Early Printing & Manuscripts / Manuscripts & Documents

[AUTOGRAPH]. MELANCHTHON, Philipp. [Autograph letter, signed, from Philipp Melanchthon to Sebastian Boetius].
[Wittenberg], Easter [14 April 1555]. Folio (19.5 x 32 cm). In Latin. [2] pp. Full description

[BECKET, Thomas à (subject)]. [Diego Afonso de MIRANDA, translator]. Historea da vida e martyrio do glorioso Sancto Thomas Arcebispo, Senhor de Cantuaria, Primas de Inglaterra, legado perpetuo da sancta see apostolica, trelada da novamente de Latim em lingoagé Portugues.
(Colophon: Coimbra, João Alvarez, printer to the University, 12 November) 1554. 4to. With several woodcut decorated initials. With the 4 preliminary leaves in facsimile. 20th-century Portuguese tree calf, gold-tooled spine, red spine label, brown sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], “CCCI” [= 303], [1 blank], [20] pp. Full description

[BOOK OF HOURS]. [Book of Hours - use of Rouen].
Rouen, Normandy, France, ca. 1480. Small 4to (14.3 x 19.3 cm). Latin and French illuminated manuscript on vellum. Ruled in red ink for 14 lines per page (16 in the calendar). Gothic textura, major feasts in calendar in burnished gold, others alternately red or blue. Text pages illuminated with panel borders of flowers and plants on gold, and blue and gold stylised acanthus on a plain ground. Calendar has 24 small square miniatures set into panel borders; major text divisions marked by 12 large miniatures; 2 historiated initials; hundreds of smaller initials and line-fillers throughout. 18th-century French gold-tooled red calf over pasteboards, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [160] ll. Full description

[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - BOOK OF HOURS (DIOCESE OF UTRECHT)]. [Incipit, A2r:] Alst my gaet niet nae mij[n] syn / Soe wil ic my liden en[de] swyghe stil ...
[Diocese of Utrecht, the County of Holland], 1488. Large 8vo (19 x 13.5 x 4 cm). Written in Dutch on vellum by 2 gothic textura hands in 1 column (20 lines/page for the first hand for the main text and calendar; 22 lines/page for the additions written by the second hand). All leaves are numbered in pencil in the upper margin of the rectos by a 19th- or 20th-century hand. Richly iluminated by the Master of the Brussels Hours of the Bezborodko Group, being one of the stylistic groups of the Masters of the Dark Eyes, with 6 full-page miniatures, 2 historiated initials and 4 larger decorated initials, several smaller decorated initials, and many 1-line lombardic initials in blue and red. Also with a 6-line blue penwork initial on a red penwork ground, being a contemporary addition. Also with three- and four-marginal border decoration (an uncoloured background filled in with small dots or short tendrils in black, show acanthus leaves in different colours, various flowers and several brightly coloured birds and fabulous beings, with gold and black/white dots among them). Contemporary blind-tooled calf over rounded ("cushioned") wooden boards. With the original brass catch- and anchor-plates, the latter with remnants of the leather fastenings, and the later silk red ribbon markers loosely preserved. 144 ll. including 6 inserted leaves with miniatures and 2 blank endpapers used as paste-downs. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - GERMAN & LATIN - HERALDRY - LITURGY]. MAYER, Lieven. (Drop-title on f. 5r:) Der hochen Deutschen Ritterordens Buech ...
[Germany], [after 1606, perhaps before 1618]. 4to. Manuscript in German and Latin on paper, written in a 17th-century hand. With 3 heraldic crosses showing the coats of arms of the Teutonic Order (a black Maltese cross) and 4 drawings showing costumes of several members of the order, all executed in watercolour highlighted with eggwhite. 20th-century mottled sheepskin, sewn on 5 supports, each board with a frame of blind double fillets crossing at the corners, with blind double fillets across the spine, title stamped in green roman capitals in the 3rd of 6 compartments. [5], 129 ll. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - MEDIEVAL TIMEKEEPING]. Calculus temporum ecclesiasticus.
[Possibly England, ca. 1360]. Small 4to (15.5 x 22.5 cm). Latin manuscript on paper. Brown ink in an early bastarda hand, the final three leaves in a slightly later (still quite contemporary) hand. 19th-century paper wrappers, with the manuscript title on the front wrapper. 30 ll. 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. [1] leaf, written on one side. 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

[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP (FELIPE) 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. [2 blank], 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description

VEGETIUS, Publius Flavius Renatus. Digesta artis mulomedicinae.
Naples, [1470-1490]. 2 works in 1 volume. Small folio (28.5 x 19 cm). Illuminated manuscript on paper, written by the scribe Ippolito da Luna. Refined 16th-century foliation in Arabic numerals to upper right corners, beginning with the title-leaf. Ruled in light brown ink for 28 lines per page, written in dark brown ink in a meticulous and very experienced Roman humanist hand by a scribe who identifies himself in the colophon as Hippolytus Lunesis. Index and table of contents from fol. 112 added later by an experienced 16th century scribe. Catchwords throughout. ustification: 18.5 x 14 cm, rubrics in red, each paragraph introduced by a red two-line Lombard. Watermark: a ram's head/skull with eyes and ears in a circle throughout, not identified (not recorded in Piccard). Contemporary annotations in Latin, manicula in the margins and at the end of the manuscript, perhaps by a 16th-century hand, apparently modifications and additions by a practicing veterinarian; a few annotations by the very erudite scribe himself, some of them with textual conjectures and amendments to the text of the model. Pagination in upper right added together with the table of contents from fol. 112v to lower pastedown by a very experienced scribe, possibly dating from the 16th century, added by a later owner. With: (2) [IDEM]. Curis boum epithoma ex diversis auctoribus.
Naples, [ca. 1470-1490].
Original, contemporary dark brown calf over wooden boards with blind tooling, roll-stamp decoration and ornamental gold stamps from the workshop of Masone di Maio (Naples), three raised bands, with the title lettered in gold on the front board. Stored in custom cloth box with a morocco spine label lettered in gold. 113 [of 114] ll. Full description