Vita Christi (Life of Christ)

Accession number: 
MS M.894
Title: 
Vita Christi (Life of Christ)
Created: 
Bruges, Belgium, ca. 1487-1490.
Binding: 
Previously in full old russia over oak boards, rebacked, gilt and gauffered edges; re-bound (after 1943) in blind-tooled brown morocco.
Credit: 
Gift of Mrs. Edgar S. Oppenheimer, 1960.
Description: 
249 leaves (2 columns, 38 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 468 x 338 mm
Provenance: 
Johann II von Oettingen; his arms (vair or and gules, en surcoat azure, surmounted of a saltier argent, the shield ensigned with a nobleman's helmet or and azure; crest, a hound's head erased or, on his left ear an escutcheon gules, surmounted of a saltier or), ?monogram (I[e]h[an]), motto (Ou que ie soye), and loveknot with initials j[ehan] and y[sabeau] on 9; Joannis Baptistae Verdussen sale, Antwerp, 15 July and following days, 1776, cat. pp. 4-5; M. des Roches, his sale (Brussels, 1 December 1768 and following days, lot 1474; Bernard Quaritch, London (cat. 369, 1886, no. 35692); B.T. and Philander L. Cable, Rock Island, Ill.; their sale (New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 11-12 November 1942, lot 236; Harry A. Levinson, New York (cat. 16, 1943, no. 1); Edgar S. Oppenheimer, New York; gift of Mrs. Edgar S. Oppenheimer in memory of her husband, 1960.
Notes: 

Ms. vita christi, written and illuminated in Bruges, Belgium, ca. 1487-1490.
Decoration: 47 2-column miniatures, 3 1-column miniatures, 1 illuminated border with armorials.
M.894 is part III of a 4-part transcription in the translation of the Franciscan cleric Guillaume le Menand; parts I and II are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, MSS fr. 20096, 20097; the location of part IV is unknown.
Artist: Master of Edward IV.

Script: 
bastarda
Language: 
French
Century: 
Classification: