Zodiac Signs and Occupations of the Months on two leaves of a Calendar doubtless from a Psalter in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Germany, Cologne(?), first(?) quarter 13th century].

Zodiac Signs and Occupations of the Months
Zodiac Signs and Occupations of the Months on two leaves of a Calendar doubtless from a Psalter in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Germany, Cologne(?), first(?) quarter 13th century].
A relic of a high quality deluxe illuminated manuscript.

c.245 × 175mm. 2 leaves, perhaps originally a bifolium, ruled in ink for 31 lines, the text comprising the months of January and October–November, ungraded but major feasts in red, the text surrounded by a gold frame and topped by two arch-topped miniatures depicting the zodiac signs and occupations of each month, the originally blank recto of the January leaf with an added prayer(?) (including ‘ […] uxoris sue et filiorum suorum et […] istius servendis […]’). (recovered from use in a binding, with significant consequent damage, including darkening, cropping, and the loss of most of the January miniatures)

Provenance:
(1) Several feasts suggest the parent volume was written before 1228 for use in the diocese of Cologne: they include ‘Duorum ewaldorum’ (3 October; i.e. Hewald ‘the Black’, and Hewald ‘the White’, whose relics are at St Cunibert’s, Cologne), the 11,000 Virgins (21 Oct.; venerated especially at Cologne), Severinus, 3rd bishop of Cologne (23 Oct.). Sts Francis (4 Oct., canonised in 1228) and Elizabeth of Thuringia (19 Nov., canonised in 1253) are additions.
(2) Philip Bliss (1787–1857), Under-Librarian of the Bodleian Library from 1822-1828, Registrar of Oxford University from 1824-1853, Keeper of the University Archives from 1826-1857 and Principal of St Mary Hall from 1848-1857. His collection of leaves was sold at Sotheby’s, 21 August 1858, lots 100 and 119, where acquired by:
(3) Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872), English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century. Bliss’s collection of leaves became at least partially MS 18133 in the Phillipps library. Sold at Sotheby’s, 24 April 1911, lot 390, where acquired by:
(4) Edmund Hunt Dring (1863–1928), the first managing director of Bernard Quaritch Ltd.
(5) Edmund Maxwell 'Ted' Dring (1906–1990), senior director of Bernard Quaritch.
(6) Bernard Quaritch, Catalogue 1036: Medieval Manuscript Leaves, Principally from a Collection Formed in the 19th Century, Bookhands of the Middle Ages [I] (London, 1984), no. 13:
(7) Colker MS 353; acquired in 1985 from the above.

Illumination:
Each month is headed by a pair of very damaged but partially legible arched miniatures with gold grounds; the November page, for example, as the upper body of Sagittarius, and a man taking bread from an oven(?).

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