Ɵ Vitae sanctorum, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Germany, Rhineland, c.1300]

Ɵ Vitae sanctorum, including parts of the lives of SS. George, Agapius, Secundinus, Marianus, Iacobus and their associates in Numidia, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Germany, Rhineland (perhaps Cologne), c.1300] Single large leaf, with double column of 48 lines of a gothic bookhand (littera textualis formata), a heading in red, capitals touched in red, very large historiated initial, the letter in pale blue and pink terminating in a tonsured head, enclosing a galloping knight in armour with the arms of Saint George (argent a cross gules), on a cusped ground with gold bezants at the extremities, contemporary folio no. 'clxi', somewhat rubbed in places, recovered from use as a wrapper with horizontal central wear, 433mm. by 321mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 696, acquired from Sam Fogg, London, in November 1990. Decoration:The style of painting is that of Cologne in the opening years of the fourteenth century; cf., for example, E. Galley, 'Eine Kölner Buchmalereiwerkstatt aus der ersten Hälfte des 14 Jahrhunderts', Düsseldorfer Jahrbuch, 46, 1954, pp.121-36, and N. Morgan and S. Panayotova, Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges, I, i, 2009, pp.162-3, no.79.