The Hours of the Russian Princess Isabel Gagarine, Use of Paris, in Latin and French [France (Paris), c.1440-50]

213x146mm, vellum, iii+187+iii+iii leaves, COMPLETE, collation: i4 (19th-century addition), ii12, iii8, iv8-1 (last blank cancelled), v-xii8, xiii4, xiv-xxiv8, 15 lines, 100x63mm, 15 LARGE MINIATURES WITH FULL BORDERS, small initials and line-fillers throughout, THREE-SIDED BORDERS ON ALL TEXT PAGES, vellum slightly cockled, repair to border on f.39 and a few blank margins, illumination throughout in pristine condition, 19th-century brown leather binding, one clasp missing, gauffered edges

A FINE BOOK OF HOURS STARTED BY THE MASTER OF THE MUNICH GOLDEN LEGEND, COMPLETED BY AN ARTIST CLOSE TO THE MASTER OF THOMAS HOO, ALSO KNOWN AS THE MASTER OF JEAN POPINCOURT

PROVENANCE

(1) Many birth- and death-entries of the COUTIER-PONTALLIER family, Château Bornay, dated 1621 to 1699 in different hands (original flyleaves at end): 'Le Jeudi huictieme Juillet mil six cent vingt ung demie heure après Minuiet, vint au Monde mon filz Jehan Francois du Corps de Dame Rose Anne de Pontallier ma seconde femme. (...)'; Rose-Anne's marriage to Jean is recorded by P. Anselme, Histoire généalogique, II, 1726, p.872; and 'Le dit Jean Coutier seigneur de chateau Bornai, mourut le 18 Mars 1649 (...)'; the vast and imposing Château Bornay, dating from the early 13th century, was destroyed in 1674; only the chapel and parts of the walls remain, see A. Rousset, Dictionnaire des Communes de la Franche-Comté, I, 1853, p.280. (2) THE RUSSIAN PRINCESS JÓEZEFA LUBOMIRSKA (1778-1851) gifted the Book of Hours in Paris in 1842 to her daughter: (3) THE RUSSIAN PRINCESS ISABEL GAGARINE (1800-86), married in 1823 to PRINCE SERGEÏ SERGEÏEVICH GAGARINE (1795-1852): 'Ce livre d'heures fut donne a Paris le XIX jour de novembre 1842 jour de St Elisabeth, par tres noble dame comtesse de Witt nee princesse Lubomirska a sa bien aimee fille Isabelle princesse Gagarine, mariee le XXIX jour de Avril 1823 au prince Serge Gagarine. (...).' (ff.1-4 added in neo-gothic style, including a full-page COAT OF ARMS, a TITLE PAGE with the initials 'I' and 'G', a detailed EX-DONO PAGE, and a prayer to St Elisabeth opening with a SMALL MINIATURE WITH FULL BORDERS, signed and dated Aug. Ledoux, 1843).

TEXT AND ILLUMINATION

Calendar (f.5r); Gospel Extracts (f.17r); Obsecro te (f.22v); O intemerata (f.26v); Hours of the Virgin (f.32r); Penitential Psalms (f.100r), litany (f.112v); Hours of the Cross (f.117v); Hours of the Holy Spirit (f.125v); Office of the Dead (f.132v); Doulce dame (f.178v); Doulz dieu (f.184r).

The MASTER OF THE MUNICH GOLDEN LEGEND was named after a copy of the French translation of the Legenda aurea in Munich (Bayer. Staatsbib., Cod.gall.3; E. König reads an inscription in one of the miniatures as 'Dominus Conradus Toliensis fecit' (Master Conrad of Toul made it) and suggested to identify the artist with Conrad of Toul; on the artist see most recently L. Ungeheuer, ‘Le Maître de la Légende dorée de Munich’, Revue de L'Art, 195, 2017, pp.23-32). His style is close to that of the Bedford Master’s who dominated the artistic scene in Paris in the 1420s and ’30s, and with whose workshop he often collaborated. In the present manuscript, the Munich Golden Legend Master prepared the compositions and started the illumination of all miniatures. Characteristic for his style is the sharp outlining of figures and the precise indication of facial features, as it can clearly be seen for instance in the miniature with the Crucifixion. In other miniatures, the faces are painted in lighter colours and the steep backgrounds with dramatic skies relate to the work of another painter of the circle of the Bedford Master, the lesser known MASTER OF THOMAS HOO. He was named after a Book of Hours made for that chancellor of Normandy and France during the English occupation at the end of the Hundred Years War (Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 12 R 31); he is also referred to as MASTER OF JEAN POPINCOURT, named after the patron of a Book of Hours exhibited in Cologne in 1987 (J. Plotzek, Andachtsbücher des Mittelalters, 1987, no.21). A Book of Hours by this artist was sold at Ketterer Kunst, Hamburg, 23 Nov. 2015, lot 3, for €150,000. The illumination of the present Book of Hours represents Parisian illumination at its most sophisticated towards the middle of the 15th century.

The subjects of the large miniatures are: (1) St John on Patmos (f.17r); (2) Annunciation (f.32r); (3) Visitation (f.56r); (4)  Nativity (f.67v); (5) Annunciation to the Shepherds (f.73v); (6) Adoration of the Magi (f.78r); (7) Presentation in the Temple (f.82r); (8) Flight into Egypt (f.86r); (9) Coronation of the Virgin (f.93r); (10) David in Prayer, the harp depicted with a key for tightening the strings; (f.100r); (11) Crucifixion (f.117v); (12) Pentecost (f.125v); (13) Funeral Service (f.132v); (14) Virgin and Child with Angel offering flowers or fruit (f.178v); (15) Last Judgement (f.184r).