Beaupre Antiphonal Leaf Sells for $38,400

Brisk bidding at the Freeman's sale of Western Manuscripts on July 8, 2025, took place for lot 31, an illuminated cutting of an initial ‘P.’  From one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Books of the Middle Ages, this cutting showed Saint Bernard with two nuns from the so-called Beaupré Antiphonals, named for the female convent for which they were made.  The artist-scribe, Johannes de Toussens, was a Cistercian monk who is depicted in one of the surviving volumes of the Choir Book set now in the Walters Art Museum.  In the nineteenth century, the volumes were owned by the Victorian polymath John Ruskin (1819-1900), who called them “noble old armorial music books.”  Ruskin separated the volumes into smaller units and gave pages away to his friends.  Then, in 1863, a fire in London destroyed some of the volumes; this miniature survived the fire.  Whereas the extant volumes are mostly in museums, few leaves ever appear on the open market, and this one came from an American Collection formed in the early part of the 20th century.

We are currently inviting consignments of individual lots and whole collections of medieval and early modern manuscripts for the Summer Sale of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures in July 2026. Consignments of incunables are also welcome. Click here to consign with us.