Miniature from the Holy Grail Romance, Antique Print, 1849

A bordered page from a romance of the Holy Grail: a blue and gold initial opens a block of French Gothic text, and above it a miniature in which figures confront one another in a landscape. The lettering gives the date as the second half of the fifteenth century and names the source as the Saint Graal, manuscript 6760 in the Bibliotheque nationale de Paris. The text beneath the picture is legible and tells of enemies who saw and marvelled.

The sheet comes from Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, the great illustrated survey of medieval and Renaissance life edited by Paul Lacroix and Ferdinand Sere and published in Paris from the Administration at 5 rue du Pont-de-Lodi. This is Tome Second, dated 1849 on its own title page. The colored drawings were made by A. Rivaud and his colleagues and printed in chromolithography by the Paris house of Lemercier, then the finest color printer in Europe.

Arthurian subjects sell to a readership quite separate from the manuscript trade, and the Grail is the best known of them. The plate gives a buyer a complete medieval page, miniature, initial and text together, which is more satisfying than a cut out miniature. It suits a library or a room with a literary theme.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.