Dr. Jörn Günther • Antiquariat
www.guenther-rarebooks.com

CONTENTS

Illuminated manuscripts

  1. Canones conciliorum, written by an insular scribe,
    Northern Italy, c. 775
  2. Psalter, so-called Bernwardpsalter,
    Germany, Hildesheim, c. 1020
  3. Gospel Lectionary, Byzantium,
    Constantinople,c. 1100
  4. St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, Upper
    Austria, Lambach Abbey, second half 12th century
  5. Vita Christi, Life of Christ and of the Virgin,
    Northern England,York, c.1190-1200,
    and East Anglia, Norfolk, c.1480-90
  6. Antiphonary, illuminated choirbook, Italy,Venice
    (San Marco), c. 1250 (between 1238 and 1264)
  7. Psalter and biblia latina with the interpretation
    of the Hebrew names, France, Lorraine, Metz, c. 1250
  8. Psalter for the use of Brussels, Northern France,
    Paris, c. 1260
  9. Biblia latina with the interpretations of
    the Hebrew names, Southern France,Toulouse,
    last quarter of the 13th century
  10. Psalter, illuminiated for Gui de Dampierre,
    Southern Netherlands, Bruges, c. 1280
  11. Speculum humanae salvationis, illuminated
    with pen-and-ink drawings by Magister Konrad,
    Austria, before 1386
  12. Book of hours, use of Chartres, illuminated by
    the Bedford workshop, France, Paris, c. 1400-10
  13. Psalter, Spain, Barcelona, shortly after 1400
    and c. 1440-50
  14. Book of hours, use of Rome, illuminated by
    Pseudo-Jacquemart, France, Paris, c. 1410
  15. The so-called Wardington Hours, hours of
    the Passion, illuminated by the Bedford workshop,
    France, Paris, c. 1410 and 1430
  16. Wirnt von Grafenberg, Wigalois (manuscript k),
    illustrated by the circle of the Workshop of 1418
    and of Diebold Lauber,Alsace, c. 1420-30
  17. I.Thomas de Chobham, Summa de poenitentia,
    dat. 1422; II. Stephan Palecz, Utilia contra errantes;
    III. Johannes Andreae, Processus iudicalis – et al.;
    Austria, Seitenstetten, c. 1422
  18. Joachim di Fiore Vaticinia sive Prophetiae
    et Imagines Summorum Pontificum,
    illustrated by the workshop of Lorenzo
    di Pietro ‘Il Vecchietta’, Benvenuto di Giovanni,
    Italy, Siena, c. 1450 and c. 1464
  19. Bruder Philipp, Marienleben
    and other texts, Upper Rhine, c. 1450
  20. German prayerbook with metalcuts, Germany,
    Cologne and Tyrol, Diocese of Brixen,
    dated 1458
  21. Book of hours, use of Paris, illuminated by
    the Master of Jacques de Luxembourg, France,
    Paris, c. 1460-70
  22. Book of hours, use of Rome, illuminated by the
    Master of Marguerite de Liederkerke, Flanders,
    Hainault, Mons or Valenciennes, c. 1500
  23. Croy-Arenberg Book of Hours, use of Sarum,
    with miniatures by the Master of Sir George
    Talbot, the Master of the First Prayer Book of
    Maximilian and the Master of the David Scenes
    in the Grimani Breviary, Flanders, Ghent,
    1505 and c. 1510-20
  24. Berault Stuart (Bernard Stewart),
    Traité sur l’art de la guerre, Northern France, Paris,
    second quarter 16th century
  25. Battista Agnese, Portolan Atlas, Italy,Venice,
    signed and dated 5 February 1544


