Blasón General y Nobleza del Universo (General Blazon and Nobility of the Universe) in Spanish, illuminated manuscript on paper by Pedro de Gracia Dei

RARE ILLUSTRATED MANUSCRIPT ON SPANISH HERALDRY. In Spanish, illuminated manuscript on paper, Spain, between 1489 and 1500. Dimensions c.180-185 x 135-140 mm., 33 folios, missing one leaf (f. 9), written in a Gothic semi-textualis close to hybrida in 31-36 long lines, SIX FULL-PAGE MINIATURES, SEVEN THREE-QUARTER PAGE MINIATURES, SIXTEEN HALF PAGE MINIATURES, and TWELVE SMALLER ILLUSTRATIONS in red, blue, green, black, brown, and yellow inks. BINDING: bound in early vellum over thin boards, missing hardware, text-block partially detached from spine, a few modern repairs, overall good condition. TEXT: a meticulously transcribed manuscript copy of the 1489 Coria imprint of Pedro de Gracia Dei's Blasón General y Nobleza del Universo, Spain's first printed heraldic text, and one of Spain's earliest illustrated books. No other manuscript copies listed for sale in the Schoenberg Database. ILLUSTRATION: nearly every double-page opening boasts a large miniature or smaller illustration, all copied by hand directly and carefully, with occasional slight modifications, from the woodcuts in the 1489 Coria incunabula, and colored with red, blue, yellow, green, brown, and black pigments. Almost all the manuscript's illustrations consist of coats of arms, in various orientations, illustrating principles discussed in the text. PROVENANCE: copied in Spain between 1489 and 1500 (based on textual and paleographical evidence), in a somewhat conservative hand by a scribe perhaps commissioned to create a handsomely ornamented copy of key sections of this new heraldic work.; 19th or 20th century inscription, in black ink, "Pertenec[e] a Fran[cisco] Gomes Pereira" (f. 2).; inserted single leaf of folded paper bearing notes about the manuscript in modern Spanish in black ink in a 20th or early 21st century hand.; private collection. CONDITION: Heavy soiling mostly at lower fore-edge recto of each page, plus occasional minor stains throughout., Complete description and images available (TM 981).