Single leaf from a Book of Hours with young male and female saints in the initials, in the hand of the Renaissance master-scribe Bartolomeo Sanvito in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy (Rome), early 1480s] Single leaf with a historiated initial on each side, the first a 'D' (opening "Deus in[adiu]torium [meum] ...", versicle for None in the Hours of the Cross) in gilt edged red, enclosing a bust of a young male saint with long flowing blond hair and a hairline thin gold halo, the whole initial on purple grounds, the second another 'D' (opening "Deus in adiutorium meum ...", versicle for Vespers in the Hours of the Cross) in same enclosing a young female saint with a headscarf and a liquid gold halo, all on green grounds with tiny flowers overlaid in liquid gold, one gilt-edged yellow initial on red grounds with similar gilt flowers in its upper and lower compartments, rubrics in liquid gold or blue ornamental capitals, two one-line simple blue initials, single column of 12 lines of the sublime humanist script of Bartolomeo Sanvito (from "...ficatus V. Adoramus te christe &c." at end of Sext, to "Sicut erat Alleluia. Hymnus ..."in Vespers), signs of offset from other facing pages when in parent volume (with a few characters from 4 lines of text damaged, and text in reverse offset over surface of second initial), small spots and stains, else in good and fresh condition, approximately 118 by 80mm. (written space: 67 by 47mm.); in gilt frame with glass on both sides Bartolomeo Sanvito (1435-1511) was a Paduan, who blazed a path in Renaissance Rome as "one of the most active and famous scribes of his generation, one recognized by modern calligraphers as the greatest pioneer of a type of cursive humanistic script called 'italica'" (A.C. de la Mare and L. Nuvoloni, Bartolomeo Sanvito 2009, p. 15). In addition he worked as a miniaturist, and in total his hand can be detected in over 120 manuscripts, as well as others to which he contributed headings or epigraphic capitals. His name appears in only two of these: the Evangeliary and Epistolary that he copied and probably illuminated for the collegiate church of Santa Giustina in Monselice, with seven others signed with his initials 'BS'. He collected Roman stone inscriptions, but maintained a scribal as well as antiquarian interest in them, and the impressions of these can be seen in the crisp, almost chiselled, initials on this leaf. The parent manuscript of the present leaf was evidently a Book of Hours in some form, with most surviving leaves coming from the Penitential Psalms, Litany and Office of the Dead, with a lavishly illuminated leaf once opening of the Hours of the Cross emerging in Christie's (online sale), 20 November 2013, lot 46 (see de la Mare and Nuvoloni, p. 276, Peter Kidd's online blog for October 2013, and C. de Hamel, Gilding the Lilly, 2010, no. 77). The present leaf also comes from the Hours of the Cross, and like the Christie's leaf has more significant illumination than almost all other recorded leaves. The parent volume came into the ownership of the teacher and bookbreaker Otto Ege (1888-1951), and was dispersed, with him giving two leaves to the calligrapher James Hayes in 1948-49. It is Gwara Handlist 79 in the list of books owned and dispersed by Ege (S. Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, 2013, pp. 146-47, with records of six individual leaves all in North American institutions). To this de la Mare and Nuvoloni added four more leaves in three private collections, one of which (the Takamiya collection) has now passed to the Beinecke in Yale (p. 276). This may well be among the last opportunities for a collector or institution to acquire a sample of this important scribe's hand. Leaves from this precious manuscript are of the utmost rarity on the market, and apart from the present leaf and the Christie's leaf only one other has appeared at auction: a text leaf sold in Sotheby's, 26 November 1985, lot 83.
Single leaf from a Book of Hours with young male and female saints in the initials, in the hand of the Renaissance master-scribe Bartolomeo Sanvito in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy (Rome), early 1480s] Single leaf with a historiated initial on each side, the first a 'D' (opening "Deus in[adiu]torium [meum] ...", versicle for None in the Hours of the Cross) in gilt edged red, enclosing a bust of a young male saint with long flowing blond hair and a hairline thin gold halo, the whole initial on purple grounds, the second another 'D' (opening "Deus in adiutorium meum ...", versicle for Vespers in the Hours of the Cross) in same enclosing a young female saint with a headscarf and a liquid gold halo, all on green grounds with tiny flowers overlaid in liquid gold, one gilt-edged yellow initial on red grounds with similar gilt flowers in its upper and lower compartments, rubrics in liquid gold or blue ornamental capitals, two one-line simple blue initials, single column of 12 lines of the sublime humanist script of Bartolomeo Sanvito (from "...ficatus V. Adoramus te christe &c." at end of Sext, to "Sicut erat Alleluia. Hymnus ..."in Vespers), signs of offset from other facing pages when in parent volume (with a few characters from 4 lines of text damaged, and text in reverse offset over surface of second initial), small spots and stains, else in good and fresh condition, approximately 118 by 80mm. (written space: 67 by 47mm.); in gilt frame with glass on both sides Bartolomeo Sanvito (1435-1511) was a Paduan, who blazed a path in Renaissance Rome as "one of the most active and famous scribes of his generation, one recognized by modern calligraphers as the greatest pioneer of a type of cursive humanistic script called 'italica'" (A.C. de la Mare and L. Nuvoloni, Bartolomeo Sanvito 2009, p. 15). In addition he worked as a miniaturist, and in total his hand can be detected in over 120 manuscripts, as well as others to which he contributed headings or epigraphic capitals. His name appears in only two of these: the Evangeliary and Epistolary that he copied and probably illuminated for the collegiate church of Santa Giustina in Monselice, with seven others signed with his initials 'BS'. He collected Roman stone inscriptions, but maintained a scribal as well as antiquarian interest in them, and the impressions of these can be seen in the crisp, almost chiselled, initials on this leaf. The parent manuscript of the present leaf was evidently a Book of Hours in some form, with most surviving leaves coming from the Penitential Psalms, Litany and Office of the Dead, with a lavishly illuminated leaf once opening of the Hours of the Cross emerging in Christie's (online sale), 20 November 2013, lot 46 (see de la Mare and Nuvoloni, p. 276, Peter Kidd's online blog for October 2013, and C. de Hamel, Gilding the Lilly, 2010, no. 77). The present leaf also comes from the Hours of the Cross, and like the Christie's leaf has more significant illumination than almost all other recorded leaves. The parent volume came into the ownership of the teacher and bookbreaker Otto Ege (1888-1951), and was dispersed, with him giving two leaves to the calligrapher James Hayes in 1948-49. It is Gwara Handlist 79 in the list of books owned and dispersed by Ege (S. Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, 2013, pp. 146-47, with records of six individual leaves all in North American institutions). To this de la Mare and Nuvoloni added four more leaves in three private collections, one of which (the Takamiya collection) has now passed to the Beinecke in Yale (p. 276). This may well be among the last opportunities for a collector or institution to acquire a sample of this important scribe's hand. Leaves from this precious manuscript are of the utmost rarity on the market, and apart from the present leaf and the Christie's leaf only one other has appeared at auction: a text leaf sold in Sotheby's, 26 November 1985, lot 83.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
