-
[1] l. 50 folders with mounted original leaves. Each folder accompanied by descriptive letterpress. 2 title pages, one on thicker paper. Edition limited to 40 numbered sets of which this is no. 19. Complete Work
Original medium: Portfolio
Date: 20th c.
-
Images of the outside and inside of the portfolio container
Original medium: Portfolio
Date: 20th c.
-
Title page for the portfolio on thin and thick paper stock.
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 20th c.
-
Leaf 50. The following text is taken verbatim from the information card, written by Ege: This beautiful manuscript leaf was written and illuminated about the year 1535 A.D. At this late date Books of Hours were also being printed in great numbers by such famous French printers as Vostre, de Colines, and Tory. These were elaborately illustrated and frequently hand-colored. The cursive gothic script used in this leaf, with its boldly accented letters and flourished initials, borrowed heavily from the decorative chancery or legal hands of the XIIIth and XIVth centuries.
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 16th c.
-
Leaf 49. "One wonders why this particular manuscript copy on vellum was written some forty years after Antonius Zarotus had printed the first Missal in Milan (1471 A.D.), for, at this time, Missals were frequently reprinted on paper and sold at only a fraction of the cost of a manuscript copy. This bâtarde style of semi-gothic script was the molding force for the fraktur and schwabacher type-faces which dominated German printing for several centuries" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 16th c.
-
Leaf 48. "In the middle of the [15th] century this whole area [the Netherlands and Northern France] was interested in naturalism and made its illustrations so vivid that sometimes they approached those of our seed catalogues. It is not difficult to recognize carnations, pansies, columbines, and strawberries" (Ege). "When such flowery decorations are found on a rather heavy piece of vellum, entangled with the swirling acanthus leaf and accompanied by a heavy lettre de forme script, one can be fairly safe in assigning the leaf to the province of Brabant."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 47. "In assigning this leaf from a Book of Hours to the Netherlands it must be remembered that some sections of the country were once part of France, while others belonged to what is now Germany. In this leaf French characteristics predominate, but in no other country did the study of nature have a more direct influence on miniatures and ornamentation than in the Netherlands. Carnations, pansies, columbines, and many other flowers were faultlessly and realistically drawn" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 46. "The laymen who ordered and purchased theses books would at times stipulate the style of ornament and the amount of burnished gold to be used, and could even, to a certain extent, select the saints they esteemed most and wished to glorify. In this example, the border reveals by its wayside flowers entangled with the heavy acanthus motif of the North and by the use of the "wash" gold that it was executed in Northern France about 1475 A.D." (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 45. "This manuscript leaf came from a Book of Hours, sold probably at one of the famous shrines to which wealthy laymen made pilgrimages. To meet the demand for these books, the monastic as well as the secular scribes produced them in great numbers. The freely drawn, indefinite buds here entirely supplant the ivy, fruits, and realistic wayside flowers which characterized the borders of manuscripts of the preceeding half century. The initial letters of burnished gold on a background of old rose and blue with delicate white ine decorations maintain the tradition of the earlier period. The vellum is of silk-like quality that often distinguished the manuscripts of France and Italy" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 44. "This leaf was written in Germany nearly sixty years after the invention of printing by movable type. Its semi-gothic book hand is similar to the type-faces used by the early printers. The numerous contractions and marks of abbreviation have been inserted boldly, but the little strokes which were added to help identify the letters i and u are barely visible" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 43. "In general, the Books of Hours produced for the devout layman in the Netherlands at the end of the XVth century were written in Dutch. This particular example, however, is in Latin. The heavy, angular, and closely spaced vertical strokes, with very short ascenders and descenders, give a much darker tone to the page than do similar scripts in such northern countries as Germany and England. This book hand resembles very closely the types known as lettre de forme which were used by certain anonymous contemporary printers in the Netherlands between 1470 and 1500 A.D." (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 42. "This leaf from the Book of Psalms was written from the Benedictine monastery of St. Stephan in Wurzburg and dated 1499 A.D. The book hand closely resembles the fine early gothic types called lettre de forme and used by Fust and Schoeffer in their superb Psalter issued in 1457" (Ege). "A close examination indicates that the scribe apparently tried to imitate printing type characters in many instances."