The Gospel of the Wife of Jesus

Perhaps the most intruguing manuscript provenance story of the year was the unmasking of the so-called Gospel of the Wife of Jesus papyrus as a forgery, in The Atlantic, here. I thought that it would be worth bringing to the attention of anyone who has not already read it: it is a compelling read.

The Elmhirst-Courtanvaux Hours

Ever since encountering one of his manuscripts at Sam Fogg's, circa 2000, I have had an interest in medieval manuscripts from the collection of Harry A. Walton (d.2007), a dairy farmer of Covington, Virginia. They can be recognised by his purple ink-stamp, of which I show two examples here, and by comparison with the descriptions in the Supplement to de Ricci's Census.

One More Leaf from the "Hastière" Bible

Today I found another.

Two More Leaves from the "Hastière" Bible

As recently as October, I wrote about some leaves and cuttings from a Bible that I refer to as the "Hastière Bible", and noted that "more will doubtless surface". Les Enluminures have kindly contacted me to let me know that they have recently acquired two more leaves from the Bible.

Cuttings from an Austrian Dominican Choirbook

At the recent Sotheby's sale, lot 14 was a charming cutting, attributed to Austria in the second quarter of the 15th century:

It must surely be from the same manuscript as a cutting offered at Christie's. 23 November 2010, lot 5:

Despite some differences such as the treatments of the backgrounds, the figures are nearly identical, including such details as the shape of the white edges of the black habit that each figure wears.

Just as the recent Sotheby's catalogue was going to press, I realised that a full leaf from the same manuscript was sold at Sotheby's as the property of Eric Korner, 3 April 1957, lot 54:

 

And today I have found that this leaf is now at the Indianapolis Museum of Art:

Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art

The three initials represent St Dominic, St Peter Martyr, and St Thomas Aquinas, respectively, so there can be no doubt that the book was made for a Dominican house. More leaves and cutting are sure to emerge, and it may be possible to ascertain the precise house for which the manuscript was made.


EDIT 12 December 2016
Jeffrey Hamburger has been in touch and kindly informs me that this style of illumination is in fact representative of Alsace, not Austria. It is possible, however, that the manuscript comes from a house derived from Alsace: he cites Kirchheim unter Teck, in Württemberg, which was founded by Dominican nuns from Strasbourg, who brought their Alsatian style with them (cf. his article in the Christopher de Hamel Festschrift).

A Curious Cutting

I have no new provenance-based post today, but I have written about a curious cutting (which does have some provenance issues), on the "Medieval Manuscripts Questions" blog here.

The Vassar Leo X Cuttings (Part IV): Later Provenance

Having covered the origins of the cuttings at Vassar College from a Missal of Pope Leo X, from their creation to their dismemberment and auction in the 1838 Ottley auction, in a series of previous posts, it may be worth pursuing their provenance into more recent times.

A Leo X Cutting Rediscovered

Two years ago, almost to the day, I wrote a post about a cutting from the same Pope Leo X manuscript as the two cuttings at Vassar College. At that time, I only knew of it from a photograph taken in 1993, and did not know its whereabouts.

A couple of months ago I recognised it in a box of leaves and cuttings that had just arrived at Christie's and had not yet been catalogued. It has now been put online here as part of their December "Online Only" sale.

We now have access to images of both the front and back, but the I have been unable to identify the text on the back.

High-resolution images (though rather pale; the images above have been adjusted) are on the Christie's website here (front) and here (back).

Paths to Grace Exhibition Catalogue, 1991

When I originally started this blog it was my intention to post every week, even if it was simply to note the existence of a useful title in Google Books, e.g. here. Due to pressure of work I have not blogged for the past few weeks, and will probably only be able to write short blog posts in the coming few months.

"Art History News" Blog and Recent Provenance

One of the blogs I follow is Art History News: it has nothing to do with medieval manuscripts, but it occasionally has something interesting to me -- about the art market, for example.

