Freeman’s will present its third annual Western Manuscripts and Miniatures sale on July 9, 2026, marking the firm’s most significant offering in the category to date. Speaking to the importance of the offering Christopher Brink, Associate Vice President, Head of Sale, Senior Specialist, Books & Manuscripts commented “This sale brings together exceptional manuscripts, illuminated leaves, and miniatures from some of the finest private collections in Europe and the United States. We’re pleased to offer collectors a rare opportunity to acquire works that have shaped our understanding of medieval art, learning, and devotion.”
 
Items include Workshop of the master of the Missal of Travaillot (active c. 1480–1500) Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France, Chaumont and Langres, c. 1482–1497]. (est.$100,000 - $120,000)

Also, the Missal of Jean d'Amboise (est. $100,000-$120,000), a rare, illuminated manuscript commissioned for Jean I d'Amboise, peer of France and bishop-duke of Langres (1482–1497). As one of the few surviving witnesses to manuscript illumination in late fifteenth-century Champagne, the missal offers remarkable insight into the region's artistic production during this period.

Another standout is a spectacular illustrated Romanesque manuscript, almost certainly produced at Lambach Abbey (est. $150,000 - $200,000), a foundational center of medieval art, culture, and intellectual life. This beautifully preserved volume—containing Origen’s homilies on Genesis and Exodus—features extensive illustration, including a full-page miniature, and retains its original medieval binding bearing the abbey’s historic shelf mark. From the Workshop of San Domenico (active Bologna, first quarter of the 14th century) is a leaf with a historiated initial ‘D’ of Saint John the Baptist from a Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy, Bologna, c. 1310–1330] (est. $15,000 - $17,000)

The sale also includes notable text manuscripts, such as a twelfth-century work by Peter the Venerable (est. $15,000 - $20,000) on heretics, formerly in the collection of medievalist Giles Constable (d. 2021), one of only three known copies of an important work by Peter the Venerable and from the celebrated library of Parc Abbey.
 
Leading the selection of leaves is an outstanding group from Robert McCarthy's celebrated collection. Previously published and widely recognized, these Romanesque and early Gothic works include illuminated sheets and cuttings from monumental Atlantic Bibles, a rare Mozarabic Spanish miniature (est. $9,500 - $11,500) with related examples held in major museum collections, and an Italian cutting from the Lives of the Saints attributed to the Master of Monza (est. $10,000 - $12,000).

Additional highlights include Pink Canopies Group (Bruges, active c. 1390-1400) with English Illuminator, a Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Southern Netherlands, Bruges ?, c. 1390–1400 and England c. 1400] (est. $120,000 - $150,000) also Master of the Lee Hours (Ghent and Bruges, active c. 1450-1470), The “de Saulx” Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Southern Netherlands, Bruges, c. 1460] (est. $90,000 - $100,000) and Master of the The Apocalypse of Aymar de Poitiers (Savoy, active c. 1480–1490) Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France, Dauphiné, perhaps Grenoble, c. 1480–1485] (est. $85,000 - $95,000)
 
For more information contact Freeman’s Communications at (312) 280-1212 or press@freemansauction.com.