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 41. "This composite text includes the Dialogues of Pope Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great, 540-604 A.D.), which are largely autobriographical, and his writings on the lives and miracles of the early Italian Church Fathers. The book hand used is known as lettre bâtarde, a semi-cursive hand closely related to the everyday writing used by people" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 40. "This text on the Sententiae of Peter Lombard by St. Thomas Aquinas, the "Angelic Doctor," was the forerunner of the latter's great work Summa Theologica. It is most unusual to find the writings of a Church Father presented in a humanistic book hand" (Ege). "In this humanistic script, fusion disappeared, letters became more simple, and shading decreased."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 39. "The known part of Livy's great work, the History of Rome, was completed about the year 9 A.D. The finished work consisted of one hundred and forty books, of which only thirty-five are extant" (Ege). "These earlier manuscripts had been written in a carolingian or pre-gothic script to which the XVth century humanistic calligraphers assigned the name antiqua littera."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 38. "The provenance of this manuscript is clearly designated as Limoges because of the inculsion of certain parts of the masses proper to this diocese, and because of the presence of the coat of arms and obituary records of the noted de Rupe family of that city" (Ege). "The national book hand has become amazingly uniform. In this manuscript as in many manuscripts of the XVth century there is an increasing tendency to speed and slackness."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 37. "Epistolaries are among the rarest of liturgical manuscripts. Their text consists of the Epistles and Gospels with lessons from the Old Testament for particular occasions. Sometimes, as in this leaf, they had interlinear neumes in red neumes in red to assist the deacon or sub-deacon in chanting parts of this section of the church service while he was standing on the second step in front of the altar. This text is written in well executed rotunda gothic script with cold Lombardic intitials. Some of the filigree decoration which surrounds the initial letters has faded because it was executed in some of the fugitive colors which were then prepared from the juices of such flowers and plants as tumeric, saffron, lilies, and prugnameroli (buckthorn berries)" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 36. "Books of Hours, beautifully written, enriched with burnished gold initials, and adorned with miniature paintings, were frequently the most treasured possessions of the devout and wealthy laymen" (Ege). "Books of this small size, two and one-half by three and one-half inches, are comparatively rare. The craftsmanship in this example imitates and equals that in a volume of ordinary size, about five to seven inches. Recently, these small "pocket" editions have been given the nickname "baby manuscripts."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 35. "Jerome, the father of the Latin Church and translator of the Bible, shows in his writings his active participation in the controversies of his day (c. 332 to 420 A.D.)" (Ege). "This fine book hand, lettre de somme, obtained its name from the fact that Fust and Schoeffer used a type based on it for the printing of their Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas in 1467." "Simplicity and dignity are maintained by omitting all enrichment around the burnished gold letters.The first printed books followed the practice seen here of marking off by hand and with a stroke of red the capitals at the beginning of each sentence. Fifteenth century ink frequently had a tendency to fade to a gray tone as in this example."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 34. "This Psalter was written by Carthusian monks. Of all the orders the Carthusian was the smallest and most austere" (Ege). "The rotunda book hand used in this leaf is representative of the general excellence maintained by Italian scribes at the time when printing was being introduced into their country." "Close observation of the initial letters will frequently reveal a small black letter inserted as a guide for the monk who later added the colored initial. The use of two guide lines for the lettering is unusual. Ordinarily one line, below the writing, was deemed sufficient. The lines were drawn with a stylus composed of two parts lead and one part tin."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 33. "The Missal, written for the convenience of the priests, combined the separate books formerly used in different parts of the service; namely the Oratorium, Lectionarium, Evangeliarium, Canon, and others. Gutenburg, who printed his famous First Bible about the time this manuscript was written, based his type designs on a contemporary book hand similar to this example. The craftsmen who created this manuscript had the difficult problem of writing, inserted rubrics, and large or small colored initials."