Beschreibung:

Collection of leaves from German, Austrian and Polish manuscripts, in Latin, German, and Polish, from illuminated and decorated manuscripts on vellum 7 leaves, including (a) single leaf, 235mm. by 156mm., from a decorated manuscript of Aristotle's Metaphysica (here the opening of book 1), with two large line-drawn historiated roundels, c. 52mm. in diameter, either side of simple foliage in black ink heightened in red, enclosing portraits of a lion and a winged creature both clasping a ball as the lion swallows the head of the winged creature, and a woman's head in an elaborately folded headscarf, each above a large red initial and single line of text in angular Gothic 'black-letter' script, double column, 43 lines in black ink in a small cursive hand, large Gothic script used throughout to open significant sections of text, underlining in red, paragraph-marks in red, slight discolouration to recto and two wormholes, Germany, mid-fifteenth century; (b) a bifolium, each leaf 177-87mm. by 125mm., slightly trimmed on a slant at base, from a Gradual, with large initial 'V' (opening "Viri galilei ...", the Introit of the Mass of Christ at Ascension), 81mm. in height, in burnished gold heightened with yellow penwork, on pink ground within multi-coloured frame, enclosing Mary Magdalene and Christ's followers kneeling in prayer in a grassy landscape as Christ disappears into the clouds above, 5 lines of text in black ink in a tall angular hand with accompanying music on 4-line red staves, initials touched in red, rubrics in red, three large initials in red or blue, Germany (perhaps southern Germany), second half of fifteenth century; (c) single leaf from a prestigious manuscript of an Evangeliary-Commentary in German, 375mm. by 274mm., with a large historiated initial 'A' (opening "Aller weistum ist ...") 125mm. in height, in blue with white penwork on burnished gold ground (now much rubbed revealing red undercoat), tooled in scrolling patterns, within pink frame, initial enclosing full-length portrait of God the father in gold robes embroidered with blue, holding a blue sceptre and blessing, with angels kneeling either side of him on a multi-coloured tiled floor, elaborate coloured foliate extensions into margin enclosing a pink banderole with the chapter number '1', a fly and a man spearing a bear, pasted-in miniature removed from bas-de-page and replaced later with fine sixteenth- or seventeenth-century coat-of-arms on paper with two wild-men, 30 lines in black ink in a fine German late Gothic bookhand, initials touched in red, paragraph-marks, rubric and one 2-line initial in red, some minor wear, else in excellent condition, Austria, mid-fifteenth century; (c) single leaf, 592mm. by 411mm., from a Gradual, with a large historiated initial 'K' (opening "Kyrie eleison ..." the Ordinary Mass for double feasts) most probably by Frater Blazeja Dereya, 185mm. in height, in elaborate 'candelabrum' design within interlaced strapwork border infilled with many colours, and terminating in the heads of a king and a pope, 8 lines of text in black ink in a fine late bookhand with accompanying music on a 4-line red stave, rubrics, titles and page-numbers '491-2' in red, numerous elaborate calligraphic initials (three with coloured wash), penwork flourishes at base of each page containing tiny cursive lines in Latin and Polish (transcribed by Dr F. Jossi and transcription now pasted into mount), in excellent condition, Poland (most probably a Dominican house in Krakow), c. 1630; plus a leaf from an early sixteenth-century German Antiphoner and another from an early sixteenth-century Gradual of northern German or Netherlandic origin, both with large decorated initials; all in card mounts