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Featured Posts

rivate Collection, Koran Leaf in Ege's Famous Books in Nine Centuries, Front of Leaf. Reproduced by permission.
Otto Ege’s Portfolio of ‘Famous Books’ and ‘Ege Manuscript 53’ (Quran)
Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours made for a female patron in the mid 15th century. Opening page of the Hours of the Virgin: "Here du salste opdoen mine lippen". Image via Creative Commons. At the bottom of the bordered page, an elegantly dressed woman sits before a shiny bowl- or mirror-like object, in order, perhaps, to perform skrying or to lure a unicorn.
2021 Congress Program Announced
J. S. Wagner Collection, Early-Printed Missal Leaf, Verso. Rubric and Music for Holy Saturday. Reproduced by Permission.
Carmelite Missal Leaf of 1509
Set 1 of Otto Ege's FOL Portfolio, Leaf 19 recto: Deuteronomy title and initial.
Updates for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’
Private Collection, Castle Cartulary Fragment, Inserted Folded Sheet, Opened: Top Righ
Fragments of a Castle ‘Capbreu’ from Catalonia
Grapes Watermark in a Selbold Cartulary Fragment.
Selbold Cartulary Fragments
Smeltzer Collection, Subermeyer (1598), Vellum Supports Strip 2 Signature Surname.
Vellum Binding Fragments in a Parisian Printed Book of 1598
Set 1 of Ege's FOL Portfolio, Leaf 14 recto: Lamentations Initial.
Some Leaves in Set 1 of Ege’s FOL Portfolio
Church of Saint Mary, High Ongar, Essex, with 12th-Century Nave. Photograph by John Salmon (8 May 2004), Image via Wikipedia.
A Charter of 1399 from High Ongar in Essex
View to the Dorm at the End of the Congress.
2019 Congress Behind the Scenes Report
Opening of the Book of Maccabees in Otto Ege MS 19. Private Collection.
A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices
Private Collection, "Margaritas" fragment back side, lines 2-5.
The Pearly Gateway: A Scrap from a Latin Missal or Breviary
Preston Charter 7 Seal Face with the name Gilbertus.
Preston Take 2
The Outward-Facing Cat and a Hand of Cards. Detail from Adèle Kindt (1804–1884), The Fortune Teller (circa 1835). Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Keeping Up: Updates for Spring 2020
New York, Grolier Club, \*434.14\Aug\1470\Folio. Flavius Josephus, De antiquitate Judiaca and De bello Judaico, translated by Rufinus Aquileinensis, printed in Augsburg on paper by Johannn Schüsseler in 2 Parts, dated respectively 28 June 1470 and 23 August 1470, and bound together with a manuscript copy dated 1462 of Eusebius Caesariensis, Historia ecclesiastica.
2020 Spring Symposium Cancelled or Postponed
2020 Spring Symposium: Save the Date
At the Exhibition of "Gutenberg and After" at Princeton University in 2019, the Co-Curator Eric White stands before the Scheide Gutenberg Bible displayed at the opening of the Book of I Kings.
“Gutenberg and After” at Princeton University Library
Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours made for a female patron in the mid 15th century. Opening page of the Hours of the Virgin: "Here du salste opdoen mine lippen". Image via Creative Commons. At the bottom of the bordered page, an elegantly dressed woman sits before a shiny bowl- or mirror-like object, in order, perhaps, to perform skrying or to lure a unicorn.
2020 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program Announced
J. S. Wagner Collection. Leaf from from Prime in a Latin manuscript Breviary. Folio 4 Recto, Initial C for "Confitimini" of Psalm 117 (118), with scrolling foliate decoration.
A Leaf from Prime in a Large-Format Latin Breviary
J. S. Wagner Collection. Detached Manuscript Leaf with the Opening in Latin of the Penitent Psalm 4 or Psalm 37 (38) and its Illustration of King David.
The Penitent King David from a Book of Hours
Bust of the God Janus. Vatican City, Vatican Museums. Photo by Fubar Obfusco via Wikimedia Commons.
2019 M-MLA Panel Program
Coffee Break at our 2002 British Museum Colloquium. Our Director, Dáibhí Ó Cróinin, and Giles Constable. Photograph by our Associate, Geoffrey R. Russom.
Revisiting Anglo-Saxon Symposia 2002/2018
The red wax seal seen upright, with the male human head facing left. Document on paper issued at Grenoble and dated 13 February 1345 (Old Style). Image reproduced by permission
2020 ICMS Call for Papers: Seal the Real
Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 1183. Photograph courtesy Kristen Herdman.
2019 Anniversary Symposium Report: The Roads Taken
Heidere Diploma 2 in the Unofficial Version, with puns aplenty. The Diploma has an elaborate interlace border around the proclamation.
Heidere Diplomas & Investiture
2019 Anniversary Symposium: The Roads Taken
Detail of illustration.
Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts
Poster announcing the Call for Papers for the Permanent Panels sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, to be held at the 2019 MMLA Convention in Chicago in November. Poster set in RGME Bembino and designed by Justin Hastings.
2019 M-MLA Call for Papers
Detail of recto of leaf from an Italian Giant Bible. Photography by Mildred Budny
2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program Details
Thomas E. Hill stands at the entrance to the Vassar College Library. Photography by Mildred Budny
Another Visit to The Library Cafe
Leaf 41, Recto, Top Right, in the Family Album (Set Number 3) of Otto Ege's Portfolio of 'Fifty Original Leaves' (FOL). Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Mildred Budny.
More Discoveries for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’
Augustine Homilies Bifolium Folio IIr detail with title and initial for Sermon XCVI. Private Collection, reproduced by permission. Photograph by Mildred Budny.
Vellum Bifolium from Augustine’s “Homilies on John”
Gold stamp on blue cloth of the logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. Detail from the front cover of Volume II of 'The Illustrated Catalogue'
Design & Layout of “The Illustrated Catalogue”
Rosette Watermark, Private Collection. Reproduced by Permission
2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program
Libro de los juegos. Madrid, El Escorial, MS T.1.6, folio 17 verso, detail.
