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

CONTENTS

Manuscripts

  1. Glossed Gospels of St Luke and St John,
    Paris or northern France, c. 1210
  2. Psalter with calendar for the diocese of Trier,
    Germany,Trier, c. 1220-40
  3. Psalter and book of hours for the use of Paris,
    illuminated in the du Prat atelier, France, Paris,
    c. 1250-60
  4. Biblia latina, pocket bible, France, Paris, c. 1250
  5. Antiphonary, sanctoral volume, Italy,
    Emilia-Romagna, c. 1270-75
  6. Psalter for the use of Auxerre, France,
    Burgundy or Paris, c. 1300
  7. Antiphonary for a Franciscan convent,
    illuminated by Neri da Rimini, Italy,
    Emilia-Romagna, dated 1314
  8. Vita Sancti Antonii Eremitae – Inventio et
    Translatio, illuminated by the Maestro del 1328,
    Italy, Bologna, c. 1320
  9. Schönrainer Liederhandschrift. Middle High
    German Minnesang manuscript, Germany,
    Hesse, c. 1330
  10. Missale Romanum, illuminated in the workshop
    of Cristoforo Orimina, Italy, Naples, c. 1355
  11. Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae and
    Jean de Meun, Testament, France, Paris, c. 1400
  12. Guido de Columna, Historia destructionis Troiae
    and Giovanni Boccaccio, Il Filostrato, Italy,
    Naples, dated 1414 and 1413
  13. Book of hours for the use of Paris, illuminated
    by the workshop of the Bedford Master, France,
    Paris, c. 1405-10
  14. Compilation of pastoral and mystical texts
    from the library of the Celestines of Marcoussis,
    illuminated by the Hoo Master, France, Paris,
    c. 1425-35
  15. Book of hours for the use of Toul, illuminated
    by the Master of Pommersfelden 351, France,
    Toul or Metz, c. 1435-40
  16. Dominican hymnal, illuminated by the
    Master of 1446, Italy, Bologna, c. 1450
  17. Nicolaus de Lyra, Postilla litteralis super
    Vetus Testamentum, two volumes, Italy,
    Ferrara?, 1441-46
  18. Compilation of history bible and world chronicle,
    the Antichrist and the XV signs and other texts,
    Austria, c. 1450
  19. Book of hours and psalter in Dutch, illuminated
    by the Master of the Haarlem Bible, Masters of
    Otto von Moerdrecht, Masters of Gijsbrecht
    van Brederode et al., northern Netherlands,
    Haarlem, dated 1453
  20. Book of hours for the use of Rome, with
    calendar of Bruges, illuminated by the Master of
    Buchanan E.5, Flanders, Bruges, c. 1450-60
  21. Chronique anonyme universelle, parchment
    scroll, illuminated by the Master of Étienne
    Sauderat, France, Paris?, c. 1450 with additions
    after 1461 and 1467
  22. Psalter with hymnal, illuminated
    by the workshop of Bartolomeo Varnucci,
    Italy, Florence, c. 1460-70
  23. Martin Le Franc, L’Estrif de Fortune et de Vertu,
    illuminated by the Master of the Échevinage
    de Rouen, France, Rouen, c. 1465-75
  24. Book of hours for the use of Utrecht in the Dutch
    translation of Geert Grote, illuminated by one of
    the Masters of Gijsbrecht van Brederode, northern
    Netherlands, probably Utrecht, c. 1465-70
  25. Missale Fratrum Minorum for the convent
    of S. Francesco di Montone, near Perugia,
    illuminated by Bartelomeo and Giapeco
    Caporali, Italy, Perugia, 1469
  26. Book of hours for the use of Rome with
    adaptations for Poitiers and a calendar for
    Angers, illuminated by Maître François,
    France, Paris, c. 1470
  27. Psalter with hymnal, illuminated by the
    workshop of Mariano del Buono di Jacopo,
    Italy, Florence, c. 1470-75
  28. Book of hours for the use of Rome, illuminated
    by Martino da Modena, Italy, Ferrara, c. 1480-85
  29. Book of hours for Dominican use, illuminated
    by the workshop of Matteo Felice, Italy,
    Naples, c. 1480
  30. Giovanni Boccaccio, Elegia di Madonna
    Fiammetta, illuminated by Attavante degli
    Attavanti, Italy, Florence, c. 1480
  31. Book of hours for the use of Rome, Italy,
    Sicily or Naples, c. 1480-90
  32. Olivier de la Marche, Le chevalier délibéré and
    other texts, Flanders, c. 1484
  33. Prayerbook in German, Germany, Nuremberg,
    c. 1495-1500
  34. Fencing treatise with pen-and-ink drawings,
    southern Germany,Augsburg, c. 1490-1500
  35. Book of hours for the use of Paris in Latin
    and French, illuminated by an artist from the
    circle of Jean Pichore, France, Paris, c. 1500
  36. Passion prayerbook in Latin with a prayer for
    the Church of All Saints in Wittenberg, Flanders,
    Bruges, after 1517
  37. Diploma for Statilio Paolino on his award of a
    doctorate in law from the University of
    Perugia, Italy, Perugia, dated 29 October 1582
  38. Album with Italian, mainly Venetian, costumes and
    characters from the Commedia dell’Arte, Italy,
    Venice?, first quarter of the 17th century

