known as the Breviary of Leonello d’Este, in Latin, exquisitely illuminated manuscript on parchment [north east Italy (Ferrara), c.1441-48] Single leaf, with double column, 30 lines in an excellent late Gothic bookhand, capitals and prominent letters touched in yellow, rubrics in red, small initial in burnished gold on blue or burgundy grounds with white penwork tracery, both sides of leaf with full-length text borders on lefthand side of each column (three gold and coloured bars with coloured ornamental knots mounted within their bodies, the fourth instead in delicate scrolling foliage with coloured flowers and foliage terminating in bezants, similar sprays of foliage atop and at base of each decorative bar, one with a skilfully executed drollery with a human head with a furrowed brow and haggard cheeks, and a beard touched with gold hairline strokes, slight cockling, else in excellent condition, approximately 270mm. by 200mm., framed in glass so as visible on both sides From an opulent manuscript produced as the sister-codex of the missal from the private chapel of Borso d’Este, marquis and then duke of Ferrara (Modena, Biblioteca Estense, MS. OE W.5.2, Lat.239), or his successor, Leonello d'Este, the grand bibliophile and one of the most prominent art patrons of Renaissance Italy. It has been identified, probably rightly, as the breviary recorded in the Este accounts as produced between 1441 and 1448 for Leonello by Giorgio d'Alemagna, Bartolomeo di Beninca, Guglielmo Giraldi and Matteo de’ Pasti (see F. Toniolo, La miniatura a Ferrara dal tempo di Cosmè Tura all'eredità di Ercole de' Roberti 1998, pp.19-20 and 76-7). The book re-emerged lacking many of its miniatures in the library of John Allan Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock (and one half of the founders of Rolls-Royce), and was sold by his heirs in Christie's, 8 December 1958, lot 190, to a Boston bookshop and dispersed. The largest surviving part is at Harvard, with individual leaves now scattered worldwide across an array of institutional and private collections (see Les Enluminures du Louvre: Moyen Âge et Renaissance, 2011, pp.84-88, for recent discussion and full page reproductions of their leaves).
known as the Breviary of Leonello d’Este, in Latin, exquisitely illuminated manuscript on parchment [north east Italy (Ferrara), c.1441-48] Single leaf, with double column, 30 lines in an excellent late Gothic bookhand, capitals and prominent letters touched in yellow, rubrics in red, small initial in burnished gold on blue or burgundy grounds with white penwork tracery, both sides of leaf with full-length text borders on lefthand side of each column (three gold and coloured bars with coloured ornamental knots mounted within their bodies, the fourth instead in delicate scrolling foliage with coloured flowers and foliage terminating in bezants, similar sprays of foliage atop and at base of each decorative bar, one with a skilfully executed drollery with a human head with a furrowed brow and haggard cheeks, and a beard touched with gold hairline strokes, slight cockling, else in excellent condition, approximately 270mm. by 200mm., framed in glass so as visible on both sides From an opulent manuscript produced as the sister-codex of the missal from the private chapel of Borso d’Este, marquis and then duke of Ferrara (Modena, Biblioteca Estense, MS. OE W.5.2, Lat.239), or his successor, Leonello d'Este, the grand bibliophile and one of the most prominent art patrons of Renaissance Italy. It has been identified, probably rightly, as the breviary recorded in the Este accounts as produced between 1441 and 1448 for Leonello by Giorgio d'Alemagna, Bartolomeo di Beninca, Guglielmo Giraldi and Matteo de’ Pasti (see F. Toniolo, La miniatura a Ferrara dal tempo di Cosmè Tura all'eredità di Ercole de' Roberti 1998, pp.19-20 and 76-7). The book re-emerged lacking many of its miniatures in the library of John Allan Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock (and one half of the founders of Rolls-Royce), and was sold by his heirs in Christie's, 8 December 1958, lot 190, to a Boston bookshop and dispersed. The largest surviving part is at Harvard, with individual leaves now scattered worldwide across an array of institutional and private collections (see Les Enluminures du Louvre: Moyen Âge et Renaissance, 2011, pp.84-88, for recent discussion and full page reproductions of their leaves).
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.jpg?w=400 "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
