McCarthy Catalogue vol. III (French Illuminations)


The first version of this list is being uploaded in early November 2021; I will date future additions in bold.

  • No. 9. Florus of Lyon and Didymus the Blind
    • The leaf with Florus, the end of II Corinthians and beginning of Galatians (listed as Whereabouts unknown; reproduced in Les Enluminures, 1995, p. 37), is now owned by C.E. Puckett; see the updated Membra disiecta page here.
    • The leaf with Didymus 42-49 is now (2021) with King Alfred's Notebook (description and images archived here).
    • Another one column-wide 6-line cutting ("requiem. In quo flagellat ... carens. quę consalatur") is Columbus, OH, Ohio State University, MS MR.Frag.217 [Added 27 May 2023]
    • A column-wide 3-line cutting was offered by JG Autographs, Danvers, MA, 13 Decembre 2023, lot 5 (archived here and here) [Added 5 Dec. 2023] and reoffered 14 Feb. 2024 lot 196 (archived at Archive.org and here)
  • No. 13. Missal Leaf.
    • Patricia Stirnemann tells me (personal communication) that it is indeed French. [Added 26 Jan. 2022
  • No. 15. The Hornby-Cockerell Bible
    • The Daniel leaf is not as OSU, as I mistakenly wrote, but was offered for sale in Paris, 30 May 2023, lot 4 (archived version) [Added, 18 May 2023]
  • No. 17. The Chudleigh Bible
    • The Joshua leaf was Pirages, Catalogue 78 (2021), no. 11.
    • The Wisdom leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, 2 November 2021, lot 19 (col. ill.) [Added 3 June 2023]
    • The Joshua leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, 3 November 2020, lot 8 (col. ill.) [Added 4 June 2023]
    • The II Samuel leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, 5 November 2019, lot 22 (col. ill.) [Added 4 June 2023]
    • The Ecclesiastes leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, 8 November 2022, lot 5 (col. ill.) [Added 4 June 2023]
    • The Philippians leaf was in the collection of John Feldman in 1989, "depicting Paul preaching in the Synagogue at Damascus" [Added 8 July 2023]
  • No. 18. Justinian, Digest
    • François Avril (personal communication) suggests that the parent volume was written at Bologna, c.1200, and illuminated at Orléans, c.1250-60.
    • His article on the subject has now been published: François Avril, ‘Un manuscrit clef pour la reconstitution de la production enluminée du studium d’Orléans au XIIIe siècle: L’Uguccio de Pise ms 669 de la Biblioteca Universitaria de Padoue’, Miniatura: Rivista di Storia della Miniatura, 25 (2021), pp. 49–63, citing this leaf at p. 63. [Added 26 Jan. 2022]
    • Two leaves are Berkeley, MS Robbins 98 (Digital Scriptorium).
    • One leaf is NYC, Columbia University, Western MS 81 (ex-Christie's, 2 June 2004, part of lot 1) (Digital Scriptorium).
  • No. 19. Paris Bible
    • The Romans leaf is reproduced in Bernard Quaritch Ltd, Catalogue 1036: Medieval Manuscript Leaves, Principally from a Collection Formed in the 19th Century, Bookhands of the Middle Ages [I] (London, 1984), no. 72.
    • The Thessalonians leaf was Pirages, Catalogue 78 (2021), no. 13; and is still available in 2022. [Added, 4 Nov. 2022]
    • In the Provenance section, the superscript endnote numbers should be 39 and 40, not 38 and 39. [Added 29 Nov. 2022]
    • The I Maccabees leaf is fol. 368 according to Boffey & Edwards, 2002, pp. 21-22. [Added, 30 Nov. 2022]
    • The Colossians leaf was with Puckett in 2022 [Added 27 May 2023]
  • No. 20. Bible
    • The leaf with the initial for I Peter offered at auction in Paris, 30 May 2023, lot 6 (archived version) [Added, 18 May, 2023]
    • The I Ezra and Luke leaves were with Puckett in 2022 [Added 28 May 2023]
    • The leaf with the initial for Judith was owned by Prof. David Ganz, who has donated it to the University of Chicago Library, as reported (with image) here (archived here) [Added, 15 June 2023]
  • No. 22. Lectern Bible
    • "below top line" (p. 94) should read "above top line". [Added, 26 Jan. 2022]
    • "and the presence in some of the penwork flourishing of cascading Js" (p. 94) should be deleted, as should endnote 31 (p. 95). [Added, 26 Jan. 2022]
    • Patricia Stirnemann tells me (personal communication) that it is probably from Central France. [Added, 26 Jan. 2022]
    • Fol. 100, with Judges 5:29-6:28 on the recto, is at the Toledo (OH) Library; I am grateful to Edward Hill for sending me an image [Added, 1 Sept. 2022; corrected 20 Nov. 2022]
    • Fol. [105], with Judges 16:5-18:17, was Hindman Auctions, Chicago, 12 May 2021, lot 37 (archived here) [Added 20 Nov. 2022]
    • Fol. 106, with Judges 18:17-20:16, has been given by Consuelo Dutschke to the Grolier Club.
