Collection of Homilies with the Life of St. Basil the Great, in Church Slavonic, decorated manuscript on paper [Russia, c. 1830]

Collection of Homilies with the Life of St. Basil the Great, in Church Slavonic, decorated manuscript on paper [Russia, c. 1830]

80 leaves (plus one paper endleaf at each end), apparently complete, 25 lines in ornamental square Cyrillic bookhand, iridescent red rubrics, lines of red and black ornamental capitals opening major texts, simple small initials in same enclosing foliage sprays, larger initials in yellow with red foliage and penwork ornament, one large initial in bands of red and green with half-page long swirls of foliage terminating in yellow and green stylised foliage (fol. 1v), frontispiece with opening text in penwork capitals set within an architectural feature formed of red boxes line-drawn pillars and surmounted by line-drawn cross surrounded by foliage and birds, the margin filled by a decorative bar with shapes and foliage mounted on it (one of these shapes with birds on its ledges), a drollery formed from a birds body and a human head with rosy cheeks and a crown atop the bar standing on its uppermost loop, later N 147 and a collection label edged in blue with N178 and the apparent date 1912, some staining to edges, a few leaves with tears, coming loose from the binding in places, overall in good condition, 305 by 210mm; contemporary binding of finely tooled brown leather over bevelled wooden boards, two clasps, some scuffs and tears at edges, but solid in binding