Early Printing & Manuscripts / Manuscripts & Documents

[AUTOGRAPH]. MELANCHTHON, Philipp. [Autograph letter, signed, from Philipp Melanchthon to Sebastian Boetius].
[Wittenberg], Easter [14 April 1555]. Folio (19.5 x 32 cm). In Latin. [2] pp. Full description

[BECKET, Thomas à (subject)]. [Diego Afonso de MIRANDA, translator]. Historea da vida e martyrio do glorioso Sancto Thomas Arcebispo, Senhor de Cantuaria, Primas de Inglaterra, legado perpetuo da sancta see apostolica, trelada da novamente de Latim em lingoagé Portugues.
(Colophon: Coimbra, João Alvarez, printer to the University, 12 November) 1554. 4to. With several woodcut decorated initials. With the 4 preliminary leaves in facsimile. 20th-century Portuguese tree calf, gold-tooled spine, red spine label, brown sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], “CCCI” [= 303], [1 blank], [20] pp. Full description

[BOOK OF HOURS]. [Book of Hours - use of Rouen].
Rouen, Normandy, France, ca. 1480. Small 4to (14.3 x 19.3 cm). Latin and French illuminated manuscript on vellum. Ruled in red ink for 14 lines per page (16 in the calendar). Gothic textura, major feasts in calendar in burnished gold, others alternately red or blue. Text pages illuminated with panel borders of flowers and plants on gold, and blue and gold stylised acanthus on a plain ground. Calendar has 24 small square miniatures set into panel borders; major text divisions marked by 12 large miniatures; 2 historiated initials; hundreds of smaller initials and line-fillers throughout. 18th-century French gold-tooled red calf over pasteboards, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [160] ll. Full description

HAFEZ (HAFIZ) [Khwaaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi]. [The Divân of Hafez].
[Persia], 983 AH [= 1575-76 CE]. 21.3 x 16 cm. Illuminated manuscript on paper, written in a fine nasta'liq script in black ink in 2 columns of 15 lines per page. The two columns of text are written in a panel measuring 14 x ca. 7.4 cm, most of the text is written in a simple frame built up from lines in black, turquoise, gold, and blue. The text begins with a beautiful blue and gold headpiece with small white, red, gold, and light blue flowers. Leaves 1v and 2r are beautifully highlighted in gold and decorated with intricate flower designs, vertically in between the text columns one finds small flowers in gold, white, red, brown, and light blue on a background of gold, horizontally between the text one finds gold highlights and banners of samll white, red, brown, and light blue flowers on a kobalt blue (and 1 one instance black) background, the two columns together are surrounded by frame with incredibly intricate gold and blue flowers and blue dots on a clear background, the larger margins on these leaves are beautifully decorated with an intricate flower-and-vine design in gold, outlined in black and the centers of the flowers are either red or blue. The text on leaves 2v and 3r is surrounded by the same frame of incredibly intricate gold and blue flowers and blue dots, with some additional colourful lines surrounding this frame. Leaf 8 is sprinkled with gold paint, the margins of leaf 18 are decorated with gold dots. All text (and decorations) is surrounded by a thin black double-line frame spanning 2 facing pages (ca. 21.8 x 30 cm). Later half black leather and multicolour painted and lacquered paper over paper boards. The painted sides show (from the outside in) a 0.4 cm blue frame around a 1.2 cm border of orange and green flowers with red details on a yellow background, this is followed by another 0.4 blue frame which surrounds the main decoration: large flowers in red, yellow, green, and blue on a vibrant orange background. [92] ll. Full description

[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - BOOK OF HOURS (DIOCESE OF UTRECHT)]. [Incipit, A2r:] Alst my gaet niet nae mij[n] syn / Soe wil ic my liden en[de] swyghe stil ...
[Diocese of Utrecht, the County of Holland], 1488. Large 8vo (19 x 13.5 x 4 cm). Written in Dutch on vellum by 2 gothic textura hands in 1 column (20 lines/page for the first hand for the main text and calendar; 22 lines/page for the additions written by the second hand). All leaves are numbered in pencil in the upper margin of the rectos by a 19th- or 20th-century hand. Richly iluminated by the Master of the Brussels Hours of the Bezborodko Group, being one of the stylistic groups of the Masters of the Dark Eyes, with 6 full-page miniatures, 2 historiated initials and 4 larger decorated initials, several smaller decorated initials, and many 1-line lombardic initials in blue and red. Also with a 6-line blue penwork initial on a red penwork ground, being a contemporary addition. Also with three- and four-marginal border decoration (an uncoloured background filled in with small dots or short tendrils in black, show acanthus leaves in different colours, various flowers and several brightly coloured birds and fabulous beings, with gold and black/white dots among them). Contemporary blind-tooled calf over rounded ("cushioned") wooden boards. With the original brass catch- and anchor-plates, the latter with remnants of the leather fastenings, and the later silk red ribbon markers loosely preserved. 144 ll. including 6 inserted leaves with miniatures and 2 blank endpapers used as paste-downs. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - MEDIEVAL TIMEKEEPING]. Calculus temporum ecclesiasticus.
[Possibly England, ca. 1360]. Small 4to (15.5 x 22.5 cm). Latin manuscript on paper. Brown ink in an early bastarda hand, the final three leaves in a slightly later (still quite contemporary) hand. 19th-century paper wrappers, with the manuscript title on the front wrapper. 30 ll. Full description

MAURITS, Prince of Orange. [Declaration for Jan de Roo].
[The Hague], 4 December 1589. 1mo (41 x 31.5). Document written in brown ink on one side of a whole sheet of paper in an upright gothic cursive hand, with the autograph signature "Maurice de Nassau" and with his armorial seal (3 x 2.5 cm) stamped on a slip of paper over red sealing wax. With (separately added) Maurits's signature clipped out of another document and mounted on a paper slip. [1] leaf, written on one side. Full description

[MINIATURE - GERMAN]. [The Arrest of Christ].
[Flanders (Bruges?), or Nürnberg, ca. 1520]. Miniature painted on vellum (7.8 x 5.6 cm) in numerous colours, highlighted with gold and in a gold border, probably from a book of hours, but with no text. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP (FELIPE) II, King of Spain. [Mortgage agreement, granting Jan Hanneman, Steward General of North Holland, the rights to the tithes of the King's lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten].
The Hague and Brussels, 1557 (with additions to 1565). Folio (36 x 25.5 cm). Manuscript mortgage agreement, signed by King Philip's representatives, written in brown ink on parchment in a nearly upright cursive gothic hand. With a typescript transcription of the main text and an interlinear translation in Spanish. [2 blank], 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description