2018 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program
Poster Announcing Bembino Version 1.5 (April 2018) with border for Web display
Bembino Version 1.5 (2018)
Lower Half of the Original Verso of a Single Leaf detached from a prayerbook in Dutch made circa 1530, owned and dismembered by Otto F. Ege, with the seller's description in pencil in the lower margin. Image reproduced by permission.
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 214’?
© The British Library Board. Harley MS 628, folio 160 verso. the initial 'd' for 'Domini'.
2018 M-MLA Call for Papers
Fountain of Books outside the Main Library of the Cincinnati Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
2017 M-MLA Panel Report
Leaf 41, Recto, Top Right, in the Family Album (Set Number 3) of Otto Ege's Portfolio of 'Fifty Original Leaves' (FOL). Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Mildred Budny.
2017 M-MLA Panel
Poster for 'In a Knotshell' (November 2012)with border
Designing Academic Posters
Opening Lines of the Book of Zachariah. Courtesy of Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. Reproduced by permission.
More Discoveries for “Otto Ege Manuscript 61”
Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.
Say Cheese
Alcove Beside Entrance to Garneau at AZO 2017. Photography © Mildred Budny.
2017 Congress Report
Duck Family at the 2007 Congress. Photography © Mildred Budny.
2017 Congress Program
Verso of the Leaf and Interior of the Binding, Detail: Lower Right-Hand Corner, with the Mitered Flap Unfolde
A 12th-Century Fragment of Anselm’s ‘Cur Deus Homo’
Reused Leaf from Gregory's Dialogues Book III viewed from verso (outside of reused book cover) Detail of Spine of Cover with Volume Labels. Photograph © Mildred Budny.
A Leaf from Gregory’s Dialogues Reused for Euthymius
Detail of the top of the verso of the fragmentary leaf from a 13th-century copy of Statutes for the Cistercian Order. Reproduced by permission.
Another Witness to the Cistercian Statutes of 1257
Initial d in woodcut with winged hybrid creature as an inhabitant. Photography © Mildred Budny
The ‘Foundling Hospital’ for Manuscript Fragments
A Reused Part-Leaf from Bede’s Homilies on the Gospels
Detail of middle right of Verso of detached leaf from the Nichomachean Ethics in Latin translation, from a manuscript dispersed by Otto Ege and now in a private collection. Reproduced by permission.
More Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 51’
Running title for EZE on the verso of the Ezekiel leaf from 'Ege Manuscript 61'. Photography by Mildred Budny
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’
Decorated opening word 'Nuper' of the Dialogues, Book III, Chapter 13, reproduced by permission
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’
Private Collection, Leaf from Ege MS 14, with part of the A-Group of the 'Interpretation of Hebrew Names'. Photograph by Mildred Budny.
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
A Reused Part-Leaf from Bede’s Homilies on the Gospels
Photography by David Immerman.
Radio Star
Close-Up of The Host of 'The Library Cafe' in the Radio Studio. Photography © Mildred Budny
A Visit to The Library Café
Booklet Page 1 of the 'Interview with our Font & Layout Designer' (2015-16)
Interview with our Font & Layout Designer
Initial I of Idem for Justinian's Novel Number 134, with bearded human facing left at the top of the stem of the letter. Photography © Mildred Budny
It’s A Wrap
The Brandon Plaque. Gold and niello. The British Museum, via Creative Commons.
Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (January 1992)
© The British Library Board. Cotton MS Tiberius A III, folio 117v, top right. Reproduced by permission.
Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (August 1993)
Invitation to 'Canterbury Manuscripts' Seminar on 19 September 1994
Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (September 1994)
Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence in Monochrome Version
Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (May 1989)
Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)
2016 Report for CARA
Heading of Blanked out Birth certificate after adoption completed.
Lillian Vail Dymond
Initial C of 'Concede'. Detail from a leaf from 'Otto Ege Manuscript 15', the 'Beauvais Missal'. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by Permission
2016 Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’
Detail with Initial G of Folio Ivb of Bifolium from a Latin Medicinal Treatise reused formerly as the cover of a binding for some other text, unknown. Reproduced by permission
Spoonful of Sugar
Detail of Leaf I, recto, column b, lines 7-12, with a view of the opening of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 23, verse 3, with an enlarged opening initial in metallic red pigment
New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian
Decoated initial E for 'En' on the verso of the Processional Leaf from ' Ege Manuscript 8'. Photography by Mildred Budny
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’
Cloth bag, now empty, for the original seal to authenticate the document, which remains intact, for a transaction of about the mid 13th-century at Preston, near Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. Photograph reproduced by permission.
Full Court Preston
The Date 1538 on the Scrap, enhanced with photographic lighting. Photography © Mildred Budny
Scrap of Information
Lower half of Recto of Leaf from the Office of the Dead in a Small-Format Book of Hours. Photography © Mildred Budny
Manuscript Groupies
Detail of cross-shaft, rays of light, and blue sky or background in the illustration of the Mass of Saint Gregory. Photography © Mildred Budny
The Mass of Saint Gregory, Illustrated
Penwork extending from a decorated initial extends below the final line of text and ends in a horned animal head which looks into its direction. Photography © Mildred Budny
Lost & Foundlings

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You are browsing the Blog for Otto Ege’s Manuscripts

Selbold Cartulary Fragments

July 4, 2020 in Manuscript Studies

 

Grapes Watermark in a Selbold Cartulary Fragment.

