Anonymous - Lot 160

Anonymous Pontifical of Saint-Martin of Tours, 1360-1410 Manuscript on vellum, in-8° format (20 x 14 cm), partly contemporary binding on wooden boards, covered with green silk. Used rubbing with small silk chips. Seams a little loose. Collated and complete from folio 1 to folio 79, folioed to 77, the last two unencrypted. Two small cuts with loss of letters, the first 1 cm square on folio 24, the second 6 cm square on folio 72, probably a lettering. Upper margin wetness running down the inner margin along the seams, visible from folio 71 to the end. An early expert report was produced in 1950 by the State Archives of the Canton of Geneva. Here are the most convincing passages. "This document is undated and bears no other mark of ownership than this one, visibly added after the fact to the verso of the last leaf in pen: hoc pontificale pertinet ad ecclesiam beatissimi Martini Turonensis (this pontifical belongs to the church of the very Saint-Martin of Tours...). A pontifical is a collection for the use of the pope and bishops, containing the various prayers and the order of ordination ceremonies. Thanks to the coat of arms visible on folio 1 and folio 69, we've been able to identify the arms as Argent with two bends Gules, accompanied by seven escallops of the second. These are those of an old Norman family, the de Thieuville family, and this attribution is confirmed by the fact that the ornate letter on the coat of arms is precisely the initial of its name, the letter T." The 4-page report concludes: "Summarizing these considerations and comparisons, we arrive at the result that the manuscript was written in north-western France, for a member of the Thieuville family, an ecclesiastic of a high enough order to use a pontifical, and this in the second half of the 14th century or perhaps in the first years of the 15th century". This comprehensive expertise will be appended to the book. Very fine manuscript on vellum, decorated with numerous blue-red-and-gold colored lettrines, foliage and foliage scrolls in the margins, accompanied by a few animals (dog, parrot, hare, etc.) in black or red ink calligraphy. Expert : Sylvain LANGLOIS