Beschreibung:

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni (1313-1375). De claris mulieribus . ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER. [France, probably Besançon, ca. 1464-1470] Chancery 4 o (216 x 145 mm). 169 leaves: 1-13 1 2 14 1 3(of 14, xiv blank cancelled), COMPLETE. Two sets of signatures in the lower margins of recto pages in the first half of each quire: capital letters and arabic numerals in the ink of the text, lower-case letters and roman numerals in the rubricator's red ink; vertical catchwords in the inner margin on the last verso of each quire set off by underlining and flourishes in red, contemporary foliation in arabic numerals in the ink of the text. 27 lines written in humanistic script in brownish-gray ink on 27 horizontal lines and between two vertical lines ruled in plummet, justification: 140 x 74 mm, prickings visible in the outer margins of each leaf. 106 two- or three-line Lombard initials alternately blue flourished red or red flourished gray-blue, each followed by one line of display capitals in the ink of the text slashed and underlined in red, red capital strokes. Chapter titles in the margin in the ink of the text, underlined in red with red or blue paragraph signs, the same titles inserted in spaces in the text by another hand writing with a different shade of red ink. One 7-line illuminated historiated initial in blue with white tracery on a shaped burnished gold ground, depicting the author presenting his work to the dedicatee, Andrea Acciaiuoli, accompanied by a border of burnished gold ivy leaves on black hairline stems, incorporating blue and gold acanthus, sprays of mauve blossoms, colored flowers and fruits, and an archbishop's coat-of-arms. Written on paper with a watermark resembling Briquet 14184, a type used principally in the Netherlands and eastern France, including the Franche-Comté. (Faint dampstain to upper and lower blank margins, occasional light foxing, slight abrasion to faces in miniature, mostly marginal smudges to f. 133r.) Modern blind-tooled calf by Deborah Evetts, preserving many deckle edges and two flyleaves from the previous binding; cloth drop-back box also enclosing the previous binding of 19th-century quarter roan. Provenance : copied, probably in Besançon by a French scribe, for Charles de Neufchatel (1439-1498), archbishop of Besançon (elected 1463, installed 1464, exiled 1480): coat-of-arms, f. 3v -- scattered early marginalia -- [Royez, Parisian bookseller, sold between 1823 and 1826 to]- Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), ms. 2862: his inkstamp on old flyleaf and ms. number inscribed on pastedown of old binding; sale, Sotheby's 5 June 1899, lot 219 (to Leighton) -- [Sotheby's 19 June 1921, lot 421, to Malton] -- [Angus and Robinson, Sydney, Australia, sold to] -- C. A. Pearl, Paddington, Australia: K.V. Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia , Sydney 1969, pp. 427-429 -- [Alan G. Thomas] -- [Christie's London, 21 June 1978, lot 253] Contents : table of contents, with folio numbers added in the margin by the second rubricator, ff. 1r-3r; text, ff. 3v-169v. This manuscript, though written in a humanistic bookhand, was probably copied in Besançon in the mid-15th century or early 1460s. The paper stock on which it is written is found in use in the Low Countries and Eastern France, and the illumination is French. The scribe was probably French as the display lettering is not Italian in character. The codex was made for Charles de Neufville, archbishop of Besançon, who was elected in 1463 and installed in 1464, and who lived in Besançon until he was exiled in 1480. Charles took considerable interest in the liturgy of Besançon and in the provision of liturgical books for the diocese. A two-volume missal illuminated for him is now in the Auckland Public Library (Med. MSS. G.138-139; cf. M. M. Manion, et al., Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections , Melbourne 1989, no. 18), and two Pontificals made for him are still in Besançon