“A masterpiece of Flemish book illumination,” said Reiss & Sohn (18% buyer’s premium) of a rare manuscript compendium of texts (right) on chivalry, heraldry, nobility and the rules of war offered in its May 16-18 sales series.
Originally executed in 1481 for Louis de Bruges, Seigneur de Gruthyse, a copy now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, this compendium is also known, with occasional variations, in three other versions – one made for Philip of Cleves, now in Vienna, another at Yale and that sold in Germany last month.