![CALLIGRAPHY - Album of 26 calligraphic exercises, in Italian, Latin, French and Spanish. [France or Southern Low Countries, early-17th century].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/NYR/2013_NYR_02800_0431_000(calligraphy_-_album_of_26_calligraphic_exercises_in_italian_latin_fren064847).jpg?w=1)
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CALLIGRAPHY - Album of 26 calligraphic exercises, in Italian, Latin, French and Spanish. [France or Southern Low Countries, early-17th century].
Oblong 2o (171 x 281mm). DECORATED CALLIGRAPHIC MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER. 26 leaves of Dutch paper (cf. Heawood 1215), interleaved with another stock of blank Dutch paper (Heawood 3135). Black and brown ink, roman upright and cursive (one left-leaning, another broken, a third shaken) scripts, some ascenders and descenders ending in elaborate scrolls, others HEIGHTENED WITH GOLD, gilt ornament flanking several exercises, interlinear gilt decoration in one exercise, many within gilt and ink line-border frames (several oval), some unframed, FIVE EXERCISES WRITTEN INTO MICROGRAPHIC SHAPES (spectacles, coil, labyrinth, toroid, scroll), one exercise shows multiple calligraphic alphabets with gilt heightening. (Stain on blank extreme outer margins.) Contemporary fawn polished calf gilt, double-fillet border on sides with a tiny rosette at the angles, shaped block of arabesque ornament in the center, angelic-head tool in the corners, small quatre-foil in compartments of spine, gilt edges, French endpapers, (extreme corners of the covers and spine-ends repaired, joints cracked). Provenance: Mildred Bliss, Dumbarton Oaks (bookplate, withdrawal stamp); acquired from Bernard Quaritch, 1981.
VERY FINE CALLIGRAPHIC MANUSCRIPT, without identifiable early provenance, but perhaps produced in Paris or Antwerp. The shaped micrographic exercises are particularly striking.
Oblong 2o (171 x 281mm). DECORATED CALLIGRAPHIC MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER. 26 leaves of Dutch paper (cf. Heawood 1215), interleaved with another stock of blank Dutch paper (Heawood 3135). Black and brown ink, roman upright and cursive (one left-leaning, another broken, a third shaken) scripts, some ascenders and descenders ending in elaborate scrolls, others HEIGHTENED WITH GOLD, gilt ornament flanking several exercises, interlinear gilt decoration in one exercise, many within gilt and ink line-border frames (several oval), some unframed, FIVE EXERCISES WRITTEN INTO MICROGRAPHIC SHAPES (spectacles, coil, labyrinth, toroid, scroll), one exercise shows multiple calligraphic alphabets with gilt heightening. (Stain on blank extreme outer margins.) Contemporary fawn polished calf gilt, double-fillet border on sides with a tiny rosette at the angles, shaped block of arabesque ornament in the center, angelic-head tool in the corners, small quatre-foil in compartments of spine, gilt edges, French endpapers, (extreme corners of the covers and spine-ends repaired, joints cracked). Provenance: Mildred Bliss, Dumbarton Oaks (bookplate, withdrawal stamp); acquired from Bernard Quaritch, 1981.
VERY FINE CALLIGRAPHIC MANUSCRIPT, without identifiable early provenance, but perhaps produced in Paris or Antwerp. The shaped micrographic exercises are particularly striking.