4to. 320 pp., [6, bibliography], colour & b/w illustrations, realised price list included, original red cloth, copy in mint condition, Christie, Manson & Woods International, New York, 1988.

Synopsis

“ Mrs. Doheny made her first purchases of manuscripts in 1931 from Alice Parsons Millard. She bought then a thirteenth-century Bible (lot 147), a Book of Hours for Sarum use (lot 162) and a Petrarch (lot 164). In the same year she bought two items from the Bernard Quaritch catalogue of manuscripts which had just been issued, using Mrs. Millard to order them on her behalf; these were a large French Bible (lot 150) and the calligraphic Epistolae S. Pauli (lot 173). Although her main interest was book collecting, she nevertheless managed to assemble a small, but select collection containing some quite remarkable manuscripts. In the course of cataloguing, the true range and coherence of this collection became apparent. Every aspect of medieval manuscript production is represented, from fine examples of early German monastic books to late Renaissance calligraphic works and the remarkable cut-work book for Anne of Austria (lot 180). The dominant theme of the collection is religious, but in each category the choices were obviously careful and remarkably judicious.” Introduction.