Extent: 3 volumes. 1: fols. i + 77 + i; 2: fols. i + 38 + i; 3: i + 18 + i; parchment; 75 x 55 (52 x 35) mm bound to 84 x 77 mm
Note:
Layout: varies Script: Multiple Gothic bookhands with hybrida features Decoration: Capitals highlighted in red, underlining in red, red rubrics, red and blue line fillers, one-line red paraphs, one- to two-line initials in red or blue, two-line purple initial with red pen decoration (f. 1), three- to seven-line initials in blue or red with contrasting pen decoration (ff. 2, 22v, 24v, 25v, 50), capitals touched in red. Binding: Was rebound in 2021/22. The velvet bindings were removed. Previous parchment and Japanese paper repairs were kept. Additional tears and guards were done as needed with Japanese paper and starch paste. Each signature was resewn individually with linen thread onto a reverse Japanese paper guard to allow for better opening and for removal and reattachment if needed. Binding: Reverse guards are sewn onto 3 split alum tawed thongs with new handmade endpapers. Each volume is sewn separately. Thongs are laced into new non-adhesive paper case bindings over rag mat board with a small yapp fore edge and tab and slot turn-ins. No endbands. Traces of quire signatures, mostly cropped. Some damp-staining on upper and lower edges and in the gutter. Overall in good condition. Original one volume, rebound early 20th century and 2021/22. The original rebinding may have been when the text was disarranged; multiple quires are out of order and some folios are missing. Provenance: Purchased from Les Enluminures in 2020 Provenance: Written in western Germany or the southeastern Netherlands in the mid-fifteenth century, c. 1425-1475, based on the evidence of the script and decoration. Provenance: Twentieth-century binding includes a fitted, silk-lined, blue buckram box signed by "J & S Brockman / Binders Wheatley / Oxford England." 3 individually bound sections, each with the same average measurements. The three volumes were once bound together in a single volume; all three bear witness to textual rearrangement and some textual losses. These manuscripts contain an array of texts chosen as guides to the religious life, many of which are associated with the Devotio moderna movement. The original manuscript may have been owned by a lay devotee or the movement or within a religious house associated with it. Many of the texts are excerpts. Alongside longer excerpts from the Libellus spiritualis exercitii, the Speculum beatae Mariae virginis, the Epistole Ignacii Martiris et Beate Virginis Marie, the Imitatio Christi, the manuscripst include a collection of spiritual sayings from Thomas a Kempis, Gregory the Great, Augustine, Cassian, Isidore of Seville, Isaac of Nineveh, and others. It also includes a number of short, previously unknown texts (all but one of them complete) that may well be unique to these manuscripts. Previous shelfmark: Devotional Miscellany 1-2-3
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