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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. 
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
A
Charming Small-written
Psalter
Leaf
Bible.
O.T. Psalms. Latin.
Manuscript leaf on vellum in Latin. [Italy]: [ca. 1350]. 16mo (128 x 89 mm, 5" x 3.4").
[1] f.
Click
the image for enlargement.
excellent
eyesight has written on both sides of this Psalter leaf in a
tiny gothic hand the text of Psalm 106, lines 3 through 42. He (or she) has
indited the manuscript with initials in alternating red and blue and provided
capital strokes in contrasting red or blue. There is a single flourish in ink
into the margin on the hair-side (verso). The margins are wide and clean.
The Psalter is a book containing the 150 psalms, i.e., lyrical prayers for every occasion recited both at church and at home.
• Soft, white vellum kept safe in a cardboard and mylar folder;
teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached
from previous sewing, preserving margin. 
Fine
condition. (30219)
Precious
Jewel
Catholic
Church. Book of Hours.
Manuscript leaf on vellum in Latin. [Paris]: [ca. 1460]. 16mo (120 x
90 mm; 4.625" x 3.5"). [1] f.
Click
the image for enlargement.
delicate quarter border of scrolling gilt ivy rinceaux and floreate decoration
in blue, red, green, white, yellow, and gold and within spacious,
clean margins.
Books of Hours are prayer books with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, more or less personalized depending on each owner's taste 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.
• Fine, soft, white vellum housed in a cardboard and mylar folder;
teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached
from previous sewing, preserving margin. Although the ink is a little rubbed
on the hair side, this leaf isbeautiful
and rich with color. (30221)
Modest
Luxury
Catholic
Church. Book of Hours.
Manuscript leaf on vellum in Latin. [Northern France]: [ca. 1460]. 8vo (180
x 128 mm; 7" x 5"). [1] f.
Click
the image for enlargement.
Psalm
150 complete and the beginning of another laudatory verse on
the verso, copied in a beautiful, narrow gothic script surrounded by spacious,
clean margins. A talented illuminator has enhanced the manuscript with eight
initials in alternating combinations of blue, red, and gold, and line infills
in the same scheme. A
fine
border of gilt ivy springs from the larger of the initials on
each side along the outer edge. Five of the burnished gilt initials are on one
page and are composed of one two-line letter and five one-line capitals. The
other page has three illuminated capitals: one two-line and two one-line.
• Soft, white vellum housed in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny
nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from
previous sewing, preserving margin. Vellum mildly toned along edges with light
stains in the upper margin both sides, and one barely perceptible repair,
of a natural flaw in the vellum, in the lower corner recto, preserving this
leaf'elegance.
(30222)
Lush
Decoration
Catholic
Church. Book of Hours.
Manuscript leaf on vellum. [Rouen]: [ca. 1490]. 8vo (170 x 113 mm; 6.
625" x 4.5"). [1] f.
Click the image for an enlargement. quarter
border of fuzzy pink flowers and bluebells against a background of gold, russet,
and red, with delicate white decoration at the outer edge (verso).
Books of Hours are prayer books with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, more or less personalized depending on each owner's taste 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.
• Fine vellum, gilt edges, housed in a cardboard and mylar folder;
teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached
from previous sewing, preserving margin. Painted border a little rubbed, else
in
fine
condition. (30223)
A
Sparkling
Jewel
Catholic
Church. Book of Hours. Suffrages.
Manuscript leaf on vellum. [Paris]: [ca. 1460]. 16mo (120 x 89 mm; 4.625" x
3.5"). [1] f.
Click
the image for enlargement.
lush
quarter border of scrolling gilt ivy rinceaux and floreate decoration in blue,
red, green, white, yellow, and gold and spacious, clean margins.
• Soft, white vellum, housed in a cardboard and mylar folder;
teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached
from previous sewing, preserving margin.Fine
condition. (30220)
A
“Puzzle” Initial “M”
— Oxford, 1210?Petrus
Riga. Aurora.
Manuscript on vellum, in Latin. England (Oxford?),
ca. 1210? 8vo (23.7 × 12 cm, 9.25" × 4.625"). [1] f. 
five-line
blue and red “puzzle”initial with pen tracery
also in blue and red. (“Puzzle” initials are inked to appear as
if made up of colored “pieces”—like a jigsaw puzzle—and
they are distinctively, if not uniquely, a feature of English and French 13th-century
manuscripts.) The verso has 3 two-line red initials, 1 three-line, and 1 two-line
blue initials—each of these initials has pen flourishes in the contrasting
color (i.e., blue or red).
The text is written in one column of 50
lines on the recto and 51 lines on the verso. The leaf is faintly ruled in
lead on the verso only, the impression of the ruling showing on the recto,
the top line of text being above the top line of ruling; on the right edge
of the page are double rules enclosing the first letter of each line. On
the outer edge are prickings for the ruling. The left edge of the recto has
directions to the rubricator, the explicits of each section being done in
darker ink in a different hand. One line on the verso has been crossed out
with a single thin line of ink. At the bottom of the verso is the quire number
VIII and remnants of a catchword can just be seen at right on the bottom
edge. English
manuscripts from this period are rare.
Provenance: Ex–Zion Research Foundation (later known as the Endowment for Biblical Research); very likely to Zion from Ege.
• Judith, Manuscripts Sacred and Secular, 18, f. 9. A small hole in the lower margin. Parchment a little soiled, especially on the hair side, as is not unusual with English vellum. Traces of adhesive from mounting on the corners of the verso.
For
RELIGION, click here. For
CATHOLICA, click here. For
MANUSCRIPTS,
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. 
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,
