Three leaves from the gargantuan 'Bohun Bible', each with an illuminated initial, manuscript in Latin on parchment [England (East Anglia, perhaps Cambridge), c. 1340] Three vast leaves, with double column of 22 lines in a rounded English gothic bookhand (with Ecclesiasticus 30:17-31:2, Habakkuk 2:3-3:4 and Jeremiah 37:3-38:1) with significant lateral compression of lines, capitals touched in hairline penwork, running titles and versal numbers in blue and red, one large illuminated initial on each leaf, on bi-coloured grounds, and with fleshy foliate terminals emerging from head and foot, one of these accompanied by a gold paragraph mark on similarly coloured grounds, Early Modern folio nos. '232', '97' and '396' at upper outer corners of rectos (one with seventeenth-century English inscription at foot of second column: 'From the 4. verse of the 3d chapter of Habakuk is torne out & wanting'), small spots and stains, slightly cockled, occasional marks from old mounts, else good condition, each approximately 450 by 310mm. The parent volume of this leaf was most probably part of a four volume set, with the first volume perhaps now British Library MS. Royal I.E.IV, with a miniature of Jerome writing. On a stylistic basis links have been made between the surviving parts of these volumes and other manuscripts made for the Bohun family, earls of Hereford, whose main estates were in East Anglia (L. Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts, 1285-1385, 1986, no. 132). Other single leaves and collections of leaves in the Bodleian (MS. Bib. Lat.b.4) include ex libris marks of three Early Modern Cheshire families, and these have led to connections being made to the Benedictine Priory of St. Radegund's, Cambridge (suppressed in 1496 to establish Jesus College), and most recently the Carmelite Friary in Chester. The surviving leaves are listed by C. de Hamel in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, pp. 93-95 (including the first leaf here, as no. 97, in the list there), and in an updated form extensively discussing their provenance by the same author in 'The Bohun Bible Leaves', in Script & Print, Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand, 32 (2008), pp. 49-63. It was dispersed by Winifred Myers (1909-1985) of Bond Street, London, and the Habakkuk leaf here is accompanied by a cutting from a catalogue of hers of 1927. Acquired by Roger Martin from a private UK collector in 2007 (and before that Sotheby's, 23 June 1987, lot 17); from a private US collector in 2012; and in the US trade in 2014.
Three leaves from the gargantuan 'Bohun Bible', each with an illuminated initial, manuscript in Latin on parchment [England (East Anglia, perhaps Cambridge), c. 1340] Three vast leaves, with double column of 22 lines in a rounded English gothic bookhand (with Ecclesiasticus 30:17-31:2, Habakkuk 2:3-3:4 and Jeremiah 37:3-38:1) with significant lateral compression of lines, capitals touched in hairline penwork, running titles and versal numbers in blue and red, one large illuminated initial on each leaf, on bi-coloured grounds, and with fleshy foliate terminals emerging from head and foot, one of these accompanied by a gold paragraph mark on similarly coloured grounds, Early Modern folio nos. '232', '97' and '396' at upper outer corners of rectos (one with seventeenth-century English inscription at foot of second column: 'From the 4. verse of the 3d chapter of Habakuk is torne out & wanting'), small spots and stains, slightly cockled, occasional marks from old mounts, else good condition, each approximately 450 by 310mm. The parent volume of this leaf was most probably part of a four volume set, with the first volume perhaps now British Library MS. Royal I.E.IV, with a miniature of Jerome writing. On a stylistic basis links have been made between the surviving parts of these volumes and other manuscripts made for the Bohun family, earls of Hereford, whose main estates were in East Anglia (L. Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts, 1285-1385, 1986, no. 132). Other single leaves and collections of leaves in the Bodleian (MS. Bib. Lat.b.4) include ex libris marks of three Early Modern Cheshire families, and these have led to connections being made to the Benedictine Priory of St. Radegund's, Cambridge (suppressed in 1496 to establish Jesus College), and most recently the Carmelite Friary in Chester. The surviving leaves are listed by C. de Hamel in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, pp. 93-95 (including the first leaf here, as no. 97, in the list there), and in an updated form extensively discussing their provenance by the same author in 'The Bohun Bible Leaves', in Script & Print, Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand, 32 (2008), pp. 49-63. It was dispersed by Winifred Myers (1909-1985) of Bond Street, London, and the Habakkuk leaf here is accompanied by a cutting from a catalogue of hers of 1927. Acquired by Roger Martin from a private UK collector in 2007 (and before that Sotheby's, 23 June 1987, lot 17); from a private US collector in 2012; and in the US trade in 2014.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
