Works by Nicholaus Kratzer; England (London), 1537

Title

Works by Nicholaus Kratzer; England (London), 1537

Shelfmark

MS. Lat. misc. f. 51

Place of origin

English, London (?)

Date

1537

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

i + 53 leaves

Hands

Written by Peter Meghen, in a humanistic hand

Decoration

The manuscript is decorated with a series of delicately painted small initials in a style showing Italian influence. They are in gold on red or blue alternately, decorated in white, sometimes with figures, or flowers and foliage, sometimes merely stippled to give an effect of shading. There are 3-line initials on fol.3 (the decoration includes two naked figures apparently supporting the initial itself) and fol.4 (with decoration of flowers and leaves); fol.25, 2-line initial with figures of three men. There are further 2-line initials for chapters of the first work and subdivisions of the second, and a few one-line initials for examples, etc.

Binding

Original binding in pasteboard covered with worn black velvet, traces of two ties.

Acquisition

Bought at Christie's sale, 15 February 1978, lot 113.

Provenance

There is no early evidence of provenance, but the binding and the conjunction of dates (1537 in the colophon, 1538 in the examples) suggest that, despite the lack of a preface, this manuscript, too, may have been intended as a New Year's gift for King Henry VIII. Kratzer (1487 - after 1550) was astronomer to Henry and had been in his service since at least 1519 (see J.B. Trapp, H. Schulig Herbruggen, ‘The King's Good Servant’. Sir Thomas More 1477/8–1535, Exhibition catalogue, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1977, nos.187–8 with bibliography). For other manuscripts copied by the scribe Peter Meghen from Brabant (who also copied MS.Bodley 504), see J.B. Trapp, ‘Notes on MSS. written by Peter Meghen’, The Book Collector XXIV (1975), 80–96. This is his latest dated manuscript.

In the upper outer corner of the pastedown, in ink, is ‘H’ (? 18th cent.).