Bound For the Heart...

You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me. -- C.S. Lewis

We are avid readers here in Museville. Nothing quiets the world like a weighty book in hand, a big, soft chair and a hot cup of tea. The hustle and bustle of life fades as the lovely departure commences into distant lands, others hearts, dreams and lives. Their love stories, history and adventure unfold as you lose yourself within the pages.

I have books stacked in every room of my house. On the shelves, the tables, under the tables... One of my guilty pleasures is collecting breathtakingly beautiful books -- everything is art, isn't it? Your soul begs to be surrounded in beauty. Life is just better inundated in beauty.

Well, how lucky am I when the book doubles up with the absolute obsession I have with ancient reliquaries and antique religious art...

Wait until you see these.
You might want to sit down.

SPANGENBERG, JOHANNES. Postilla. 1794 (Silver binding). The information was written in olde German, but translate loosely to: Interpretation of the Epistles and gospels, on all Sundays and most distinguished celebrations by the Gantz year, written in pieces for Christians. Luneburg, Ster niche Buchdruckerey, 1794.

Manuscript painting and bookbinding: Dionysius the Areopagite, Works 14th Century
Constantinople between 1403-1405. Binding: Paris, circa 1360 and end of the 14th, rebuilt in the 17th century. Offered by the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus to the abbey of Saint-Denis

Gospel of Saint Aure
9th century school of Reims. Binding of ivory and silver.

Coptic Binding, 7th or 8th Century. Detached from: The Gospels, in Coptic.
Illuminated manuscript on vellum
Egypt: Monastery of Holy Mary Mother of God, Perkethoout near Hamuli, the Fayum, 7th or 8th century. Goatskin over papyrus boards; decorated with onlaid panels of red leather tracery sewn to a gilded leather ground, with plain edges
MS M.569. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1911

BIBLE: PSALMS, WITH PETRUS LOMBARDUS: THE GREAT GLOSS

Binding: Paris, France, c. 1200, massive wooden boards with metal fittings, sewn on 5 thongs, with a 15th c. painting 21x13 cm of the Flight into Egypt by the Master of the Osservanza, deriving loosely from Fra Angelico’s panel in the Museo di San Marco, Firenze. It is held in place by 4 strips of copper gilt, Romanesque Mosan work with repeated stamped impressions of a palmette within an arch, struck from stamps used in the workshop of Nicholas of Verdun and his circle in Köln (ca. 1181-1230). 4 metal gilt beaded-edged frames divided into rectangular compartments enclosing purple velvet, lower cover with red velvet. The original central enamel or ivory plaque was replaced by the present Master of the Osservanza panel in 1724.

Treasures of the heart. There just aren't words. So I'll just leave it at that.

Have a beautiful weekend.
xo isa

________

CREDITS
photo1: Bromer Booksellers, photo 2-4: RMN Grandpalais, photo 5: stmaterne, photo 6: RMN Grandpalais, Photo 7: Schoyen Collection. Information compiled by Yamo Bato.