Homiliary. - Kane, Grenville, 1854-1943; Voynich, Wilfred Michael, 1865-1930; Princeton University. Library ([France] : [producer not identified])
Script: Protogothic, by several scribes.
Decoration: Each sermon thema opens with a 4- to 5-line I of red or light blue with simple pen flourishes of the opposite color, followed at the sermon incipit by a 5- to 16-line parti-colored red and dark-blue initial, squared out with red and dark blue pen flourishes with wisps of pen flourishes trailing a little into the margins. The first word “Principium” following the rubric on fol. 8r is in alternating light blue and red Romanesque capitals three lines tall. The added text on fol. 203v was also given a 2-line dark-blue initial H.
France, 17th century. Brown calf over pasteboard; sewn on 5 bands; endbands with no secondary sewing. The Clermont-Tonnerre arms, with collars of the orders of St. Michael and the Holy Ghost, are gold-stamped on the leather covering the upper and lower boards.
Kane MS. 17, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
Kane MS. 17 is of unknown early provenance. In the 18th century, Gaspard de Clermont-Tonnerre (1689-1781), marquis de Vauvillars and comte d'Epinac, owned the manuscript. It was manuscript no. 429, 17th or18thcentury, judging from a note in the upper margin of fol. 1r. The Rev. Henry Drury (1778-1841) of Harrow acquired the manuscript and wrote his name, shelf mark (“C.7.1”), and a contents description on the front pastedown. The manuscript was sold at Sotheby's, London, in 1827. The manuscript was later acquired by the London and New York bookseller Wilfrid M. Voynich (1865-1930), who sold it to Grenville Kane (1854-1943), of Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Kane's bookplate and his characteristic price code and date “1920” are written on the front pastedown. The Kane Collection was acquired by the Princeton University Library from Kane's heirs in February 1946.
Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library
Keywords: Catholic Church -- Sermons -- Early works to 1800.; Clergy -- Office -- Sermons -- Early works to 1800.; Homiliaries -- Manuscripts; Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern) -- France; Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern) -- New Jersey -- Princeton; Illumination of books and manuscripts; Sermons; Armorial bindings