A February 1261 letter with the seal of an Irish bishop relaxing twenty days of penance for those praying for the soul of Ralph de Sumertone, formerly canon of St Mary’s Priory, Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, and the souls of his parents is lot 77 at Christie’s online sale of the Collection of Marvin L Colker. The sale runs until December 12 and the letter is estimated at £2,500-£3,500. Written in Latin on vellum it contains the large green wax vesica-shaped pendant seal of William de la Hay, bishop of Connor [Ireland] (1260–62), depicting a full-length standing bishop holding a crozier and blessing, with the legend ‘Willelmi dei g[ratia Con]nerensis episco[pi]’.
Marvin L Colver (1927-2020) was Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia, world-renowned palaeographer, classicist and author of the first comprehensive catalogue of the manuscripts at Trinity College Dublin (a herculean endeavour that took over 30 years), and collector of manuscripts. This sale is a testament to the breadth and depth of his collecting, spanning more than 1,500 years of written history and subject matters ranging from astrology to music, literature, medicine, Church history, humanism, liturgy, Hebraica, law and theology. There are leaves from important manuscripts such as the St Albans Abbey Bible, the Hungerford Hours, the Chester Beatty Book of Hours; manuscripts in Catalan, Picard, French, Italian and Hebrew; examples of Beneventan, Carolingian, Visigothic and Scandinavian script; and rare and unusual texts and authors.
UPDATE: THE SALE TOTALLED £720,342