Book of Hours. Use of Sarum

179 leaves (plus 11 modern endleaves), 122mm. by 95mm., wanting single leaves throughout, notably after fols. 61, 121, 124, 145 and 179, 18^th and 19^th gatherings bound in wrong order, some dislocation of some gatherings during a previous rebinding and conservation (the last gatherings now opening with leaves with catchwords taken from end of previous gathering), collation: i-ii⁶, ii-i-v⁸, vi⁷ (i most probably a singleton), vii¹⁰, viii⁵ (last leaf of gathering wanting, but no loss to text), ix⁴ (a bifolium followed by 2 singletons), x⁸, xi⁵ (last 3 leaves wanting, but without apparent loss to text, perhaps removed during adaptation of Litany), xii⁵ (bifolium followed by 3 singletons), xiii-xvii⁸, xviii⁴ (2 singletons preceding a bifolium), xix⁶, xx⁸, xxi⁶, xxii⁸, xxiii¹⁰, xxiv⁶, xxv⁹ (wanting last leaf), single column, 17 lines in dark brown ink in a fine late gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, one-line initials in blue or liquid gold framed within contrasting penwork, 2-line initials in liquid gold on coloured grounds, sixteen larger initials in same enclosing foliate sprays (fols.13r, 20r, 27r, 40r, 44r, 47r, 50r, 53r, 55r, 63r, 81v, 104r, 117r, 129v, 136r and 143v; five with full border of coloured acanthus leaves and bezants), four full-page devotional diagrams in black and red ink (fols.39v, 43v, 46v, 62v), with Middle English titles and inscriptions (“The iiij Cardinal vertuws”, “The v ynward wyttys” and “The v Outerward Wyttys” in hand of scribe who signs a note on fol.19v on the age of the Virgin Mary at the time of her death (63 years) as ‘Chetwyn. A[men].’ (not ‘A. Chetwyn’ as published elsewhere), circular marks on fols.124v, 133r-34v, 142v and 158v-59v of pilgrim badges once affixed there, some smudges and thumbing throughout, else good condition, modern red morocco over wooden boards, in modern brown buckram folding box

Law Society, armorial bookplate

J. Boffey, ‘Lydgate’s Lyrics and Women Readers’, in Women, the Book, and the Worldly (1995), p.146

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Written in the southern Netherlands in the mid-fifteenth century, and considerably added to a decade or so later in England for a female patron (“Ego … peccatrix” in O intemerata on fol.130v). The Calendar was greatly augmented in the early sixteenth century, and remained in England during the Reformation, and perhaps later (St Thomas Becket’s name erased from Litany on fol.74r in accordance with Royal Proclamation of 16 November 1538; other erasures of prayers and indulgences on fols.36v, 133r-34v and 140r-41v; and prayers in English added in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century to fol.26v and endleaves at back).

text

The book comprises: (a) a Calendar (fol.1r); (b) the Fifteen O’s of St Bridget (fol.13r); (c) the Hours of the Virgin “secundum usum anglie”, with Matins (fol.20r), Lauds (fol.27r), Prime (fol.40r), Terce (fol.44r), Sext (fol.47r), None (fol.50r), Vespers (fol.53r) and Compline (fol.55r); the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol.63r), followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol.81r); the Commendationes animarum (fol.104r); the Psalterium de passione (fol.117r); the Salve virgo (fol.123r), Obsecro te (fol.124v), and O intemerata (fol.129v), followed by other prayers and the Psalter of St Jerome (fol.143r); Lydgate’s “shorte tretis in englische of þe xv ioyes of oure lady” (MacCracken, Minor Poems of Lydgate, 1911, I, pp.260-67), in Middle English, and here written as prose (fol.159r); two other Middle English devotional pieces, opening “O thow blessed lady virgyne marie cristes moder …” (fol.167r), and “O lord god almy[yogh]ti and blessed mot þou be …” (fol.169r); ending with other Latin prayers and exhortations.

The nine leaves of Middle English verse by the celebrated poet and monk of Bury St Edmunds, John Lydgate (d. c.1451) are a translation of the Fifteen Joys of Our Lady (elsewhere recorded by Renoir and Benson, Manual V, 2124, former Phillipps MS.8820, sold in our rooms 29 November 1966, lot 66, and now Tokyo, Takamiya MS.4). He was a prolific writer, working in the wake of Geoffrey Chaucer (whom he knew, and whose son, Thomas, he counted as a close friend), and composed about 145,000 lines of extant poetry.

Examples of his work are rare and come to the open market only once a decade or so, if that. The last was a few stanzas from Lydgate’s poem, Dietary, in a medical compendium sold by Christie’s, London, 29 November 1999, lot 9, and before that a copy of Lydgate’s, Life of Our Lady, from the Bute Collection, sold in our rooms, 13 June 1983, lot 9 (now Yale University). The present volume is of interest as a devotional compendium for use by a woman, a context for which many of Lydgate’s compositions appear to have been produced.