Beschreibung:

[Otto F. Ege (1888-1951)] Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts [OTTO F. EGE (1888 - 1951)]. Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts. Western Europe: XII-XVI Century [compiled Cleveland, c.1950] The first set, no 1 of 40, of Otto Ege’s most ambitious and famous portfolio collection of manuscript leaves from 12th- to 16th- century Europe, Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts: reappearing on the market after more than forty years in a private American collection. 50 manuscript leaves on vellum [central Europe, 12th-16th century], various sizes (91 x 61mm to 457 x 323mm), some leaves with decorated or illuminated initials and borders, three with historiated initials and one with a large arch-topped miniature, 8 with musical notation (small instances of surface staining or rubbing and marginal tears scattered throughout, the printed description slip loose for f.15); two copies of the 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 (edges of the introductory leaves a little bumped). In the original brown buckram box, no 1 of 40 numbered sets (the edges of the box slightly rubbed, the title plate a little scuffed, the spine slightly split). Provenance: (1) Otto F Ege (1888-1951; his bookplate inside the upper lid). (2) Bruce Ferrini, purchased in 1976 by: (3) Alexander E. Vida, by descent. 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. Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts is the most famous and ambitious of these compilations; conceived around 1947, the edition comprised 40 sets of 50 leaves, taken from imperfect or incomplete manuscripts collected by Ege across the preceding four decades (see Scott Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts: A Study of Ege's Manuscript Collections, Portfolios, and Retail Trade, 2013, pp.44-49, for more information on FOL). Fifty Original Leaves probably represents the full realisation of Ege’s overarching aims, as stated in a 1938 article in the journal Avocations: ‘to search for and make available to schools, libraries, collections, and individuals single leaves or units of mediaeval manuscripts, incunabula works, and fine presses; […] To encourage and inspire by these fragments […]’. The parent manuscripts range from a 12th-century Bible to a 16th-century Book of Hours; the highlight of Fifty Original Leaves is generally considered to be the Beauvais Missal (f.15), a famous illuminated missal owned by Beauvais Cathedral in the 14th century and William Randolph Hearst in the 20th, and our set contains an attractive example with three large illuminated initials. Also of note is f.48, the leaf from a 15th-century Book of Hours illuminated in the Netherlands. Ege would typically have sold the miniature leaves from such manuscripts separately, but our set contains a leaf with a large, arch-topped miniature, perhaps in recognition of this being the first set of 40: the present compilation appears to contain particularly fine examples of the parents manuscripts. Set no 1 was listed as ‘untraced’ by Scott Gwara in 2013, along with nine other of the forty sets: this represents its reappearance on the market after more than forty years. As identified by Ege, the contents of this set are: 1. BIBLE, New Testament, in Latin [Switzerland (?), early 12th century]. 214 x 156mm,