Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin and French [France (Besançon), c.1450-70]

240x165mm, vellum, iii+130+iii leaves, lacking the calendar and a number of other leaves, several leaves coming loose, 15 lines, 115x72mm, 10 LARGE MINIATURES with full borders, PANEL BORDERS ON ALL TEXT PAGES, illuminated initials and line-fillers, significant rubbing and smudging, 18th-century calf binding, the covers with panels of previous 17th-century binding in the centre: S-fermés surrounding the interlocked initials ‘DG’, above and below the motto ‘Nec.sorte.nec.morte.movtabor.’ [sic], slight wear to spine

 

PROVENANCE

(1) The lower margin of f.5r shows the offset of an armorial shield that formerly faced it, demonstrating that the original patron was noble. (2) Inscribed ‘Annetus(?) Couerier’, 15th/16th century (f.104v). (3) Inscribed ‘Francoyse du Chariot als de Boullier’, 15th/16th century (f.138v): various members of the Boulier/Bouillé family, which can be traced back to the 12th century, were seigneurs de Chariol in the Auvergne (see Dictionnaire de la noblesse, 1773, VI, pp.749-50). (4) Unidentified 17th-century owner, central panels of the binding, with initials ‘DG’. (5) Karl Hiersemann, Katalog 330, Manuscripte des Mittelalters .., Leipzig, 1906, no.42. (6) Hugo Helbing, Munich, sale 9 March 1909, lot 619; notes in German loosely inserted. (7) The Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam. From 1858 onwards the Roman Catholic bishops of Haarlem lived in a grand 18th-century residence known as the Bisschopshuis. The Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam has now decided to sell some of the contents and move to simpler accommodation; ceramics, clocks, silver, and furniture were sold in our rooms on 19 January 2016. See also the following lot.

TEXT AND ILLUMINATION

Gospel extracts, imperfect (f.1r); Hours of the Virgin, Use of Rome, imperfect, with Matins (f.5r), Lauds (f.15r), Prime (f.26r), Terce (f.30), Sext (f.33r), None (f.35r), Vespers (f.38r), Compline (f.43r), with variants for days of the week (f.46r) and liturgical seasons (f.53v); Penitential Psalms (f.62r), litany (f.74v) and 10 collects (f.82r); Hours of the Cross (f.85r) and of the Holy Spirit (f.89r); Office of the Dead, Use of Rome (f.93r); prayers Obsecro te (f.123r), O intemerata (f.126v), the Quinze joies (f.130v), and Sept requêtes (f.135v), followed by a prayer to the Cross (f.138) and one to be said at Mass (f.138v).

The illumination is characteristic of Besançon and this Book of Hours can be added to a corpus of manuscripts grouped by François Avril in Les Manuscrits à peintures, 1993, p.197. The shapes of the frames for the miniatures are, however, unusual and it is more likely that the manuscript was written and prepared somewhere else.

The subjects of the miniatures are: (1) f.1r, Mark; (2) f.3r, Luke; (3) f.15r, Visitation; (4) f.26r, Nativity, with Joseph warming a blanket at a fire; (5) f.30r, Annunciation to the Shepherds; (6) f.38r, Flight into Egypt; (7) f.62r, David in Penitence; (8) f.85r, Crucifixion; (9) f.89r, Pentecost; (10) f.93r, Burial in a graveyard.