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![AUGUSTINE, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, De Civitate Dei, manuscript on vellum illuminated by Francesco di Antonio del Chierico [Florence, c.1460]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16018_0057_002(augustine_saint_bishop_of_hippo_de_civitate_dei_manuscript_on_vellum_i052958).jpg?w=1)
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Details
AUGUSTINE, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, De Civitate Dei, manuscript on vellum illuminated by Francesco di Antonio del Chierico [Florence, c.1460]
An extremely rare, complete, manuscript copy of De Civitate Dei, the most important work written by St Augustine (354-430), one of the four Fathers of the Latin Church.
220 x 158 mm. i (paper) + 347 leaves, complete, blanks cancelled at each end. Modern pencil foliation 1-343 followed here (omitting ff.34bis, 114bis, 145bis, and 238bis). 42 lines of text in 2 columns, ruled space: 159 x 95 mm, catchwords survive. Decorated initials throughout, 22 large illuminated initials, one large historiated initial with two-sided border enclosing the head and shoulders of St Augustine (lower margin of f.17, perhaps formerly holding a coat-of-arms, cut away and replaced by blank vellum, some early reader’s marks in a humanistic hand, slight damp-stains in upper margins at end, some pages a bit rubbed). 18th-century Italian brown-red morocco, triple fillets tooled in blind to a double frame, flower motives in the four corners and the centre (cover slightly rubbed, flyleaves renewed). Fitted box.
Provenance: Written and illuminated in Florence by Francesco di Antonio del Chierico; this must have been an expensive commission, but the arms of the original owner are now lost – Lucca, Biblioteca Minutoli Tegrimi. Its stamp on f.1 ‘Di casa Minutoli Tegrimi’ erased but deciphered and identified by comparison with J. Alexander & A. de la Mare, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, 1969, pl. XXII and p. 53; a list of other Minutoli-Tegrimi manuscripts in England on p. 55, no 2. The collection of Conte Eugenio Minutoli-Tegrimi of Lucca was sold in 1871 – London, School of Jewish Studies, sale at Sotheby's, June 20, 1995, lot 71.
Content: List of chapter headings ff.1-15. De Civitate Dei, ff.17-342v: Book I (f.17) Book II (f.30v), III (f.41), IV (f.54), V (f.66), VI (f.80), VII (f.88v), VIII (f.101v), IX (f.114v), X (f.122), XI (f.138v), XII (f.150v), XIII (f.162v), XIV (f.173), XV (f.187v), XVI (f.204v), XVII (f.224v), XVIII (f.239), XIX (f.263v), XX (f.279v), XXI (f.301v), XXII (f.319v).
St Augustine's De Civitate Dei, a great apologetic treatise in vindication of Christianity and the Christian Church, was a staple presence in every important humanist library: Matthias Corvinus owned a copy (Budapest, Széchényi National Library, Cod. Lat. 121) as did Cardinal Bessarion (Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana), Domenico Malatesta (Cesena, Biblioteca Malatestiana, D.IX.1), Ludovico Trevisan (Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 436) and Guarnerio d’Artegna (San Daniele del Friuli, Civica Biblioteca Guarneriana, MS.8), among others. The ‘City of God’ is the ‘supreme exposition of a Christian philosophy of history’ (Oxf. Dict. Christian Church, ii, p.109). ‘It contains all Augustine’s accumulated wisdom, and there are few who could not learn something from the immense variety of his knowledge. To theologians, of course, it is indispensable, and all who are interested in Roman history and religion will find in it a mass of curious details. Students of science may turn to St. Augustine’s notes on the salamander, on peacock’s flesh, on charcoal, lime and salt, and on the diamond and loadstone […]’ (Wright and Sinclair, A History of Later Latin Literature, 1931, p.61).
Illumination: The illumination is the work of Francesco di Antonio del Chierico, the preferred illuminator of the greatest institutional and private patrons of Florence from the 1450s until his death in 1484. Through Vespasiano da Bisticci, Francesco di Antonio came to work for princely patrons throughout Europe, including Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, Ferdinand I, King of Naples, Louis XI of France and Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary. The most discerning commissioners of Florentine books turned to him; but it was with the de' Medici that he had an especially close relationship. From the time of Cosimo il Vecchio to Lorenzo il Magnifico he illustrated manuscripts for them, ranging from giant choirbooks to intimate and compact Books of Hours.