    Miniatures

  39. Funeral mass for a dignitary, miniature from a
    breviary, France,Avignon, c. 1340-45 128
  40. A pope distributing the decretals, miniature from
    a manuscript of canon law, France, Languedoc,
    c. 1320
  41. The Adoration of the Magi, historiated initial ‘D’
    on a leaf from a missal, Italy, Siena, c. 1400-10
  42. Two martyr saints, historiated initial ‘P’ on a leaf
    from a gradual for Lucca Cathedral, illuminated by
    Martino di Bartolomeo. Italy, Lucca, c. 1394-95
  43. Investiture of St Clare on a cutting from a
    Franciscan antiphonary, Italy, Bologna or Veneto,
    c. 1430-40
  44. Trinity, historiated initial ‘G’ on a cutting from
    a choirbook, France, Savoy, c. 1450 138
  45. King David playing the psaltery, historiated
    initial ‘E’ on a leaf from a psalter, illuminated by
    Jacopo da Balsemo, Italy, Bergamo, c. 1450-55
  46. The Creation of Eve, historiated initial ‘I’ on a
    cutting from a choirbook, illuminated by
    Bonifacio Bembo, Italy, Lombardy, c. 1445
  47. Jesaia before the Almighty, historiated initial ‘A’
    on a leaf from an antiphonary, illuminated by
    a follower of the Maestro delle Vitae Imperatorum,
    Italy, Lombardy, c. 1460
  48. Batsheba bathing, miniature from the Hours of
    Guyot II Le Peley, illuminated by Jean Colombe,
    France, Bourges, c. 1480
  49. The miracle of St Michael on Mount Gargano,
    miniature from a choirbook, illuminated by
    Attavante degli Attavanti, Italy, Florence,
    between 1473 and 1502
  50. Christ taking leave of his mother, miniature
    mounted on wood, illuminated by Jacopo del
    Giallo?, Italy, Rome, c. 1540

    Key to bibliographical references

A precious codex of diminutive dimensions

28 Book of hours, use of Rome

Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by Martino da Modena. Italy, Ferrara, c. 1480-85.

88 x 62 mm. 245 leaves, complete: I2, II12, III-V10,VI-VII8,VIII-XIV10, XV8, XVI-XXI10, XXII2, XXIII8-1 (omitting the final blank leaf, first leaf replaced presumably in the 17th century), XXIV8, XXV-XXVII10. Catchwords almost throughout, modern pencil foliation including 4 of the later vellum flyleaves (see below): 1-249. – Written space: 45 x 31 mm, ruled for one column of 13 lines, calendar 16 lines, Southern Textualis Formata in black ink, rubrics. Alternating blue and red capitals with marginal penwork decoration in blue and mauve. – 12 decorated initials on burnished gold with white tracery and marginal extenders. 5 historiated initials, 3 of them with full borders of bezants, garden flowers, songbirds, angels etc. on a swirling tendril background. One full-page miniature in an architectural border with coat-of-arms. – Very good condition, only calendar leaves slightly stained in their upper portions. – 17th-century gold-tooled red leather binding, covers with frames using a scallop-shell roll, spine decorated in compartments with an acorn-leaf tool and a thistle-head roll, lettering “Officium B.M.V.”, board-edges and turn-ins also roll-tooled, edges gilt.With marbled endpapers and 6 vellum flyleaves. Slight worming to spine, covers in good condition. In a modern red leather box. 28

PROVENANCE: 1. The coats-of-arms added on fol. 4v could best be associated with the Tolomei-Gucci family of Florence. On fol. 17 the heraldic device is somewhat different and seems to point to a member of another Florentine family, the Ginori, as the most likely candidate for the manuscript’s first owner, although the stars have five points, while the Ginori arms usually have six. 2. Private Collection Europe

