Book of Hours, Use of Rouen, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

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Description

108 leaves (3 blank), 180mm. by 133mm., lacking single leaves after fols. 51, 53, 55, 56, 75 and 77, faint offsets on last blank suggesting former presence of a further text at end, else complete, collation: i-iv^{6, v-vii^{8, viii^{6 [of 8, lacking iv and vii], ix^{6 [of 8, lacking ii and iv], x^{8, xi^{7 [of 8, lacking viii], xii^{5 [of 6, lacking iii], xiii–xv^{8, xvi^{4, 16 lines, ruled in red ink, written-space 101mm. by 66mm., written in dark brown ink in a gothic liturgical hand, rubrics in red, Calendar in alternate lines of red and blue with major feasts in burnished gold, capitals touched in yellow, versal initials and line-fillers throughout in burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, 2-line initials in leafy designs in colours on burnished gold grounds supporting}}}}}}}}} full-length panel borders of burnished gold leaves and tiny coloured flowers on black hairline sprays, six 3- to 4-line initials with three-quarter illuminated borders (fols.13r, 16r, 19r, 20r, 21v and 22r), six large miniatures in arched compartments above large initials and 4 lines of text within full illuminated borders of coloured flowers and acanthus leaves infilled with sprays of burnished gold leaves on hairline stems, the faces in the first two miniatures rubbed and partly smudged, other rubbing and thumbing (including some borders), a few pages worn, many leaves in good condition, eighteenth-century calf, rebacked using dark red morocco title label gilt, red mottled edges, upper cover detached

Provenance

provenance

The Use is that of Rouen; the Calendar includes Saint Romanus, archbishop of Rouen, and his octave, and the Litany includes Saints Ouen and Austreberta, both of Rouen.

Catalogue Note

text

A Calendar (fol.1r); the Obsecro te (fol.13r) and O intemerata, both of male use; the Gospel Sequences (fol.19r), in the unusual sequence of Luke, Matthew, Mark and John; the Hours of the Virgin [Use of Rouen], with Matins (fol.25r), Lauds (fol.34v), Prime (fol.45r), Terce (fol.49v), Sext (fol.52r), None (fol.54r), Vespers (fol.56r) and Compline (fol.57r); the Penitential Psalms (fol.61r) and Litany; the Hours of the Cross (fol.76r) and of the Holy Ghost (fol.78r); and the Office of the Dead (fol.81r).

illumination

The miniatures are in the style of the Fastolf Master, who probably trained in Paris with the Bedford Master, worked principally in Rouen in the second quarter of the fifteenth century (and takes his name from a Christine de Pisan made there for Sir John Fastolf, d.1453, regent of Normandy) and who perhaps moved to England after 1450. Characteristic features of his style include stratified landscapes slipping away into little cliffs, with windmills and starry skies. The miniatures are:

1. Folio 25r, The Annunciation, 100mm. by 63mm., the Virgin and Gabriel kneeling on a grassy ground within a gothic canopied church, lattice windows, starry sky with God sending down golden rays; large initial and full border.

2. Folio 34v, The Visitation, 101mm. by 69mm., the Virgin and Saint Elizabeth embracing in a rocky landscape, starry sky with a windmill; large initial and full border.

3. Folio 45r, The Nativity, 100mm. by 68mm., the Virgin and Joseph kneeling in prayer before the Child who lies on an orange mat in a blaze of light, the ox and ass looking through the windows of a thatched shelter, starry sky; large initial and full border.

4. Folio 49v, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, 90mm. by 67mm., two shepherds with clubs in a rocky landscape, windmill on the horizon, starry sky, an angel in the sky with a banderole “Gloria in excelsis deo”; large initial and full border.

5. Folio 61r, David in prayer, 100mm. by 69mm., David in elaborate oriental robes with gold epaulettes kneeling in a rocky landscape, his harp on the ground, a house and a windmill on the horizon, starry sky, God looking down from the sky; large initial and full border.

6. Folio 81r, A funeral service, 100mm. by 68mm., three priests and a group of hooded mourners standing beside a bier draped in an orange cloth embroidered with gold stars set in a gothic chapel; large initial and full border.