Selbold Cartulary Fragments

3 Leaves on Paper

Single columns of 38 lines
Circa 28.3 × 210 cm < written area of circa 20.6 × 15.5 cm>
Presumably Stift Selbold or its Region (Hessen) in Germany
Late 14th or early 15th Century
Watermark of Grape Cluster

[Posted on 3 July 2020, with updates]

Continuing our blog on Manuscript Studies (see its Contents List), we publish images and descriptions of a set of three leaves from the dismembered paper copy of a Latin cartulary (or codex diplomaticus or Kopialbuch, in Latin and German) of the former Premonstratensian monastery-and-then-abbey of Selbold in Hessen, Germany.  The set presents a now-disrupted series of uniform transcriptions in book form of individual dated documents issued by ecclesiastical and secular rulers confirming, or reconfirming, rights and privileges pertaining to that institution and its dependencies.

Purchased from Boyd Mackus in the United States some years ago and now in a private collection, the fragments comprise 1 single leaf and 1 bifolium.  We identify them here as folios “1” and “2–3”, using inverted commas or quotation marks to indicate a non-original sequence and location within the former volume.  Written by a single scribe with a uniform layout, the leaves contain a late-medieval copy of the texts of 8 documents (not all complete) issued by various authorities in a range from the 12th to 14th centuries.  Upon the original pages, even apart from the subsequent disruptions to the text through dispersal of leaves, the transcriptions are set out in sequences that are only partly chronological according to the issued dates of the documents.

Written in ink with elements of red pigment, the text is laid out on the leaves in single columns of 38 lines.  One leaf has a watermark.

These leaves deserve to be considered in the contexts not only of the transmission of the documents which they represent, but also of the preservation and circulation of Selbold Cartularies or Kopialbucher, insofar as they are known or survive.  Here we distinguish in red such historical records as the Selbold Cartulary Fragment(s) showcased here, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, one or more Selbold Kopialbuche (or Copialbuche) reported in German by various observers.  We indicate one or other of those  books known to have survived to the early modern or modern periods, but subsequently lost, or presumed to be lost, by a prefixed asterisk (*). Also recorded in some notices or copies thereof is a late-medieval [*]Liber privilegiorum et libertatum ecclesie Selboldensis (“Book of the Privileges and Rights of the Church of Selbold”), presumed to be lost.

Among the challenges, we might wonder to what extent one or other of those recorded  [*]Selbolder Kopialbucher corresponds to this dismembered one.  This post includes some detailed examinations of published editions of its texts and related texts.  Why this detailed work is useful, and can yield strikingly significant results even for only a few leaves from a dispersed manuscript otherwise inaccessible, is revealed in the PostScript. 

The subtitle for this post could be Manuscript Studies in a Time of Bibliographical ‘Lock-Down’.  [Now see also the Addendum below.]

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archbishop Heinrich I of Mainz, Birstein, Briquet Number 13003, Büdingen, Conrad III, Frederick II, Gustav Simon, Heinrich Reimer, Helfrich Bernhardt Wenck, History of Documents, History of Watermarks, Integrated, Isenburg, Karl IV, King Adolf of Germany, Langenselbold, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Prince Bruno of Ysenburg-Büdingen, Royal Bible of St. Augustine's Abbey Canterbury, Selbold, Selbold Cartulary, Selbold Cartulary Fragment, Selbold Kopialbuch, Selbold Monastery, Ysenburg
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 214’?

April 13, 2018 in Anniversary, Manuscript Studies

Part of a 22-Line Prayerbook in Dutch
From the Collection of Otto F. Ege?

Single leaf from a small-format Prayerbook
Circa 166 × 177 mm <written area circa 128 × 82 mm>
Single column of 22 lines in Gothic Bookhand, with embellishments in red pigment

Pencil inscription ‘X . 43  Flanders 1525’ at the bottom of the recto

Perhaps formerly part of Ege Manuscript 214 (Gwara, Handlist 214)

Flanders, circa 1330

Lower Half of the Original Verso of a Single Leaf detached from a prayerbook in Dutch made circa 1530, owned and dismembered by Otto F. Ege, with the seller's description in pencil in the lower margin. Image reproduced by permission.

Private Collection. Leaf from a prayerbook in Dutch, detail.

[Published on 13 April 2018, now with updates with thanks to Peter Kidd.]

Continuing our series on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny (see Her Page) adds new evidence to her earlier reports about some medieval manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951).  See our Contents List.

This time we showcase a leaf recently acquired for a private collection.

Its online seller did not cite provenance nor identify the text and any source manuscript.  The new owner, dedicated to the acquisition of manuscript fragments (conditions permitting), having acquired several Ege manuscript fragments already, opined that this leaf would have come from “Otto Ege Manuscript 214”.  Could be.

So, what is that little-known “Ege Manuscript  214”, and what are its surviving fragments?  How might we find out enough from the scrappy sources about those scraps to figure out whether or not the “source manuscript” — AKA the former manuscript of this specific remnant — is that book from which the New Leaf came?

