Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 21
PROVENANCE
Written and illuminated for Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg (1490-1545), Archbishop and
Elector of Mainz, Primate of Germany. The manuscripts were initially housed in the sacristy of the
archbishop’s residence in Halle, until Albrecht transferred them to his residence at
Aschaffenburg;
Bequeathed upon his death to the archiepiscopal palace at Aschaffenburg;
The manuscript must have made its way to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from as early as 1758
until at least 1852 (vol. I shows four marks on the clasps and the date letter 1758, and the mark of
the maker Johannes van Leuven (1712-1782); the principal marks on vol. II are fabricated to match
but on the hinge they do show the tiny axe which was the Dutch control mark from 1852 to 1927);
Possibly on the art market in Rome during the 1850s (several sheets from the manuscript were
acquired as a set in Rome in 1856 by the fourth Marquess of Londonderry - see below);
With the London antiquarians Ellis and White, 29 New Bond Street, by 1883;
His Excellency William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919), created Baron Astor in 1916 and then Viscount
Astor in 1917;
By descent to his son Waldorf (1879-1952), 2nd Viscount Astor;
By descent to his son William Waldorf II (1907-1966), 3rd Viscount Astor;
Shortly before the 3rd Viscount’s death the manuscript was placed on deposit at the Bodleian
Library in Oxford (Astor MS. A.24);
Whence withdrawn in 1984 and sold at Sotheby’s in London by order of the Astor Trustees, 21
June 1988, lot 65, where acquired by Tenschert;
With the antiquarian Heribert Tenschert;
From whom acquired by Joost R. Ritman (born 1941), The Netherlands;
By whom sold for the benefit of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam, at Sotheby's
in London, 19 June 2001.
Portraits of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg (1490-1545)
Left: Engraved portrait by Albrecht Dürer, 1523, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;
Centre: Engraved portrait by Albrecht Dürer, 1519, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland;
Right: Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder (red-robed type, c. 1526–27), Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.
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