The Tramerie Hours, partly Use of Sarum, in Latin and French [French Flanders (Tournai), c.1430-40 and c.1510-20]

223x155mm, vellum, ii+151+ii, lacking text leaves after ff.14 and 50, 20 quires of 8 leaves except i8 (i and ii pasted-down), between quires ii and iii text missing, perhaps a bifolium after f.14, vii8-1 (v wanting after f.50, text leaf), x8-1 (last blank cancelled after f.76), xx2+1 (iii inserted), catchwords, 16 lines, 132x82mm, 15 LARGE MINIATURES with full borders, all text pages with full borders, often incorporating birds, snails, hybrid creatures, etc., small illuminated initials and line-fillers; minor wear, smudges, last leaf with significant staining, a few small losses (e.g. lower corner of ff.1-2); 16TH-CENTURY RICHLY GILT CALF BINDING, each cover with a central oval depicting the Crucifixion, gilt edges, some overall wear, front joint cracking, but sound, fitted case

provenance

(1) The original patron seems to have been an expatriate Englishman, as suggested by the Use of Sarum Office of the Dead, and the litany, which includes a number of distinctively English saints (e.g. Elphege, Edmund, Edward, Cuthbert, Edith, Etheldreda, Mildred, Osith). He apparently had his book made in Tournai, as suggested by various feasts including the 'Dedicasse nostre dame' (9 May), and Piat (1 Oct.) in the calendar, for use somewhere else in the diocese, as indicated by the Use of the Hours of the Virgin. The shield in the border below the David miniature (f.77r) may refer to a patron that was a merchant.

(2) The remaining illumination added c.1510-20, for an owner whose arms appear in two of the miniatures (ff.8v, 12v); the choice of the Massacre of the Innocents at Vespers and Flight into Egypt at Compline, instead of the Flight into Egypt and then the Coronation of the Virgin, suggests that the book was still in the Franco-Flemish border area.

(3) The back flyleaves have inscriptions recording family births from 1598 to 1611 and baptisms in the church of St Pierre, Aire-sur-la-Lys; 'du Foret'; and Roisin; and the 1612 death and burial of 'Fransois de la Tramery … baron de Roisin, sire du Foret … gouverneur des ville & chasteau d'Aire'. Another manuscript prayerbook or Book of Hours, also owned by François de la Tramery and with his family notes, was in the Huth Collection (see The Huth Library, Vol. IV: P-T, 1880, p.1182).

(4) ANNE THERESE PHILIPPINE D'YVE (1738-1814) (on whom see Eliane Gubin, Dictionnaire des femmes belges, 2006, pp.231-32), with her armorial bookplate (front pastedown), she was the only woman book collector who owned a complete copy of a Gutenberg Bible, as well as the 1462 Bible and the 1463 Bull; the present manuscript is perhaps identifiable in her posthumous sale: Description bibliographique d'une très-belle collection de livres rares et curieux, provenant de la bibliothèque de Melle la Comtesse D'Yve, Brussels, 1819, lot 103.

(5) An erased inscription perhaps includes the date 1849 (front pastedown).

(6) A 19th-century member of the Merlin d’Estreux de Beaugrenier family (armorial bookplate, f.ir).

(7) Private collection of James E. and Elizabeth J. Ferrell, the present owners (bookplate with initials).

text and illumination

Calendar in French (f.1r), with Picard spellings ('Vinchant', 'Michiel', 'Franchois'); Gospel extracts (f.7r); Passion according to John (f.14r); Hours of the Virgin, Use unidentified, the antiphons and capitula at Prime and None are: 'Assumpta est', 'Que est ista', 'Germinavit', and 'Et radicavi', with Matins (f.15r), Lauds (f.33v), Hours of the Cross (f.45v) intermixed, Prime (f.47r), Terce (f.52r), Sext (f.56v), None (f.61r), Vespers (f.65r), Compline (f.71v), some rubrics with Picard spellings e.g. 'lichon'; Penitential Psalms (f.77r), litany (f.88r), petitions and 4 collects; Gradual Psalms (f.98v); Office of the Dead, Use of Sarum (f.109r).

The MASTER OF THE HARVARD HANNIBAL was named by Millard Meiss after the miniature of the Coronation of Hannibal in a French translation of Livy (Cambridge, MA, Houghton Lib., Richardson MS 32, f.263r). In his early works the Harvard Hannibal Master collaborated with the Boucicaut Master, and he is thought to have left Paris around 1420 when it was occupied by the English. He is thought to have been working in French Flanders, probably Tournai, by about 1430, when he contributed to the Hours of Guillebert de Lannoy (Waddesdon Manor, MS 4). At about the same time, he contributed to the present manuscript (f.77r) which includes a fine miniature in Tournai style (f.109r; see D. Vanwijnsberghe, "Moult Bons et Notables", 2007, pp.245 and 291 with col.ill. of both miniatures). The work came then to a halt and was completed only later in c.1510-20 by a third artist probably active in French Flanders. The monumental style is very unusual, the execution is careful and refined. 

The subjects of the miniatures are: (1) f.7r, John on Patmos; (2) f.8v, Luke sitting on the back of his ox, with a heraldic shield hanging from a tree; (3) f.10v, Matthew; (4) f.12v, Mark, with a heraldic shield in a stained glass window; (5) f.14r, Crucifixion; (6) f.15r, Annunciation; (7) f.33v, Visitation; (8) f.47r, Nativity; (9) f.52r, Annunciation to the Shepherds; (10) f.56v, Adoration of the Magi; (11) f.61r, Presentation in the Temple; (12) f.65r, Massacre of the Innocents; (13) f.71v, Flight into Egypt; (14) f.77r, David in Prayer; (15) f.109r, Raising of Lazarus.