    26. Early Prints

  26. Nativity, Single-leaf print, Southern Germany,
    c. 1440
  27. The Good Sheperd – ihesus xpristus,
    Single-leaf print, Southern Germany,
    West-Swabian, c. 1460-70
  28. Block-book – Ars Memorandi per figuras
    Evangelistarum, first print of first edition,
    Southern Germany, Nuremberg, c. 1470
  29. Block-book – Der Antichrist und die fünfzehn Zeichen
    Germany, Nuremberg: Hans Briefmaler 1472,
    second edition, i.e. Hans Sporer, 1470
  30. Celestial vision at Constantinople. Kunt und
    wissennt sey allermeniglich das ein sölich geschicht
    unnd erschreckliches erschein gesehen ist worden hinter
    Canstantinopel ..., Single leaf print, Southern
    Germany, Nuremberg c. 1491
  31. Biblia Latina – A single leaf,Mainz: Johann
    Gutenberg and Johann Fust,‘c. 1454/55’; rather 1452-1454
  32. Psalterium Benedictum Congregationis Bursfeldensis
    – A single leaf, Mainz: Johann Fust
    and Peter Schöffer, 29 August 1459
  33. I.Thomas de Aquino. Summa de articulis fidei,
    Mainz: Printer of the Catholicon before 1460
    or Peter Schöffer c. 1469
    II. Matthaeus de Cracovia. Dialogus rationis
    et conscientiae de frequenti usu Communionis,
    Mainz: see above, c. 1469;
    III.Antoninus Florentinus. Confessionale:
    Defecerunt.With: Johannes Chrysostomus. Sermo
    de poenitentia, Cologne: Ulrich Zell, c. 1470
  34. Johannes Balbus, Catholicon, Mainz: printer of
    the Catholicon, probably Gutenberg workshop
    1460, c. 1472, or 1469
  35. Rudimentum Novitiorum, Lubeck: Lucas Brandis,
    5 August 1475
  36. Speculum humanae salvationis, German:
    ein spiegel der menschlichen behaltnisze,
    Basel: Bernhard Richel, 31 August 1476
  37. Conrad von Megenberg, Das buch der Natur,
    Augsburg: Johann Bämler, 20 August 1481
  38. Auslegung – Messe singen oder lesen wer
    das thun sol, wenn, wie oder wo, Nuremberg:
    Friedrich Creussner, not after 1482
  39. Jacobus de Theramo, Belial. Cy commence le proces
    de Belial a l’encontre de Ihesus. Lyon, Mathias Huss:
    19 May 1486
  40. Compilation of ten French
    literary incunabula, Paris, 1488-c. 95, among them Olivier
    de la Marche, Le Chevalier Délibéré. Paris: Guy Marchand
    or Antoine Caillaut for Antoine Vérard,
    8 August 1488
  41. Olivier de la Marche. Le Chevalier Délibéré,
    Gouda, printer of the Chevalier délibéré,
    Collaciebroeders, after 31 October 1489
  42. Petrus de Crescentiis, Ruralia commoda.
    In commodum ruralium cum figuris libri duodecim,
    Speyer: Peter Drach, not before 1493
  43. Alanus de Rupe, Von dem psalter unnd Rosen
    krancz unser lieben frauen.Wie man den beten sol,
    Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 1492
  44. Der Doten dantz mit figuren. Clage und
    Antwort schon von allen staten der welt,
    Mainz: Jacob Meydenbach, c. 1492
  45. Fiore di virtù. Questa sie una utilissima operetta
    acada uno fidel christiano chiamata fior de virtu,Venice:
    Matteo Capcasa di Codeca, 15 January 1493
  46. Christophorus Columbus, De insulis nuper
    in mari Indico inventis, and Carolus Verardus,
    Historia Baetica. In laudem Serenissimi
    Ferdinandi Hispaniarum regis Bethicae & regni
    Granatae obsidio, victoria & triumphus,
    Basel: Johann Bergmann von Olpe, 1494
  47. Scriptores Astronomici veteres: Julius Firmicus
    Maternus, Mathesis and other Greek and Roman
    astronomical texts,Venice:Aldus Manutius, 1499
  48. a: La dance macabre des hommes, Paris,
    widow of Jehan Treperel and Jehan Jehannot,
    c. 1512-22 234

     b: La dance macabre des femmes toutes
    hystories & augmentee de nouveau, Paris,
    Jehan Treperel (II), c. 1525-32
  49. Martin Luther, Das newe testament deutzsch,
    Wittenberg: Melchior Lotter, 1524
  50. Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius, In somnium
    Scipionis libri II. Saturnaliorum libri VII.
    Basel: Johannes Herwagen the Elder, 1535

    Key to bibliographical references


One of the most fascinating navigational charts of the 16th century

25 Battista Agnese, Portolan Atlas

Illuminated manuscript on vellum. Italy,Venice, 5 February 1544 (signed and dated).

293 x 216 mm. 14 (+2 blank) leaves.The 7 bifolia are pasted together back to back and form 10 double-page maps. – Place names in Latin, Italian and Spanish in a small humanistic minuscule, names of countries in square capitals, mostly in brown ink, but the names of towns in red. 10 double-page maps within a frame of 218 x 350 mm, coastlines in blue and green, islands mostly in green or goldwash. Compass lines in red, green or gold. Each map with a windrose in gold and coloured ink. The mileage scale is indicated at the corners of most maps. – In fine and fresh condition. – Original binding commissioned by the mapmaker’s workshop itself: contemporary Venetian gold-tooled reddish-brown morocco over wooden boards; the covers panelled with gilt fillets into two frames, the inner one with four gilt rosettes at the corners and the central compartment with 4 gilt knotwork ornaments. 3 of 4 original brass and leather clasps, here with clasps at the upper and lower edges as well. Inside the lower cover in the centre a small compass is inset under glass that is no longer in working order, although full functionality at the date of production of the atlas should be assumed.

