Beschreibung:

BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI (1313-1375). Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, in French , translated by LAURENT DE PREMIERFAIT, illuminated by MAÎTRE FRANÇOIS [Paris, c. 1470]. ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, iii + 244 (of 248) + vi leaves (ff. 246v-248v blank but ruled), in quires of four bifolia, horizontal catchwords on last versos of most quires, 500 x 350mm. (19 5/8 x 13 3/4in.), written in dark brown ink in lettre bâtarde, ruled in red ink, double columns of 51 lines, justification 310 x 200mm. (12 1/4 x 7 7/8in.); 7 HALF-PAGE MINIATURES (of 9) in colors and liquid gold within arched frames (225 x 200mm.) over twenty lines of text, each with a full border of flowers, fruits and leaves on colored hairline stems, interspersed with blue and gold arabesques, inhabited by grotesques and other figures, including a seated man wearing spectacles and reading a book (f. 112r), with a coat of arms in each lower border; 78 SMALL MINIATURES (of 79) in rectangular frames the width of one column (110 x 90mm.) introducing selected chapters, each with a three-quarter border surrounding the miniature and part of its column of text, the borders composed of burnished gold ivy leaves on scrolling black hairline stems interspersed with scrolling foliate arabesques, flowers and fruits and occasional grotesques; 173 (of 178) chapter initials, most three lines in height, in blue with white tracery, infilled with red and blue ivy leaves, on burnished gold grounds, the initials adjacent to miniatures with three-quarter borders as described, the other initials with L-shaped or rectangular border pieces in the same style; one chapter initial (f. 76r) a divided blue and gold Lombard with red and blue pen-flourishing, the paragraph signs on conjugate ff. 76-77 with red or blue pen-flourishing; the capitula preceding each book with burnished gold or blue Lonbard initials and line fillers in burnished gold and blue, chapter headings in red, headlines in alternating red and blue Lombards, paragraph marks in blue or burnished gold, capitals touched in yellow; neat scribal corrections in a contemporary hand in margins, between lines or over erasures in the text. Lacks 4 leaves (conjugate ff. 83 and 86, 162 and 167) with loss of 2 large miniatures, 1 small miniature, and some text; noticeable flaking of pigment from a number of miniatures, especially on ff. 3r, 55v, 130v, 139r, 142v, 175v, 180v, 188r, 197r, 209r; approximately two dozen leaves with vertical creases, resulting in some rubbing of text and miniatures; the small miniature on f. 84r with pigment offset from the large miniature formerly opposite; some smudging of borders and initials, occasional faint offset from borders; dark brown stains in the margins and/or text area of a number of leaves, especially ff. 1-30, 8-17, 98-99, 104-108, 193-195, 233-248; droplets of wax in the margins and/or text area of many leaves, e.g., ff. 79v-80r, 240v-241r; margins thumbed throughout; holes or slits in the lower margins of ff. 1-16 and several other leaves; c. 10 leaves with contemporary or early repairs to margins, especially at the lower corners; a few leaves frayed at the lower edges or lacking lower corners. Bound in seventeenth-century black morocco over older wooden boards (possibly original, since there are depressions in the upper board where straps for the clasps were attached), reusing 10 brass bosses from an earlier binding, resewn and rebacked , with the seventeenth-century gilt spine laid down. Miniatures [Brackets indicate those now missing from the manuscript] LARGE MINIATURES: Book I. The creation, the fall, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden (f. 3r). Book II. Saul annointed by Samuel, the battle of Mount Gilboa, and the death of Saul (f. 28v). Book III. The contest between Poverty and Fortune; in the background, within a walled and moated city, a room in which Andalone di Negro, from whom Boccaccio first heard this story, lectures to six men (f. 55v). Book IV. [Boccacci