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 32. "The suberb example of calligraphy in this leaf illustrates the supremacy of the Italian scribes of the time over those of the rest of Europe. It is frequently assumed that this late revival of fine writing may have been caused by the concern of scribes over the impending competition with the newly invented art of printing. The music staff still retains here the early XIIth century form with the C-line colored yellow and the F-line red. The four-line red staff had been in use for over two centuries before this manuscript was written" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 31. "The first printed and illustrated Book of Hours appeared in 1486. It was a crude work, but later noted printers such as Verard, Du Pre, Pigouchet, and Kerver issued in great numbers Books of Hours with numerous illustrations and rich borders. The decorations were frequently hand colored and further embellished with touches of gold" (Ege). "By this time the ivy spray had a variety of forms. It might be seen springing from an initial letter, from the end of a detached bar, in a separate panel in company with realistic flowers, or forming a three- or four-sided border intermixed with acanthus leaves and even birds, animals, and hybrid monsters which are neither man or beast."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 30. "The text of a Book of Hours consists of Gospels of the Nativity, prayers for the Canonical Hours, the Penitential Psalms, the Litany, and other prayers. The beauty of the rich borders found in some of these books frequently claims our attention more than the text. In these borders it is easy to recognize the ivy leaf and the holly, but is usually more difficult to identify the daisy, thistle, cornbottle, and wild stock" (Ege). "Because of the translucency of the vellum, the flowers, stems, and leaves of the border were carefully superimposed on the reverse side in order to avoid a blurred effect."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 29. "The treatment of the [manuscript's] ivy spray with the single line stem and rather sparse foliage is characteristic of the work of the French monastic scribes about the year 1450. The occasional appearance of the strawberry indicates that the illuminating was done by a Benedictine monk. Fifty years earlier the stem would have been wider and colored, and the foliage rich; fifty years later the ivy would be entangled with flowers and acanthus foliage" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 28. "This Book of Hours shows definite characteristics of the manscript art of France and the Netherlands of about 1450 A.D. It was probably one of the many copies prepared for sale at a shrine to which devout pilgrims came to worship or to seek a cure. The spiked letters and the detached ornamental bar are unmistakably Flemish in spirit, while the free ivy sprays are distinctively French. The burnished metal in the decorations shows the use of alloyed gold (oro di meta) as well as silver" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 27. "Antiphonal or responsive singing is said to have been introduced in the second century by St. Ignatius of Antioch" (Ege). "Many of the more than four hundred antiphons which have survived the centuries are elaborate in their musical structure. They were sung in the medieval church by the first cantor and his assistants. Candle grease stains reveal that his small sized antiphonal was doubtless carried in processions in dimly lighted cathedrals. In this example the notation is written on the four-line red staff which was in general use by the end of the XIIth century. The script is the usual form of Italian rotunda with bold Lombardic initial letters."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 15th c.
-
Leaf 26. "The fact that this Missal honors particular saints by its calendar and litany indicates that it was made by friars of the Franciscan order. This was established in 1209 by St. Francis" (Ege). "This leaf, with its well written, pointed characters and decorative initial letters, has lost some of its pristine beauty, doubtless through occasional exposure to dampness over a period of 600 years.The green tone is more frequently found in English manuscripts than in French. However, the ornament and miniature on the opening page of the manuscript definitely indicate that it is of French origin."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 14th c.
-
Leaf 25. "In the earlier periods there was generally a harmonious unity between the spirit of the ornament and the character of the writing. This unity is exemplified in this leaf. The three-lobed, gracefully drawn symmetrical fronds of leaves in the ornament are usually accepted without question as representing the ivy plant. In the Middle Ages many magical and medicinal qualities were attributed to this plant" (Ege). "Some pages of this manuscript book show the effect of having been exposed to dampness."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 14th c.
