You may remember Erik Kwakkel or Leiden University from earlier posts like A Fantasy Tip From History: Medieval Spam. Erik recently shared the incredible history of St. Albans Bible. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
A Horror Story
In 1964, the New York rare book dealer Philip Duschnes (d. 1970) bought and subsequently broke a splendid medieval Bible produced in early-fourteenth-century Paris.
Leaf from the St Albans Bible auctioned at Christie’s on 10 July 2019 (now part of the McCarthy Collection). Source
Every page is adorned with exuberant decoration, usually with gold leaf. With so much beauty on each page, to Duschnes the manuscript must have seemed ideal for breaking and selling by the leaf. In 1965, he began offering individual leaves for sale in his catalogue 169, stating that others from the same manuscript were available. Cut to order.
Yikes!
Breaking a book
St…
View original post 587 more words
Legends of Windemere 
Many thanks for the share, Charles! Apparently it’s common practice to desecrate books like that, as they can fetch more that way. Sigh…
LikeLike
You’re welcome. For some reason, I’m not surprised about it being common.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How sad!
LikeLike