WITH TEXT FROM MASSES FOR SAINTS' DAYS IN AUGUST

Germany, mid- to late 12th century. 290 x 217 mm. (11 3/8 x 8 1/2"). Single column, 21 lines in an attractive proto-gothic book hand.
Rubrics in red, several one-line initials in red, five red initials measuring two to four lines long and with penwork embellishment, A LOVELY SEVEN-LINE WHITE-VINE INITIAL outlined in red and with a pale yellow wash along the edge, the lower half of the ground filled with green wash. Lower margins with notations in later Medieval hands. ◆A handful of original holes in the vellum no doubt from stretching the skin during processing (with the scribe writing around the flaws where necessary), a little soiling to lower outside corner, one or two negligible spots, otherwise IN FINE CONDITION, the ink unusually rich and the paint very bright.

From a Sacramentary, a service book that contained the prayers said during Mass (subsumed by the Missal in the 13th century), this early leaf was once part of an attractive manuscript of very high quality. The very large and superb "F" opens the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption, and the other readings here include Masses for Sts. Hippolytus and Cassian (celebrated on 13 August); St. Eusabius (14 August); Vigil of the Assumption of the Virgin (14 August); Assumption of the Virgin (15 August); St. Agapitus (18 August); and the beginning of the Mass for Sts. Timothy, Hippolytus, and Symphorian (22 August). Sister leaves from this same manuscript have previously appeared in Sam Fogg, Cat. 16, "Text Manuscripts and Documents 2200BC to 1600AD" (1995), nos. 30 and 31; Maggs Bros., European Bulletin 20 (1995), no. 37; Quaritch, Cat. 1270, "Bookhands of the Middle Ages VI" (2000), nos. 69 and 70; Sotheby's, 6 December 2001, lot 8; and Bloomsbury, 6 December 2017, lot 16. The Fogg description notes that similar initials can be seen in French, German, and Flemish manuscripts of the period, "but very few manuscripts have the special characteristics of this one." For example, the initials on the sister leaves described by Fogg contain (atypically) mauve and green as well as an "unusual . . . exterior contoured ground, which is not confined by any geometric form." This means there is no line or shape to box in or define the capital's form; rather, it appears as if surrounded by an aura or gentle shadow. Our initial contains a green ground only (no mauve) but the same unusual and attractive yellow aura. It is rare to find Romanesque leaves of this size and caliber in such fine condition, and the present leaf, with its beautiful, regular proto-gothic hand, exceptional white-vine initial, and several large decorative initials in red, is especially desirable..