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Finn’s Fine Books

P.O. Box 307, Bowral NSW 2576, Australia
Phone Australia: (02) 4862 1562 Fax: (02) 4862 2161
Phone International: (61-2) 4862 1562 Fax: (61-2) 4862 2161
e-mail: finns@finns-books.com
Web Page: http://www.finns-books.com/~finns

Facsimile and Limited Edition Catalogue Update November 1999

t is our pleasure to be able to provide an update to the Facsimile and Limited Edition volumes available from some of the leading European Publishers. Many of these works are produced in very limited numbers and are extremely popular in Europe and the U.S. To avoid disappointment, could you please indicate your interest in any of the volumes so that we can reserve copies for you. We are pleased to advise that we have been appointed exclusive distributor in the Asia/Pacific Region for Facsimile publications for the Italian Publisher Franco Cosimo Panini. Franco Cosimo Panini currently have one Facsimile in their product range and three under production (details below). Their first Facsimile Publication is The Bible of Borso d’Este, generally regarded as one of the finest illuminated manuscripts ever produced. We would advise that orders for this volume be placed early to avoid disappointment. A similarly well renowned volume of Les Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry published by Faksimile Verlag Luzern sold out very quickly after its publication. For the first time a copy of this newsletter is being made available on our web site. Simply select “What’s New” and then “Latest Newsletter” to retrieve the document. For those who have advised us of an e-mail address, notification of the availability of the newsletter and any major updates to the web site will be

advised electronically, rather than by mail. Of course, if you do require brochures or further information, please let us know and we would be happy to post them to you. We have also made some significant changes to our web site over the past few months with a full price list/order form now available on line. Franco Cosimo Panini The Bible of Borso d’Este The Most Beautiful Book in the World - 15th Century wo names are linked to the "most beautiful book in the world", the illuminated Bible, a property of the Este and University Library of Modena. The first name is that of the Duke Borso d’Este, who, in a manner of speaking, “invented the masterpiece” and entrusted its execution to the calligrapher and illuminators who carried out the work between 1455 and 1461. They completed it with marvellous, painted scenes and figures enriching it with gold, colours, and one might say, with light. As this epoch in history drew to its end, it aimed at the rare and precious, the unique. The printed book was about to be born, and the manuscript was preparing to take its leave

in the most sumptuous and beautiful form it had ever assumed. The other name linked with the Este Bible is that of a contemporary, Giovanni Treccani, a Lombard industrialist and financier. Having heard that the Bible was for sale in Paris, he purchased it in 1923 for a very high price, brought it to Italy and donated it to the Italian people. Two years later, Treccani was to establish in Rome an institute for the preparation and publication of a national Encyclopaedia. He was convinced that in our age there is a fundamental relationship between economics and culture. His purchase of the Bible and the promotion of the Encyclopaedia both arose from the same intention of strengthening this relationship. The Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, founded by Giovanni Treccani, is now presenting and distributing the beautiful, almost miraculous, reproduction of the Borso d’Este Bible. This work, which is absolutely true to the original, was issued by the publisher Franco Cosimo Panini, in co-operation with the Este Library and the University Library of Modena. This initiative is an occasion for the Institute to celebrate the memory of its origins and to intensify its commitment to Italian culture and society. For richness of figurative images and refined decorative solutions the Bible of Borso d’Este represents without a doubt the highest exemplar of quality and splendour achieved in the art of book illustration in Ferrara in the middle of the fifteenth century. The manuscript offers an exhaustive compendium of the Este figurative tradition, which has become even more precious now because of the loss of so many frescoes and panels

painted in Ferrara during the same period. The ample archival documentation which has survived, represented by the registers of the Camera ducale estense and the Comto di dibituri e crededuri, a daily accounts record kept by the illuminator Taddeo Crivelli in the years from 1452 to 1457, gives us precise dates for the various phases in the creation of the work and the names of those who realised it. Between 1455 and 1461, in six years of intense labour, the Lombard calligrapher Pietro Paolo Marone and the illuminators Taddeo Crivelli from Ferrara and Franco dei Russi from Mantua, with a team of artists under their direction, copied and illustrated for Duke Borso d'Este the complete books of the Old and New Testament. Between 1461 and 1462 payment was made to the Ferrarese cartolaro [one who prepares and sells parchment] Gregorio Gasparino for the binding of the codex and its sumptuous cover in panno d'oro cum cornixe et azuli de argento dorato et altri lavori de argento [cloth of gold with frame and lapis lazuli, of gilded silver and other works in silver], unfortunately now lost. If the fact in itself that Borso decided to have the Bible copied by hand at a time when Gutenberg had already produced the first printed copies of the same text could seem unusual, the real reason for the exceptional nature of the manuscript lies in the richness of its decorations. Each of the six-hundred leaves making up the Bible, bound in groups of five sheets and gathered into two volumes, is