Wait and See.  Read On, Dear Reader, Read On.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Dutch Prayerbook, Ege Manscript 61, Ege Manuscript 214, Ege Manuscript 41, Ege Manuscript 51, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, Otto Ege Portfolios, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Papal Indulgences, Simon Bening
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2016 M-MLA Report

March 14, 2017 in Announcements, Conference Announcement, Manuscript Studies, Reports

Border States:
Marginalia in North American Manuscripts and Printed Books

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)Two Panels
Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
and Organized by Justin Hastings
(Department of English, Loyola University Chicago)

at the Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association (M-MLA)
held on 10-13 November 2016 at St. Louis, Missouri

[Report for our Panels on Marginalia in Books for 2016 M-MLA]

Invitation Letter, Plus Marginalia, for 24 June 1994.

Invitation Letter, Plus Marginalia, for ‘Marginalia in Manuscripts’, 24 June 1994

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, in keeping with the M-MLA conference’s theme of “Border States,” sponsored its pair of Special Session Panels examining materials in North American collections. The responses to the Call for Papers for our sponsored Special Session yielded two panels rather than one, and extended their scope both temporally and geographically.

The subjects, and their range, accord well with the Research Group’s long-term interest in the physical characteristics of books, their modes of production, and their processes of use across time. The subject of “Marginalia in Manuscripts” formed the focus of one of the Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” in our early years based in the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College. Our blog on “Manuscript Studies” — plus some printed books — includes reports of discoveries grounded in close analysis of their surfaces, marginalia often included.

Do we practice what we preach? Well, we prefer to refrain from writing in books belonging to others, as we recommend to you, but our own pages? That might be different. Witness the Master Copy of the Invitation Letter to that Seminar (see here). Marginalia Lives On!

For the 2016 Panels, we publish the Abstracts for the Papers.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Aesop's Fables, Book of Hours, California Gold Rush, Curricular Romulus, Dance of Death, Danse Macabre, J H Gybon Spilsbury, John Ker Duke of Roxburghe, John Ldgate, Justin Hastings, Manuscript Marginalia, Manuscript studies, Marginalia, Midwest Modern Language Association, Newberry Library, Office of the Dead, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M 359, Thomas Hoccleve
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Marginalia in Books for 2016 M-MLA

May 10, 2016 in Conference, Conference Announcement

Border States:
Marginalia in North American Manuscripts and Printed Books

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)Two Panels
Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
and Organized by Justin Hastings
(Department of English, Loyola University Chicago)

at the Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association (M-MLA)
to be held on 10-13 November 2016 at St. Louis, Missouri

[Posted on 10 May 2016, with updates. A further update appears in the 2016 M-MLA Report.]

Invitation Letter, Plus Marginalia, for 24 June 1994.

Invitation Letter, Plus Marginalia, for ‘Marginalia in Manuscripts’, 24 June 1994

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, in keeping with the M-MLA conference’s theme of “Border States,” announces the following pair of Special Session Panels examining materials in North American collections.  The responses to the Call for Papers for our sponsored Special Session yielded two panels rather than one, and extend their scope both temporally and geographically.

The subjects, and their extended range, accord well with the Research Group’s long-term interest in the physical characteristics of books, their modes of production, and their processes of use across time. The subject of “Marginalia in Manuscripts” formed the focus of one of the Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” in our early years based in the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College.  Our blog on “Manuscript Studies” — plus some printed books — includes reports of discoveries grounded in close analysis of their surfaces, marginalia often included. Do we practice what we preach?  Well, we prefer to refrain from writing in books belonging to others, as we recommend to you, but our own pages?  That might be different.  Witness the Master Copy of the Invitation Letter to that Seminar (see here).  Marginalia Lives On!

For the 2016 Panels, we publish the Abstracts for the Papers in stages, starting now.  The publication of the Convention timetable allows us also to report the schedule for our Sessions.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Aesop's Fables, Book of Hours, California Gold Rush, Curricular Romulus, Dance of Death, Danse Macabre, J H Gybon Spilsbury, John Ker Duke of Roxburghe, John Lydgate, Justin Hastings, Manuscript Marginalia, Manuscript studies, Marginalia, Midwest Modern Language Association, Newberry Library, Office of the Dead, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M 359, Thomas Hoccleve
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2016 Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’

February 1, 2016 in Bembino, Conference Announcement, Events

Initial C of 'Concede'. Detail from a leaf from 'Otto Ege Manuscript 15', the 'Beauvais Missal'. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by Permission

Initial C of Concede. Detail from a leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 15’, the ‘Beauvais Missal’. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by Permission

Words & Deeds

Actions Enacted, Re-Enacted & Restored

From Late-Antique Theater to the Legacy of Otto Ege
by way of, inter alia, Saint-Denis and Gutenberg

A Symposium of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Friday & Saturday, 25–26 March 2016
106 McCormick Hall
Princeton University

Sponsors

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
The Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University
The Index of Christian Art at Princeton University
James Marrow & Emily Rose
Barbara A. Shailor
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

We announce a Symposium to be held at Princeton University on 25 & 26 March 2016.  Organized by our Director, Mildred Budny, this event launches our activities for 2016.  Next in line come our Sessions and Activities, both sponsored and co-sponsored, at the 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies in May. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archaeology of Manuscripts, Beauvais Missal, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Department of Art & Archaeology, Gutenberg Press, Index of Christian Art, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege MS 14, Otto Ege MS 15, Otto Ege MS 35, Otto Ege MS 41, Otto Ege MS 44, Otto Ege MS 61, Otto Ege MS 8, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Princeton University, Saint-Denis, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies
1 Comment »

Leaf from a Tiny Book of Hours

October 22, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Leaf Within the Hours of the Virgin
From an Unknown Manuscript

Detached Vellum Leaf
Circa 76 × 54 mm < written area circa 40 × 36 mm >
Single column of 12 lines in Latin in Gothic rotunda script, with polychrome embellishments

Budny Handlist 11

Detail of Verso from a Detached Leaf from a tiny Book of Hours, with the decorated initial I of 'In' within the Hours of the Virgin. Photography © Mildred BudnyIn our series on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny reports on items in the Illustrated Handlist, among other specimens.

