Rare medieval manuscript containing depictions of King Arthur and Merlin expected to sell for nearly $4 million in auction

A rare medieval manuscript will be sold via Christine’s auction house in London on July 8. (Christie's Auction)

A rare medieval manuscript that includes depictions of King Arthur and Merlin is expected to sell for nearly $4 million.

The rare manuscript, the Clermont-Tonnerre Grail, will be sold via Christie’s auction house in London on July 8.

It is a 14th-century illuminated manuscript of medieval romances that features the stories of the Holy Grail, Merlin and the young King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

‘Greatest of all medieval romances’

According to Eugenio Donadoni, senior specialist for Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Books and Manuscripts for Christie’s auction house, the manuscript comes from a long line of private owners for 700 years.

“This is a rediscovered manuscript of one of the greatest of all medieval romances,” Donadoni wrote in an email to CTVNews.ca.

Donadoni says the tales in this manuscript are fundamental to Western culture, highlighting the book is “richly illustrated.”

It contains 126 illustrations, many enriched with gold leaf, that depict the adventures of Joseph of Arimathea and his companions as they take the Holy Grail to England, the story of the mythical sorcerer Merlin shape-shifting into different forms and the early deeds of King Arthur and his knights as they conquer the Saxons, according to Donadoni.

“There are so many appealing angles to this manuscript: historical, art-historical, textual and cultural,” Donadoni said. He also says there’s a Christian element to the manuscript.

As a result, it should interest various institutions and other private buyers.

“It has been a privilege to have been able to work on a manuscript of this rarity and calibre: the stories are universal and it has so much still to offer in terms of research and enjoyment,” Donadoni said.

“As Merlin himself prophesies in the text itself: ‘And the story will forever be told and gladly heard for as long as the world lasts’.”

Other rare manuscripts

This manuscript is among other rare books that will be sold at this auction.

Other books that will be sold contain a small painted illustration by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci and an early witness of Admonitio Generalis from the time of Charlemagne, who was crowned as first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. There are also two collections of Romanesque manuscripts and illuminated Books of Hours.

The auction also includes a collection of atlases and maps from private European collections.

It includes Grand Atlas, the French edition of Blaeu’s monumental 12‑volume and Geographia, the 1508 Rome edition of Ptolemy. The collection of atlases and maps also include manuscript portolan charts — hand-drawn sea maps — of the Mediterranean and the North and Baltic Seas.

Additionally, the auction includes a collection of books owned by Antonio Bonchristiano.

One of the book’s includes the Dogmersfield–Rosebery copyz of Hamilton’s Campi Phlegraei, which depicts illustrations and descriptions of the volcanic eruptions near Mount Vesuvius in Italy.

Another book up for auction is d’Hancarville’s Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities, which depicts ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan scultures.

A collection of three handwritten letters written by Albert Einstein in relation to the theory of general relativity as well as other letters written by Issac Newton, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx and Horatio Nelson are also included in this auction of rare manuscripts and books.