Western Manuscripts

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Lot 83
  • 83

Book of Hours, Use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
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Description

171 leaves (one blank), plus 7 early or original flyleaves, 187mm. by 133mm.,  lacking single leaves after fols.47, 58 and 107, else complete, collation: i12, ii8, iii4+1, iv-v8, vi7 [of 8, lacking vii], vii8, viii7 [of 8, lacking iii], ix-xi8, xii4, xiii-xiv8, xv7 [of 8, lacking i], xvi-xxi8, xxii8+1, written in pale black ink in a gothic liturgical hand, Calendar in alternate lines of red and blue with major entries in burnished gold, rubrics in red, capitals touched in yellow, line-fillers and one- and 2-line line initials throughout in burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, larger initials in ivyleaf designs in colours on burnished gold grounds, panel borders on every page, each c.107mm. by 28mm., in designs of tiny gold ivyleaves and little coloured flowers and fruit on black hairline stems, two three-quarter illuminated borders (fols.18v and 22v) and one full illuminated border (fol.13r), eleven large miniatures in arched compartments above large illuminated initials and 4 lines of text all within full borders of blue and gold acanthus leaves and coloured flowers infilled with sprays of burnished gold ivyleaves on black hairline stems, offsets of pilgrim badges on flyleaves at front, some rubbing to illumination, the white pigment in most miniatures often partially flaked, outer extremities of some illuminated borders a bit cropped, a few stains and other signs of use, most pages in good condition with wide margins and borders throughout, late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century French armorial red morocco gilt, gilt ruled, upper cover stamped with the arms of Caumartin (Olivier, vi ser., 1926, pl. 651), spine in compartments gilt, marbled endleaves, edges gilt with traces of floral painting (probably medieval), in a red morocco case

Provenance

provenance

(1) The text is of the Use of Paris throughout, and the Calendar singles out in gold the names of Saints Geneviève, Louis and Denis, patron saints of the city.   There is an inscription on the final flyleaf concealed below the marbled endleaf, apparently including the name Chapelie.

 

(2) Louis-Urbain Le Fèvre de Caumartin (1653-1720), marquis de Saint-Ange, ‘le Grand Caumartin’, Intendant des Finances to Louis XIV, with his arms on the binding and his engraved bookplate of the Bibliothèque de Saint Ange, his extravagant and princely château near Fontainebleau.  Voltaire stayed there with him in 1714-15 and began writing La Henriade in the house.  The library was magnificent and was dispersed after his death.  The family name survives in the rue de Caumartin off the boulevard Haussmann in Paris and in the adjacent Havre-Caumartin metro station.

 

(3) George Robertson, with his nineteenth-century armorial bookplate.  Sold in our rooms, 23 June 1987, lot 108.

Catalogue Note

text

A Calendar, in French (fol.1r); the Gospel Sequences (fol.13r); the Obsecro te (fol.18v) and O intemerata; the Hours of the Virgin [Use of Paris], with Matins (fol.26r), Lauds (fol.48r), Prime (fol.58r), Terce (fol.64v), Sext (fol.69r), None (fol.73v), Vespers (fol.78r) and Compline (fol.85r); the Penitential Psalms (fol.92r) and Litany; the Hours of the Cross (fol.108r) and of the Holy Ghost (fol.110v); the Office of the Dead (fol.113v); and the Quinze Joyes (fol.162r) and the Sept Requêtes (fol.168r), in French.

 

illumination

Considering the importance of Parisian illumination between about 1440 and the 1470s, it is remarkable that no scholar has yet satisfactorily disentangled the various hands and workshops which emerged from the legacy of the Bedford Master.  (If this catalogue should chance to come to the attention of a PhD student seeking a topic, there is a good one.)   The present manuscript is by one of the followers of the Master of the Munich Golden Legend, close to (but not identical with) the Dunois Master, still preserving the weighty and rather bourgeois figures of the late Bedford style but with the brightness of colour and light greens and reds which become a part of the repertoire of Maître François and his circle by the 1460s.  The iconography of a charnel house at the Office of the Dead is perhaps uniquely Parisian, and may reflect the now-lost ‘Charnier des Innocents’ in Paris.  The hand here is very close to and perhaps even identical with that of British Library Add. MS. 31834 (J. Backhouse, Books of Hours, 1985, p.37, pl.30).  A date of around 1450 seems right.   The subjects of the miniatures are:

 

1. Folio 26r, The Annunciation, 100mm. by 65mm., the Virgin kneeling in her bedroom holding a book in her hands, Gabriel entering from the right with a banderole wound around a pillar of the house; full border including vignettes of (a) an angel appearing to Joachim as he tends his sheep, (b) the meeting at the Golden Gate, (c) the presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, (d) the Virgin weaving, helped by angels, and (e) the betrothal of the Virgin and Joseph.

 

2. Folio 64v, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, 99mm. by 61mm., two shepherds, a shepherdess seated gathering flowers, set on a moonlit hillside with a large town in the distance, and an angel in the sky with a banderole, “Gloria in excelsis deo et in terra”; full border.

 

3. Folio 69r, The Adoration of the Magi, 101mm. by 61mm., set beside the Virgin’s bed below a thatched canopy, one king kneeling and two standing, the star of Bethlehem above, landscape background including a castle; full border including pears, strawberries and grapes.

 

4. Folio 73v, The Presentation in the Temple, 100mm. by 60mm., the high priest leaning across an altar towards the Virgin and Child, Joseph and a maid behind, set in a gothic church with tiled floor and lattice windows; full border including strawberries.

 

5. Folio 78r, The Flight into Egypt, 102mm. by 60mm., Joseph leading a very long-necked donkey off to the right through a fine landscape with cities among woods; full border.

 

6. Folio 85r, The Coronation of the Virgin, 100mm. by 60mm., the Virgin kneeling before the throne of God who blesses her as an angel places a crown on her head and three further angels play music in the sky; full border including strawberries.

 

7. Folio 92r, David in prayer, 101mm. by 66mm., the king kneeling in a landscape with his hand raised to his brow as he gazes up at God the Father holding the Body of his Son, angel musicians on the left, another angel flying down with a sword, landscape including a castle and woods among hills; full border.

 

8. Folio 110v, Pentecost, 103mm. by 62mm., the Virgin seated among the apostles in an elaborate gothic building, the Holy Dove hovering above; full border including strawberries.

 

9. Folio 113v, A burial service, 100mm. by 62mm., two gravediggers lowering the body into the ground as three priests sing from a book and mourners gather outside a church, set in a churchyard with a charnel house to the right; full border.

 

10. Folio 162r, The Virgin and Child enthroned, 102mm. by 61mm., seated on a canopied throne attended by angel musicians; full border.

 

11. Folio 168r, The Last Judgement, 102mm. by 62mm., Christ seated on a rainbow, two angels blowing trumpets, the Virgin on one side and Saint John the Evangelist on the other, the dead rising from their graves below; full border.