Item Details

ILLUMINATED VELLUM MANUSCRIPT LEAVES WITH HISTORIATED INITIALS AND INHABITED BORDERS, FROM A PSALTER AND PRAYER BOOK IN LATIN.

(1524). 165 x 133 mm (6 1/2 x 5 1/4"). Single column, from 22-34 lines, in a compressed chiseled calligraphic bâtarde hand.

At least one three-line initial in brushed gold on a blue or brown ground (most leaves with more than one, as well as with a number of similar one-line initials), and one leaf with a very appealing large modelled initial on a delicately tooled burnished gold ground; EVERY LEAF WITH A FULL BRUSHED GOLD BORDER ON BOTH SIDES WITH STYLIZED PLANTS AND FLOWERS, USUALLY WITH AT LEAST ONE ANIMAL, AND OFTEN WITH INTRIGUING HUMAN FIGURES, USUALLY CHERUBS. Sometimes one border (usually the top one) trimmed close, infrequent minor loss of paint, but GENERALLY IN VERY FINE, FRESH CONDITION, the gilt and paint still quite bright.

These leaves come from an unusual German Renaissance manuscript containing a composite text for use at Mass and other services, with the Hours of the Passion, a ferial psalter, Psalms for use at Vespers, the Office of the Conception of Mary, and miscellaneous prayers to the Virgin. Dated 1524 in two places, this highly personalized manuscript bore the arms of Mansfeld, a prominent family from northern Germany, and it may have been executed for Albert, count of Mansfeld (1480-1560). The fact that it contained a miniature of Saint Godehard, bishop of Hildesheim (d. 1038), suggests that it may have been produced at that location, an important bishopric and center of artistic activity at the time. Subsequently, the manuscript belonged to the Comte d'Aspremont-Lynden. It was sold at Sotheby's as lot 100 on 23 June 1987 and was afterwards broken up. The borders here are the source of considerable charm, containing a wide range of botanical species, and many of these frames contain clothed and unclothed cherubs (often interacting with the vegetation, but sometimes doing more interesting things, like shooting an arrow at a bird). (ST9378-3u)