An extremely rare, complete, manuscript copy of De Civitate Dei, the most important work written by St Augustine (354-430), one of the four Fathers of the Latin Church.
220 x 158 mm. i (paper) + 347 leaves, complete, blanks cancelled at each end. Modern pencil foliation 1-343 followed here (omitting ff.34bis, 114bis, 145bis, and 238bis). 42 lines of text in 2 columns, ruled space: 159 x 95 mm, catchwords survive. Decorated initials throughout, 22 large illuminated initials, one large historiated initial with two-sided border enclosing the head and shoulders of St Augustine (lower margin of f.17, perhaps formerly holding a coat-of-arms, cut away and replaced by blank vellum, some early reader’s marks in a humanistic hand, slight damp-stains in upper margins at end, some pages a bit rubbed). 18th-century Italian brown-red morocco, triple fillets tooled in blind to a double frame, flower motives in the four corners and the centre (cover slightly rubbed, flyleaves renewed). Fitted box.
Provenance: Written and illuminated in Florence by Francesco di Antonio del Chierico; this must have been an expensive commission, but the arms of the original owner are now lost – Lucca, Biblioteca Minutoli Tegrimi. Its stamp on f.1 ‘Di casa Minutoli Tegrimi’ erased but deciphered and identified by comparison with J. Alexander & A. de la Mare, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, 1969, pl. XXII and p. 53; a list of other Minutoli-Tegrimi manuscripts in England on p. 55, no 2. The collection of Conte Eugenio Minutoli-Tegrimi of Lucca was sold in 1871 – London, School of Jewish Studies, sale at Sotheby's, June 20, 1995, lot 71.
Content: List of chapter headings ff.1-15. De Civitate Dei, ff.17-342v: Book I (f.17) Book II (f.30v), III (f.41), IV (f.54), V (f.66), VI (f.80), VII (f.88v), VIII (f.101v), IX (f.114v), X (f.122), XI (f.138v), XII (f.150v), XIII (f.162v), XIV (f.173), XV (f.187v), XVI (f.204v), XVII (f.224v), XVIII (f.239), XIX (f.263v), XX (f.279v), XXI (f.301v), XXII (f.319v).
St Augustine's De Civitate Dei, a great apologetic treatise in vindication of Christianity and the Christian Church, was a staple presence in every important humanist library: Matthias Corvinus owned a copy (Budapest, Széchényi National Library, Cod. Lat. 121) as did Cardinal Bessarion (Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana), Domenico Malatesta (Cesena, Biblioteca Malatestiana, D.IX.1), Ludovico Trevisan (Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 436) and Guarnerio d’Artegna (San Daniele del Friuli, Civica Biblioteca Guarneriana, MS.8), among others. The ‘City of God’ is the ‘supreme exposition of a Christian philosophy of history’ (Oxf. Dict. Christian Church, ii, p.109). ‘It contains all Augustine’s accumulated wisdom, and there are few who could not learn something from the immense variety of his knowledge. To theologians, of course, it is indispensable, and all who are interested in Roman history and religion will find in it a mass of curious details. Students of science may turn to St. Augustine’s notes on the salamander, on peacock’s flesh, on charcoal, lime and salt, and on the diamond and loadstone […]’ (Wright and Sinclair, A History of Later Latin Literature, 1931, p.61).
Illumination: The illumination is the work of Francesco di Antonio del Chierico, the preferred illuminator of the greatest institutional and private patrons of Florence from the 1450s until his death in 1484. Through Vespasiano da Bisticci, Francesco di Antonio came to work for princely patrons throughout Europe, including Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, Ferdinand I, King of Naples, Louis XI of France and Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary. The most discerning commissioners of Florentine books turned to him; but it was with the de' Medici that he had an especially close relationship. From the time of Cosimo il Vecchio to Lorenzo il Magnifico he illustrated manuscripts for them, ranging from giant choirbooks to intimate and compact Books of Hours.
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