Illuminated manuscripts from Europe to Central Asia through Greece, the Caucasus, Ethiopia and Arabic regions

STASOV – STASOFF, Vladimir Vasilievich

Slavianskii i vostochnyi ornament po rukopisiam drevniago i novago vremeni. L'Ornement slave et oriental d'après les manuscrits anciens et modernes
A.A. Reinbot for Ilin, Skt. Peterburg, 1884-87. £1,950

A complete copy of this magnificent production of high-level Russian art history, here focusing on manuscript decorations over centuries and many various regions, with many superb examples, from Central Europe, Georgia, Armenia, Egypt, Central Asia etc.

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Spiritual thoughts, presented to a business woman

SIMEON, Novyi Bogoslov [SYMEON, the New Theologian]

Prepodobnogo ottsa nashego Simeona Novago Bogoslova...slovesa zelo polezna [Practical Words]
[Russia, early to mid-19th century]. £2,950

Lovely manuscript of 'Words' still unpublished at the time. In unusually fresh condition on fine blue paper and presented to a Russian business woman.

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Fun, absurd, art and sport in the first years of the URSS

BABKIN K., M. NEKRASOV, A. ALEKSANDROV, V. SVETLISHIN and others

Nash Vestnik. Literaturno-sportivnyi zhurnal Kruzhka Fizicheskogo Razvitiia KFR [Our Newsletter. Literary and Sports Magazine of the Physical Development Club]
Vyshnii Volochek, Kruzhok Fizicheskogo Razvitiia KFR, 1921-23. £13,500

Exceptional manuscript describing sporting and other recreative activities in a small town of Russia immediately after the Civil War. A very entertaining read, mixing much information with humour and many illustrations.

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Impressive manuscript confirmation of nobility

RYNKIEWICZ, Efim and family

Certification of 'szlachta' (nobility) status for the family
Vilnius, 1819 and 1863. £5,950

Striking official documents in manuscript, related to the Rynkiewicz family and its nobility status, in Polish and Russian with fresh watercolour illustrations. A fine item of heraldry, very well preserved its red-morocco binding and large brass seal: rare so.

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La Marseillaise, European operas, and romantic Russian songs

[ROMANOV, Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich] – TSVETKOV M. and Vasilii KITAEV (artist)

Muzykalnyia stsenki. Popuri [Musical Sketches. Potpourri]
Skt. Peterburg, [8 November] 1888. £8,750

An interesting compilation of various international and Russian music, all manuscript, with a lovely watercolour title page and all kept in a refined master binding: a very attractive imperial portfolio made for the Grand Duke. Very rare.

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"Die Reise um die Welt ohne Geld"

POHLIG, Emil

Zu Fuss: Kreuz und Quer Durchs das Ganze Russische Reich [On Foot: Crisscrossing the Whole Russian Empire]
[Germany and Russia, ca. 1897-1903]. £1,250

Unusual extensive manuscript travel account of a German going through Russia and recording his many observations - richly illustrated with a variety of added material. Only partly published in contemporary newspapers.

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Manuscript history in your pocket

[BARRIÉRA]

Tablettes chronologiques de la Monarchie de Russie
[Russia?, late 18th c.]. £3,950

A lovely manuscript booklet finely bound, showing all important events of Russia's history up to 1784 - very unusual, attractive and informative, possibly connected to Tsar Nicholas I.

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Diaghilev collecting debts

DIAGHILEV, Serge

Autograph letter, signed, to "cher Directeur" [Jacques Hébertot]
Paris, 24 June 1924. £3,950

Very good autograph letter by Diaghilev, the celebrated founder of the Ballets Russes. With his bold signature, which is rarely found.

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Out of stock
"A source of utmost importance on a wide range of economic and social issues" (Mankova)

Knigi Uspieniia Preschistoi Bogoroditsy Iosifova Monastyria prikhodnye i raskhodnye denezhnaia monastyrskoi kazny pri kaznachee startse Andronike Moskvitine [Books of Income and Expenditure of Joseph [Volokolamsk] Monastery] of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, under the Treasurer, Elder Andronik Moskvitin]
[Moscow, Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery, c. 1674-75].