Usually those items have some evidence, internal and/or contextual, which enable or imply the identifications of their places or regions of origin, the original manuscripts to which the dispersed fragment belongs, and/or their routes of transmission to the current owner.  Various of our blogposts in the series prove these possibilities.  Not in this case.

Here we focus on a fragment of a tiny Book of Hours which strayed into the group without any record of its provenance. We illustrate this fragment as an opportunity for recognition among its peers.

In Perspective

The scale of this leaf leaf comes into perspective when set among some of its companions in the Handlist.  As in the set of Group Portraits, front and back. The Leaf had its debut among our Manuscript Groupies.

Within those collective Photo Opportunities, Views 1 and 2, this Leaf appears at bottom right, respectively with its Verso and Recto.

6 leaves in the 'Handlist', shown variously in their rectos or versos, by chance as the occasion arose. Photography by Mildred Budny

Group Portrait View 1

6 leaves in the 'Handlist', shown variously in their versos or rectos, by chance as the occasion arose. Photography by Mildred Budny

Group Portrait, View 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiny, right?  A lovely shape to clasp in the hand.  The original manuscript must have been a joy to hold and to behold.

Text and Context

The Leaf, turned to the Verso, alongside the small-format envelope used to 'contain' the leaf, shown from its front with the owner's handwritten inscription in blue ink 'Ms leaf', as well as a color guide and scale for reference. Reproduced by permission of the photographer.The thin Leaf turns its yellowed hairside of the animal skin toward the recto, and the whitish fleshside to the verso.  An unevenly undulating cut severed the leaf from its former conjoint stub or, more probably, conjoint leaf of a bifolium, with some traces remaining along the inner margin of marks for the former stitching of the volume.  The marks of dirt accumulated along the upper, lower, and outer edges attest to a period of storage as a closed volume.

The smudged, darkened stain aligned about midway down the outer edge probably derives from contact with a metal clasp oxidized over time.  Such a closure would have helped to embrace firmly a small, fat volume of the sort which a full Book of Hours in such a compact layout would have required.

At present, the leaf measures circa 76 × 54 mm, with a written area of circa 40 × 36 mm.  The single column of 12 lines is written in Latin in Gothic rotunda script, with embellishments.  Although somewhat perfunctory in the execution, the embellishments and their colorful materials add an element of luxury.

Recto of leaf from a tiny 12-line Book of Hours, with in-line initials decorated with red pen-flourishing. Budny Handlist 11. Photograph © Mildred Budny

Recto

The embellishments include rubricated titles, in-line initials with pen-flourishes, and enlarged polychrome initials with ornamental frames.  On the recto, the 1-line initials for sections beginning within the lines are alternately blue and gold respectively with red or purple penline extensions comprised mainly of undulating lines resembling pulled sugar ripples.

Recto of leaf from a tiny 12-line Book of Hours, with 2 polychrome opening initials in gold leaf and other pigments Budny Handlist 11. Photograph © Mildred Budny

Verso

On the verso, the polychrome decorated initials either stand alongside the column on the verso (6-line-high I for In of the Capitulum, that is, ‘Reading’, from the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiasticus) or occupy a position inset within it (2-line-high F for Famulorum of the Oratio or ‘Prayer’).  For these enlarged initials, the letter itself is rendered in gold leaf, with bulbous tips, against an asymmetrical background frame with toothed or cusped edges and extended tips.  Each frame, filled with sections of rusty reddish and blue pigments, has an inset inner contour of white pigment.  Within the F, the 2 enclosed counters above and below its tongue have a surcharged pattern of white dots.

The Text

The text on the leaf both starts and ends mid-phrase.  It extends from within:

Psalm 127:3 ([la-/]teribus . . . Israel)

to within:

Prayer: Famulorum tuorum . . . ut [/ qui] .

The text corresponds mostly to a portion of the Hours of the Virgin represented in a paragdigm online here (with an English translation), where the assigned location within the Hours (in that case, for the Use of Rome) is None, that is, the mid-afternoon prayer within the canonical periods for daily prayer.  Expanding the abbreviations in the text, the transcription here of the Leaf provides points of orientation as well as indications of its divergences from the paragdigm.

The preceding leaf apparently ended within Psalm 127:3

[3 Uxor tua sicut uitis abundans. in la-/]

[RECTO]

teribus domus tue Fi[-]
lii tui sicut nouclle [? sic for germina] oli[-]
arum in circuitu men[-]
se tue [4] Ecce sicut benedice[-]
tur homo [<uiro] qui timet do[-]
minum [5] Benedicat tibi
dominus ex syon et uideas bo[-]
na iherusalem omnibus diebus ui[-]
te tue [6] Et uideas filios
filiorum tuorum pacem super is[-]
rael Gloria A[ntiphon] pulcra es et de[-]
cora filia iherusalem terribi[-]

[RECTO] / [VERSO]

lis ut castrorum acies or[-]
dinata. Capittlu[m] [sic; = Ecclesiasticus 24:19–20].
In plateis sicut cynamo[-]
mum et balsamum arom[-]
tizans odorem dedi quasi
mirra decta electi dedi suaui[-]
atem odoris. deo gratias. V[ersiculus]
post partum uirgo. et. kyrie eleison
christe eleison. kyrie eleison. domine exaudi
et clamor. oremus Or[ati]o.
Famulorum tuorum quos
domine delictis ignosce. ut

[VERSO] / [qui tibi pacu . . . ]

The next leaf would have picked up from there.

