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Books and Manuscripts

Thursday 25 June 2026, 03:00 PM • Rome

44 Manoscritti

Latin Psalter, 1488

Estimate

€ 10.000 - 12.000

Sold

€ 13.970

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Information

Latin Weekday Psalter, preceded by the calendar and followed by chants, litanies, hymns and the Office of the Dead . Made in VENICE or PADUA, circa 1488. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, 153 leaves, 140 x 100 mm., Gothic book script in red and black on two columns of 25 lines, with red and blue initials. Adorned with 42 illuminated initials in burnished gold and colors . On f. 8 recto, rich illuminated border in the Ferrarese Renaissance style, including a large historiated initial B (David playing the lyre); other small figures in medallions and the noble coat of arms, now illegible, of the patron (probably Beatrice, Countess of Saxony). Measurements mm. 140 x 100, 16th century binding in full brown leather with dry-stamping, floral iron frame and central medallion with the figure of a saint, traces of clasps.
Colophon: "Explicit liber scriptus manu dopni francisci de Urbana Monachus camaldulensis ordinis . Anno M.cccc.lxxxviii die xxix Mensis Nonembris".

Specialist Notes

Interesting small manuscript, signed and dated in two separate colophons, on f. 150 verso and 151, by the scribe “dominus Franciscus de Urbana”, a Camaldolese monk, on 28 November 1488. In the second colophon the scribe declares that the manuscript was commissioned by Beatrice of the Counts of Saxony, a descendant of Philip the Magnificent, a nun in the Abbey of St. Agatha Virgin and Martyr . (Unfortunately, the lower half of the introductory illuminated page is rather worn; some of the 42 initials are also slightly worn.) Interesting 15th-century Italian manuscript, signed and dated. The lot is notified by the Veneto Region.