elaborately decorated on both front and back. Outstanding for their sumptuousness are the first pages of each book of the Bible, called principi in the documents, for which the artists were paid more because of the increased work involved. All four margins of these pages and the spaces between the columns are decorated with broad filigree borders of flowers, multicoloured leaves, and golden balls, motifs typical of the Ferrarese school, or with geometrical and naturalistic forms. Coats of arms, heraldic devices, cherubs and animals adorn the margins, numerous vignettes appear throughout the text and at the bottom of the pages, where there often appear also elaborate frames or illusionistic architectural structures. The pages inside the text are more soberly decorated, nonetheless they contain smaller but still extremely refined and imaginative borders and one or sometimes two narrative vignettes. The decoration of these pages continues as in a mirror image on the opposite page, so that the reader opening the book is immediately aware of the harmonic rhythm of the ornamentation, imparted also by the artist’s extreme sensitivity to the relationship between the blank spaces left on the parchment, the text written in black ink, and the coloured miniatures illuminated by frequent flashes of gold. The two volumes of the Bible of Borso d’Este are currently shown open in a display case in the Biblioteca Estense. Thus only four pages are visible, and in effect all the richness of their decoration remains hidden to the eye. Yet this has to be the case, because of the risks inherent in any form of consultation of the manuscript. Antique manuscripts are extremely fragile objects, on which atmospheric agents - dampness, light, air pollution - have a decidedly negative

effect. However, the enormous progress made in recent years in the techniques of colour separation and printing makes it possible today to obtain a reproduction of a manuscript that is virtually identical with the original. In publishing terms, facsimile means in fact the reproduction of a test - usually an antique manuscript - which can be definited as identical with the original, as it currently appears, with the sole exception of the support: the original parchment is substituted by an especially prepared paper, which has not been bleached by acids, that approaches as closely as possible the consistency and characteristics of parchment but at the same time is much longer lasting than the paper normally used for the books. The facsimile therefore provides scholars and book-lovers a perfect copy of the original, which can be consulted without exposing the original to risks. The advantages are immediately evident. The availability of a number of copies permits an unprecedented increase in opportunities for study, since a trip to Modena to consult the original is no longer necessary. And too, the fidelity of the copies to the original means that the codex can be conserved under optimal conditions and saved from the inevitable traumas involved in exhibition and consultation. The two tomes which make up the codex are reproduced to their exact size and impagination: the first tome contains 642 pages, of which 621 are completely illuminated, subdivided into one group of four and

31 groups of five pages; the second tome contains 588 pages, of which 580 are completely illuminated, subdivided into one group of two and 29 groups of five pages. A specially prepared paper has been used, which has not been chemically bleached, in order to preserve the brilliancy of the colours and the consistency of the support from the damage brought by the passage of time. The colour separation was done using a variable dot screen, which renders the pattern of printed dots practically invisible, giving an effect equal to the continuous tone of photographic printing. Each tome has a medallion and two fixed clasps on the front plate, as well as two mobile clasps on the straps, all made of 925 silver plated in pure gold. The decorations were reproduced exactly from the original using special silicone moulds, with the final punching being done by hand. Each tome is wrapped in a silk cloth and boxed in a case that can he opened completely. The facsimile is accompanied by two volumes of Commentary, 24.5 x 31.5 cm. in size, presenting a series of essays, hitherto unpublished, on the history of the codex and its miniatures , with a detailed description of each page. The Facsimile edition is limited to 750 copies world-wide. A documentation kit containing a sample page, in the original size, from the The Bible of Borso d’Este Facsimile Volume,

plus an illustrated, 16 page information brochure, is available for $US80. The Bible of Borso d’Este facsimile volume costs $US20,000. Facsimiles in Preparation ranco Cosimo Panini are currently preparing three additional facsimile volumes. Full details will be provided in a future newsletter and will be placed on our web site as soon as details are released. The three volumes are: The Visconti Book of Hours This facsimile volume will be priced at $US11,650. An Herbarium in the Casanatense Library This facsimile volume will be priced at $US5,850. The Montefeltro Bible This facsimile volume will be priced at $US26,200.

