On Thursday at Christie’s New York, Illuminated Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the Collection of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg. The 209 lots include a mid-fifteenth-century book of hours illuminated by the Master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus once in the collections of the 4th Earl of Ashburnham, Henry Yates Thompson, Charles Fairfax Murray, and Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. It is estimated at $1.5–2.5 million. The Hours of Anne de Neufville, c.1430, by the Bedford Master, could sell for $1–1.5 million. This volume is in a sixteenth-century fanfare binding. A flashy c.1525 Latin book of hours by the Master of Jean de Mauléon of the Bellemare group is estimated at $800,000–1,200,000. Among the early printed books, the 1484–85 Florence edition of Plato largely printed by the nuns of San Jacopo di Ripoli rates the top estimate, at $200,000–400,000. This is the first complete edition of Plato in any language: the Latin translation of Marsilio Ficino.
New England Book Auctions is selling selections and shelf lots from Madeleine L’Engle’s library, with sales ending on April 20, 22, and 27. Volumes from L’Engle’s library are indicated.
