Rare books from Les Enluminures

ILLUMINATED MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT IN LATIN ON PARCHMENT, Northern Italy, c. 1440-1470. 203 x 153 mm. 70 folios, complete (collation, i-vii10), remnants of quire and leaf signatures, flourished vertical catchwords, written in a humanist minuscule on 30 long lines (justification, 147-149 x 95-100 mm), horizontal lines ruled very lightly in ink, single vertical bounding lines ruled in lead, prickings remain in top and bottom margins on some leaves, rubrics and paragraph marks in pale red, two-line red or blue initials with contrasting pen flourishes in violet or red, two five-line blue initials, ff. 29v and 35, infilled and on square grounds of elaborate penwork; f. 64v, seven-line polished GOLD INITIAL with white vinestem decoration extending along twenty lines of text and into the upper margin, infilled and edged in deep red and blue with numerous tiny silver dots; f. 1, five-line polished GOLD HISTORIATED INITIAL of St. Jerome, bearded and dressed in red, standing before a Crucifix, with a hilly… Read More

DECORATED MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT IN LATIN AND ITALIAN ON PARCHMENT AND PAPER, Central or Southern Italy (Lanciano?), c. 1450-1475. 135 x 90 mm. 109 folios preceded and followed by single flyleaves, watermark in Piccard, complete (collation, i-vii10 viii5 [of 10; five leaves canceled with no loss of text] ix-x12 xi10), chiefly written in five semitextualis or hybrida hands on 26-31 lines, two hands on long lines and three in two columns (justification, 95 x 65-70 mm.), red rubrics and underlining, 2- to 4-line red initials, 4- to 5-line initials in blue and red, three 7-line initials in blue and red (ff. B 1, 1v, 5). BINDING: Late fifteenth-century Italian blind-stamped brown leather over wooden boards, sewn on three cords with remnants of blue endbands, clasps removed, remnant of upper clasp on front fore-edge visible, parchment pastedowns, originally blank. TEXT: This small-format Franciscan miscellany is an example of a mendicant pocket-book, designed for easy portability. This one is still preserved… Read More

A BEAUTIFUL ILLUMINATED COPY OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL BY HAIMO OF AUXERRE COMMISSIONED BY Jean II Budé. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, in Latin, France, Paris, c. 1460-1480 and c. 1500. Dimensions 278 x 105 mm. 193 folios, catchwords, guide words, numerous small initial in red and blue, TEN LARGE DECORATED INITIALSin blue or red and gold accented with foliage and flowers, LARGE FRONTISPIECE MINIATURE with acanthus leaf border and bas-de-page the arms of Jean Budé. BINDING: Late eighteenth-century red morocco attributed to Bozerian, with fitted red slipcase. TEXT: This manuscript contains the commentary on the Epistles of Paul by Haimo of Auxerre apart from Romans and 1-2 Corinthians which never intended to be included. Haimo of Auxerre taught at the school of the Benedictine house of Saint-Germain at Auxerre in the ninth-century and is the author of many widely-read commentaries on the Song of Songs, Revelations, and the Minor Prophets, as well as of many sermons. He was best… Read More

PAINTED IN SOFT SHADES OF SEMI-GRISAILLE FROM THE WORKSHOP OF THE "PRINCE OF ILLUMINATION". Illuminated manuscript on parchment, in Latin and French, France, Valenciennes, c. 1475-1480. Dimensions 158 x 110 mm. 84 ff., lacking an undetermined number of leaves rendering collation impossible, written in dark brown ink in BÂTARDE SCRIPT, ONE LARGE MINIATURE with FULL-PAGE BORDER and 14 SMALL MINIATURES by the workshop of SIMON MARMION. BINDING: Nineteenth-century French red morocco, gilt-blocked to a cathedral style, gilt spine, gilt edges, marbled endleaves, slight wear to joints and corners. ILLUSTRATION: This interesting and beautiful made-to-order Book of Hours, destined for a patron living in the western, French-speaking diocese of Cambrai, offers an excellent witness to the functioning of the atelier of the painter-illuminator Simon Marmion, both in its cycle of illustrations and in its marginal decoration. This manuscript is remarkable for its delicate painting executed in soft, pastel tones,… Read More

MEDIEVAL SERMON MANUSCRIPT IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CHAINED BINDING, CHAIN INTACT, decorated manuscript on parchment, in Latin, Austria (Vienna?) or Southern Germany, c. 1275-1300. 182 x 127 mm. 190 folios, complete, written in a rapid Gothic hand with cursive influence in two columns of thirty-two to thirty-seven lines (justification, 141-143 x 96-100 mm.), parchment ruled in brown ink, quire signatures, guide notes for rubrication, red rubrics, capitals and names of cited authorities stroked in red, rhymed phrases underlined in red, red paraphs, two- to three-line plain red initials, two-line red initial with pen flourishing in red (f. 131v), occasional scribal corrections and marginalia. BINDING: Fifteenth-century blind-tooled and -stamped red calf with eight engraved and bossed cornerpieces, intact fore-edge clasp, and chain hasp with intact chain, with two manuscript fragments serving as front flyleaf and lower pastedown. Chained libraries were a late medieval solution to the problem of providing… Read More

