• Mirror of the blessed life of Jesus Christ

Extent:
  • iii, 117, iii : parchment ; 320 x 215 mm
Date:
  • 1425-1475
Language:
Author:
  • Love, Nicholas, active 1410
Description:
  • Script: Anglicana formata.
  • Decoration: two 2-line initials A in gold, blue, green, and rose, and pink with three-quarter foliate border for list of chapter running titles, fol. 4. Latin and English scriptural quotations in red within the text.
Binding note:
  • England, 19th century; binding by Francis Bedford (1800-1884), who operated his own bindery in London from 1850.
Provenance:
  • Kane MS. 21 is of composite origin. The text of Nicholas Love's Mirror was written by one scribe and decorated in the London area around 1430, while fols. 1v-3r and fols. 114v-117r are the work of two other scribes, the third perhaps being from Norfolk. The manuscript was sold at Sotheby's, London, at a sale beginning on 15 November 1911. Francis Edwards Booksellers, established in London (1855), purchased the manuscript at the Huth sale. In 1917, Grenville Kane (1854-1943), of Tuxedo Park, N.Y., purchased the manuscript from the London and New York antiquarian bookseller Wilfrid M. Voynich (1865-1930). Kane's bookplate is on the inside front cover. The Kane Collection was acquired by the Princeton University Library from Kane's heirs in February 1946.
Source acquisition:
  • Acquired; Estate of Grenville Kane; 1946.
Former owner:
  • Kane, Grenville, 1854-1943
Contributor:
  • Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Kane MS. 21.
References:
  • Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, pages 46-50
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