Legenda sancti Francisci (after 1260). Vellum leaf from a manuscript of the Middle Dutch prose translation.

[BONAVENTURA (St.)]

€ 800 / 1.000

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Lot description

[Low Countries, 15th c.?]

Large leaf (ca. 30 x 16 cm), with rubricated heading, chapter initials, and some sentence initials.

In good condition, usual soiling and staining.

Leaf from an unrecorded (?) manuscript of the Middle Dutch prose version of the Life of St Francis by St Bonaventura (1217-1274). This text was first translated in verse by Jacob van Maerlant (in 1276-1283). A later prose translation is recorded in a number of Middle Dutch manuscripts and printed editions (1st: Antwerp, G. Leeu, 1491). The text of the present fragment (some 150 ll.) agrees (apart from the usual dialectical and orthographic variation) with ff. 116ra l.5 - 117rb l. 11 of Hs. 1018 (Hs. 1 M 9) of the Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht (photos 240-242 of the digitized copy).
With thanks to Prof. R. Sleiderink (UAntwerpen) for pertinent suggestions regarding the text, and the link to the Utrecht manuscript.
Ref. J. Deschamps, Middelnederlandse handschriften uit Europese en Amerikaanse bibliotheken (1972), pp. 62-63.