Caviar, wine, Venetian cobalt and icon wood for a major monastery near Moscow before the reigh of Peter the Great: a very rare manuscript ledger from 1674, with a wealth of details and fascinating information. No other similar example traced outside Russia.

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Out of stock
Church singing in your pocket

[OLD BELIEVERS]

[Sviattsy] Posledovanie tserkovnago peniia i vseletnago sobraniia.. [Religious Almanac]
[Northwestern Russia, possibly Karelia, mid 19th century].

Appealing small-format religious manuscript, probably written by Russian women scribes, while they were banned from doing it. In contemporary binding, with fresh colours and gilt decorations.

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Out of stock
Church singing in your pocket

[OLD BELIEVERS]

[Sviattsy] Posledovanie tserkovnago peniia i vseletnago sobraniia.. [Religious Almanac]
[Northwestern Russia, probably Karelia, ca. first quarter of the 19th century].

Appealing small-format religious manuscript, most probably written by Russian women scribes, before they were banned from doing it. In contemporary binding and with near-contemporary annotations.

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Out of stock
More than 120 full-page watercolours for some great edifying stories

[OLD BELIEVERS]

[Sinodik]
[Russian Empire, late 18th-early 19th-century].

The Afterllife and its wonders in original watercolours: a wealthy visual catalogue for Russian Old Believers, remarkable for the large quantity of full-page images - one on every leaf.

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Out of stock
After-death trials with demons in vivid colours

[OLD BELIEVERS]

Zhitie prepodobnago ottsa nashego Vasiliia novago spisannoe Grigoriiem ouchenikom ego [Life of Our Father Basil the Younger recounted by his Student Gregory]
[Western Russia, late 18th century].

Beautiful, richly illustrated Old-Believer manuscript, with an unusual style and unusual pinholes in the images. A fine item in its first binding.

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Out of stock
Finely handwritten and illuminated by a "peasant scribe and artist"

[OLD BELIEVERS] – MIATELKOV, Fedor Petrovich

Sviattsy [Religious Almanac]
Vasilevo-Slobodskaia, Nizhegorod. gub., 1887.

Complete with bold miniatures and ornaments: a fine Old-Believer manuscript, signed by the scribe and artist. With contemporary provenance.

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Out of stock
From Kharbin to Asnières

TUROVEROV, Nikolai Nikolaevich, Aleksei ACHAIR, Pavel GUSEV and others

Kruzhok Literaturov Kazakov [Circle of Cossack Writers]: an Archive
Kharbin, Paris, and surroundings, 1937-44.

Fine group of letters and other documents relating to the émigré literary activity before and during WWII - from Kharbin to Paris and its surroundings.

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Out of stock
"Так писали прежде для царей"

[OLD BELIEVERS] – BLINOV, Ivan Gavrilovich (scribe)

Zhitie Feodora Studita [The Life of Feodor Studit]
Russia, 7411 [1903].

Beautiful illuminated manuscript produced by one of the best scribes of the early 20th-century Russia; very fresh and in its original binding.

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Out of stock
Striking full-page lithographs with gold highlights

[BIBLE, Slavonic] –

Kniga Apokalipsis [...]. Sviatago Andreia Arkhiepiskopa Kesariia Kapadokiiskago skazanie Apokalipsi sviatago Apostala Evangelista Ioanna Bogoslova sokrovennyh otkrovenie [The Book of the Apocalypse].
Moskva, Staroobriadcheskaia knigopechat, 7418 (i.e. 1909).

A luxury production of the Old Believers' printing press, with gold highlights, very much imitating their richly illustrated manuscripts.

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Out of stock
Forbidden texts with provenance marks

MIKHAILOV, Kozma Afanasievich and other authors

[A Sammelband of Five Manuscript Works]
Skt Peterburg, [c. 1782-1815].

Very rare manuscript collection of theological and philosophical texts, including some forbidden by Catherine the Great's government in the 1780s. Very well preserved in its contemporary binding. With a poem authored most likely by the compiler of the manuscript and dedicated to the opening of the bronze horseman, the celebrated monument to Peter the Great inaugurated by Catherine in St. Petersburg.

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