Gregory the Great, Homilies on Ezekiel, 1466

Illuminated manuscript on vellum, Gregory the Great, Homilies on Ezekiel, in Latin, North-Eastern Germany, Huysburg Abbey, near Halberstadt, 1466. This is one of the key texts of Western monasticism. Manuscript is in a later (19th century) leather binding by W. Pratt, tooled with floral panels and chevrons. The manuscript includes a range of codicological features such as glossing, parchment repair, a scribal colophon, decorated initials, an organized rubrication system, and clear pricking.

1 bound manuscript dated 1466. Collation: i-xii⁸, xiii¹⁰, 106 leaves (plus two modern vellum flyleaves at each end), 370mm by 260mm, complete, occasional catchwords, 43 lines, written space 285mm by 190mm, written in a gothic bookhand, capitals stroked in red, rubrics and paragraph marks in red, small initials in plain red, one small initial in gold on a light pink ground in a blue illusionistic profile frame (fol.1r), 20 large puzzle initials in red and blue with red pen-flourishing (fols. 4r, 8r, 11r, 13v, 16r, 20r, 24v, 30r, 35v, 42r, 46v, 56v, 59v, 64v, 68v, 73r, 78r, 83r, 87v, 93r), one similar but smaller initial at beginning of index (fol.98v), two large historiated initials on burnished gold grounds in illusionistic profile frames enclosing St. Gregory writing (fol.1r) and an angel holding a measuring rod (Ezekiel 40:3; fol.51v), a few annotations in the margins and some original faults in the vellum with original repairs often encircled in red, silver and lead white of illuminated initials oxidised, else in outstanding condition, nineteenth-century brown leather binding by W. Pratt (stamped in upper corner on recto of first flyleaf; and presumably William Pitt Pratt, who worked in London from 1823 to 1838), tooled with floral panels and chevrons.

Source: Sotheby's auction catalogue, Medieval and Illuminated Manuscripts, Lot 47, London, July 8, 2014