
LEAVES
Leaves from a Large 18th-Century CHOIRBOOK
(A Selection of
Leaves from a PRINTED Graduale romanum). Venice:
Balleoniana, 1729. Folio extra (19.25" x 13.625"). 1 f.
With two large initials (example at left): $65.00
With one large initial (example at right): $45.00

Offered are interesting, handsome leaves from large choirbook — a Gradual. The term choirbook refers to a particular format of a volume of liturgical music, intended to be placed on a lectern in the midst of the liturgical choir and to be large enough for those standing in the choir to sing from. The Gradual is the oldest and most important of the four chants that make up the choir's part of the Proper of the Mass. The Gradual fills the time while something significant is being done, and represents the singing of psalms alternating with readings from the Bible.
Click either image for an enlargement.
This particular choirbook was printed with 10 lines of text and music per page. Each leaf contains music and words, and is printed in black and red; text is in black, with an occasional small letter in red, and the music is provided for all the antiphons in black square notation on a four-line red staff. Antiphons begin with a tall decorative initial printed in red, as high as the text and music together. The initials vary from leaf to leaf.
Crisp, wide margined leaf with slightest bleed-through from one side to another. Printed on handmade paper of 100% rag.
A marvelous display, accent, or gift item.
For an array of complete SERVICE
BOOKS, click here.

From the
First Irish Old Testament
Bible. O.T. Irish. Bedell. 1685. One leaf from: Leabhuir na Seintiomna ar na ttarruing go Gaidhlig tre chúram [agus] dhúthra[chd] an Doctúir Uilliam
Bedel, roimhe so Easbug Chille Móire a Néirin[n], agus anois ar na ccur a ccló chum maithios
p[ui]blidhe na tíresin. The books of the Old Testament translated into Irish by the care and
diligence of Doctor William Bedell, Late Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland, and, for the publick good
of that nation. London: No publisher/printer, 1685. 4to (23.5 cm; 9.375"). [1] f.
[SOLD]
Click the image for enlargement.
Leaf Uuuuu2, i.e., pp. 891–92, of the first printing of Old Testament in Irish,
containing the text of Isaiah 50 and 51.
Printed in double-column format in Gaelic
characters.Only 500 copies of this O.T. were printed: It is now, as you would expect, a very rare and
costly work.
This leaf is one from the 1927 offering of “The Foliophiles International,” a sort of “leaf
of the month club.”
Darlow & Moule 5534; ESTC R23375; Wing (rev. ed.)
B2759A; Rumball-Petre 315. Mounted on a piece of dark brown cardboard
with a printed description of the historic importance of the leaf, as attractively produced by The
Foliophiles International, adhered below. (31081)

Remembering the Dead, Elegantly
Catholic Church. Book of Hours. Manuscript. Latin. Matins of the Dead. Manuscript leaf on vellum. [Rouen: ca. 1490]. 8vo (170 x 112 mm; 6.7 x 4.4"). [1] f.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
These lines, from Job 14: 13–16 and Psalm 39, lines 2–7, form part of the second and third nocturns in the Matins of the Dead, recited in honor of the deceased. Written in a bistre ink in a wide gothic hand surrounded by spacious margins, the text is decorated with
eight single-line initials in gold against an alternating ground of red or purple, and
one two-line initial in gold against a pink ground, with line infills on the verso in the same color scheme. A
lush quarter border divided into five panels of flowers and leaves painted in white, red, blue, and green, against blue, gold, purple, and pink, frames the recto outer edge.
This leaf comes from a Books of Hours, a prayer book with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, more or less personalized depending on the owner's tastes and social class; illuminated Books of Hours signaled the owner's status — the more sophisticated the decoration, the more devout the patron (and the more money spent). Although contents vary, all Books of Hours contain the Hours of the Virgin, as well as a calendar and selection of psalms.
Soft, white vellum with gilt edges, housed in a cardboard and mylar folder. One (unobtrusive) thin cut in middle of leaf touching text and painted border, a little smudged, else in
fine condition and supporting/deserving double-glazed framing if framing is wanted. (30938)
For CATHOLICA, click here.
For MANUSCRIPTS,
click here.

