Early Printing & Manuscripts / Manuscripts & Documents

JOÃO I, King of Portugal. [Judgement in a legal suit, incipit:] Dom Johann ... Rey de Portugal ...
Coimbra, 3 April 1388. Document in Portuguese, written in brown ink on sheepskin parchment (23 x 44 cm) in an upright gothic cursive, with 16 full lines of text (plus one word on a 17th line and the signatures of the two judges). Full description

MAURITS, Prince of Orange. [Declaration for Jan de Roo].
[The Hague], 4 December 1589. 1mo (41 x 31.5). Document written in brown ink on one side of a whole sheet of paper in an upright gothic cursive hand, with the autograph signature "Maurice de Nassau" and with his armorial seal (3 x 2.5 cm) stamped on a slip of paper over red sealing wax. With (separately added) Maurits's signature clipped out of another document and mounted on a paper slip. Full description

[MINIATURE - GERMAN]. [The Arrest of Christ].
[Flanders (Bruges?), or Nürnberg, ca. 1520]. Miniature painted on vellum (7.8 x 5.6 cm) in numerous colours, highlighted with gold and in a gold border, probably from a book of hours, but with no text. Full description

PHILIP II, King of Spain. [Mortgage agreement, granting Jan Hanneman, Steward General of North Holland, the rights to the tithes of the King's lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten].
The Hague and Brussels, 1557 (with additions to 1565). Folio (36 x 25.5 cm). Manuscript mortgage agreement, signed by King Philip's representatives, written in brown ink on parchment in a nearly upright cursive gothic hand. With a typescript transcription of the main text and an interlinear translation in Spanish. Full description

[WOMEN'S STUDIES]. Decor puellarum.
[Paris, ca. 1740]. 4to (23.5 x 18 cm). Manuscript in Italian written in black ink on laid paper. Loose quires, never sewn or bound. Full description