Facsimile Editions Ltd. Torah Scroll Torah Scroll Fragment, Treasure of Jews' College , London -10th Century Limited Edition of 126 exact copies of one of the oldest extant fragments of a Torah scroll has been made by the kind generosity of the Khalili Family Trust. The date and country of origin of the scroll is unknown, it is thought that this fragment originates from the Middle East and was written between the 8th and 12th centuries. Written on leather, it was found in the Cairo Geniza and is now held in the library of Jews' College in London. The approximate size of the fragment is: 115 x 50 cm (45 x 19 inches) Each facsimile is supplied float-mounted on acid-free mount board and set in an elegant polished wood frame in dark oak with a discreet gold insert on the inner edge. It measures 97 x 72 cm (38 x 28 ins) and includes a message from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and a full description of the manuscript. Each facsimile is individually numbered on a brass plaque. The Charitable element of the cost of this facsimile may be tax-deductible in your country.

The Torah Scroll Facsimile is priced at $US1,600. The Rothschild Haggadah The Most Sumptuous of all Illuminated Haggadot - 15th Century ritten in northern Italy in 1479, this Haggadah is one of the most exquisite sections of the Israel Museum’s Rothschild Miscellany, a manuscript unrivalled in richness and scope. Medieval Haggadot are among the most extensively decorated of all types of Hebrew manuscript, but the Rothschild Haggadah is exceptional by any standard for its elegant and elaborate illustrations of the Passover story. The original owner, Moses ben Yekutiel Hacohen, must have been a prosperous man who commissioned a manuscript to reflect his sophisticated and learned background, because the manuscript is remarkable not only for the fine quality of its illumination but for the richness of its marginal texts. This copiously illuminated and illustrated Haggadah comprises the Ashkenazi Passover-eve service as we know it today (except for Grace after Meals which was deliberately omitted by the scribe) as the main text in the centre of the page. In the margins is Maimonides’ Hilkhot Hamez Umatsah, ‘Laws Concerning Leavened and Unleavened Bread’ a classical survey of Passover and its ceremonies. In addition, the exquisitely illuminated section devoted to the piyyutim - the liturgical poems and songs ‘for all four evenings of the festival of Passover has been included, in the margins of which is a medieval text on weights and measures.

The texts of the Haggadah and of the piyyutim have been translated by Professor Raphael Loewe (Goldsmid Professor of Hebrew Emeritus, University College London) and Jeremy Schonfield (Mason Lecturer, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies). Two of the sequences of piyyutim translated by Professor Loewe into English verse have never been made available in English before. Jeremy Schonfield has written an informative introduction to the texts in the manuscript and to the themes of Passover. The translation of Maimonides’s treatise on Passover by Solomon Gandz and Hyman Klein is also included. Iris Fishof, Chief Curator of Judaica and Jewish Ethnography, Israel Museum, has provided a foreword in which she gives the background to the acquisition of this manuscript, one of the Israel Museum’s greatest treasures. The facsimile volume is 44 pages, size 210 x 156 approximately. All pages are illuminated with raised burnished gold, flat gold, powdered gold and brilliant, delicate colours. A special paper was milled to reproduce exactly the texture, opacity and thickness of the vellum (uterine) on which the manuscript was written. Gold foil leaf has been applied to a raised surface on each page using a special hand process that closely replicates the burnished gold of the original. Powdered gold was applied to all the illustrations that contain it in the original manuscript. The facsimile is bound in a fine vellum skin. The companion volume is printed on a classical Ingres laid paper, elegantly bound to complement the facsimile. Both volumes are presented in a hand-made