    • The leaf cited in endnote 19 was being offered for sale separately in October 2021.
    • The I Timothy leaf was with Puckett in 2022 [Added 28 May 2023]
  • No. 24. Bible Bible with 16th(?)-cent. marginalia in German
    • The Leviticus leaf was with Puckett in 2022 [Added 27 May 2023].
    • The Numbers, Psalm 68, Psalm 80, Hosea, Obadiah, Romans, Galatians, I Timothy, and I Peter leaves were with Puckett in 2022 [Added 27 May 2023].
  • No. 26. Adoration of the Magi cutting, probably from a Gradual
    • Judith Oliver (The Medieval Review, 11 August 2022) suggests that this is "possibly related to the later 1330s Cologne "Missals" atelier". [Added 9 Nov. 2022]
  • No. 28. Paris Bible
    • Fol. 554, with St Paul in a historiated initial at the beginning of Titus, is Poughkeepsie, Vassar College, Loeb Art Museum, 1972.7 [Added, 4 April 2022]
    • The manuscript must have been broken up by, or in, 1972, when Vassar and Indianapolis acquired their leaves.
    • The pencil annotations (e.g. "100-169-244" and "[$]150-") are stock numbers and prices of the Ferdinand Roten Galleries, Baltimore. [Added 24 May 2025]
  • No. 30. Annunciation miniature
    • Judith Oliver (The Medieval Review, 11 August 2022) is in favour of an attribution to Germany. [Added 9 Nov. 2022]
  • No. 34. Goffredo di Trani
    • François Avril (personal communication) suggests that the illuminator was also responsible for Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, MS 1295.
  • No. 35. The Bible of Dietrich of Deventer
    • The Judith leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, 2 November 2021, lot 20 (col. ill.) [Added 3 June 2023]
    • The Song of Songs leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, 3 November 2020, lot 9 (col. ill.) [Added 4 June 2023]
  • No. 36. The "Ste-Genevieve" Bible
    • This Bible has now been the subject of a thesis by Rose McCandless: Seeing the Exceptional in the Unexceptional: Reconstructing the Josephinum Bible, OSU, 2021 (abstract and link to PDF here).
    • The binding and flyleaves have been acquired by a private collector. I am grateful to Eric Johnson for sending me images, and for confirming that the document dated 1224 is (as I surmised) a modern printed facsimile on paper.
    • p. 140, col. 2: for Amos read Obadiah.
    • The Hosea leaf offered at auction in Paris, 30 May 2023, lot 8 (archived version).
    • The I Thessalonians leaf offered at auction in Paris, 30 May 2023, lot 7 (archived version).
    • The Psalm 68 leaf was still with Puckett in 2022 [Added 27 May 2023]
    • The Amos leaf was with Puckett in 2022 [Added 28 May 2023]
    • The II Maccabees leaf is Christie's, 19 October 2023, lot 189 [Added, 6 October 2023]
  • No. 37. Leaves from the Chester Beatty MS W.116 Bible
    • Contrary to what I suggested, the Bible was not same as the one offered by Rosenthal in 1910: the rest of the volume has emerged from a private collection, and its foliation extends to 569. [Added, 17 April 2022]
  • No. 38. Bible
    • The leaf with the beginning of I Esdras (cited as Private Collection, Grimsby) was sold from the collection of Rogert Martin at Bloomsbury Auctions, 6 July 2021, lot 40 (D) (saved to Archive.org here).