PROVENANCE: 1. The atlas is signed on fol. 13v/14 “Baptista Agnese Januensis fecit Venetiis 1544 die 5 februarij.” 2. In 1546 it was acquired by Maximilian II of Burgundy, Lord of Beveren,Vere and Vlissigen, admiral of the Netherlands, governor of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht (1514-58). His name and titles appear in gold capitals on a cartouche dated 1546 on fol. 2v, facing his coat of arms incorporating the Order of the Golden Fleece on fol. 3. Maximilian had become a member of the Order in the same year. 3. Purchased by Countess Doheny from Rosenbach in 1948 (De Ricci 1962, no. 10); her sale Christie’s, 2 December 1987, lot 177. 4. European private collection.

CONTENTS: fol. 3v: declination table – fol. 4: armillary sphere – fol. 4v-5: zodiac – fol. 5v-6: Pacific Ocean according to the Vermeglio type, showing the coasts of North and South America, California as a peninsula. The area between Peru and the Straits of Magellan is left blank.Yucatan was originally drawn as an island and changed into a peninsula after the completion of the map – fol. 6v-7: Atlantic Ocean, showing the east coast of North and South America.Yucatan again changed into a peninsula – fol. 7v-8: Indian Ocean, showing the coasts of Asia and Africa, the names of the winds in Italian and Dutch – fol. 8v-9: North West and Central Europe. England and Scotland separated by a narrow strait – fol. 9v-10: Iberian peninsula and North West Africa – fol. 10v-11: Western Mediterranean – fol. 11v-12: Central Mediterranean, Italy and the Aegean – fol. 12v-13: Eastern Mediterranean – fol. 13v-14: Black Sea – fol. 14v-15: Oval world map. The course of Magellan’s voyage around the world of 1520 is clearly drawn, as well as the route from Spain to Peru – fol. 15v-16: blank; except for an added, but apparently contemporary, sepia pen and ink drawing of a sailing man-of-war. The flags identify the ship as Spanish, and also include the standard of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his consort. Between 1536 and 1564 the enterprising Genoese chartmaker Battista Agnese produced in Venice a number of remarkably accurate and beautifully decorated navigational or portolan atlases on vellum. In contrast to other contemporary portolans which were used only for navigation, those from Agnese’s workshop were also published for presentational purposes. Portolan charts tended to be covered with a network of lines corresponding to the principal points of the compass and were divided by wind directions (Short 2003, p. 62). Their aim was a faithful rendering of the coastlines, while the inland areas were usually documented only superficially. In the Agnese portolans the coastlines of islands are given in green, while those of the mainland are rendered in blue; they are thus conceived according to the latest cartographical rules. The present portolan atlas, which is not recorded in the census of Agnese portolans published by Wagner in 1931 (also true of the portolans in St Petersburg from 26 May 1546 – Dürr 1993), belongs to a group of nine atlases, all produced between 1543 and 1545, classified by him as “Post-Californian Group C”. California appears here as a peninsula with the names of the coastal places; the Sultan Selim legend is mentioned on the maps of the eastern Mediterranean; and Holland, Utrecht and Brabant appear as separate islands. In this version the name “Brabant” has been erased from the third island and is now inserted on the mainland. The atlas with the closest resemblance to this one is in the Huntington Library (HM 26 – Wagner 1931).However, number 29 in Wagner’s census (Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek, ms. Fl. 140a) shares the same date, 5 February 1544, as well as an identical composition using the same maps, differing only in its physical dimensions.Wagner characterised this group of atlases by remarking that “the shape of North America shows transition; the Verrazano isthmus is preserved but the Terra de Bacaleos is different from that on the 1542 and 1543 maps.” Based on this observation one can draw the conclusion that the maps in this atlas were produced in the Agnese workshop in 1544, but were not sold until two years later, in 1546, when a Dutch patron purchased the portolan. The names of some places and winds are amended or actually added in Dutch (in the Agnese portolans of St. Petersburg and of the Museo Correr in Venice of c. 1550 the names of the winds are likewise given in Dutch, cf. Dürr 1993, p. 14) and it was possibly at this time that the rendering of Yucatan was changed into a peninsula. The names of the winds on the pastedowns are in Dutch. Thus, the maps were obviously bound after the sale to Maximilian II of Burgundy in 1546.

LITERATURE: De Ricci 1962, no. 10;Wagner 1931, pp. 1- 110;Wagner 1947, pp. 28-30; La Roncière/Mollat du Jourdin 1984, Fig. 41, p. 225; Dürr 1993; Lindgren 1993; exh. cat Bonn 2000, pp. 87-97 and 288-289, no. 297; Short 2003.