Such a span of text occurs within various Books of Hours, and for various points within the Hours. The use of the Antiphon Pulchra es et decora filia Jerusalem terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata is recorded in a variety of sources for several occasions within the liturgical year.

Therefore, without fuller knowledge about the other parts of the original manuscript and its specific approaches, it seems difficult to determine to which place within the Hours the portion represented by this leaf would have specifically corresponded.

Without better evidence, we resist a temptation to assign this very reading in this specific manuscript to a particular part of the Office of the Virgin.

About that Manuscript

Haven’t identified it yet.

You may remember that some of our blogposts in the series on Manuscript Studies have identified fragments from manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege (among others). So far, these have addressed ‘Ege Manuscripts’ 8, 14, 41, and 61.  So the nature of his dispersals and the resources for identifying some of them have become familiar.  You can find descriptions and references in those posts.

Scott Gwara’s Handlist (2013) of ‘Manuscripts Collected or Sold by Otto F. Ege’ does not apparently include any volume which corresponds neatly to the characteristics of this leaf. We were hopeful.

A somewhat similar manuscript, fragmented and dispersed, is represented in Ege’s Portfolio of Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, Number 36, a mid-15th-century French Book of Hours with a (not identical) comparable style, layout, and decoration.  But it has 13 lines per column, rather than the 12 on this Leaf, and includes some other approaches to decoration, such as interlace patterns and the use of double (rather than single) white outlines inside the frames for initials.

Date and Origin?

Wish we knew.  Suffice, perhaps, for now, to say that the rotunda script indicates an ‘Italianate’ element.  Not that this means that it is Italian script, or the work of an Italian scribe.  Just an element, important to register.

However, the style of the initials seems French instead.

Interesting combination of influences.

So, perhaps, this leaf and its original manuscript (if fully consistent) might have originated in Southern France, Italy, or (say) Spain, circa 1400 or later.

Transmission?  Forget It!

The owner reports, in responses to questions repeated over years, that this leaf was acquired at an unknown date, unframed, and from an unremembered source.  He confirms that the single-line inscription in ink on the envelope is his own handwriting.

It was probably a gift, but not sufficiently memorable as such, unlike another leaf from a different Book of Hours (Handlist 12) acquired as a wedding present.  It was presumably a gift, he observes, because its purchase is neither remembered nor recorded among the available papers.

So much for continuity.

Shucks

On a personal note.  Usually I am reluctant to say such.

Collectors Gonna Do Whatever.  Right.  They can.

But this situation makes me wonder.  I remember vividly, clearly, precisely, the gifts, and their circumstances, which ever I have received.  When I see — of course, because I place them in view — any gift, you know, I smile with recognition of the person, place and time of presentation (by whatever means, near or far), and even I the recall of the light or sunlight of the reception.  That is how I think, and remember.  Sensitive Creature, that’s me.

Detail of Recto of the leaf from a tiny Book of Hours, with 2 1-line in-line initials respectively in Gold or Blue pigment with pen-flourishes respectively of purple or red pigment. Photography © Mildred BudnyAnd so, this occasion with the necessity to encounter forgetfulness, amounting apparently to negligence or indifference (same difference), makes me wonder differently, and with increased appreciation, about the merits of Eastern habits of stamping materials in the stages of successive ownership and appreciation.  It seems a method worth considering for Western Stuff.

Seems more respectful.  I aim to label gifts to me even more precisely than before.

P. S.  You hear that?  I am the sort of person who appreciates gifts.

Hint?  You think?

Over to You

Do you know of any other leaves from this tiny book?  They could be anywhere.

******

We thank the owner of the leaf for permission to photograph, research, and publish it.  It is a pleasure also to record thanks to Adelaide Bennett, Gregory Clark, and James Marrow for their expert advice about the leaf.

*****

 

 

 

Tags: Book of Hours, Gothic Manuscripts, Otto Ege's Manuscripts
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’

September 6, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Part of the ‘Interpretation of Hebrew Names’
from a 50-line Lectern Bible
in the Vulgate Version

Budny, Handlist Number 9
A Leaf From ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’

Alcath – Ananias in the A-Group
From the Interpretationes Hebraicorum Nominum
In the partly alphabetized Version beginning Aaz Apprehendens (or a Variant thereof)
At the end of a large-format Bible used for lectern reading

Circa 312 × 212 mm <written area circa 225 × 157 mm >
Triple Columns of 50 lines written in Gothic Formata bookhand
Produced probably in Flanders or Northern France, circa 1325

In our series on Manuscript Fragments, Mildred Budny examines some leaves dispersed into various collections, both private and public, through the methods of Otto F. Ege. Earlier posts on those leaves considered Lost and Foundlings, A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’, and A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’.  Later posts considered A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’ and New Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 51’.

Now we focus on a large-format leaf which, despite its relatively unembellished contents, formerly belonged to a large-format single-volume Bible amply endowed with decoration, illustrations, and glittering gold.

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Tags: 'Aaz-Apprehendens' Version, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Bible Manuscripts, Budny Handlist, Gothic Manuscripts, Interpretationes Hebraicorum Nominum, Lectern Bible, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Parke Bernet Galleries, Sothebys
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’

August 15, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Processional for Nuns for Palm Sunday

Budny Handlist, Number 4

From a ‘Gradual’
Produced in England, circa 1275

In our series on ‘Manuscript Fragments’ within our blog (see its Contents List), we continue to examine some leaves dispersed into various collections, both private and public, through the methods of Otto F. Ege. Earlier posts on those leaves considered Lost and Foundlings, A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’, and A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’.  [Update: See also More Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 51’. Now we focus on a musical leaf for liturgical performance with Singing Nuns on a high holy day.