    • The volume is said to have been broken-up by the NYC bookseller Walter Schatzki (on whom see here) [Added 13 Aug. 2022]
    • The Exodus leaf is now Vancouver, University of British Columbia, Z114 .M424 (online here) [Added, 26 May, 2023]
  • No. 42. Three cuttings perhaps from a noted Breviary
    • Judith Oliver (The Medieval Review, 11 August 2022) compares the style to that of Johannes von Valkenburg, and thus suggests it "could have been made in the Cologne region". [Added 9 Nov. 2022]
  • No. 47. Lectern Bible
    • The Count Stroganoff provenance can be confirmed thanks to a handwritten annotation in Erwin Rosenthal's own copy of his catalogue of his collection of manuscripts, privately printed in Munich in 1914; at that time the manuscript consisted of 22 leaves (despite the fact that the foliation apparently goes to at least "23") [Added, 10 Feb. 2022].
  • No. 48. Lectern Bible
    • Leaf with Deuteronomy 20:5-21:17. Pirages, Catalogue 81 (2022), no. 16 (col. ill.) [Added 6 Aug. 2022]
    • Leaf with Leviticus 23:27-24:23: PBA Galleries, 19 Nov. 2020, lot 101 [Added, 24 July 2023]
  • No. 49. Lectern Bible fragment
    • Judith Oliver (The Medieval Review, 11 August 2022) makes a compelling comparison with a MS from Liège. [Added 9 Nov. 2022]
  • No. 59. Leaf of a Pontifical
    • The stock number "27757" is that of Leo Olschki (see this blogpost).
    • The two leaves listed as being in a "Private collection, England" (i.e. Stephen Keynes) are now New Haven, Beinecke Library MS. 712.196 [Added, 29 Nov. 2021]
  • No. 60. The Bible of "Mirmelus Arnandi".
    • François Avril has kindly shared with me his catalogue entry for a leaf in the forthcoming catalogue of the Naito Collection at the National Museum for Western Art, Tokyo, in which he shows that "Mirmelus Arnandi" is a misreading, and that the correct name allows this owner to be identified, as well as the Dominican convent to which he donated the Bible.
    • The leaf with the Lamentations initial, Jeremiah Lamenting, was Christie's, 9 December 2020, part of lot 9 (an Ege portfolio), and is now at the Houghton Library. It has the quire signature "xxvii" (online here).
    • The leaf with the St James initial was sold at Christie's, 14 July 2021, lot 7, and subsequently appeared in a catalogue of illuminations of Stephen Butler Rare Books (online from here); as this leaf had the end of Acts, the Acts initial must therefore be no. 79.
    • As suggested above, the Acts initial is indeed no. 79: it is at the Detroit Public Library (online here) [Added, 18 May 2022]
    • The Judges leaf (with historiated initial no. "15") is at Dallas Public Library. See the blogpost here. [Added, 2 April 2022]
    • The Baruch leaf, with a historiated initial depicting Baruch as a seated scribe with halo (no. "45") is in a private collection [Added 20 April 2023]
    • A bifolium with three historiated initials -- Galatians, II Thessalonians, and I Timothy, nos. "68", "73", "74") is in the Paul Condit collection . I owe knowledge of it to Lisa Fagin Davis [Added 20 April 2023]
    • [Added, 15 June 2023:] The following leaves were part of the Schøyen volume, which has now been given to the Christiania Kathedralskoles Bibliothek in Oslo (I am grateful to Ernst Bjerke for providing me with information and a complete set of images):
      • Exodus
      • Job
      • Proverbs
      • Philemon
      • Hebrews
    • [Added 5 October 2023:] The Judith leaf, with Judith Killing Holofernes,  is offered at Hess Fine Auctions, St Petersburg, FL, 4 Nov. 2023, lot 11040
  • No. 61. The Mailhac-Faber Bible
    • The Mark initial is on page 317 of the Bible.
    • The leaf with the John initial was offered on eBay in November 2023 here (archived at Archive.org and here) [Added 26 Nov. 2023]
    • The Prologue to Romans (p. 393) is Pirages, catalogue 78 (2021), no. 17.
