.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Enchiridion, with the Letters of Lentulus and Pilate and patristic extracts, in Latin and Italian, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Florence, mid-15th century]
Details
St Augustine (354-430)
Enchiridion, with the Letters of Lentulus and Pilate and patristic extracts, in Latin and Italian, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Florence, mid-15th century]
The summation of Augustine's theological perspective: a handsome, illuminated humanist manuscript copy of the Enchiridion, with added texts of contemporary theological concern, produced for a member of the Corbinelli family of Florence.
182 x 128mm. i (detached pastedown) + ii + 56 leaves, collation: 110, 28 (of 10, lacking i and ii), 3-510, 68 (ix-x cancelled blanks), horizontal catchwords survive, 26 lines written in a semi-humanistic hand, rubrics in red, paraphs alternately red or blue, three small illuminated initials in gold on red, blue or green grounds, one large illuminated initial in blue with geometric acanthus designs on a ground of burnished gold, bas-de-page with coat of arms between two wreathed roundels with reclining deer (lacking two leaves after f.12, some marginal thumbing, a few contemporary repairs, a few wormholes, in good condition). Contemporary binding, sewn on three thongs, with the leather fallen away to reveal original wooden boards and binding structures, metal catches, remnants of red leather clasps (edges chipped, some wormholing, manuscript binding fragments visible at spine and inside boards).
Provenance:
(1) The coat of arms on f.3 is azur a stag rampant argent with deer crest, helm and mantling. This matches those of the Corbinelli of Florence, an ancient aristocratic family of merchants and bankers. In the 15th century, Angelo di Tommaso di Bartolomeo Corbinelli was an active participant in Florentine humanist literary circles, including the immediate circle of Coluccio Salutati, and along with his brother Antonio (c.1376-1425), he brought Guarino Veronese to Florence. Antonio had an especially rich library of some 277 Latin and Greek codices: it is plausible that this volume was once part of those collections.
The tooling on what remains of the leather binding is Italian, and the red leather clasps and metal catches are common to bindings produced in Austria and Bavaria: it is likely that the manuscript was bound in northern Italy, on the Austrian border.
(2) Anselmus de Toris: his 16th-century inscription on front detached pastedown: 'iste liber de anselmus de toris vel iste liber rogatus ab antonio de galasi in bersa'. Erased pen-trials appear on f.2v: the first of these with the opening lines of the book 'Dici non potest fili laurenti', while the final one is evidently the title of the work, beginning 'En[chiri]dion'.
(3) ?German dealer's pencil inscription '294' on verso of front pastedown.
Content: List of chapters ff.1-2; St Augustine, Enchiridion, beginning: 'Dici non potest fili laurenti quantum tua eruditione delecter [...]'', ff.3-53; preface to the apocryphal Letter of Lentulus, in Italian verse, beginning: 'Ben che molto alta impresa [...]' and ending '[...] chi piu ce ha colpa' f.53; the apocryphal letter of Lentulus, in Italian verse, beginning: 'Dico il tenore il thema e la sentenza [...] Apparve ai nostri tempi et amor vive', and ending 'Di chio el fei a complacenza duno amico', ff.53v-55; the apocryphal Letter of Lentulus, in Latin, beginning: 'Apparuit temporibus nostris et adhuc est homo magne virtutis [...]', ff.55-55v; excerpt from Augustine, Mediationes, opening 'Quod apostulus ait omnibus [...]' and ending '[...] et vitanda monstravit', f.55v; excerpt from Judges, opening 'Et in libro iudicum ligna sibi regem requirunt: et loquuntur ad oleam [...]' and ending '[...] usurpata translatio. Possit ista narratione mendacium nuncupari' f.56; the apocryphal Letter of Pontius Pilate to Tiberius concerning Christ, beginning: 'Pontius Pilatus Tiberio Cesari Imperatori Sal. D. De Iesu Christo [...]' (F. Stegmüller, Repertorium, no 187), f.56v.
Augustine's Enchiridion de Fide, Spe et Caritate (on Faith, Hope and Love) is the summation of his matured theological perspective: a compact treatise on Christian piety supposedly written in response to a request by a certain Laurentius shortly after the death of St Jerome in 420. Organised according to the three fundamental Christian graces of Faith, Hope and Love, it is intended as a model for Christian catechesis. The text has been edited by Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 40, cols. 180-96, as well as by Ernest Evans, Corpus Christianorum, vol. 46 (1969), and it was translated by the same author in 1953. It was popular in the Middle Ages and survives in a large number of copies, with Die Handschriften Überlieferung der Werke des heiligen Augustinus series (1968-2009) listing some 404 manuscripts in European institutional ownership, with 104 of those in Italy. The last complete or substantially complete copy to appear at auction was offered at Sotheby's, 19 June 2001, lot 11.
The Letter of Lentulus is an apocryphal epistle that that was first widely published in Italy in the 15th century. Apparently written by a Roman officer and addressed to the Roman Senate, it provides a physical description of Jesus and may have influenced how Jesus was later physically depicted in art. It was popular in humanist circles and appears in a number of Florentine manuscripts and printed books from around 1460 along with works of humanists such as Petrarch and Boccaccio. Our manuscript contains both the Latin version and an Italian translation in verse (on the Letter of Lentulus, see E. von Dobschütz, Christusbilder: Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende, 1899, pp.308-30, and C.E. Lutz, 'The Letter of Lentulus Describing Christ', The Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 50, no 2, 1975, pp.91-97).
