Beschreibung:

St. Ambrose, Hexameron (an encyclopaedic treatise on the history of the whole of creation) in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum 233 leaves, 140mm. by 100mm., complete, collation: i-xxviii8, xxix9 (last leaf superfluous and cancelled), vertical catchwords and remains of original alpha-numeric foliation in lower right-hand corner throughout, written space 83mm. by 55mm., single column, 22 lines in brown ink in the fine humanistic hand of Antonio Crivelli whose coded signature in reverse appears on fol. 233r with the date 1446, seven decorated initials (fols. 32v, 49v, 64r, 83r, 97v, 124v, 180v, minor rubbing to a few initials), 5-7 lines in height in burnished gold with white-vine infill on green, red and blue grounds heightened with white penwork tracery, one 8-line historiated initial (fol. 1r) in burnished gold enclosing a half-length portrait of St. Ambrose wearing the robes and mitre of a bishop and holding a crozier and a book, all on blue ground heightened with red and white penwork (some minor rubbing to outermost right-hand side of initial), extensions of ivy-leaf foliage in green, red and gold into margins (some perhaps added later) enclosing a coat-of-arms (now damaged) in the bas-de-page, some later additions of colour to small initials on 49v, 61v, 63v & 77v, and devotional pictures of a spear draped in a blue banner and a burning heart within a wreath on 82v & 114v, else in excellent condition on high quality vellum with wide and clean margins, contemporary blind-stamped goatskin over wooden boards, panelled, stamped with repeated stamps of a tool of a lamb and flag and designs of ropework tools, two clasps and three metal catches, rebacked, some repairs