slip-case. The facsimile is strictly limited to 400 numbered and 150 ‘ad personam’ copies. Each volume is discreetly numbered by hand using steel dies and is accompanied by a numbered certificate carrying the seal of the Israel Museum. Sample pages acsimile Editions Ltd. are aware that the price of their volumes lies well outside the reach of many who nevertheless appreciate the beauty and workmanship they represent. They are pleased to be able to offer single mounted illuminated facsimile leaves from three of the most important and beautiful Hebrew illuminated manuscripts that they have reproduced -         - The Kennicott Bible         - The Rothschild Miscellany         - The Barcelona Haggadah. In order to produce a limited edition of 550 copies, slightly more have to be printed to take account of the inevitable waste and damage that occurs during printing, cutting, gilding, ageing and binding. As a result, once the edition has been completed, a limited number of illuminated facsimile leaves are surplus and used by them as samples of their work. These facsimile pages are limited in number, hand gilt and identical to the facsimile. They are extremely popular as original and meaningful gifts for many different occasions. If the gift is intended for a wedding, they will endeavour to find the most appropriate illuminated leaf which can then be framed. Similarly, for a Barmitzvah they can usually supply the actual parsha from the Kennicott Bible. Each leaf is float mounted on to acid-free

board set in a double mount with coloured infill to complement the colour of the image on the page, ready for framing at a cost of $US90 plus postage and packing. Each mounted page is accompanied by a description of the original manuscript and is then wrapped in clear acetate film. Leaves can also be purchased unmounted at a cost of US$70 plus postage and packing. Faksimile Verlag Luzern The Model Book of Giovannino de Grassi The Model for Book Illumination - 14th Century he Model Book of Giovannino de Grassi and his school is the most well-known and most precious manuscript in the library "Angelo Mai" in Bergamo and is generally regarded as the most important example of late Gothic Italian art. Produced towards the end of the 14th century at the Court of the Viscount of Milan, the so called Model Book contains 77 drawings and 24 letters the alphabet of the most supreme quality on 31 parchment pages of unequal size (227 X 170 mm to 260 X 186 mm). The master who produced this perfect manuscript is Giovannino de Grassi. He was a genuine universal-artist: in addition to his occupation as a designer and sculptor he was also Cathedral Master of the magnificent Milan Cathedral. In spite of recent research into the curriculum

vitae of Giovannino de Grassi up until May 1389 his life is a mystery, until his name appears on the pay register during the construction of the Milan Cathedral as a painter. He was probably born between the years 1355 and 1360 and that his training probably took place at the Court of the Viscount in Milan and Pavia. At the height of his creativity Giovannino de Grassi made contact with the most renowned architects of the middle European Gothic cathedrals, Heinrich Parler and Ulrich von Einsingen. This contact strengthened his position in Lombardy and he was contracted to prepare designs along with his other artistic responsibilities. His proficiency and the quality of his artistic achievement followed the grand style being used in Bohemia, the noted "points style" of Parlers. At this time, in addition to the work he was performing on the Milan Cathedral he produced a manuscript in the late Gothic Italian style that would become known as: The Model Book of Giovannino de Grassi. Model Books of this type were an indispensable aid in every artists workshop. In the book the elements of artistic adornment were illustrated and similarly calligraphic initials and the representations of animals. Few artists in the Middle Ages ever had the opportunity to view animals such as leopards, gazelles or even lions in their natural environment. To enable an artist to paint these animals in a realistic form it was essential for the artist to have in his possession a Model

Book which showed the animals in as realistic as possible art works. The paramount artistic meaning as well as the influence of the Model Books on the style and development of art therefore meant that Model Books from a very early date were coveted collector items. Undoubtedly the most well-known and most significant Model Books of this period is the one produced by Giovannino de Grassi - especially because of the uniqueness of his illustrations. Several components make the Model Book of Giovannino de Grassi a landmark in the history of art. From his studio beside the Milan Cathedral through his European orientation and the obvious stylistic approach he was able to influence other centres of courtly art such as Bohemia or the Northern France and Flemish areas. Grassis art works in the 15th Century were in many European museums. The activities of Grassis as managing engineer of the Milan Cathedral presumably also enabled him to create some of the superb cathedral windows. As a designer, planner and sculptor in the last decade of the 14th Century places him as a versatile and skilful artist. He was highly influential in the style directions of contemporary European art and simultaneously revived Italian art immediately before the radical changes brought about by the Renaissance. The Model Book of Giovannino de Grassi is now available from Faksimile Verlag Luzern who have produced a volume preserving all the qualities of the original. All 62 pages produced at the end of the