TEXT: fol. 5-16v: Calendar – fol. 17-114v: Office of the Virgin, with variants for the time between the Octave of the Nativity and the Feast of the Purification – fol. 115-171: Office of the Dead – fol. 171v: Blank, ruled – fol. 172-201: Penitential psalms and Litany – fol. 201v-202v: Blank – fol. 203-209: Hours of the Holy Cross (fol. 203 with substituting text by a later hand) – fol. 209v: Blank, ruled – fol. 210-217: Mass of the Virgin – fol. 217v: Blank, ruled – fol. 218-242: Canticum Gradus – fol. 240:Verses of St Bernard – fol. 241v: Discourse of St Sebastian – fol. 243-247v: Blank, ruled. The repertoire of texts has some striking similarities with that of another book of hours illuminated by Martino da Modena and datable around 1480-1485 (Sotheby’s, 3 Dec. 2002, lot 33). Unlike northern European hours it begins directly with the Hours of the Virgin omitting readings from the Gospels and the prayers “Obsecro te” and “O intemerata”. The psalms of the three nocturns are not as usual arranged at the end of Matins, but are divided between this and the following hour. The Office of the Dead follows directly after the Hours of the Virgin rather than towards the end of the book, and the Hours of the Cross are not accompanied by those of the Holy Spirit. Instead of Commemorations usually closing a book of hours, a Mass of the Virgin and the Canticum Gradus complete the codex. The only saint invoked is the martyr Sebastian.

ILLUMINATION: fol. 4v: Frontispiece:Annunciation with architectural frame and coat-of-arms – fol. 17: Nine-line historiated initial: Virgin and Child as half-length figures, full border including putti with coat-of-arms – fol. 115: Nine-line historiated initial: Adam’s skull, full border – fol. 172: Nineline historiated initial: David praying, full border – fol. 210: Nine-line historiated initial:Annunciation, the dove descending onto the Virgin who is holding an open book, decoration extending into upper and lower margin – fol. 218: Five-line historiated initial: Christ child with goldfinch. Decorative initials on fol.: 21, 32v, 49, 54v, 60, 66v, 73, 79, 85, 95v, 139, 150. The illuminator of this diminutive volume can be identified as Martino di Giorgio d’Alemagna, known as Martino da Modena after his native city. Active in Ferrara and Bologna between 1470 and 1490, he succeeded Taddeo Crivelli in illuminating a number of choirbooks for the cathedral of San Petronio in Bologna from 1477 to 1480.The present manuscript can be linked to Martino’s illumination in the missal of Filippo Zoboli (Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, ms. Parm. 851) and a psalter-hours (Montecassino, Abbazia, Archivo privato, Corale di San Pietro di Modena, no. 29, cf. Toniolo 1998, no. 46, pp. 236-238 and no. 47, pp. 238-239). Moreover, it shows stylistic as well as textual parallels with the abovementioned book of hours sold at Sotheby’s in 2002. Thus, e.g. David in prayer in the present manuscript with his spiked crown and his beard combed into a double fork bears a remarkable likeness to the figure on fol. 64v in the Sotheby’s codex as well as to the king playing the lyre on fol. 4v of the psalter-hours.The same facial type and drapery of the Virgin in the present book of hours reappear on fol. 14 of the Sotheby’s volume and on fol. 7 of the missal of Filippo Zoboli. Lastly the borders decorated with various fruits and flowers are almost identical to those in the missal. It is in the style of the borders that Martino’s indebtedness to contemporary manuscript illumination in Ferrara, especially to the works of the great Cosmè Tura, shows most clearly. On the other hand the full-page frontispiece depicting the Annunciation in a Renaissance aedicula betrays Martino’s contact with illumination in Padua and Venice. A book of hours made for the Garzoni family (Venice, Museo Correr, ms. CL. V.8, cf. Levi D’Ancona 1966/1967 and Mariani Canova 1969, cat. 94, pp. 52, 54, 78, fig. 135-139) should be cited in comparison. The hands of two artists can be distinguished in this codex: one of Venetian origin, related to the Maestro dei Putti and the Maestro delle sette Virtù, while the other was either Martino himself or a close associate (Toniolo 1999). The former was responsible for the Annunciation in the Garzoni Hours whose general composition and especially the beautiful Renaissance frame must have inspired Martino to create his version of it in the present codex.

LITERATURE: The manuscript is hitherto unpublished. Sales cat. Sotheby’s, 3 Dec. 2002, lot 33; Levi D’Ancona 1966/1967; Mariani Canova 1969, p. 68, n. 94, p. 158;Toniolo 1998;Toniolo 1999; Lollini 2004 (with further bibliography).