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

307 leaves, 187mm. by 128mm., lacking a leaf after fol.50, blank leaves cancelled after fols.123 and 188, last leaf presumably blank and presumably cancelled, else complete, collation: i^{12, ii-v^{8, vi^{7+1 [of 8+1, last leaf added, lacking vii], vii-xiv^{8, xv^{7 [of 8, viii cancelled], xvi-xvii^{8, xviii^{6, xix-xxiii^{8, xxiv^{3 [of 4, iv cancelled], xxv-xxxviii^{8, xxxix^{7 [of 8, viii cancelled], pencil foliation (followed here) repeats ‘244’, 17 lines, ruled in pale red ink, written-space 94mm. by 62mm., written in dark brown ink in a very skilful and quite large lettre bâtarde, rubrics in dark red, Calendar partly in red and blue, capitals touched in yellow, versal initials and some line-fillers in burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, large initials throughout (mostly 2-line but up to 5 lines high, as on fol.237v) in coloured leafy and floral designs on burnished gold grounds with}}}}}}}}}}} approximately 315 three-quarter illuminated borders in designs of coloured flowers and fruit and acanthus leaves densely infilled with burnished gold bezants and ivyleaves on black hairline stems, twenty-one large miniatures in arch-topped compartments above large illuminated initials and within full illuminated borders, some wear, many pages rather thumbed, some illumination rather rubbed (especially the outer extremities of borders), occasional flaking and creasing of miniatures, other pages sometimes cockled and rather dusty, generally in sound condition and many miniatures in excellent condition, old dark green velvet over pasteboards, gilt edges, vellum endleaves, old coloured silk markers loosely enclosed

Provenance

provenance

(1) The six Calendar tables at the end are all made out for use in the years from 1460, and it is likely and credible that the book was made in 1459-60. The Use is that of Paris. Early additions in the Calendar include “Le pardon S germain dez prez” (fol.3v) and the date 1475 (fol.2r).

(2) Paris, Collection Guy Ladrière, according to Charles Sterling, La peinture médiévale à Paris, 1300-1500, II, 1990, pp.61-2, fig.38, illustrating a detail from fol.195r. It is also cited by Nicole Reynaud in F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, 1993, p.60 (“Paris, coll. part.”).

Catalogue Note

text

A Calendar (fol.1r), including in red or blue SS. Geneviève, Louis, Denis and Marcel, all consistent with Paris; the Psalter of Saint Jerome (fol.13r); the Verses of Saint Bernard (fol.29v); the Passion Sequence (fol.31r), with related prayers, including the Stabat mater, in verse (fol.34r); the Obsecro te (fol.36v) and O intemerata, both for male use; other prayers to the Virgin, including the Joys of the Conception (fol.43v), and prayers for use before confession (fol.47r); the Hours of the Virgin [Use of Paris], with Matins (fol.53r), Lauds (fol.73v), Prime (fol.83v), Terce (fol.88v), Sext (fol.92v), None (fol.96v), Vespers (fol.100v) and Compline (fol.107r); the Hours of the Cross (fol.112r) and of the Holy Ghost (fol.118r); the Penitential Psalms (fol.124r) and Litany, including SS. Denis and Geneviève and many other French saints; the Office of the Dead [Use of Paris] (fol.145r); the Gospel Sequence from Saint John (fol.187v); the Hours of the Passion, in full; prayers to the Holy Face (fol.227r); the Mass of the Virgin (fol.229r), with the Masses of the Angels (fol.233v), the Faithful Departed (fol.237v), the Holy Ghost (fol.241r) and the Cross (fol.244v); seasonal variants for Vespers and Compline (fol.246r) and hymns for major feasts (from fol.258v); Suffrages (fol.268r), including Saints Geneviève, Denis, Ursus and Radegund; and Calendar tables from 1460 to 1500.

illumination

This rich and complex Book of Hours is illuminated by the Coëtivy Master, named after a Book of Hours in Vienna, ÖNB. cod. 1929, made for Marie of Valois (d.1473), illegitimate daughter of Charles VII and wife of Olivier de Coëtivy, whom she married in 1458. There is a very strong likelihood that the Coëtivy Master is to be identified with the Netherlandish painter and illuminator Henri de Vulcup, who is documented in Paris in 1451, in Chinon in the court of Queen Marie d’Anjou in 1463-64, and later in the service of Charles de France and others in Bourges, where he died around 1479 (cf. N. Reynaud, ‘La Résurrection de Lazare et le maître de Coëtivy’, La Revue du Louvre, XV, 1965, pp.171-82; N. Reynaud, ‘Un peintre français cartonnier de tapisserie au XV^e siècle: Henri de Vulcup’, Revue de l’art, XXII, 1973, pp.6-21; J. Plummer, The Last Flowering, 1982, nos. 49 and 51; a Book of Hours sold in our rooms, 2 December 1986, lot 58, £115,000 to Kraus; Avril and Reynaud, op. cit., 1990, pp.58-69; L.M.C. Randall, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, II, France, 1420-1540, 1992, esp. pp.163-5). The present manuscript, clearly intended for use in Paris and almost certainly made in or very close to 1460, helps localise the painter as being still in Paris before apparently moving south to the Loire valley around 1463. The Coëtivy Master’s style is closely related to contemporary Netherlandish panel painting. Professor Sterling, illustrating the present manuscript, compares work of the Master of Flémalle (Robert Campin) and especially Dierick Bouts. There are also closely shared compositions with the Master of the Triptych of Dreux Budé, who is perhaps identifiable with Henri de Vulcup’s brother Conrad, peintre du roi to Charles VII in 1448-59. Professor Plummer ranked the Coëtivy Master among the ‘four major painters’ of the Loire valley, with Jean Fouquet, the Coeur Master, and the Master of Jouvenel des Ursins (Last Flowering, p.37).