14th Century are reproduced in facsimile in the original format of 227 x of 170 mm to 260 x of 186 mm. All 77 drawings and the 24 letters of the alphabet are reproduced exactly as the original. All the pages in the facsimile have had their edges trimmed individually to match the original. The binding is an exact replica of the original. A protective box, bound in the finest velours provides protection for the Model Book. The offering consists of the facsimile volume with a velours box and a commentary volume. The edition is limited to 999 copies world-wide. The German language scholarly commentary volume studies each of the miniatures and minutely analyses the magnificent Gothic alphabet. The volume looks at the artist and highlights how his charisma influenced the art of the 15th and 16th Centuries. The Commentary volume has contributions from Orazio Bravi, Director of the Library "Angelo Mai", in Bergamo, Maria Grazia Recanati of the Accademia Carrara, as well as of Maria Grazia Vaccari and Letizia Montalbano. The Model Book of Giovannino de Grassi facsimile is available for $US1,300. The Berlin Hours of Marie de Bourgogne Burgundian - Flemish Book Illumination in Perfection - 15th Century he most beautiful manuscript of the Burgundian royal house is kept in the copperplate-cabinet of the Berlin Prussian Museum. It represents some of the most

fascinating artworks ever produced. In a handy format of a little more than ten by seven centimetres the Berlin Book of Hours of Marie de Bourgogne and the Emperor Maximillian contains 363 pages of richly pictorial work. Its 91 pages include magnificent paintings and ornamentation: 36 miniature paintings within the text, 11 larger size miniatures, also 16 decorated pages and no fewer than 27 full page illuminations. The illuminations are surrounded by borders that are highly imaginative ornamentation of nature, a large number of different flowers, fruits and butterflies among others as well as the initials of Marie and Maximillian incorporated into the magnificent borders. This, and many other initials in addition to the coat of arms leave little doubt as to the original owner. A further evidence is autograph of Maximillian inserted in the text. The Codex must have been created around the time of the marriage of Marie and Maximillian between 1477 and 1482. So that it is one of the earliest examples of Burgundian book illumination that reached its peak during the 16th Century. With graphic floral illuminations in the borders surrounding magnificent detail-rich paintings depicting scenes from the Bible and the stories of the Saints. The artist depicts interior areas and broad landscapes comparable to some of the best artists of the period, developing a contest between traditional art and book illumination.

The "Master of the Marie of Burgundy Book of Hours" was able to keep everything to scale even in such miniature paintings, something even the traditional artists found difficulty in achieving. More than a generation later the great Simon Bening took many of his ideas from The Berlin Hours of Marie de Bourgogne. The book and its delicate paintings had become the basis for the familiar stories repeated by book illuminators for years to come. The illuminations portray believable scenes of the passion and martyrdom, the infant Jesus and Mary. Since the time period depicted in the paintings was far removed from the time of their making, the artist has incorporated features from his own time which gives an inexhaustible mirror into the lives of Marie and Maximillian, their home life, Marie's early death and Maxirnillian's activities in the succession wars. The name of the artist who painted these magnificent miniatures is not known. In a fascinating way Bodo Brinkmann in the commentary volume traces the trails of the "Master of the Marie of Burgundy Book of Hours" and theorises that he may be an already well known "Viennese Master". The most celebrated and puzzling miniature however, is undoubtedly the full-picture of the "Three Living and the Three Deads". It is quite obvious that the figure underneath on the left is a portrait of Marie. Was this representation included through a premonition of the artist or included after her death on the instructions of Maximillian? The Commentary volume investigates this problem and offers a possible solution.