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Tags: Alison Altstatt, Edith of Wilton, Ege MS 14, Ege MS 41, Ege MS 51, Ege MS 61, Ege MS 8, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Otto F. Ege, Processional for Nuns, Processional for Palm Sunday, Wilton Abbey, Wilton Processional
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’

August 10, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Budny Handlist 7. Ezekiel Leaf Verso with the end of Chapter 10 and the beginning of Chapter 11. Photography by Mildred Budny

Ezekiel Leaf Verso

Part of Ezekiel from a
32-Line Latin Vulgate Pocket Bible from France

Budny Handlist 7

Single leaf from a pocket-sized Bible
Circa 186 × 126 mm <written area circa 119 × 81 mm>
Double columns of 32 lines in Gothic Bookhand, with embellishments in red, blue, and purple pigment

Pencil inscription ‘1310 French Bible’ at the bottom of the recto

Formerly part of Ege Manuscript 61 (Gwara, Handlist 61)

Southern France, circa 1325

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Tags: Dawson's Bookshop, Ege Manuscript 61, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Otto F. Ege, Pocket Bible
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Manuscript Groupies

August 2, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Preview:

An Illustrated Handlist of a Group of
Medieval and Early Modern
Manuscripts, Documents, and Printed Materials

Conservation, Photography, Research, and Descriptions

by Mildred Budny

Detail of opened book with schematic text. Photography © Mildred Budny

Bookish

As we unveil more of the research results for an extended study of a group of medieval and early modern manuscripts, documents, and printed materials, its Illustrated Handlist deserves an Introduction.  Here, instead, is a Preview or Trailer.

[Update:  And here is the Illustrated Handlist.]

Jest for Fun

Details of the materials in the Handlist, their conservation, and cumulative research results are reported, in stages, on other parts of this website (for example here), as well as in an illustrated Album, now in preparation for print.  Here is a light-hearted Preview, in the form of:

A Brief Introduction,
Partly Playful but Also Earnest,
Illustrations Included

Photography by Mildred Budny

The Best Side

To set the scene, a pair of informal Group Portraits shows the Best Sides of some hand-written leaves in the Handlist.
(P.S. Each Side counts as a Best Side in our book . . . )

These specimens — AKA ‘Models’ for the Portraits — come from several different parts of the Handlist.  Our Models here belong among Parts I and II of the Handlist, along with the other ‘Single Leaves’ and ‘Documents’ — in these cases all on vellum or parchment and mostly in Latin.

Some of them have richer decoration than others, depending upon their own resources, their talents, their training, their agents, their stylists, their make-up, the set-designers, the Director (in this context, that would be me), and the parts they have been assigned, or have decided, to play.  Play is the operative word today.

Take Two

And so here we have Group Portraits I & II (with Lady), unretouched.  Don’t we love seeing the Stars when they don’t have extra makeup, bodyguards, etc., and can show their real, natural selves?

For my part, I like both these Portraits.  For one thing, they show different Sides.  For another, they both look fabulous, just the way they are.  That’s my view(s), anyway.

Which would you prefer?

Six Manuscript Fragments in the 'Illustrated Handlist', View 1. Photography © Mildred Budny

Group Portrait, Take 1

Six Manuscript Fragments in the Illustrated Handlist, View 2. Photography © Mildred Budny

Group Portrait, Take 2

Seeing the Bright

Lower half of Recto of Leaf from the Office of the Dead in a Small-Format Book of Hours. Photography © Mildred Budny

All That Glitters Might Be Gold

As for asking for their autographs, well, these Models already show their signature handwriting.  Some elements are even in gold.  Real gold, at that.

By the way, as a photographer (See Here Too), I observe that the gold leaf worn, for real, by three of our Models gleams especially effectively in these informal Portraits. Did you know that gold is diabolically difficult to photograph well on manuscripts?  No kidding.  No matter if you didn’t know that already, now you do.

Happily, the gold shows brightly in these snapshots, better even than in some more formal settings.  Didn’t plan it.  It just happened.  A bonus!  Remember what I said about their Good Sides?  Er, no, I mean, their Best Sides?

When it comes to photographing touchy, sensitive, demanding Subjects (As If! Who’s the Subject, as in Servant, here?), the Golden Oldies can be extremely demanding. It feels special when, without elaborate Special Effects, they can be allowed to reveal their unique inner light.  Now that takes Talent Scouting.

Roll Credits

To give credit where credit is due, I will readily name names.  In each version of the Group Portrait, here are, from left to right, in Rows 1 and 2 (upper and lower):

  • Handlist 7.   From the Book of Ezekiel in a ‘Pocket Bible’ made in France
    (part of the dismembered ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’)
  • Handlist 4.   From a Processional for Singing Nuns on Palm Sunday
    (part of the dismembered ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’, also known as the Wilton Processional)
  • Handlist 13.  From a Prayerbook, the Gregory Mass Revealed
  • Handlist 12.  From the Office of the Dead in a small-format Book of Hours
  • Handlist 22.  The ‘Scrap’ (Also Known As a Scrap of Information, and
  • Handlist 11.  From the Hours of the Virgin in a Tiny Book of Hours.
Detail of an initial M on the verso of the leaf. Photography by Mildred Budny

M for ‘Manus’ (‘Hand’), Bouquets Included

Their relative sizes are clear at a glance, don’t you think?