-
Leaf 24. "This particular Book of Hours, a devotional prayer book for the layman, was made for the use of Sarum, the early name of Salisbury, England. This text was accepted throughout the province of Canterbury. This manuscript was written about the time Chaucer completed his Canterbury Tales, but evidently by a French monk, who might have been attached as was often the case, to an English monastery. Again, the book could have been specially ordered and imported from abroad. The initial letter and the coloring and the treatment of the ivy are unmistakably French" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 14th c.
-
Leaf 23. "While the script of this leaf is almost certainly French, the initial letters and filigree decoration might easily be of Italian workmanship, and the greenish tone of the ink suggests English manufacture. The dorsal motif in the bar ornament is again decidely French, and the lemon tone of the gold is a third indication of French origin" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 14th c.
-
Leaf 22. "This particular manuscript was written by Benedictine monks for the Parochial School of St. John the Baptist in Wurzburg shortly after 1300 A.D. The musical notation is the rare type which is a transition between the early neumes and the later Gothic or horsehoe nail notation.The "C" line of the staff is indicated by that letter, and the "F" simply by a diamond, an unusual method. The bold initial letters in red and blue are "built up" letters
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 14th c.
-
Leaf 21. "Much of the material incorporated in the hymnals was based on folk melodies. Hymns, like the other chants of the Church, varied according to their place in the liturgy" (Ege). "The initial letter design of this leaf persisted with little or no change for a long period, but the simple pendant spear was used as a distinctive motif for not more than twenty-five years."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 14th c.
-
Leaf 20. "Small Psalters of this period are comparatively rare, since Pslaters were used primarily in the church services and not by the layman. Here, the letters and ornament still retain all the rigidity of the previous century and give no indication of the rounder type of letter or any beginning of the interest in nature that characterized the work of the scribes in France. The filigree decoration, as well as the line-fishing elements, show, however, more creative freedom than either the initial or the text letters" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 14th c.
-
Leaf 19. "The rich black lettering of this manuscript is in the transitional rotunda script and is executed with skill and beauty. It is supplemented by initial letters of ultramarine blue and deep cinnabar (vermilion), which colors are reflected in the ornament of romanesque capitals. All of these factors combine seem to indicate that the manuscript was executed in central Italy, possibly at Florence" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 14th c.
-
Leaf 18. "The Breviary is one of the six official books used by the Roman Catholic Church in its liturgy" (Ege). "The angular script of this lead is executed with great skill and precision. The small and vigorous black initials and the hair line details found in many of the ascenders and terminal letters indicate the work of a superior calligrapher."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 17. "Illuminated Psalters occur as early as the VIIIth century, and from the XIth to the beginning of the XIVth century they predominate among illuminated manuscripts." "At this time the pendant tails of the initial letters are rigid or only slightly wavy, with a few leaves springing from the ends" (Ege). "The blue and lake (orange-red) color scheme with accents of white is a carry-over from the Westminster tradition which prevailed in the previous century.The solid line-filling ornaments of the verses were a new feature added in the second half of the XIIIth century. Silver and alloys of gold are used on this leaf."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 16. "Brevaries were seldom owned by laymen. They were service books and contained the Psalter with the versicles, responses, collects and lections for Sundays, weekdays, and saints' days. Other texts could be included. A Breviary, therefore, was lengthy and usually bulky in format. Miniature copies like the one represented by this leaf were rare" (Ege). "This manuscript was written on a fine uterine vellum, i.e., the skin of an unborn calf."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 15. "This manuscript, a special gift to a church in the city of Beauvais, was written for Robert de Hangest, a canon, about 1285 A.D." (Ege). "The ornament of this leaf shows the first flowering of Gothic interest in nature. The formal hieratic treatment is here giving way to graceful naturalism. The ivy branch has put forth its first leaves in the history of ornament. The writing, likewise, is departing from its previous rigid character and displays and ornamental pliancy which harmonizes with the decorative initials."