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“Fragments from the Collection of Domenico Maria Manni”, leaves from five manuscripts in Latin on vellum
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
10 leaves, bound as a collection, (a) a noted Breviary, early twelfth century, 2 leaves, up to 327mm. by 215mm., double column, 36 lines, written-space 280mm. by 160mm., written in a good late Carolingian minuscule, headings in red (sometimes in rustic capitals), adiastemmatic musical neumes, 16 large initials in red, stained and slightly defective, scribbles on first page, inscribed at top “di Domenico Maria Manni, fortassis sæculi IX vel X”; (b) a Missal, 2 leaves, early thirteenth century, 312mm. by 210mm., double column, 31 lines, written-space 232mm. by 140mm., rubrics in red, 34 large initials in red, from the Sanctoral and including masses for Saints Zenobius (bishop of Florence, 25 May), Romulus (probably the first bishop of Fiesoli, 6 July), Reparata (relics in Florence) and Cerbonius (bishop of Piombino), all of which suggest Tuscany as the provenance, second leaf rather faded, inscribed at top “Di Domenico Ma Manni, 1733”; (c) civil law, 1½ leaves, late thirteenth century, 320mm. by 217mm., double column, 44 lines, written-space 206mm. by 130mm., headings in red, medieval heading “De Iudiciis et actibus iudiciorum”, first leaf very defective; (d) a Breviary, 2 leaves, late fourteenth century, double column, at least 23 lines, rubrics, red and blue initials with contrasting penwork, inscribed “S pompeo Caldni, 1588-1598” and “Ser Niccolaus Guadagnolus Socius”, defective; (e) Origen, In Numeros Homiliae, in the Latin translation of Rufinus, 2 leaves, early twelfth century, 373mm. by 260mm., double column, 34 lines, written-space 248mm. by 158mm., running-title in red, text from homilies xxvi-xxvii, inscribed “Libretto de vini di nochi dato all’ osti l’anno 1580 …”; all recovered from bindings (as the inscriptions above show) and consequently defective, bound together, modern vellum over pasteboards, title gilt, in a black cloth slipcase, morocco title label gilt
Catalogue Note
Boehlen Collection, MSS.1108 ES, a-k. The leaves are from one of the earliest antiquarian collections of manuscript fragments ever formed, that of Domenico Maria Manni (1690-1788), Florentine antiquary, book historian and biographer of Aldus Manutius. The fragments probably belonged to Erwin Rosenthal, and later to his son Bernard Rosenthal, from whom a leaf of a twelfth-century Missal inscribed by Manni emerged in Quaritch cat.1088 (Bookhands of the Middle Ages, III), 1988, no.43. The present leaves were in the possession of Mark Lansburgh by 1978 and were still his in 1990.