80 Leaves from a Missal for the use of the Diocese of Chartres, Printed by Thielman, Paris, 1529

This Collection of Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts and Early Printed Leaves is 1.04 linear feet and is comprised of 91 vellum leaves from a Latin Manuscript Bible of the late 13^th century and 80 pages from a Missal printed in the first part of the 16^th century. The illuminated leaves from the Latin Bible have been damaged and repaired.

Reproductions of six of these leaves from the Illuminated Latin Bible are framed and hang in the Divinity Library with folder numbers M10, M13, M25, M59, M72, M78.

An analysis of this collection was done under the guidance of Ernest Cadman Colwell President of the School of Theology at Claremont in California in the spring of 1965.

The collection is comprised of as stated two distinct areas of Collection:

The Illuminated Medieval Manuscript part is made up of 91 manuscript leaves of vellum from a Latin Bible dating from 1290 to 1300 . It is believed that this copy was made in a French Carthusian monastery between 1290 and 1300 and later became the property of the monastery at Villeneuve-les-Avignon.

In the fall of 1985 Bookseller Anthony Garnett gave this appraisal of these leaves:

they... are visually very attractive, but since they all come from incomplete works should be considered as decorative pieces rather than scholarly ones. They are none the less attractive for that and would find a ready market.

Leaves from a manuscript Latin Bible from a French Charterhouse of the late 13th Century. These contain a number of very nice illuminated initials—but these are not the original ones, and have been neatly added into the spaces left when the original illuminations were excised. Hence all illuminated leaves are damaged and repaired—resulting in pages that are visually acceptable, but with the text on the verso destroyed. The calligraphy is excellently neat and finely decorated—even on those leaves without miniatures.

58 leaves of Biblical text without illuminated initials, but rubricated in red and blue

20 leaves with illuminated capitals—all damaged to some extent, with illuminations supplied from another manuscript. The quality of the initials used is good, and the resulting pages are visually excellent.

7 leaves rubricated showing the liturgical readings for each day and 6 leaves of glossary

These are finely printed and rubricated, but the paper is very fragile and often damaged. Pages have been mounted on very acid card which has helped the process of deterioration. Nonetheless, the leaves are very decorative, especially those with decorated initial letters.

39 leaves with one or more initials

41 leaves without initial letters

The name of Thielman Kerver is associated with the printing of some of the most beautiful liturgical books produced at Paris during the first half of the 16th century, his most notable works being various editions of “Books of Hours.” After his death in 1522, the printing house founded by Thielman in 1497 continued under the direction of his widow who specialized in reprinting Thielman’s earlier publications which were in demand. Eventually the business came under the management of Thielman’s son, Thielman the 2nd, and finally passed to the third generation, Thielman the 2nd’s son, Jacques Kerver. The style of the Kervers shows some imitation of, and is no doubt indebted to, the Paris publisher and artist Simon Vostre. Jacques Kerver is celebrated for his 1546 French edition of the Aldine Polifilo, Songe de Poliphile. It has been praised for being one of the most beautiful illustrated books of the Renaissance. The Kerver typographical mark is a shield with the letters T K upon it which stands before a tree with a unicorn rearing up on each side of the shield.