, which he equates with the C16  scrupulus  (1\/24 of an ounce) and  italica amphora , which equals 48  sextaria  (one  sextarius  being approx. 567 millilitres). There follows a short section with guidance on bloodletting surgery, and several sections   in alphabetical order   on specific illnesses. These include headache, incubus (nightmares), epilepsy, melancholy, toothache, asthma (also  suspirium  or  anhelitum ), deep skin ulcers ( phagedena ), anorexia ( cachexia ), priapism and fevers. The main source, with minor variations, is the first ed. of Caelius Aurelianus   Tardarum Passionum  (Basle, 1529), based on a single 9 th -cent. ms once in the monastery at Lorsch. This provides a terminus post quem for our ms, no later than 1550s. Mss of Caelius  works were and remain extremely rare. The 1529 ed. also included Oribasius  works, whence the reference to  Italica amphora  was drawn. Caelius  works were remarkably important for early modern physicians:  Aurelianus aready described in detail the rhythmic pattern - daily and seasonally - of asthma. Tooth pain was also first described by Caelius to peak at night and that drugs were not able to fully suppress the pain, a first indication of chronopharmacology  (Lemmer).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[MEDICAL MS]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868690161999,"sku":"L4343","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9576.jpg?v=1781793467"},{"product_id":"quran","title":"QUR'AN.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA beautiful, finely decorated manuscript Qur’an, on ivory paper, in a very uncommon decorated binding with fore-edge flap. The use of muhaqqaq for the first, middle and last line of each text page, and the lingering presence of Eastern Kufic in the cartouches at head and foot, point to c.1500. Close decorative patterns were traced in manuscripts produced c.1500-1540s in late Timurid \/ early Safavid Herat, in present day Afghanistan, e.g., Cleveland Museum of Art 1924.746. The prevalence of gatherings of 8 ll. is also more frequent in Central Asian manuscripts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe interesting composite binding is an uncommon, skilled technique, of which Dr K. Scheper only records 5 known instances at Leiden UL and 1 at LC. Composite bindings are ‘intriguing’ and ‘complicated’, and ‘the technique itself is easily overlooked because the final result is not decidedly different from that of a typical well-made decorated full-leather binding’ (Scheper, p.256). Here the binding bears central gilt-tooled inlays in olive green goatskin, single gilt ruled at their juncture with the lighter brown goatskin of the board edges, both types of leather having been paired to the same thickness. The lighter leather at the board edges comes in fact from the turn-outs of the doublures, folded over to create contrasting colours (Scheper, pp.256-8, n.37). Similar doublures, with the same colour patterns and quadrilobed decoration, have been traced to Safavid Herat, c.third quarter of the C16 (Louvre, shelfmark AD 6262). The board decoration, heavily influenced by Ottoman models, is also compatible with the style of c.1600 Central Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA most interesting Qur’an, with unusual features.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"QUR'AN.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868695667023,"sku":"L4319","price":95000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/CF4E9408-88C3-44C7-937A-6FB69E91A3BB.webp?v=1781793457"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-18_at_6.02.21_PM.png?v=1781802169","url":"https:\/\/www.sokol.co.uk\/collections\/manuscripts.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}