Lot 117
Lot 117
Anonymous Bruges illuminator

The Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket, a miniature on a bifolium from a Book of Hours in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, Bruges(?), second quarter 15th century].

Price Realised GBP 5,292
Estimate
GBP 1,000 - GBP 1,500
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Anonymous Bruges illuminator

The Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket, a miniature on a bifolium from a Book of Hours in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, Bruges(?), second quarter 15th century].

Price Realised GBP 5,292
Price Realised GBP 5,292
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Anonymous Bruges illuminator
The Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket, a miniature on a bifolium from a Book of Hours in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, Bruges(?), second quarter 15th century].
A depiction of one of the most dramatic and shocking events of the Middle Ages: the murder, while saying mass in his own cathedral, of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.

c. 225 × 310mm. The central bifolium of a gathering, 26 lines, the text comprising the last five of the Fifteen Os and the start of a memorial to St Thomas (‘virtus iusticia et omne quod bonum […] Memoria de sancto Thoma Cantuariensi. Gaude lux Londoniarum Thoma […]’, with a three-quarter page miniature and five-line foliate initial surrounded by a three-sided border (stains and creases in the margins, barely affecting the text or decoration, the miniature somewhat rubbed).

Provenance:
(1) Doubtless from a manuscript of the Use of Sarum produced in Bruges for the English market.
(2) Perhaps back on the Continent in the mid-16th century, as the text and image of St Thomas escaped defacement in accordance with Henry VIII’s decree.
(3) Colker MS 191; acquired in 1971 from Maggs.
Special notice
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Brought to you by
Eugenio DonadoniSenior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts
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The Collection of Marvin L. Colker