Lot 485D email save

Confraternity of Santo Amaro. [Compilation

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illuminated manuscript in Portugese and Latin (4pp. extracts from the four Gospels), on vellum, 20 numbered ff., with index on paper f. at end, title within ornate ink border with some decoration in red, chapter headings in red, up to 26 lines with red ruled borders, written in blank ink in a handsome gothic hand, the Gospel extracts in italic, several pp. left blank and filled with later additions in several hands, full-page miniature in colours and gold, depicting Santo Amaro within an architectural border, wearing a brown habit, holding an open book in both hands and with a staff under one arm, standing on a rocky knoll, in the background a landscape with a ruined church and a mountain, in the distance a glimpse perhaps of paradise surrounded by a wall and lit by the setting sun, the border including severed arms and legs in gold on a blue background, the saint's face and part of his body rubbed, presumably by devotional fingers, the upper margin trimmed with slight loss to border, some annotations in margins, some soiling and slight creasing, later paper endpapers, handsomely bound in eighteenth century full red crushed and polished morocco binding, ornate gilt tooled borders with floral decoration and two coats of arms on covers, that on front cover including a severed leg reminiscent of the miniature's border, silver metal lattice clasps, g.e., folio, Alcântara, Lisbon, 1575 (additions up to1628).

***A fine illuminated miniature. Includes statutes of the confraternity, alms, expenditure and expences of the order, extracts from the Gospels, with later documents, etc, several with many signatures added, including 'Correa da Sousa'. Santo Amaro, a popular saint particularly in the Iberian Peninsula and South America, who acording to tradition sailed over the sea to an earthly paradise. The Chapel of Santo Amaro (Alcântra) was built in 1549 and became a national monument in 1910..

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