Illuminated Medical Manuscript at Auction

A star lot at Bloomsbury Auctions' sale in London this week is the McKell Medical Almanack, an illuminated manuscript on parchment that offers medical-astronomical prognostications for the calendar year (it was commissioned in 1445). What makes it special, aside from its beauty, is that the "long-lost" manuscript was last recorded and seen about sixty years ago, according to the auctioneer. It had been owned by Col. David McCandless McKell (1881-1962) of Cillicothe, Ohio, and was exhibited at the University of Kentucky library in March 1958, but it has been untraceable since. Scholars have been getting by with a black-and-white reproduction.

The estimate is £60,000-80,000 ($93,700-125,000). 

Image via Bloomsbury Auctions.