CHARMING BOOK OF HOURS WITH CLEAN MARGINS, A SOFT PALETTE, AND A LOVELY ARMORIAL BINDING. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, in Latin, calendar and some rubrics in French, France, Loire Valley or Central France (?), c. 1490-1510. Dimensions 143 x 84 mm., ii (modern paper) + 214 + ii (modern paper) folios, lacking 2 leaves, written in brown ink in a cursive bookhand, on 18 lines, ruled in red ink, thirteen 3-6-line blue initials with white highlights, FIVE SMALL MINIATURES, FIVE FULL-PAGE MINIATURES in architectural frames. BINDING: bound in eighteenth-century red morocco, spine with five raised bands gold-tooled with filets, fleurons and crowns; gold-tooled covers with double-fillets and corner fleurons stamped with the arms of Charles de Baschi, binding restored in the nineteenth or early twentieth century, with a box covered with marbled paper. ILLUMINATION: an interesting and hitherto unknown French artist who deserves attention painted this Book of Hours. His miniatures exhibit a certain freedom… Read More

REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF A PERFECTLY PRESERVED PARISIAN RENAISSANCE BOOK OF HOURS WITH BINDING, CLASPS, AND PICTURES ALL INTACT. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, in Latin and French, France, Paris, c. 1500. Dimensions 220 x 130 mm., 90 folios, complete, written in a single column of 30 lines in a pleasing formal bâtarde book hand, rubrics in red, one-line initials throughout, numerous two-line initials, 14 LARGE AND 23 SMALL FINELY EXECUTED MINIATURES by the workshop of JEAN COENE IV (=MASTER OF THE PARIS ENTRIES). BINDING: Bound in ORIGINAL, unrepaired blind-stamped leather, with raised bands, two original openwork silver clasps, original catch plates and anchor plates, remnants of velvet chemise beneath, vellum pastedowns, all edges gilt. In a modern brown cloth clamshell box with leather spine label. ILLUSTRATION: This exceptional Book of Hours was clearly a premium production, almost certainly done by the master Jean Coene IV (active c. 1490-1520) himself. The harmonious composition of each… Read More

SUBSTANTIAL BOOK OF HOURS IN GOOD CONDITION WITH MANY LARGE AND SMALL MINIATURES. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, in Latin, Southern Netherlands, Ghent or Bruges, c. 1460-1470. Dimensions 179 x 124 mm., 118 folios, complete, written in brown ink in a textualis formata bookhand on 19 lines, one-line initials, 2- to 3- line champ initials, fourteen 6-line initials, one HISTORIATED INITIAL (5-lines), ELEVEN SMALL MINIATURES (6-lines), FOURTEEN FULL-PAGE MINIATURES, 28 FULL BORDERS. BINDING: nineteenth-century dark brown calf, gold-tooled, contains words in gilt (mostly rubbed out) MARIE (front board) and ROSARIE (back board), gauffered edges. ILLUSTRATION: Painted in the style of the Masters of the Beady Eyes, this Book of Hours is distinguished by its unusual and enigmatic details. The artist is eager to represent architectural and structural details, which sometimes lead to curious spatial arrangements and juxtapositions. PROVENANCE: The painting style situates the production of this book in Ghent… Read More

MEDIEVAL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT IN ITALIAN ON PAPER, Northeastern Italy, Veneto (Venice?), c. 1474. Dimensions 328-332 x 230 mm., 188 folios, missing at least three leaves, written in brown ink in an Italian cursiva libraria script, EIGHT ILLUMINATED INITIALS of seven lines, one-line paraphs in red or blue, simple two- to four-line in red or blue initials. BINDING: re-cased using original binding materials of brown half leather over bevelled wooden boards with three double bands, remains of four straps present. TEXT: Italian translation of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job, one of the most important and widely copied texts of the Middle Ages. Though forty copies of this translation survive, this volume is unusual in its incorporation of Venetian dialectal forms. All other copies are in European institutions and have not been on the market for the last century. PROVENANCE: scribal colophon on f. 190v provides a date for this manuscript's completion and helps localize its production within Italy:… Read More

MISCELLANY WITH ELEVEN IMPORTANT TEXTS REFLECTING THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE MODERN DEVOTION. In Latin, Low German, and Dutch, decorated manuscript on paper, Netherlands (Southeastern?) or West Germany, c. 1460-1480. Dimensions 244 x 143, 222 folios on paper, apparently complete, written by at least four scribes in expert cursive gothic bookhands in 28-30 long lines, seven ORIGINAL TABS or place-markers made from white leather strips, blank spaces for 2-line initials, guide notes for rubricator, majuscules stroked with red, 6- to 2-line red initials. BINDING:
modern half-tawed leather and exposed wood, two brass clasp-and-catch fastenings, straps missing, fastening back to front, spine with four raised bands. TEXT:
A carefully thought-out miscellany that reflects the spirituality of the Modern Devotion (religious movement) and includes the Imitation of Christ, five visionary texts describing journeys to Heaven and Hell (one copied twice), and six texts on the Passion of Christ. PROVENANCE: Written in… Read More

