Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
Turn the pages with the arrows, keyboard, or a swipe.
Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal / The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Published 1987. Paperback, 64 pp.; 28 cm; text in French and English; illustrated with black-and-white and color reproductions of manuscript leaves. Foreword by Pierre Theberge.
In Good condition. Pale yellow paper covers, front cover illustrated with the Adoration of the Magi (cat. no. 11), blue lettering on front cover and spine. Light bumping and creasing to edges and corners, small indent on front cover, mild surface wear and light scuffing, some color loss along edges and spine. Spine lettering partly chipped, with small tears to the thin top layer of paper along spine. Scattered small dark specks on rear cover. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Bilingual catalogue of a travelling exhibition of 32 medieval liturgical manuscripts and single leaves, twelfth to sixteenth century, prepared by guest curator Elizabeth Leesti for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and circulated across Canada with funding from the National Museums of Canada. Works were lent by the museum, largely from the gifts and bequest of F. Cleveland Morgan (1881-1962), and by McGill University, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and Malcove Collection at the University of Toronto, and the University of Manitoba. Leesti's essay covers manuscripts for the Mass, the Divine Office, the liturgical calendar and private devotion, and their decoration. Each entry gives medium, dimensions, provenance, exhibition history, bibliography and commentary in both languages. Includes leaves from Bolognese graduals and antiphonals attributed by Harry Bober to the workshop of Oderisi da Gubbio, and calendar and Annunciation leaves from French Books of Hours reproduced in color. Contents: Foreword; Lenders to the Exhibition; Acknowledgements; Liturgical Manuscripts of the Middle Ages (Manuscripts for the Mass; Manuscripts for the Divine Office; The Liturgical Calendar; Manuscripts for Private Devotions); Decoration of Liturgical Manuscripts; Notes; Catalogue; Bibliography; Credits.