THE GREAT HOURS OF GALEAZZO MARIA SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN, use of Rome, in Latin and Italian, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
THE GREAT HOURS OF GALEAZZO MARIA SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN, use of Rome, in Latin and Italian, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Milan, 1471-76] 350 x 240mm. i + 241 leaves: 1-22 8 , 23 2 , 24-30 8 , 31 7 (of 8 final blank cancelled), COMPLETE, with horizontal catchwords and original alphabetical signatures on gatherings 1-24 running from a-aa and on gatherings 25-30 from a-f, later binder's signatures show that gathering 31 was once bound as the first in the volume, modern pencil foliation 1-242 followed here, 30 lines written in an elegant humanistic script in brown ink with text rubrics in pink, justification: 215 x 135mm, principal rubrics in large capitals of burnished gold, one-line initials alternately of blue and burnished gold respectively flourished gold and violet, two-line ILLUMINATED INITIALS THROUGHOUT of burnished gold on grounds and infills of blue, red and green with white penwork decoration, ALMOST ONE HUNDRED LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS, mostly five lines high painted in pink on grounds of burnished gold with a flower-spray infill, three with CROWNED PROFILE HEADS (ff.61, 70v, 73v), SMALL HISTORIATED INITIAL with part-border, FIVE SPLENDID TITLE-PAGES WITH GOLDEN DISPLAY SCRIPT, HISTORIATED INITIALS AND INHABITED BORDERS WITH EMBLEMS AND HERALDRY (oxidisation and offsetting to silver and lead white, a few outer lower corners thumbed, crease on f.234, a few inconsequential marks, central bifolium of final gathering detached). 18th-century Italian red morocco gilt, spine in compartments gilt, red silk markers (hinges split, scuffing and minor losses of leather). Blue solander box. A SUMPTUOUS DISPLAY OF THE MAGNIFICENCE OF A RENAISSANCE PRINCE PROVENANCE: 1. Written and illuminated for Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444-1476), Count of Pavia and Duke of Milan. His emblems and the ducal arms of Milan flanked by the monogram GZ MA or G M are included in the illumination of the five most extensively decorated pages: E. Pellegrin, La Bibliothèque des Visconti et des Sforza Ducs de Milan au XV e siècle , 1955, pp.62-64 and Supplément , 1965, pp.3-46 and this manuscript pp.56-57 and pl.172. Galeazzo Maria was the eldest son of Francesco Sforza, the condottiere who having served Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, married his illegitimate daughter Bianca Maria and ultimately gained his duchy. To lend visual authority to their tenure of the duchy the Sforza adopted the quartered arms and some of the emblems of their legitimate predecessors. These include the dove against a rayed sun with the motto a buon droyt (ff.2, 90), the branches with hanging pails (f.46), the tied cloth (f.188), and helmed beast lying in flames (ff.2, 90, 137v, 188); the motto ICH HOF on the beast's helmet is Galeazzo Maria's own addition. Galeazzo succeeded his father in 1466 and was assassinated in 1476. Since the manuscript shows his ducal arms, as well as his arms as Count of Pavia, it must have been produced during this period. The date can be further narrowed down because Pope Sixtus is named on f.220v and Sixtus IV was not elected until 1471. 2. In 1885 described by the Marquis d'Adda as in the possession of the Frankfurt dealer Adolf Hamburger: G. d'Adda & G. Mongeri, 'L'Arte del minio nel ducato di Milano', Archivio Storico Lombardo , xii, 1885, p.354. 3. Rushton M. Dorman, of Chicago: his sale, Leavitt, 5 April 1886, p.10. According to Dorman the manuscript had passed to the Aragonese royal library in Naples and was acquired from there by Cardinal Salviati, perhaps Giovanni, nephew of Leo X, and then to his heir, the marchese of Tocca, Naples. There is a paper label numbered XX at the foot of the spine and the remains of blue and white labels at the foot of the lower cover and inside the upper cover. 4. William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919), first Viscount Astor, author of the gothic romance Sforza , ms A.6 (paper label); Astor Deposit at the Bodleian Library; Astor sale, Sotheby's 21 June 1988, lot 58. CONTENT: Hours of the Virgin, use of R
