Search Results: Titles starting with T from Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts

London: George G. Harrap & Co, 1935. No. 36 OF 460 COPIES SIGNED BY THE ILLUSTRATOR, 450 of which were for sale. 272 x 197 mm. (10 5/8 x 7 3/4"). 317, [1] pp. Publisher's special binding of gilt-decorated vellum over boards, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed and about one-third UNOPENED. In the original (somewhat scuffed and worn) blue paperboard slipcase with paper title label to spine. Half title and title vignettes in gold, 11 illustrations in the text, and 29 plates (12 in color and mounted) by Arthur Rackham. Latimore & Haskell, pp. 72-73; Houfe, p. 424; Hudson, p. 172. ◆One corner rather bumped, otherwise A LOVELY COPY--clean, fresh, and bright internally, in a binding remarkably free of the soiling and splaying that usually affects vellum books like this one. While Rackham did illustrations for a great many books, Houfe observes that he concentrated "particularly [on] those of a mystical, magic, or legendary background," a fact that makes his work on Poe's "Tales of Mystery and… Read More

Flanders, Southern Netherlands, or Rhineland(?), ca. 1250-75. 176 x 135 mm. (7 x 5 1/4"). Single column, 20 lines in a bold gothic book hand. First line of recto with lettering in gilt on blue and pink ground with white highlights, versal initials in blue with red penwork or burnished gold with blue penwork, ten line fillers in geometric designs of red, blue, and burnished gold, recto WITH TWO PENWORK LINE FILLERS IN THE SHAPE OF CREATURES, one being a fish, and the other the head of a beast, the latter biting the tail of a large gilt bird whose neck and beak extend into the right margin, AND WITH A THREE-LINE INITIAL DEPICTING A PROPHET HOLDING A SCROLL, the initial with a long tail extending into the lower margin. See: Kidd, "The McCarthy Collection," vol. II, no. 20. ◆Bottom marginal decoration (including the anthropomorphic tail of the initial) trimmed away (despite ample margin above the decoration), gold a bit worn, but a specimen of great interest nonetheless, and the decoration still very… Read More

Northern Italy, last quarter of 15th century. Each leaf measuring 250 x 164 mm. (9 7/8 x 6 3/8"). Single column, 24 lines in a handsome humanist hand. Each leaf with three to four large initials (one measuring two lines, all others three lines) in burnished gold, in-filled with pink and green paint with white embellishment, on blue ground with white embellishments. See: Baldwin, "Medieval Rhetoric and Poetic," pp. 216-23. ◆Insignificant wrinkling and a couple faint creases to vellum, tiny snag along top edge of each leaf, but IN VERY FINE CONDITION, the vellum especially clean and bright, the paint and ink fresh, and the margins generous. Written in a beautiful humanistic script, enclosed by wide margins, and adorned with tasteful gilt initials, these leaves come from what must have been a particularly fine manuscript made for a person of means. The text comes from the "Candelabrum" of Bene of Florence, an early 13th century treatise on rhetoric and the art of elegant writing. The work consisted… Read More