As they line up, it is as if they take their bows and acknowledge our applause.  After all, it took centuries to get their acts together! And they look really good for their ages.

We should be so lucky.  (We live in hope.)

Back to Front

You may wonder that, in each Group Portrait, some leaves show their recto (‘front’), while others show their verso (‘back’), seemingly inconsistently.

As in: Verso/Recto/Verso/Recto/Recto/Verso in Take 1, and the reverse in Take 2.

Well, to let you in on the secret, when the time came for their Group Portrait — it was an exceptional Photo Op, which, shall we say, required clearing with their Press-Agents and within my own schedule — they jostled for pride of place, like any or every celebrity or hopeful. It seemed helpful, anyway energy-conserving (for some, or one, of us at least), to allow them to choose their positions, while I worked on the lighting.

This opportunity came at an early stage in the processes of photography, conservation, and research (in varying order, sometimes as the interlinked stages of examination, consultation, photography, and research entered into cycles of immersion, reflection, revision, and renewal), and before more of the items arrived.  At that first stage, at the Photo Op, I had to recognize, not at all unwillingly, although a bit warily, that I had returned to photography of original manuscript materials after all, and after many things had rapidly changed, the world of photography included.

This return happened unexpectedly, and fortunately, after a gap of some years since the completion of the collaborative research project during which the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence was born, and the completion of its photographic work — some of which is showcased in the Illustrated Catalogue (1997), other publications, and other photographic exhibitions.  With this invigorating renewal, I began to experiment with different approaches to manuscript photography, both analogue (as before) and digital (as now, in addition to analogue), with different views of the artefacts, with different forms of backgrounds and lighting, and with a new sense of exploration.

Exploration for its own sake, and for what it might offer for manuscript studies.  With limited resources, true.  (Life is short.)

But also with resourcefulness, dedication, perseverance, curiosity — and, yes, a sense of fun.

Back to the Future

Some of the results appear on exhibition, in print, and on screen in various ways.  For example, Handlist 13 (Row 1), with its haunting image of the visionary Mass of Gregory the Great, is revealed in detail in a report, and it also features as the Star, Spokesman, and Poster Person (‘Poster Poster’?) representing principles and practices for photographic reproduction in our newly revised Style Manifesto.

Back on that set, during the Photo Op, without assistants to set the equipment, to soothe and distract the Models, to order pizza for them, to contend with their agents, to redirect the many requests for autographs, to arrange the bouquets, to hold back the paparazzi, and to book the tables for the post-shoot festivities, I had the pleasure of completing a first Test Shoot, in Takes 1 and 2, with narry a tantrum nor publicity agent in sight.  A fantastic, auspicious start.

These Models were the Best!  (No offense to the others!)  Great Cast.  Assigning their parts, or places, in the Handlist came later, as its script came into shape.  Likewise, discovering their identities mostly came later, as my and others’ research work yielded more discoveries — as with the ‘Stage Names’ for the original volumes from which some of the dispersed fragments came, as with the ‘Otto Ege Manuscripts’ (on which see, for example, our 2016 Symposium, its Report, and its Illustrated Program Booklet).

If these Models were in print rather than manuscript, I might say that they were Type Cast, but that distinction belongs to some of the other Items in the Handlist.

Hug Shots

Years later, coming upon these snap-shots from the Photo Shoot, I wondered why I hadn’t taken more formal Portraits of the whole Group, that is, with others in the Handlist included.  This while I had been taking such care to photograph each one in various views — as you can see, for example, in the reports about them in turn, on their own terms.  (As in the revealing personal interview with the Gregory Leaf.)

The look back and into the future, at this stage of shaping the Handlist, allows for a moment of wistfulness, while welcoming those quick, provisional, snapshots (‘Polaroids’ in an even earlier age).  Wistfulness, not regret. It is possible to be clear.

You see, now I see that perhaps these quick snaps can suffice to show the happy occasion of a gathering in recognition.  Happy, we can say, it marks the resumption of detailed study of manuscript materials in the flesh, and also the celebration of companions gathered as ‘foundlings’ from among many ‘waifs and strays’ of medieval and early modern written materials ‘abducted’ from their original homes (books, documents, libraries, collections, locations) in Western Europe (not forgetting the British Isles), brought one way or another across the ocean to the United States, and welcomed into a new form of ‘foster home’ — whether, say, as a mobile or a ‘forever’ home.

Perhaps it is not really a mystery, although it remains a wonder.  Every artist/actor/writer/manuscript worth his/her/its salt/sugar/weight-in-gold needs an audience.  Nice when we can meet and greet, don’t you agree?

Lost-and-Foundling Hospitality

You can see that I continue to reflect on the fates of Lost and Foundlings among dispersed bits and pieces of written materials from earlier centuries, and to consider the possibilities of a Foundling Hospital of sorts, where we might welcome them, directly or indirectly, tangibly or virtually, and together find some companionable nourishment in embarking on our picnics with the past.

And now, next, let me introduce more of them, and their rescued companions, to you.  Watch this space!

As the posts emerge, they join the Contents List for this blog on Manuscript Studies. Arranged by subjects or categories, rather than in the chronological sequence of publication, the List allows you to select your choices as from a Menu. Even possible is Dessert First!

*****

Floral border from 15th-century Book of Hours, with photography copyright Mildred Budny

Photography © Mildred Budny

Tags: Book of Ezekiel, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Hours of the Virgin, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Photography, Mass of Gregory the Great, Mass of Saint Gregory, Office of the Dead, Otto Ege MS 61, Otto Ege MS 8, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Pocket Bible, Style Manifesto, The Illustrated Handlist, Wilton Processional
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