Beschreibung:

Carta Executoria, granted by King Philip II, for Juan Bautista Gallo of Valladolid, an officer of the royal treasury, in its Renaissance gilt-tooled binding, illuminated manuscript in Spanish on parchment [Spain (Castile, Valladolid), dated 1 July 1590, with additions dated 1591-92] To view a video of this lot, click here. 128 leaves, wanting a single leaf (with miniature and opening words of inscription that follows onto first leaf here), else complete, single column of 30 lines in an excellent late humanist hand, ornamental capitals for significant words, every text page with text enclosed within a thin gold and coloured frame on all sides, each recto signed with scribal device, thirty-seven text openings in gold or silver capitals on blue or burgundy panels, one entire page of nine such panels in gold capitals on alternating burgundy and blue grounds (this addressing the monarch with his titles), initials in liquid gold and blue acanthus leaf sprays on burgundy grounds decorated with clusters of gold dots, one illuminated initial (with human face at extremities) enclosing a songbird on burgundy grounds decorated with clusters of liquid gold dots, the whole initial on dark blue grounds with shading used to pick out acanthus leaves, one large miniature of St. James fighting the Moors in upper half of frontispiece, within a border of flowers, insects, small birds and peacocks all on dull gold grounds, the inscription in gold capitals "por la gracia" at foot of this miniature, with the Gallo arms between putti and cornucopia and further foliage and birds on dull gold grounds in the lower half of the page, slight cockling throughout, a few wormholes, else excellent condition, 350 by 240mm.; contemporary binding of gilt-tooled leather over pasteboards, with concentric fillet with floral sprays at corners, arranged around a central crowned 'IHS' device, edges torn, with losses to spine, corners scuffed, signs of large area of back board once scorched, front board held in place by pastedowns Provenance: 1. Written and illuminated for Juan Bautista Gallo of Valladolid, who came from a family of bankers and royal servants, directly serving Philip II as a regidor (regional councillor) and as "depositario general de la Ciudad y de la Real Chancilleria" (treasury officer for the city of Valladolid and the royal chancellery). He founded the convent of Porto Coeli in the city, and died c. 1601. This volume then passed to the Archivio Arias de Saavedra, Condes de Gómara, of Castile and León. 2. Sotheby's, 23 May 2017, lot 50, for £4000, to Martin Schøyen, his MS. 5583, thereafter kept in his London library. Illumination: Scholarship has yet to begin to unravel the identities of the numerous artists who clustered around the royal court and produced Carta Executoria for Spanish noble patrons in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but the artist here had few peers in that group. This document was produced for a wealthy and influential royal officer by an artist of significant skill.