It has been following the Affair of the Fake Cranach since the story broke, and today has a post about how the series of fakes could probably have been unmasked sooner if more attention had been paid to their (lack of) provenance:
http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/4201_Provenance

Forgery is very rarely an issue with medieval manuscripts, but what has become very prevalent in recent years is the "restoration" of illuminations by dealers. They have apparently found a very gifted artist to restore and visually improve damaged miniatures, and often the only way of knowing what has happened is to compare the present appearance, with a photograph taken a few years or a few decades ago: yet another reason why the tracing of recent provenance is important.

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [15]

The final items in this series are Ethiopian, and thus less perhaps likely to be encountered by readers of this blog.

Folding manuscript with saints
Ethiopia, 15th – 16th century

28 loose leaves from a Martyrologium
Ethiopia 16th century
490 x 390 mm


I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [14]

The Last Judgement
Historiated initial D from Psalm 101 in a Psalter
Germany, 13th century, first half
c. 145 × 99 mm


I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [13]

[detail]

Miniature illustrating "De theatro", chapter XXXVI of an unidentified text
Spain, 13th century
c. 165 × 97 mm

The text above the miniature appears to be Rhabanus Maurus's commentary on the colours of the four horses of the Apocalypse; the text below the miniature appears to be "De theatro", Bk.XVIII.42 of Isidore, Etymologies.

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [12]

[detail]

[detail]

Hosea and his wife Gomer
Historiated initial ‘U’, and two other initials on a leaf from a Bible
France, Paris, c.1240–50
c. 190 × 140 mm

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Bible Leaves in Philadelphia, London, and Paris

I have recently become more interested in large Bibles. (Small ones may of course be very interesting, too, but they can be very fiddly to handle, often involve a lot of page-turning and eye-strain for very little reward, and if they are not in an institutional collection they are often unfoliated (or incorrectly foliated), which makes them difficult to describe and collate).

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [11]

Leaf from a Psalter with decorated initial ‘D’
France, 14th century
c.240×185mm


I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [10]

The Mocking of Christ
Large historiated initial on a leaf from a Book of Hours
France, Picardy (maybe Amiens), c. 1325
157 × 117 mm


I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [9]

The Presentation in the Temple and The Marriage Feast at Cana
Leaf with full-page miniature in two compartments
France, Paris, c. 1250–1270
c. 140 × 105 mm


I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [8]

[detail]

A Bishop Blessing a Monk
Leaf from a Pontifical
France, Avignon, c. 1320s
310 × 215 mm

The manuscript from which this leaf comes, and many of the dispersed leaves, have very recently been published by François Avril, "Quelques éléments nouveaux relatifs à la production avignonnaise du temps du pape Jean XXII. À propos d’un pontifical de Guillaume Durand dépecé", Cahiers de Fanjeux, 51 (2016), pp.413-56.

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [7]

[detail]

John the Evangelist and the eagle in an historiated initial
Cutting from the Glazier-Rylands Bible
France (Tournai?), c. 1265-75
241 × 159 mm

I showed this image recently here.

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [6]

A Bishop Accused of Simony by Two Fornicators
Miniature on a cutting from a leaf from Gratian's Decretum (Causa VI)
Attributed to an artist of the Milemete group
England c.1320-1330
67 × 66 mm


I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

The Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, Winter 1926-27 [Part I] -- Addendum

National Gallery of Art,
Washington DC 2013.130.1 [Source]

In the first post on the The Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, Winter 1926-27, here, I made no comment about the first item described in this image:

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [5]

St. George
Full-page miniature on a leaf from the "Knyvett" Book of Hours
England, late 14th century
200 × 135 mm

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [4]

Christ appearing to the Virgin Mary and the Apostles
Cutting of a historiated initial ‘L’
Attributed to the Master of the Dominican Effigies
Italy, Florence, c. 1340
187 × 150 mm

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [3]

Saint Francis, in a cutting with a historiated initial
Attributed to the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum
Italy, Milan, mid-15th century
102 × 114 mm

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [2]

[detail]

The Evangelist symbol of Matthew, an Angel

Historiated initial 'I' on a leaf from a Missal in Beneventan script
Italy, Puglia, 11th century
347 × 248 mm

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

Stolen Leaves and Cuttings [1]

St Mary Magdalene in the Wilderness
Attributed to the Master of Monza / Miniatore di Monza
Italy, Lombardy, c. 1275-85
88 × 60 mm

I have been asked to spread the word about a number of leaves and cuttings that were stolen from a private collection in London a few years ago. Rather than post them all at once, I will aim to do one per day for the next several days, and then do a cumulative list that you can print out and keep handy for future reference. Please circulate the details to colleagues. If you see, or have seen, any of them please contact info@samfogg.com

The cutting above comes from the same manuscript as those discussed in the post here.

