The Colbert Libraries (Midweek Miscellany 3)

The "Histoire de la Bibliophilie" blog has recently posted about the libraries of the various members of the Colbert family, including a family tree; portraits of, and biographical information about, the key individuals; discussions of their auction catalogues; and images of their binding-stamps, including these:

The JBC monogram of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–83)

Yet More About the Cuttings From the Bible of Pedro of Pamplona

In a recent post I discussed some of the missing cuttings of the Bible of Pedro of Pamplona, known only from old photographs.

Within a few days of that post Bill Stoneman, Curator of Early Books and Manuscripts at Houghton Library, Harvard, identified for me the present whereabouts of one of the initials I had discussed; and just a few days after that Geneviève Mariéthoz sent me news that two more cuttings have been acquired by the Bibliothèque municipale in Angers.

Long-Lost Miniatures from the Sigmaringen Psalter

Looking at the Lost Art website in connection with this blog post, I encountered this image:

The accompanying text states that this leaf was auctioned in Berlin in 1936, in a forced liquidation sale of 500 objects owned by the Jewish art dealer A.S. Drey:

A Parchment Hole Used by an Artist (Midweek Miscellany 2)

This really has nothing to do with provenance, but it's too good not to share.

This drawing ...

Detail, recto

... appears in the lower margin of the huge (c.530×370mm) Clumber Bible (France, c.1395):

Full-page view

Detail, verso

The most detailed published description of the manuscript is: Sam Fogg, Illuminated Manuscripts: An Exhibition at the Blumka Gallery, New York (London, 1999), no.12 pp.44–49.

The 1524 "Hildesheim" Prayerbook

Many American and private collections have one or more leaves of an easily-recognisable prayerbook dated 1524 and attributed to Hildesheim.

A Google Images search for hildesheim leaf 1524 produces lots of hits:

Midweek miscellany I

In addition to my regular Saturday posts, I have decided to do occasional posts midweek, when I have some small observation or discovery.

Having posted twice about the dismembered Pietro Ursuleo manuscript, I thought it would be worth putting side-by-side the miniatures of the Evangelist Matthew. It is interesting how remarkably similar they are, despite being by different illuminators: the leaf in South Carolina is attributed to Cola Rapicano, while the Cambridge volume is attributed to Matteo Felice.

More on the Psalter and Passion Sequences written by Pietro Ursuleo of Capua

In a previous post I wrote about the dismembered Psalter and Passion Sequences written by the humanistic scribe Pietro Ursuleo of Capua.

I have recently found a description of the book when it was still intact.