Club Bibliófilo Editorial

Facsímiles de Códices Medievales

Apocalypse of the Dukes of Savoy (XV Century)

Apocalipsis Figurado de los Duques de Saboya (S. XV)

El Escorial, the Royal Monastery Library, Cod. Vitr.1.

Started in 1428 by Jean Bapteur and Peronet Lamy, left it unfinished in 1435. Fifty years later, Jean Colombe finished it. By inheritance came to the king Philip II, who kept it in his personal Library of the Monastery of El Escorial. During the Civil War, 1936 it was stolen along with other famous codices,but was recovered in 1962 (ABC Journal). It is without doubt one of the most beautiful manuscripts of our heritage.

Read more...

The Alhambra in the Nineteenth Century. Plans, Elevations, Sections and Details of the Alhambra Palace. 1842.

With a format of 68 x 49 cm and 240 pages, this book edited by architect Owen Jones in 1842, with a run of 100 copies, takes a view of the Alhambra in the nineteenth century through 29 Prints, 24 Woodcuts, 150 Arabic inscriptions and 29 Chromolithographs. It is the first time that used this technique in the composition of a book. The text of Pascual de Gayangos contains the origins of the Alhambra until its conquest by the Catholic Monarchs. Club Bibliófilo Versol has a circulation of 150 copies.

Read more...

Anglo‐Norman Martyrology (XIII Century) Picture Book of Madame Marie.

Bibliothèque nationale de France, NAF 16251.

This manuscript is one of the few survivors of the Gothic of his time. In the first folios contains a Summary written in Anglo‐Norman and a Cistercian Calendar. From folio 18, a Vita Christi in pictures, and from folio 57v to 104r a Martyrology of the Saints also in pictures, because all the text is a small sign on the bottom edge.

Read more...

Book of Hours of Anne of Brittany (XV Century)

Facsimile Edition SOLD OUT. There is a complete edition version Bibliophile Collection .

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lat. 9474. Curmer Edition, 1861.

"Made by Jean Bourdichon, the making of the Great Hours is unparalleled: it is of a totally different spirit botanical accuracy, and encyclopedic, and graceful effect, very different from the Flemish manuscripts" (François Avril). The 337 plants painted gold background way of fringes, appear to be culled from some "Dioscorides" property of the queen, as almost all are medicinal plants.

N. E: Para la Edición facsímil se ha tomado la fotografía de las Litografías de Lemercier, editadas por L. Curmer, Paris, 1861.

Read more...

Book of Hours of Leonor de la Vega (XV Century)

National Library of Spain, Cod. Vitr. 24‐2.

The manuscript was performed by the Flemish master Guillermo Vrelant (1410 ‐1481). It came to power Garcilaso de la Vega, father of the poet Garcilaso, and was inherited by his sister Eleanor. The full‐page miniatures, many and varied, are very homogeneous and superior artistic quality. The rims are very bushy, with very varied vegetables, flowers, little monsters and skits, demonstrating the unparalleled master's technique.

Read more...

Book of Hours of Charles V (XV Century)

Facsimile Edition SOLD OUT. There is a complete edition version Bibliophile Collection .

National Library of Spain, Cod. Vitr. 24‐3.

This manuscript is, according Durrie, "Work particularly interesting for the history of illuminated manuscripts." In its 336 pages, 320 are richly illustrated with paintings of high value and very striking pictorial and sensationalism, making this codex is like a jewel exceptional. It contains, likewise, many decorated miniatures (over 700) in many varied fringes. It includes several double page (the Entry into Jerusalem victorious Heraclius the Cross of Christ, Victoria of David over Goliath or The meeting of the three gentlemen of Death), which would be enough to qualify the codex as a masterpiece.

Read more...

History of the Trojan War. Histoire de la Destruction de Troie la grand (XV Century)

Bibliothèque nationale de France, NAF 24920.

This time, the heirs of art by Jean Colombe put faces, landscapes, buildings, battles, shipwrecks and countless items before our eyes, and make it dramatically, with paintings that are nearly two feet high, with bright colors
and gold decorations. Never had represented something like this manuscript, in French medieval miniature. (François Avril).

Read more...

The Crusades. Les Passages D'Oultremer (XV Century)

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fr. 5594.

Sébastien Mamerot, author of the largest medieval work written on the Crusades, begins: "Short Treatise entitled Overseas Expeditions made by the French against the Turks and other Overseas Saracens and Moors" (f. 5r). But he wrote nearly six hundred pages in two columns wide format. The owner,Louis de Laval, elected painter of Bourges Jean Colombe, who illustrated his first manuscript pagan (François Avril). The result is a monumental work, both for its content in the text and in the illustrations composed in several scenes each.

Read more...

The Crusades. The Siege of Rhodes (XV Century)

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lat. 6067.

The small island of Rhodes, south of Turkey, was one of the few Christians territories who Mohamed II had not yet conquered after the taking of Constantinople in 1453. The Manuscript includes the siege of the Turkish army in 1480 and the defense of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The account written by Guillaume Caoursin, vice chancellor of the Order and eyewitness to the events, faithfully narrates harassment, battles, treaties, treachery, murder and the great political and diplomatic skills of the Master to resolve the conflict.

Read more...

The Crusades. The Chronicles of the Crusades (XV Century)

Vienna, Österreichische National Library, Ms. 2533.

The Chronicles of the Crusades Abbreviated or summarized, relate, as a synopsis, the facts of the "crusaders" and founding saga and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The manuscript, in its primitive conception was a bummer: "tournant in manière de rôle" and then cut to bind it. Hence its wide shape and landscape.

Read more...

The Book of Punishment and Documents of Sancho IV the Brave (XIII Century)

Castigos e Documentos de Sancho IV el Bravo (S. XIII).
National Library of Spain, Cod. 3995. Vitr. 17‐8.

The Punishment Book, also known as "The Book of Punishment and documents for better living", written in prose, are an example of didactic and moralizing literature of the thirteenth century, consisting of sermons and apologists sacred culled from various sources and profane. It was written, or drawn, by Sancho IV the Brave, king of Castile, and dedicated to his son Ferdinand IV "the Summoned". Some illustrations are inspired by the Cantigas of Alfonso X, completed seven years earlier.

Read more...

Beatus of Saint‐Sever (XI Century)

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lat. 8878.

The Saint‐Sever Beatus is, by dating (c. 1070), lighting style and writing, the first of the "Beatus Romanesque". There is speculation about whether Picasso was inspired by this manuscript, especially in the illustration of the Flood Drowning (f. 85) to compose the Guernica sketches (Peter Klein).

Read more...

The Facundus Beatus. Beatus of Fernando I and Sancha (XI Century)

National Library of Spain, Cod. Vitr. 14‐2.

Beatus of Ferdinand I and Sancha, also called "Beatus of Facundus", is the best preserved and most elegant of the Spanish Apocalypse called Beatus (John Williams). Some authors argue that it is the last of the "Beatus Visigothic‐Mozarabic." It was from its composition in 1047 when Spain reached Cluny reform and Romanesque art illustrated manuscripts.

Read more...