Timeless Hours
Catholic Church. Book of Hours. Manuscript. Latin. Psalms. Manuscript leaf on vellum. [Paris]: [ca. 1465]. 16mo (122 x 89 mm; 4.8 x 3.5"). [1] f.
$425.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
These lines from Psalm 2, line 4, through Psalm 3, line 5, were copied in a fine gothic hand and decorated by a skilled illuminator with
one two-line initial “D” in blue and 14 single-line initials in alternating blue and gold, with delicate pen infills in red and black flourishing into the spacious margins.
This leaf comes from a Books of Hours, a prayer book as described above.
Soft, white vellum, red edges, lightly soiled; tiny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin except for one lower corner where a bit of vellum was cut away or naturally lacking.
Very charming. (30810)



Leaf from a RARE
Golden Legend
Jacobus de Voragine. Legenda aurea sanctorum, sive Lombardica historia [German] Leben der Heiligen: Winterteil und Sommerteil. Augsburg: [Johann Schönsperger], 1485. Folio (27.5 cm; 11"). [1] f.
$175.00
Click the image for enlargement.
Schönsperger's printing of the Golden Legend is rare: ISTC locates only eleven copies worldwide of which seven are reported as incomplete in one way or another. Only one copy is located in the U.S. and it too is incomplete.Offered here is folio ccxii: Printed in a single column in Germanic roman type.
Provenance: From the collection of leaves assembled by the Grabhorns.
Goff J162; Hain 9978*; Schreiber 4309; IGI 5049; GW M11369; ISTC ij00162000. Light dust-soiling in margins. Tipped into a plain, single-ply mat. With a typed identification label on the front of the mat. (31083)

PETRARCH's Letters to Friends — An AMERBACH Incunable
Leaf
Petrarca, Francesco. Opera latina. Basel: Johann
Amerbach, 1496. Folio (28.5 x 20 cm; 11.5" x 8"). 1 leaf.
$200.00
Click the image for enlargement.
Leaf E6 from this “fifteener” — from the “Familiar Letters” section of Amerbach's
incunable, 1496 printing of Petrarch's works — this is printed in roman type with marginal guide
letters for the reader as well as spaces left for three- and four-line capitals (unaccomplished). It
contains the
complete texts of letters 52, 53, and 54, along with the final portion of 51 and the
beginning of 55.
ISTC ip00365000; Goff P365; HC 12749; Walsh 1191, 1192;
Oates 2791, 2792; Pr 7608; BMC III 757. Inner margin slightly irregular.
Very nice. (30852)
PRINTED
in Black &
Red Woodcut
Initials PLANTIN
LEAVES
(Plantin Press). Offered are a selection of very attractive leaves from a sadly incomplete and imperfectly identified Roman Missal printed at Christopher Plantin's press in Antwerp, circa 1570. All leaves are 8vo, measuring approximately 197 x 142 mm or 7 3/4" x 5 3/8" (h x w), and each page is printed in double-column format, in black ink with some words or lines in red; amount of printing in red varies from page to page.

Each leaf now available has a single woodcut historiated initial
measuring about 30 x 30 mm or 1 1/4" by 1 1/4", not colored or illuminated but
bordered and highlighted in red.
Each: $30.00
Available AT THIS WRITING, subject to prior sale: D (man kneeling in prayer,
before a radiance), I (Sts. Peter and Paul), M (woman giving alms), and S
(the Savior[?] with an orb).
Each leaf is offered unmatted, in a museum-recommended and
-approved clear Mylar sleeve that will allow it to be enjoyed without worry
of soiling it with hand oils or dust.

Leaf-lovers
should see also, perhaps,
our BROADSIDES.
. .


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