Christie’s Valuable Books and Manuscripts auction in July will feature a holy grail, both figuratively and literally in the form of a 13th-century illuminated manuscript devoted to “the epic tale of the quest for the Holy Grail, the story of Merlin and his diabolic birth, and the adventures of King Artur and the Knights of the Round Table.” The highlight lot of the sale is estimated to sell for £1.5 million–£2 million (around $2 million–$2.6 million).
The so-called Clermont-Tonnerre Grail is one of only three such manuscripts known to be in private collections, with some 200 others belonging to institutions. As reported by Artnet News, “Numerous versions of the story exist, attributed to numerous authors, rendering scholarship all the more important.” Another related manuscript, the Rochefoucauld Grail, sold in 2010 for £2.3 million (around $3.2 million) at Sotheby’s.
Eugenio Donadoni, Christie’s director of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, told Artnet News, “The stories are universal and it has so much still to offer in terms of research and enjoyment. 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.’”
Irene Fabry-Tehranchi, a text specialist at the Cambridge University Library, called the prospect of the manuscript going to an institution “amazing” and told the Guardian that “private ownership of a key medieval manuscript is a real challenge for scholars. It prevents further research, unfortunately.”
She continued: “I hope that … it will finally become available in a public collection. The problem is, of course, that nowadays libraries and heritage institutions don’t have very much money. [But] these institutions are there to preserve these texts and to make them publicly available.”
