Bibles & sacred texts - facsimiles - Omi

OMI - Old Manuscripts & Incunabula • tel 212/ 758-1946 • fax 593-6186 • www.omifacsimiles.com • immels@earthlink.net Biblical texts, p.50
12th c. Exultet. Rotolo MS 724/3, secolo XII. Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome.
[Rome, Bibl. Casanatense, ms. 724/3]
Scarmagno, 1994. 23 x 685 cm, scroll in 10 sections.
"Exultet" is the first word in the praeconium paschale (annunciation of Easter), the
liturgical song sung on Easter Saturday by the deacon, who announces to the community of
priests and the lay worshippers the Mystery of Redemption, while at the same time carrying
out the ritual of lighting and offering the paschal candle. Read from the tall ambo, the scroll
was considered the most suitable means of helping the faithful to understand better the
meaning of the liturgy. In most of these scrolls the illuminations were placed upside down
with respect to the text from which the deacon read, thus as he unfolded the scroll and let it
fall from the ambo, the scenes could be easily seen by the worshippers rightside up. Among
the scrolls that have survived the ravages of time, the Exultet in the Casanatense Library in
Rome, produced at Benevento or Montecassino in the 9th century, is one of the most
extraordinary in terms of visual impact thanks to the grandiosity of the iconographic cycle,
the refinement of the draughtmanship and the elegance of the color schemes. The scroll,
written in lower-case Beneventan script, is illustrated with scenes—to mention only a
few—from the Old and New Testament (The Parting of the Red Sea, the Crucifixion),
celestial and terrestrial allegories (Turba Angelica, the Earth), and the liturgy itself (The
Lighting and Consecration of the Candle, the Deacon's Prayer). The facsimile edition,
printed with 9 colors on specially manufactured parchment-like paper, and reproducing all
the original flaws and fraying, reassembles the 10 sections of the Exultet into one roll as it
was originally intended. Commentary in It-Eng by Beat Brenk and Guglielmo Cavallo.
Limited edition of 500 copies, with slipcase.
€ 1790
16th c. Codice Valois. Il Vangelo del Principe di Francia. A cura di Isabella Ceccopieri
& Giovanna Lazzi.
[Rome, Bibl. Casanatense, ms. 2020]
[88-8427-022-7] Florence, 2007. 15,7 x 22,4 cm, 312 pp + commenatary
Ms. 2020 is a court Evangeliary of French origin purchased by the Biblioteca Casanatense
around 1900. It contains the passages of the Gospels read during mass in various periods of
the year. Recent studies have shed light on the atelier in Tours that produced it. The
Evangeliary was probably made there around 1526 in the period in which king of France,
Francis I was forced to send his two eldest sons, the Dauphin Francis and the younger
Henry (the future Henry II) to Spain as hostages of Charles V, in exchange for his own
freedom after the defeat of Pavia, which took place on February 24, 1525. The book was
made along with a twin manuscript, today conserved at the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid,
and a third codex, conserved at Chantilly, of a didactic nature, which aimed at educating
the young princes. The 3 codices are joined by an incontrovertible bond, not only for the
presence of the coats of arms of the Dauphin and the Cadets that abound in the decoration,
but also because all 3 can be traced back to the hand of a copyist and illuminator from
Tours associated with the favourite artist of Queen Claude of France. The Casanatense
Evangeliary seems to have been intended for the chapel of the dauphin Francis of Valois, as
the recurrent crest confirms. This jewel of Renaissance illumination depicts delicate scenes
which seem to communicate all the trepidation of its owner, Queen Claude of
France—sovereign as well as mother—who saw her son torn from her. She thus had the
Valois Codex made and given to her son to accompany him in exile, so that through
reading it, he would be educated and initiated on a path of faith which would illuminate
him for his entire life. Commentary by Isabella Ceccopieri and Giovanna Lazzi. Limited
edition of 499 copies bound in full leather with velet case.
€ 7800