Homiliary, sermons from Bede and Peter Damian, in Latin, cutting from a decorated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

1,500 - 2,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

a cutting, 195mm. by 150mm., 21 lines here, column width 107mm., ruled in blind, written in a fine rounded romanesque display script, opening words of texts in uncials, headings in red in uncials, a 2-line initial ‘I’ in red, large initial ‘Q’ (“Quia propitia divinitate …”), 6-line, 53mm. by 48mm. plus long extension, the initial drawn in red enclosing elaborate white vinestem design infilled with colours and on a coloured panel with the tail of the ‘Q’ formed of a long-tailed bird perched beside the initial, some damp staining and unevenness of the surface (not affecting the initial), the lower edge of the cutting stained and defective, now masked with another cutting of 5 lines from the same manuscript laid on top, in a blue cloth folder, morocco title label gilt

Catalogue Note

Boehlen Collection, MS 1120 ES, bought in New York, 1994, described as having previously been in the collection of Professor J.J.G. Alexander. The illumination with a bird forming part of the initial has a close parallel with pl.XXXVI in F. Avril and Y. Za³uska, Manuscrits enluminés d’origine italienne, I, 1980, no.86, ascribed to Tuscany, perhaps Pisa. The recto shows part of Homily LXXII of Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072). The initial is on the verso, and marks the opening of Book II, homily XXV, of the Gospel sermons of Bede (c.673-735), the greatest writer of Anglo-Saxon England.