Two More Erik von Scherling Catalogues Online: A Postscript

One of the reasons my previous post may be significant is that it demonstrates that von Scherling kept issuing catalogues of medieval manuscripts during the hiatus between vol. III (1933) and vol. IV (1937) of his Rotulus series.

Two More Erik von Scherling Catalogues Online

In 2015 I wrote a blogpost about the Dutch dealer Erik von Scherling, including an attempt to list all his known catalogues, especially the series with the title "Rotulus".

 

At my request, and through the kindness of Candice C. Brown at Duke University Libraries, two more of his catalogues have now been digitized, and are available online at Archive.org.

A Scattered Missal Written by Laurentius

Vassar College, Leaf 58

For the past few years I have been working on a catalogue of the medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at Vassar College, due to be published early next year. It has been the spur to many of my investigations into the trade in single leaves in the US in the 20th century, including those sold by Dawson's Book Shop, discussed in a few previous posts (e.g. here). Just before I submitted the first draft of my text, I made a satisfying provenance discovery, concerning the Missal leaf shown above.

Otto Ege's Terence: An Addendum

Last weekend I posted about Otto Ege's manuscript of Terence's Comedies. I reproduced at the top of the page an image of a leaf in a private collection in California that I was able to examine a few weeks ago, thanks to the very kind hospitality of the owner. After he read my post, he contacted me to tactfully draw my attention to the fact that I seemed to have made an oversight.

Otto Ege's Terence

 

Private collection, California

Leaves from some of Otto Ege's manuscripts are very easily recognised. He did not sell many leaves of manuscripts written in Humanistic script, for example, and among these, his copy of Terence's Comedies is distinctive (an example is shown above).

A Czech Antiphonal Leaf Dated 1576

On a visit to the Houghton Library in 2018 I went through a box of miscellaneous single leaves, containing all sorts of interesting items. One is a Czech Antiphonal leaf, of which a detail is shown above.

A 13th-Century Peter Lombard now in Liverpool

This week's post is really just a series of observations, followed by a puzzle to which I hope a reader might be able to offer a solution.

Some months ago I went to Liverpool, and among the manuscripts I wanted to see was a very fine copy of Peter Lombard's Gloss on the Psalms, produced probably in Oxford in the early 13th century. It is well known, having been catalogued by George Warner when owned by Dyson Perrins, and having been included in Nigel Morgan's Survey of Early Gothic English Illumination [1].

It is an extremely handsome volume, with wide margins, as can be seen in the image above; here is a close-up of one of the historiated initial: