Original Leaves from Famous Books. Nine Centuries 1122 A.D.-1923 A.D. [compiled Cleveland, c.1950]

[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)]
Original Leaves from Famous Books. Nine Centuries 1122 A.D.-1923 A.D. [compiled Cleveland, c.1950]
An Otto Ege compilation of leaves from 'great books' spanning nine centuries: the parent volumes range from humanist manuscripts to Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) and the Fourth Folio.

40 leaves in total, 6 manuscript and 34 printed [central Europe, 12th-20th century], various sizes (154 x 97mm to 416 x 283mm), from parent manuscripts including a 12th-century Quran and a 15th-century copy of Livy's History of Rome, from incunables including Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), and from printed titles including a Fourth Folio Shakespeare (1685) (instances of modern pencil annotations throughout, scattered marginal tears); printed introductory leaf describing the collection and listing its contents, each leaf hinged to a paper mount with a printed description on an attached slip (this material occasionally bumped and scuffed). In the original brown buckram box, no 28 of 50 numbered sets (edition plate slightly torn).

Otto F. Ege (1888-1951), Dean of the Cleveland Institute of Art, lecturer on the History of the Book at Western Reserve University and self-proclaimed biblioclast, created the 20th-century market for medieval manuscript leaves in America: alongside his wife, Louise, and with the help of the bookseller Philip Duschnes, he purchased, took apart and dispersed hundreds of manuscripts and early printed books between 1917 and 1950, first focusing on the placement of individual leaves with private collectors and in public institutions before moving, in the 1940s, into the compilation of portfolios of leaves from ‘great books’ of the 12th to 16th centuries.

(1) Otto F Ege (1888-1951). (2) Bruce Ferrini. (3) Alexander E. Vida, by descent.

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