The Berlin Book of Hours of Marie de Bourgogne and the Emperor Maximillian is kept today in the Berlin Prussian Museum under "Signatur 78 B 12". The facsimile edition is limited to 980 copies world-wide and has been produced with the close co-operation of Faksimile Verlag Luzern and Coron Verlag. All 724 pages have been produced in the original format of 10.3 x 7 cm and includes 36 miniature paintings within the text, 11 larger size miniatures, also 16 decorated pages and no fewer than 27 full page illuminations. The book edges are gold covered on all three sides. The binding is in Bordeaux-red velvet with one clasp made out of gilt sterling silver. The facsimile volume is stored in a leather-case. The scholarly commentary volume of this facsimile edition is written by several authors: Prof. Dr. Eberhard König explores the relationship of word and picture; Dr. Bodo Brinkmann explores the confusion over who the artist was; Prof Dr. Fedja Anzelewski investigates the lives of Marie of Burgundy and Maximillian as well as the story of their marriage; Dr. Frauke Steenbock follows the complicated story of the Codex. The commentary volume includes 182 pages with 139 illustrations, partially in colour. A documentation kit containing 2 sample pages, in the original size, from the Berlin Book of Hours of Marie de Bourgogne Fine Art Facsimile Volume, plus an illustrated, 12 page information brochure, is available for $US70. The Berlin Hours of Marie de

Bourgogne facsimile is available for $US6,700. Giunti Publishing Group Codex Arundel The Book that Closes a Century and Opens a New Millennium s the most imposing collection of Leonardo papers after the Codex Atlanticus, the Codex Arundel too is a volume composed after Leonardo’s death with numerous signatures made up of sheets that Leonardo himself kept loose pending their final arrangement: 283 sheets of about 19 X 12.5 cm for a total of 556 pages often compiled as double sheets. Thus a volume arbitrarily formed, in which the sheets have come to be gathered without any criteria of subject-matter grouping or chronological sequence. The only exception is the first signature of thirty sheets that starts out with the famous compilation program dated 22nd March 1508. The codex as a whole is often attributed to this date, but it includes material of the widest chronological scope, ranging from the early and equally famous descriptions of the prehistoric sea monster and of the fearful cavern (c. 1478-80) to the latest projects for the majestic royal residence at Romorantin in France, datable about

1508. Every aspect of Leonardo’s far-reaching involvement with art, science and technology during forty years of his active life is fully represented in the Codex Arundel with documents of fundamental importance made accessible for the first time in their original form and order. The Trustees of the British Library have exceptionally permitted to have the codex taken apart in order to ensure it the same editorial program as applied to the recent facsimile editions of the Leonardo papers at Windsor Castle and in the Codex Hammer. This publication, which concludes the monumental undertaking of the Italian National Edition of Leonardo’s Manuscripts and Drawings, builds on the work of generations of scholars and presents itself as a new phase in the study and interpretation of Leonardo’s extraordinary legacy. Two volumes bound in full leather with gold stamping on the spine. Volume I: Text of about 350 pages with Introduction, tables of concordance, repertories of watermarks, bibliography, text illustrations, transcriptions of Leonardo’s manuscript pages, commentaries and indexes. Volume II: Solander box of 156 plates for a total of 352 facsimiles. Size: 48.8 X 34 X 7 cm (each volume). The Codex Arundel facsimile volume is available for $US5,250.

Moliero Book of Hours of Louis of Orleans Exceptional Illuminations in a Tiny Manuscript - 15th Century Historical Milieu History of the Codex his Book of Hours contains an Augustinian-style calendar that actually indicates the date in which the manuscript was made:1490. Included in the book are the Hours of the Virgin, the penitential psalms, the litany, the Office of the Dead, the stations of the cross, the hours of the Holy Spirit and the Trinity, prayers, readings from the Evangelists, and the Seven Petitions to the Savior. The reference to Saint Louis, the autograph of Louis of Orleans, later King Louis XII, and the portrait on f.11v., seem to indicate that the manuscript belonged to Louis XII for some time though he was not the original patron. Also, the portrait on f.11v. does not depict Louis XII's physiognomy. Most likely, the person represented in the portrait corresponds to the person whose familial emblem, a burning tree with the motto "A prier me lie," is painted in the beginning of the book. Based on the type of decorative marginalia employed in the book, which also appears in the missal of Jean de Foix, Bishop of Comminges (Bibliothèque nationale of France, Paris, Lat. 16827,)

