Copy number 33 (from a limited edition of 40) of Eges famous portfolio containing a collection of 15 leaves from oriental manuscripts, written between the 12th and 18th centuries. The press run had to be limited because some of the manuscripts probably had no more than about 40 leaves.
Otto Frederick Ege (1888-1951) was the dean of the Cleveland Institute of Art, a lecturer on the history and the art of the book at Western (later Case Western) Reserve University in Cleveland and a famous (or infamous) biblioclast. He was one of the key figures in creating a market for medieval manuscript leaves in America during the 20th century. Between 1917 and his death in 1951, Ege acquired, broke up and subsequently dispersed hundreds of medieval and other interesting manuscripts and early printed books, wanting to give as many private collectors and public institutions as possible the opportunity to own these individual leaves. He was convinced that his purpose of inspiring as many people as possible by bringing them in contact with historical and artistic heritage, justified the means of scattering the manuscript leaves. In fairness to Ege, these were almost certainly incomplete manuscripts to begin with, though one could wish he had provided a detailed description of each manuscript before breaking them up and disbursing them, and his publications did make them available, albeit in the limited form of a single leaf, to a much greater audience than could have hoped to see, let alone own original manuscripts of this sort. Fortunately, people are now more reluctant to break up early manuscripts, but that also means that similar publications are less likely to appear in the future. Beginning in the 1940's, Ege compiled his most famous portfolios as two limited editions in press runs of 40 copies each: one portfolio with western medieval manuscript leaves and the present one with 12th to 18th century oriental manuscript leaves.
The present portfolio includes leaves from 15 manuscripts produced from the 12th to the 18th century, in Egypt, Iran, the Byzantine/Ottoman Empire, Persia/Iran, Russia, Tibet and other places. These mainly religious texts were written in several different languages, including Arabic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Persian, Tibetan, Greek and Church Slavonic. Two of the fragments, one in Greek and one in Church Slavonic, even include music notation (neumes). Although the publication names no publisher and gives no date of publication, Ege compiled it himself and wrote the notes about each manuscript leaf, but it is said to have been published after (probably soon after) his death in 1951 (the description of Ege as "late dean of ..." is slightly ambiguous, but may indicate that he had died). His brief notes on the manuscripts lack many details and are often not reliable (particularly the dating), so we have tried to make some additions and corrections in our detailed list of the contents. One of the Cleveland institutions where he worked probably published the portfolio. It is listed in the National Union Catalog of pre-1956 imprints. As Ege intended, many of his portfolios and other fragments were sold and distributed worldwide. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University acquired his personal collection, including 50 unbroken manuscripts, for their special collections in 2015.
A detailed list of contents is available upon request.
The portfolio, the two copies of the contents leaf and the 15 passe-partouts with the manuscript leaves are in very good condition. A detailed condition report of the 15 manuscript leaves included in the detailed list of contents, available upon request. WorldCat 15372178 (7 copies), 78768040 (2 copies), 1322443218 (1 copy).