Beschreibung:

blessing vats of wine and the host, historiated initials on a leaf from an illuminated pontifical, in Latin, on parchment [north west France (probably Metz), fourteenth century] Single leaf, with two historiated initials: that on obverse in blue heightened with white penwork, enclosing bishop in mitre and orange robes standing with an attendant and blessing an altar, that on reverse with same bishop holding crosier and blessing large vats and bowls of foodstuffs, both on highly burnished gold grounds, initials with long scrolling coloured foliage with gold bezants mounted in their stems, one with an orange animal’s head which stares at the initial, and both terminating in coloured leaves separated by bezants and with long trailing penlines from their tips, one- and 2-line initials in red or blue with elaborate scrolling penwork in contrasting colours, paragraph marks in blue, rubrics in red, 22 lines in a professional and slightly squat bookhand, contemporary fol. no. ‘CCXXXI’ in upper corner of verso, edges of leaves slightly cockled (with some small affect to edges of text in places), else outstanding condition, 325mm. by 230mm. This is a fine example of fourteenth-century French illumination, and is clearly from a quite outstanding book, most probably produced for a wealthy bishop. While all its elements are found throughout the art of north western France, the form of the terminals of the border decoration, with sprays of three flowers separated by bezants and with long trailing lines from their tips, as well as the squat and rounded script, are characteristic of the work of Metz (see lot 95 here, and the description of a leaf from that book in BEL, Illuminations, cat.1, no. 22).