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 14. "This copy of the Latin version by St. Jerome was made during the period when France stood at the height of her medieval glory" (Ege). "The bar borders came to be exectued in rich opaque gouache pigments, with ultramarine made of powdered lapis lazuli predominating. The foliage scroll work inside the inital frame created a style that persisted with little or no change for nearly two hundred years."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 13. "It is usually difficult to distinguish the miniature or portable Bibles by the young Dominican firars in England from those written in France" (Ege). "The original master text was carelessly transcribed again and again. It may even have been incorrectly copied from the Alcunian text written for Charlemagne. Therefore, "corrections" had to be made."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 12. "This small Psalter leaf illustrates the fact that, although skilled scribes were available in many monasteries in the XIIIth century, some of the monks who attempted to apply and burnish the gold leaf were still struggling with many problems of illumination. The famous treatise De Arte Illuminandi and Cennino Cennini's Trattato were both of a later date. These works gave directions on how to prepare and use the glair of egg, Armeninan bole, stag-horn glue, and hare's foot, and on how to burnish gold with a suitable wolf's tooth" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 11. "In the XIIIth century Italy was distraught by the long struggle between the papal and anti-imperialistic Guelphs and the autocratic and imperialistic Ghibellines. Little encouragment was given to either party by the arts. This leaf reveals, however, the skill and keen eyesight which were necessary for the writing of ten of those lines to the inch" (Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 10. "The line endings of a fish, elongated or shortened as the space required, and the grinning expression of the fish emblem have in some book circles given these German Psalters the nickname "Laughing Carp" Psalters" (Ege). "The lozenge heads on top of many of the vertical pen strokes are characteristic of German manuscripts."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 9. "These minature or portable manuscript copies of the Jerome version of the Bible were nearly all written by the young wandering friars of the newly founded order of Dominicans" (Ege). "They were used sparingly, as is evidenced by their still fine condition." "The precision and beauty of the text letters and initials executed in so small a scale, twelve lines to an inch, with letters less than one-sixteenth of an inch high, are among the wonders in book history."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 8. "Graduals are the books containing the chants for celebration of the mass. Engish manuscripts of this early date are rare. This volume, with the uncertain strokes in the script, seems to indicate that the transcriber was unaccostomed to writing in this small scale. There are four and five line staves, and the "F" and "C" lines are indicated. Most of the various forms of written notes can be found on each leaf of this book.Those occuring more frequently are punctum (L. punctum, prick), a single note; virga (L. virga, rod), a square note with a thin line attached; podatus (L. pes, foot), two square notes, one above the other; climacus (L. climax, ladder), a virga note with two or more diamond shaped notes"(Ege).
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 7. This famous paraphrase of the Bible in Latin verse was one of the most popular Latin books of poetry of the late XIIth and XIIIth century" (Ege). "The format of this page, twice as long as it is wide, demonstrates the English custom of folding the skins lengthwise. The practice of setting off by a space the initial letter of each line also helps to give the page an unusual appearance. It is written in a very small script, six lines to an inch, in a hand characteristic of Northern France and England at this period."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 6. "The only Bible known to Western Europe for the thousand years from 400 to 1400 was this version by St. Jerome" (Ege)."The decorative initials, color of ink, and texture of vellum are the clues which aid in assigning provenance, as in this instance. Not many fragments of this age and size are known to have survived the destruction and dispersal of English monastic libraries which was ordered by Henry VIII in the year 1539."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 5. "This translation of the Bible was made by Jerome at the request of Pope Damasus" (Ege). "The angular book hand, executed with amazing skill and precision, reflects the spirit of contemporary architecture of the early XIIIth century. Closely spaced perpendicular strokes and angular terminals have supplanted the open and round character of the preceding century."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 13th c.
-
Leaf 4. "This text is from a special arrangment of the Psalms.""The author of the arrangment represented by this leaf is unknown" (Ege). "The words which were inserted in the margin are not corrections but were added as guides to the content of the page."
Original medium: Manuscript
Date: 12th c.