THE GREAT HOURS OF GALEAZZO MARIA SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN, use of Rome, in Latin and Italian, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
THE GREAT HOURS OF GALEAZZO MARIA SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN, use of Rome, in Latin and Italian, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Milan, 1471-76] 350 x 240mm. i + 241 leaves: 1-22 8 , 23 2 , 24-30 8 , 31 7 (of 8 final blank cancelled), COMPLETE, with horizontal catchwords and original alphabetical signatures on gatherings 1-24 running from a-aa and on gatherings 25-30 from a-f, later binder's signatures show that gathering 31 was once bound as the first in the volume, modern pencil foliation 1-242 followed here, 30 lines written in an elegant humanistic script in brown ink with text rubrics in pink, justification: 215 x 135mm, principal rubrics in large capitals of burnished gold, one-line initials alternately of blue and burnished gold respectively flourished gold and violet, two-line ILLUMINATED INITIALS THROUGHOUT of burnished gold on grounds and infills of blue, red and green with white penwork decoration, ALMOST ONE HUNDRED LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS, mostly five lines high painted in pink on grounds of burnished gold with a flower-spray infill, three with CROWNED PROFILE HEADS (ff.61, 70v, 73v), SMALL HISTORIATED INITIAL with part-border, FIVE SPLENDID TITLE-PAGES WITH GOLDEN DISPLAY SCRIPT, HISTORIATED INITIALS AND INHABITED BORDERS WITH EMBLEMS AND HERALDRY (oxidisation and offsetting to silver and lead white, a few outer lower corners thumbed, crease on f.234, a few inconsequential marks, central bifolium of final gathering detached). 18th-century Italian red morocco gilt, spine in compartments gilt, red silk markers (hinges split, scuffing and minor losses of leather). Blue solander box. A SUMPTUOUS DISPLAY OF THE MAGNIFICENCE OF A RENAISSANCE PRINCE PROVENANCE: 1. Written and illuminated for Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444-1476), Count of Pavia and Duke of Milan. His emblems and the ducal arms of Milan flanked by the monogram GZ MA or G M are included in the illumination of the five most extensively decorated pages: E. Pellegrin, La Bibliothèque des Visconti et des Sforza Ducs de Milan au XV e siècle , 1955, pp.62-64 and Supplément , 1965, pp.3-46 and this manuscript pp.56-57 and pl.172. Galeazzo Maria was the eldest son of Francesco Sforza, the condottiere who having served Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, married his illegitimate daughter Bianca Maria and ultimately gained his duchy. To lend visual authority to their tenure of the duchy the Sforza adopted the quartered arms and some of the emblems of their legitimate predecessors. These include the dove against a rayed sun with the motto a buon droyt (ff.2, 90), the branches with hanging pails (f.46), the tied cloth (f.188), and helmed beast lying in flames (ff.2, 90, 137v, 188); the motto ICH HOF on the beast's helmet is Galeazzo Maria's own addition. Galeazzo succeeded his father in 1466 and was assassinated in 1476. Since the manuscript shows his ducal arms, as well as his arms as Count of Pavia, it must have been produced during this period. The date can be further narrowed down because Pope Sixtus is named on f.220v and Sixtus IV was not elected until 1471. 2. In 1885 described by the Marquis d'Adda as in the possession of the Frankfurt dealer Adolf Hamburger: G. d'Adda & G. Mongeri, 'L'Arte del minio nel ducato di Milano', Archivio Storico Lombardo , xii, 1885, p.354. 3. Rushton M. Dorman, of Chicago: his sale, Leavitt, 5 April 1886, p.10. According to Dorman the manuscript had passed to the Aragonese royal library in Naples and was acquired from there by Cardinal Salviati, perhaps Giovanni, nephew of Leo X, and then to his heir, the marchese of Tocca, Naples. There is a paper label numbered XX at the foot of the spine and the remains of blue and white labels at the foot of the lower cover and inside the upper cover. 4. William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919), first Viscount Astor, author of the gothic romance Sforza , ms A.6 (paper label); Astor Deposit at the Bodleian Library; Astor sale, Sotheby's 21 June 1988, lot 58. CONTENT: Hours of the Virgin, use of R
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