The manuscript shows the Master’s remarkable sense of colour and space and his characteristically rich draperies, finely textured like velvet or embroidered with jewels. He excels at night scenes, lit by moonlight and candles. The manuscript includes a full cycle of paintings for the Hours of the Passion, a rare feature which it shares uniquely in the artist’s oeuvre with Paris, BnF, ms. lat.1400, also c.1460, and the unusual and graceful miniature of Saint Veronica, which is a virtual twin of the Master’s work in BnF, ms. n.a. lat. 3114, datable to around 1465.

The subjects of the miniatures are:

1. Folio 53r, The Annunciation, 93mm. by 61mm., the Virgin kneeling by her prayerbook beneath a canopy, Gabriel in jewelled robes kneeling before her, a bed behind and elaborate gothic windows; full border including a bird and a butterfly.

2. Folio 73v, The Visitation, 90mm. by 61mm., the Virgin and Saint Elizabeth greeting each other on a road in a fine landscape, with a castle behind beside a river; full border.

3. Folio 83v, The Nativity, 93mm. by 62mm., set below a thatched canopy, the Virgin kneeling in prayer with the Child lying on the hem of her robe, Joseph sheltering a candle from the wind, the ox and ass lying behind, night sky; full border.

4. Folio 88v, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, 93mm. by 62mm., set in a field below a tree, three shepherds playing a pipe and gazing up at two shepherds in the night sky with a scroll, landscape background with Bethlehem in the distance; full border.

5. Folio 92v, The Adoration of the Magi, 92mm. by 61mm., the Virgin with the Child on her lap receiving the three kings, Joseph holding his hat, the star of Bethlehem above the stable’s thatched roof, a church in the distance; full border.

6. Folio 96v, The Presentation in the Temple, 93mm.by 62mm., the Virgin kneeling in a courtyard outside the temple, passing the Child to a priest who stands in the doorway, others watching including a maid with a candle and Joseph with a basket of doves; full border.

7. Folio 100v, The Flight into Egypt, 91mm. by 61mm., Joseph leading the donkey off to the right along a sandy road winding through a landscape; full border.

8. Folio 107r, The Coronation of the Virgin, 91mm. by 60mm., the Virgin kneeling in the sky before God in a jewelled cope seated on a great gothic throne, as a cherub hovers above with a golden gothic crown; full border.

9. Folio 112r, The Nailing to the Cross, 91mm. by 60mm., Christ stretched out and tied to the Cross which lies on a hillside as men nail his hands and as the Virgin swoons and the centurion rides up with the Roman soldiers; full border.

10. Folio 118r, Pentecost, 94mm. by 61mm., the Virgin seated reading below a canopy, the apostles gathered around her, and the Holy Dove hovering above, set in a gothic room; full border.

11. Folio 124r, David in prayer, 89mm. by 60mm., the king kneeling in his bedroom looking up at a red angel holding a sword, the royal bed to the left, a book and harp on the right, set in a gothic room; full border.

12. Folio 145r, A burial, 90mm. by 60mm., a gravedigger removing a body from a decorated carpet held by two sextons and placing it into a grave, a priest and his acolytes reading the burial service behind and the widower and his fellow mourners to the right, set in a gothic churchyard with a charnel house and a church behind.

13. Folio 189r, Christ in Gethsemane, 93mm. by 60mm., a moonlit night scene, Christ in prayer on a hillside looking up at a chalice, the apostles asleep in the foreground, set in a landscape with trees and a distant church; full border.

14. Folio 195r, The Betrayal, 91mm. by 60mm., Judas kissing Christ as soldiers seize him, Saint Peter cutting off the ear of Malchus, set in a garden on a dark moonlit night; full border.

15. Folio 200r, Christ before Caiphas, 93mm. by 60mm., the high priest seated on a dais below a classical portico, Christ led in before him accompanied by soldiers crowding through the gate of a courtyard, the priest and his attendants reasoning with Christ who listens with downcast eyes; full border.

16. Folio 202v, The Scourging of Christ, 92mm. by 59mm., a man tying Christ to a central pillar as two thugs scourge him with whips, Pilate and his counsellors watching through a window, others crowding in a the door, set in a gothic interior; full border.

17. Folio 202r, The Way to the Cross, 93mm. by 60mm., Christ being led out through the city gate of Jerusalem and about to wipe his face on a white cloth, saints behind him and a great procession of soldiers and others with cudgels, a ladder and staves; full border.

18. Folio 212r, The Crucifixion, 93mm. by 60mm., Christ in the centre with the thieves crucified on either side, the Virgin and other saints on the left, the centurion and soldiers on the right; full border.

19. Folio 218r, The Descent from the Cross, 93mm. by 63mm., three men lowering the Body helped and watched by Saint Mary Magdalene, and the Virgin with Saint John, set in a landscape; full border.

20. Folio 222v, The Resurrection, 94mm. by 59mm., Christ standing in a blaze of glory before the tomb, three soldiers waking up in amazement, set in a landscape with a distant gothic church; full border.

21. Folio 227r, Saint Veronica, 92mm. by 60mm., the saint standing in a gothic apse holding open her handkerchief imprinted with the image of Christ’s face; full border.