    • The Prologue to the Canonical Epistles (pagination not visible) was offered online by Pirages (ST16379-013) [Added, 4 November 2022]
    • The Habbakuk leaf (fol. 217) was with Puckett in 2022: it has a 5-line initial with a Dodo-like creature for the prologue, and a 7-line historiated initial for the book, it depicts the prohpet pointings at stars and planets in the sky. He also had the historiated initial "S" from the Interpretations of Hebrew Names [Added 27 May 2023]
    • The II Peter leaf was Maggs Bros Ltd, Catalogue 1002: Western Text Hands from the Late 9th to the Early 14th Century (London, 1980), no. 64 (pl. XXVII) [Added 7 July 2023]
  • No. 62. Henry of Segusio
    • François Avril (personal communications) suggests that the parent manuscript should be attributed to Orléans. He also observes that:
    • The Table of Bigamy from this manuscript is Chicago, Art Institute, 1929.277 (online here)
    • The Table of Consanguinity is Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954.1 (online here)
    • A leaf with a historiated initial is Philadelphia, Free Library, Lewis EM 66:17 (online here)
  • No. 63. Justinian, Digest
    • François Avril (personal communication) suggests that the parent manuscript should be attributed to Orléans.
    • Provenance: Finarte, Milano, Asta dell'eredità di Giorgio Morandi Acqueforti, gioielli, miniature, opere d'arte antica, 12 March 1996, lot 63 (ill.) [Added 24 April 2023]
  • No. 67. Metz Book of Hours
    • The leaf with the Visitation was Christie's, Paris, 3 November 2020, lot 8 (online; Archive.org) [Added 6 June 2023]
  • No.68. Artois? Book of Hours
    • A leaf with the Crucifixion in a historiated initial,with a three-sided border was Ripley Auctions, Indianapolis, 28 January 2023, lot 114 (archived here and here) [Added, 18 Jan. 2023]
  • No. 69. Choir Breviary from Agen(?)
    • For a blogpost about this manuscript, see here.
  • No. 77. Scheide Psalter-Hours
    • The leaf with the Presentation in the Temple and Flight into Egypt are owned by Mark Mersiowsky; it was bought at the cited Venator & Hanstein auction.
  • No 79. Bible (Ege HL 61)
    • The leaf with the Philippians initial was offered on eBay for an auction ending on 8 Jan 2024, item number:176146222779 (archived here and here) [Added 2 Jan. 2024]
  • No. 80. Quadripartite miniatures
    • Another leaf is in Toronto; see the blogpost here. [Added 11 Dec. 2022]
    • The leaf with scenes nos. [VI-IX] in the Christological cycle was sold at Christie's, 12 July 2023, lot 5 [archived at Archive.org and here]. Pierre-Yves Le-Pogam kindly informs me that it was acquired by the Musée Cluny, Paris [Added 30 Oct. 2023]
  • No. 81. Dominican Breviary
    • For fig. 81.1 read fig. 81.2 and for fig. 81.2 read fig. 81.1.
    • The leaf with the Cosmas and Damian initial was in the Roger Martin sale at Bloomsbury Auctions, 6 July 2021, lot 57 (archived here).
    • The leaf with the Hosea initial is Christie's, 15 December 2021, lot 7.
    • A bifolium with the end of the feast of Lucy (13 Dec.) and a historiated initial for the feast of St Thomas the Apostle  (21 Dec.), depicting Christ giving gold coins(?) to a seated crowd, was with Puckett in 2022 [Added 27 May 2023]
  • No. 82. Miniature from Gulielmus Durandus
    • For Southern France read France.
  • No. 88. Livy in Bersuire's French translation, illuminated by Remiet
    • fol. 297, Decade II, Book 4, was offered by Jörn Günther in 2023 (archived here and here) [Added, 18 Jan. 2023]
  • No. 95. Hours
    • Sold anonymously by Bernard Oger and Etienne Dumont, at Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, Collection X et à divers: Lettres et manuscrits autographes … huit manuscrits des XIVe et XVe siècles …, 31 May 2000, lot 264 (col. ill.) [Added 9 May 2023].
  • No. 96. Hours illuminated by the Master of Jacques de Luxembourg
    • Owned in 1914 by Erwin Rosenthal; see the privately printed catalogue of his collection (Munich, 1914), no. 33 [Added, 18 Dec. 2022].

Nos. I, 1bis-71bis (catalogue entries are by Gaudenz Freuler)

  • No. 1, 20bis
    • Nine sister-cuttings are in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Inv. 1954.131.1-9) [Added, 26 Nov. 2021]

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