The Free Library, Francesco Sforza, and Forgeries

Philadelphia, Free Library, Lewis E M 33:22 [Source]

Browsing the recently improved website of the Free Library, Philadelphia, I found the image above. The style is a bit weird, for reasons that will become apparent, but regular readers will recognise the lattice window and wall-covering behind the half-length pope from posts here, here, and here, and especially here.

Northwick Park and Thirlestaine House

Northwick Park [Source]

In reference to the previous post, I have been asked what the relationship was between Capt. Edward G. Spencer-Churchill, who lent his manuscript leaves and cuttings to the BFAC exhibition, and "the late John, Lord Northwick", whose name was on the auction catalogue when he sold them.

The Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, Winter 1926-27 [Part III]

Downstairs in the Writing Room seven further items hung on a wall, all lent by Capt. Edward G. Spencer-Churchill, who, as we saw in the first post of this series, was one of the members of the Exhibition Committee.

Medieval Manuscripts from Augsburg

It has occurred to me that this blog gives me way of publicly thanking people for various acts of kindness. For example, when writing posts about a Psalter leaf at Harvard, and its closely related leaves in New York, I found an online reference to an article by Andrea Worm. I contacted her, hoping for a PDF of it, but she immediately offered to send me a copy of the whole hardcopy publication. As it may be of interest to others, I provide here the title and table of contents:

A Cutting from a Chartres Cathedral Antiphonary

Some time ago I saw a curious cutting at Maggs Bros. It was hard to know if the composition was pure fantasy, or whether the (?)processional cross and the "heraldry" might be significant.

The Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, Winter 1926-27 [Part II]

In the previous post, we left the BFAC exhibition looking at a leaf hanging on the wall just inside the door to the Gallery. In the first exhibition-case in the Gallery was the set of six full-page miniatures illuminated by William de Brailes, lent by Chester Beatty, and now at the Fitzwilliam Museum (MS 330; all six are online here), including the one shown above, which is no. 2 of those listed below:

The Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, Winter 1926-27 [Part I]

Most readers of this blog will be aware of the landmark 1908 exhibition of illuminated manuscripts held by the Burlington Fine Arts Club (BFAC) in 1908. In a previous post, I discussed two lesser-known exhibitions of illuminated manuscripts held by the BFAC, in 1874 and 1886.

Even less well known that either of these two exhibitions, however, each of which is commemorated by a printed catalogue, is an exhibition held during the winter of 1926 to 1927, for which there is no published catalogue.

There is, however, a typescript draft catalogue which only survives in a single copy, as far as I am aware. It was in the BFAC archive transferred to the library of the V&A Museum when the BFAC was wound-up in 1951.

Boerner Auction CX, Addendum

Following on from a recent post, I have realised that lot 51 in the Boerner catalogue, later lot 32 in the Lanna-Prag catalogue, was later owned by Edouard Kann and Robert Lehman, and is now in The Met, NYC, where all this provenance is recorded.

[Source]

But, to judge by their online description, The Met is apparently unaware that another of its leaves was also in the Boerner auction, as lot 17, where it was attributed to 13th-century France:

Like the Psalter leaf now at Harvard, it was apparently unsold in the auction, and re-offered by Boerner in a fixed-price catalogue the following year:

It was given to The Met in 1939 by Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell, and is now attributed to Swabia, c.1400:

[Source]

The priest's scroll reads:

"Prespiter Albert(us) hui(us) libri tibi munus. | Dat pia virgo p(re)ces p(ro) me peto ferte sorores"

And the nun's reads "Mater mis(eri)c(or)die miserere mei. Liugardi."

The Met description and a web-search suggest that the leaf is unpublished, apart from the Boerner catalogues, which is surprising for such an interesting and unusual miniature.