Beschreibung:

Leaf from a Gradual, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [Poland (Dominican convent, Poznan), 1632] Single large leaf, with single column of 10 lines in a strange and angular liturgical hand, accompanied by music on a 4-line red stave (rastrum: 22mm.), bottom line of text on recto with elaborate calligraphic cadels (one of these infilled with liturgical inscription in tiny script), capitals with ornate calligraphic knots (some infilled with green-yellow leaving thin blank parchment spaces between the shading and the penstrokes), red rubrics and running titles, initials in coloured interlocking panels of green-yellow, purple and dull red-brown, one large initial 'K' (opening "Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison ...") on recto in knobbly woody stems on an orange ground and within calligraphic frame with geometric knots at its corners on green-yellow, purple and pale blue grounds, another initial 'K' (opening same text) on verso in coloured architectural forms and a Classical dolphin on blank grounds, within a similar calligraphic frame (but this one extending into bas-de-page to nearly fill it with interlace enclosing dull gold on purple grounds, original pagination '509' and '510', some spots and stains, and slightly darkened at edges, else in excellent condition, 600 by 410mm. A number of leaves from the same parent codex as this one survive, including the frontispiece with a long Latin inscription that dates the manuscript, identifies its text as following the edition of Seraphinus Siccus (that published in 1620), connects the creation of this volume to Georgius Trebnic, Provincial Prior of Poland, and Hyacinth Chorinski, prioress of the Poznan convent, and identifies that house as the original home of the book. It had been dispersed by 1966 when Cornelius J. Hauck (1893-1967) deposited his highly decorated leaf in the Cincinnati Museum (later sold by Christie's New York, 27-28 June 2006, lot 139, but there dated a century too early). Other leaves were sold by Bruce Ferrini in the 1990s. The Dominican convent was established in Poznan in 1244, with the church and abbey built in the ten years following. The house was dissolved by the Prussians in 1833 and its goods scattered. The site only returned to a religious use in 1920 when Jesuits took over the church, and 1935 when Dominican brothers returned to the convent.