RARE MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT ON THE HEALTH OF HORSES. In Italian and Latin, illustrated manuscript on paper, Northern Italy (perhaps Ferrara), dated 1434. Dimensions 283 x 217 mm, 82 folios, complete, watermark of three mountains, phrases in decorative cartouches, written in in a gothic bookhand influenced by humanistic script in two columns of 29-35 lines, large painted initials in red throughout, large divided initial in red and brown on f. 1, five marginal drawings in red or in brown with yellow wash. BINDING: CONTEMPORARY BINDING of limp vellum with spine sewn in account-book style in a cloth clamshell case. TEXT: Rare signed and dated manuscript of the Italian translation of one of the principal treatises on veterinary medicine for horses. PROVENANCE: Copied for the use of Chalavereso, who very likely was the ducal farrier at the court of Niccolo III d'Este in Ferrara. The manuscript is dated 1434 (lower margin of f. 33), and the colophon on f. 69v records that it was copied by the scribe Guido de… Read More

BOOK DESCRIPTION: FIFTEENTH-CENTURY COPY OF GUIDO DA PISA'S HISTORY OF ROME, IN ITALIAN. In Italian, decorated manuscript on parchment, Italy, Tuscany, Florence(?), c. 1440-1460. Dimensions 260 x 182 mm., 83 folios, lacking nine leaves, horizontal catchwords, written in brown ink by two different scribes in Italian cursive mercantesca script in single column on 38 lines, penwork initials. BINDING: ORIGINAL dark brown calf over wooden boards blind-tooled with fillets, twisted rope and x-form motifs, fitted purple buckram case c. 1900. TEXT: Guido da Pisa is best-known for his commentary on Dante, and Dante is cited often in this work, a history of Rome composed within the format of a universal chronicle. This text is now remarkably rare; in fact this is the first copy to appear on the open market in over 140 years, and one of only a few copies on parchment. PROVENANCE: script and decoration suggest that the manuscript was written in Tuscany in the middle of the fifteenth century. The binding,… Read More

FOURTEENTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT OF A RARE NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY COPIED BY A NAMED SCRIBE. In Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment, Southwest Flanders or Hainaut (Tournai?), c. 1350. Dimensions 240 x 170 mm., 120 folios, complete, catchwords in red and brown ink, quire signatures, written by a single scribe in a university bookhand, scrolling cadels at top lines sometimes in human and animal forms, numerous red and blue/black penwork initials of five to seven lines. BINDING: Nineteenth-century marbled boards and doublures, parchment covering corners and spine, spine title in red and black with filigreed decoration in red. TEXT: A New Testament commentary, Jacobus Folquerius's Viridarium Gregoriana, mined from many of Gregory the Great's works, drawing occasionally on Alulfus of Tournai's Gregorialis. The text is known in only three other manuscripts; this copy was, until now, apparently unknown, and is certainly the only of its kind on the market. PROVENANCE: Based on the script, this manuscript… Read More

MANUSCRIPT COMBINING A LATIN NEW TESTAMENT AND COMMENTARIES BY NICHOLAS OF LYRA. In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper, Northeastern Netherlands or Northwestern Germany, c. 1450-1475. Dimensions 275 x 198 mm., 383 folios, apparently complete, written in a formal cursive gothic bookhand without loops in two columns of 38 lines, red initials, nine- to fifteen-line blue or parted red and blue initials, added running titles, which continue to part two of the volume; ff. 146-end, copied in a very neat controlled hybrida script, red initials 3- to-10 line (occasionally blue), a few with pen decoration,10-line red initial, six 10-line parted red and blue initials. BINDING: seventeenth century(?) plain vellum over pasteboard with yap edges. TEXT: This sizeable volume combines a copy of the New Testament, lacking only the Gospels, with the Commentaries by Nicholas of Lyra on the same books of the New Testament. Although possibly of independent origin, these two sections are contemporary and were united very… Read More

MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT OF A THEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY BY THOMAS AQUINAS. In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper, Central Italy, c. 1450-1500. Dimensions 225 x 237 mm., 134 folios, copied by two scribes in small gothic book hands, red and blue initials throughout. BINDING: reversed calf over pasteboards (eighteenth-century?). TEXT: St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a Dominican friar and Doctor of the Church, composed his commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard while teaching in Paris in the 1250s. It was his first major work on theology, in which he presented ideas that were to be elaborated in the Summa contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica, the latter destined to become the standard textbook of Catholic theology for centuries to come. When Aquinas was teaching, the Sentences had been the standard theology textbook since its compilation in the twelfth century. Our manuscript includes only book one, and many manuscripts of this text in fact include only a single book (or books). Only one other copy of… Read More