this person was probably from Toulousse. No one knows why the manuscript was finished in Bourges, near the workshop of Jean Colombe. Illuminations/Iconography The illuminations in this tiny manuscript are quite exceptional. The elaborate illustrative layout with sumptuous floral margins, especially in the series of biblical themes, is a trait rarely found in most Books of Hours. The marginalia are often divided into sections with grotesques, birds, animals and other motifs. Durrieu and Laborde relate the illumination in this manuscript to that of several artists including Jean Bourdichon, Jean Colombe and the cities of Besançon and Montluçon. According to Sterligov, this Book of Hours was made in the workshop of Jean Colombe, a hypothesis that Schaefer supports and has even extended to suggest that Colombe's son, Philibert, as well as Jacqueline Raoul of Montluçon and the artist commonly called Coularti, took part in the work. The manuscript belonged to Louis XII, after which its trajectory is unknown until the XVII century when it became part of Pierre Séguier's collection (confirmed by the signature d953 in the manuscript.) Later the book was transferred to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, along with the rest of the Séguier collection. Finally, it was purchased by Piotr Dubrowsky and passed on to the National Library of Russia in 1805. Binding XVIII Century binding. Dark lilac-coloured velvet.

Commentary Volume The commentary volume will include essays written by experts in Medieval History and Art History. It will be written in Spanish and English. National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg, Lat. Q.v.I. 126 Year: 1490 Format: 225 x 155 mm. Pages: 224 Illuminations: 90 Anticipated Publication Date: December, 2001 The pricing of this volume is yet to be determined. Universal Atlas, Diogo Homem An Atlas by the most Fruitful of the Old Portuguese Cartographers - 16th Century his volume is an exact replica of the volume kept in the National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg. It is 40 pages, sized 451 x 294 mm. Dated 1565. Diogo Homem was considered by Armando Cortesão as the most fruitful of the old Portuguese cartographers.This book constitutes an illuminated atlas, formed by eighteen letters, with double page images. Highlighted in the miniatures are many elements of heraldry, illustrating the flags of the respective nations, regions, counties and dukedoms. It is a manuscript that is extensively used experts of the period. In the manuscript the Earth is represented using the knowledge of the cartographer of the time.

The pricing of this volume is yet to be determined. Facsimiles Previously Advised Moliero have a number of facsimiles in production. In our last newsletter we advised details but prices had not yet been determined. We are now pleased to be able to provide these prices. Theatrum Sanitatus This facsimile volume will be priced at $US3,400 (Note: not $US3,800 as previously advised). The Bible of Saint Louis This facsimile volume will be available on subscription at a price of $US13,500 until February 1, 2000. The price after this date will be $US22,500 The Codex of the Monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña This facsimile volume will available on subscription at a price of $US4,050 until December 1, 2000. The price after this date will be $US6,700. The Book of Treasures This facsimile volume will available on subscription at a price of $US3,300 until December 1, 2000. The price after this date will be $US5,500.

Scriptorium Documentation Kits e now have available Documentation Kits for many of the Scriptorium Facsimiles. These very popular kits have an illustrated brochure giving details on the manuscript including its characteristics and history and information on how the facsimile was produced and its details. Also included are sample pages from the facsimile suitable for reference or framing. The Salamanca Armorial Documentation Kit The documentation kit contains 2 sample pages, in the original size, from the The Salamanca Armorial Facsimile Volume, plus an illustrated, 10 page information brochure and is available for $US75. Ordinations and Ceremonials of the Coronation of the Monarchs of Aragon Documentation Kit The Documentation kit contains 1 sample page, in the original size, from the Ordinations and Ceremonials of the Coronation of the Monarchs of Aragon Facsimile Volume, plus an illustrated, 8 page information brochure and is available for $US75. Genealogy of the Spanish Monarchy Documentation Kit The documentation kit contains 4 sample pages, in the original size, from the Genealogy of the Spanish Monarchy

Facsimile Volume, plus an illustrated, 10 page information brochure and is available for $US85. De Balneis Puteoli Documentation Kit The documentation kit contains 2 sample pages, in the original size, from the De Balneis Puteoli Facsimile Volume, plus an illustrated, 12 page information brochure and is available for $US75. Finn’s Fine Books P.O. Box 307 Bowral NSW 2576 Australia Or phone fax or e-mail us at: Australia Phone (02) 4862-1562 International Phone (61-2) 4862-1562 Australia Fax (02) 4862-3462 International Fax (61-2) 4862-3462 e-mail finns@finns-books.com Further details of the volumes highlighted in this newsletter and other volumes available can be obtained from our web site: http://www.finns-books.com/~finns