Enchiridion, with the Letters of Lentulus and Pilate and patristic extracts, in Latin and Italian, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Florence, mid-15th century]
The summation of Augustine's theological perspective: a handsome, illuminated humanist manuscript copy of the Enchiridion, with added texts of contemporary theological concern, produced for a member of the Corbinelli family of Florence.
182 x 128mm. i (detached pastedown) + ii + 56 leaves, collation: 110, 28 (of 10, lacking i and ii), 3-510, 68 (ix-x cancelled blanks), horizontal catchwords survive, 26 lines written in a semi-humanistic hand, rubrics in red, paraphs alternately red or blue, three small illuminated initials in gold on red, blue or green grounds, one large illuminated initial in blue with geometric acanthus designs on a ground of burnished gold, bas-de-page with coat of arms between two wreathed roundels with reclining deer (lacking two leaves after f.12, some marginal thumbing, a few contemporary repairs, a few wormholes, in good condition). Contemporary binding, sewn on three thongs, with the leather fallen away to reveal original wooden boards and binding structures, metal catches, remnants of red leather clasps (edges chipped, some wormholing, manuscript binding fragments visible at spine and inside boards).
Provenance:
(1) The coat of arms on f.3 is azur a stag rampant argent with deer crest, helm and mantling. This matches those of the Corbinelli of Florence, an ancient aristocratic family of merchants and bankers. In the 15th century, Angelo di Tommaso di Bartolomeo Corbinelli was an active participant in Florentine humanist literary circles, including the immediate circle of Coluccio Salutati, and along with his brother Antonio (c.1376-1425), he brought Guarino Veronese to Florence. Antonio had an especially rich library of some 277 Latin and Greek codices: it is plausible that this volume was once part of those collections.
The tooling on what remains of the leather binding is Italian, and the red leather clasps and metal catches are common to bindings produced in Austria and Bavaria: it is likely that the manuscript was bound in northern Italy, on the Austrian border.
(2) Anselmus de Toris: his 16th-century inscription on front detached pastedown: 'iste liber de anselmus de toris vel iste liber rogatus ab antonio de galasi in bersa'. Erased pen-trials appear on f.2v: the first of these with the opening lines of the book 'Dici non potest fili laurenti', while the final one is evidently the title of the work, beginning 'En[chiri]dion'.
(3) ?German dealer's pencil inscription '294' on verso of front pastedown.
Content: List of chapters ff.1-2; St Augustine, Enchiridion, beginning: 'Dici non potest fili laurenti quantum tua eruditione delecter [...]'', ff.3-53; preface to the apocryphal Letter of Lentulus, in Italian verse, beginning: 'Ben che molto alta impresa [...]' and ending '[...] chi piu ce ha colpa' f.53; the apocryphal letter of Lentulus, in Italian verse, beginning: 'Dico il tenore il thema e la sentenza [...] Apparve ai nostri tempi et amor vive', and ending 'Di chio el fei a complacenza duno amico', ff.53v-55; the apocryphal Letter of Lentulus, in Latin, beginning: 'Apparuit temporibus nostris et adhuc est homo magne virtutis [...]', ff.55-55v; excerpt from Augustine, Mediationes, opening 'Quod apostulus ait omnibus [...]' and ending '[...] et vitanda monstravit', f.55v; excerpt from Judges, opening 'Et in libro iudicum ligna sibi regem requirunt: et loquuntur ad oleam [...]' and ending '[...] usurpata translatio. Possit ista narratione mendacium nuncupari' f.56; the apocryphal Letter of Pontius Pilate to Tiberius concerning Christ, beginning: 'Pontius Pilatus Tiberio Cesari Imperatori Sal. D. De Iesu Christo [...]' (F. Stegmüller, Repertorium, no 187), f.56v.
Augustine's Enchiridion de Fide, Spe et Caritate (on Faith, Hope and Love) is the summation of his matured theological perspective: a compact treatise on Christian piety supposedly written in response to a request by a certain Laurentius shortly after the death of St Jerome in 420. Organised according to the three fundamental Christian graces of Faith, Hope and Love, it is intended as a model for Christian catechesis. The text has been edited by Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 40, cols. 180-96, as well as by Ernest Evans, Corpus Christianorum, vol. 46 (1969), and it was translated by the same author in 1953. It was popular in the Middle Ages and survives in a large number of copies, with Die Handschriften Überlieferung der Werke des heiligen Augustinus series (1968-2009) listing some 404 manuscripts in European institutional ownership, with 104 of those in Italy. The last complete or substantially complete copy to appear at auction was offered at Sotheby's, 19 June 2001, lot 11.
The Letter of Lentulus is an apocryphal epistle that that was first widely published in Italy in the 15th century. Apparently written by a Roman officer and addressed to the Roman Senate, it provides a physical description of Jesus and may have influenced how Jesus was later physically depicted in art. It was popular in humanist circles and appears in a number of Florentine manuscripts and printed books from around 1460 along with works of humanists such as Petrarch and Boccaccio. Our manuscript contains both the Latin version and an Italian translation in verse (on the Letter of Lentulus, see E. von Dobschütz, Christusbilder: Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende, 1899, pp.308-30, and C.E. Lutz, 'The Letter of Lentulus Describing Christ', The Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 50, no 2, 1975, pp.91-97).
Brought to you by
Sophie Meadows
Senior Specialist