Beschreibung:

Collection of leaves from decorated manuscripts, in Latin, on vellum 13 leaves (including 4 bifolia), from seven separate manuscripts: (a) cutting from a saint's life, 222m. by 130mm., with a large initial 'P', 154mm. in height, in yellow with panels of geometric design inside the ascenders, enclosing an elaborate spray of white-vine decoration terminating in yellow flowers, all on red and blue grounds, text almost entirely erased from around initial, but 22 lines on verso, small area of initial cut out to fit around stitching of book it was bound around, else good condition, Tuscany, mid-twelfth century; (b) fragment of a leaf from a monumental manuscript, 235mm. by 325mm., remains of two columns, 30 lines in brown ink (now faded) in an excellent early Gothic hand, containing excerpts from Joshua 10 & 17, visible under normal light only on recto, Italy, c. 1100; (c) 2 bifolia from Geoffrey of Vinsauf's poem 'Poetria nova', each approximately 295mm. by 205mm., with remains of 22 lines of verse in black ink, initials touched in yellow, rubrics, paragraph marks and simple 2-line initials in red, many interlinear glosses, Italy, late thirteenth-century; (d) fragment of a bifolium from the opening of Guido Faba's 'Summa dictaminis', 285mm. by 209mm., double column, 36 lines in brown ink, rubrics and numerous 2-line initials in red, 3-line initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, space left for 2 larger initials, trimmed on outer vertical edges with some loss to text on each side, Italy, late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century; (e) the lower half of a leaf of Haimo of Halberstadt's, 'Homiliae de tempore', Homily 17 (both recto and verso), read on the first Sunday after Epiphany, Migne, PL. 118, pp. 119-26, double column, remains of 13 lines in dark brown ink, initials touched in red, Italy, c. 1100; (f) 2 fragments of a manuscript of St. Augustine's Commentary on John, 200mm. by 150mm. & 127mm. by 180mm., double column, remains of 18 lines on larger fragment and 13 on smaller, Italy, first half of twelfth century; (g) fragment of a Lectionary leaf, 288mm. by 210mm., remains of 20 lines, Italy, fourteenth century; all recovered from bindings and hence somewhat defective