ENGLAND: a study group of leaves and fragments, in Latin, manuscripts on vellum [England, and Southern Netherlands, 12th to 16th centuries]

English manuscripts
ENGLAND: a study group of leaves and fragments, in Latin, manuscripts on vellum [England, and Southern Netherlands, 12th to 16th centuries]
A wide-ranging group of manuscripts produced in England (or, as in the case of the miniature, for the English market), including music, law, geometry and theology.

Comprising:
(i) A fragment from Constantinus Africanus, De Communibus Medico Cognitu Necessariis Locis [England, 12th century].
c.122 × 165mm. Preserving 12 lines, written in a fine gothic bookhand, with two decorated initials (remains of adhesive in one margin).
Provenance: Colker MS 408; acquired in 1989 from Quaritch.

(ii) A leaf from Bartholomeus Anglicus, De Rerum Proprietatibus [England, 13th century].
c.245 × 200mm. 2 columns of 52 lines, with glosses, in a gothic script, with penwork initials with blue and red ornamentation (margins cropped).
Provenance: Colker MS 331; acquired in 1984 from Quaritch.

(iii) A leaf from a Hymnal, without musical notation [?England, 13th century].
c.305 × 210mm. 2 columns of 43 lines, an elegant gothic bookhand (a note in a later secretary hand, text lacking from cropping along outer margin, with tape along gutter, some text faded on verso).
Provenance: (1) Same as Lot 24; (2) Colker MS 383; acquired in 1987-88 from Quaritch.

(iv) A leaf from Question and Answers on Canon Law [England, 13th century].
c.288 × 200mm. 2 columns of 61 lines, in a gothic hand with cursive features, with a contemporary gloss (cut into 2 fragments and subsequently repaired).
Provenance: Colker MS 487; acquired in 1998 from Maggs.

(v) Two leaves from Thomas Aquinas, Scriptum Super Sententiis [England, 13th century].
c.310 × 215mm. Two columns of 62 lines, ruled in plummet, in a cursive gothic script, alternating heading 'L[iber]' / 'I' in red and blue ink; text comprising part of Thomas Aquinas's Scriptum Super Sententiis, Book 1, 32.1.1-33.1.1 (notes in a humanist hand, cockled along gutter edge).
Provenance: (1) Thomas Chetwine, Richard Chetwine, Robartt Sutton, Ihon Holland are named in the lower margin [16th century]; (2) Colker MS 51; acquired in 1963 from Maggs.

(vi) Four bifolia from Petrus Lombardus, Sententiae, glossed [England, 13th century].
c.245 × 185mm. 2 columns of 34 lines, in a gothic script with cursive elements, with the text heavily glossed in a cursive Anglicana hand with references to Hugh of St. Victor, De Sacramentis (with text lacking from cropping of final 4 leaves, remains of adhesive throughout).
Provenance: Colker MS 173; acquired in 1970 from Maggs.

(vii) Two leaves from a theological text [England, 13th century].
c.165 × 102mm. 27 lines, in a gothic script with cursive elements, with penwork initials with red and blue ornament (scribbles in an early modern on outer faces, vellum cockled on gutter edge obscuring some text).
Provenance: (1) 16th-century scribbles, some in English, include the names John Phelpott and Guilielmus Dalus (=Dale); (2) Colker MS 220; acquired in 1972 from Maggs.

(viii) A leaf from a text on Geometry, with commentary [England, 14th century].
c.290 × 195mm. Two columns of 62 lines, with main text in a gothic script, and commentary in cursive Anglicana, with contemporary notes in margins (holes in vellum throughout, remains of adhesive on verso, early modern pen-trials).
Provenance: Colker MS 230; acquired in 1973 from Maggs.

(ix) A bifolium from an Exemplum [England, 14th century].
c.185 × 148mm. 2 columns of 34 lines, in a very regular Anglicana bookhand, with text comprising examples of moral lives (some text lacking from trimming at upper edge, vellum slightly cockled).
Provenance: (1) Pentrial in margin: "Colift//, Scott/ Renolds/ Thimble" [16th century]; (2) Colker MS 278; acquired in 1978 from Maggs.

(x) Massacre of the Innocents, miniature on a leaf from a Book of Hours [southern Netherlands, probably Bruges, 3rd quarter 15th century].
c.210 × 135mm. The miniature within a full floral border, blank on reverse (smudged and creased, with losses to the faces and robes of the figures). The miniature would have come from a Book of Hours made in the southern Netherlands, perhaps for the English market, and is close in style and format to British Library, Harley MS 2985.
Provenance: Colker MS 250; acquired in 1975 from Maggs.

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