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

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

141 leaves (last blank, fol.89 mostly blank), 133mm. by 88mm., lacking a leaf after fol.137, else complete, collation: i^{12, ii-x^{8, xi^{5 [of 6, blank vi cancelled], xii-xvii^{8, xviii^{4 [of 6, lacking i, a further blank cancelled at end], with vertical or horizontal catchwords, 16 lines, ruled in very pale red ink, written-space 70mm. by 48mm., written in dark brown ink in two sizes of a fine lettre bâtarde, rubrics in dark red, Calendar in alternate lines of red and blue with major entries in burnished gold, capitals touched in yellow, one- and 2-line initials throughout in burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, a few larger initials in liquid gold on coloured grounds,}}}}} approximately 138 panel borders, in the outer margins of every page with a 2-line initial, the borders c.70mm. by 18mm. formed of blue and gold acanthus leaves with coloured flowers and fruit and birds, grotesques, people, snails, insects, dragons, etc., thirty-three historiated initials with full borders, the initials 4 to 8 lines high, mostly 6-line, five large miniatures, one half-page (fol.39r), others in arched or pointed compartments above large initials and within full borders including one incorporating further historiated roundels (fol.21r), early additions at end, last blank slightly defective, stains probably from pilgrim badges offset onto first page, some rubbing and thumbing affecting outer corners of some borders, other minor wear and dust-staining at extreme edges, generally sound, seventeenth-century panelled calf, silver clasps and catches, edges gilt and gauffered, paper endleaves, binding scuffed and rebacked, in a fitted pale brown cloth case, title gilt

Provenance

provenance

(1) The text is of Parisian use throughout. Inscriptions on the last leaf record how the book passed on 28 April 1575 to Catherine Guernier on the death of her sister and then by descent within the family to August 1642.

(2) George Dundas, with his eighteenth-century armorial bookplate, perhaps George Dundas (1752-1792), 23rd laird, born in Toulouse, died in the shipwreck of the Winterton off Madagascar.

(3) Louisa Dexter Sharpe Metcalf (d.1960), widow of Jesse Houghton Metcalf (1860-1942), of Providence, Rhode Island, industrialist and senator; presented by her in 1947 to the John Carter Brown Library, Providence (C.U. Faye and W.H. Bond, Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p.496, no.45); Carter Brown sale in our rooms, 18 May 1981, lot 3.

(4) Alan G. Thomas, cat.44 (1982), no.3, bought by the present owner.

Catalogue Note

text

A Calendar, in French (fol.1r), with an entry for every day, singling out in burnished gold the feasts of Saints Geneviève, Louis and Denis, patron saints of Paris; the Gospel Sequences (fol.13r); the Passion Sequence from Saint John (fol.18r); the Hours of the Virgin [Use of Paris], of ‘mixed’ use with the Hours of the Cross and of the Holy Ghost, with Matins (fol.21r), Lauds (fol.30r), Prime (fol.41r), Terce (fol.47r), Sext (fol.51v), None (fol.56r), Vespers (fol.60v) and Compline (fol.67r); the Penitential Psalms (fol.73r) and Litany, including SS. Denis and Geneviève; the Office of the Dead [Use consistent with Paris] (fol.90r), in shorter form; the Obsecro te (fol.115r), for male use, with the O intemerata and other prayers, including an office of the Conception of the Virgin (fol.124r); and Suffrages (fol.128v), ending on fol.140r.

illumination

This is a little Book of Hours in the bright and colourful style of the Parisian illuminators in the circle of Maître François and the Master of Jacques de Besançon. The iconography includes the striking image of Death riding an ox (fol.90r), which probably derives the celebrated poem La Danse aux Aveugles of Pierre Michault (1405-1465), which opens, “Sur ce beuf cy, qui s’en vas pas a pas, / Assise suis et ne le haste point, / Maiz sans courir, je metz a grief trespas …” (cf. A. de la Borde, La Mort chevauchant un boef, 1923). The borders are filled with enchanting grotesques, including several showing little men wearing glasses (fols.47r, 128r, etc.). The subjects of the large miniatures are:

1. Folio 21r, The Annunciation, 62mm. by 45mm., the Virgin kneeling below a canopy, Gabriel entering from the right; full border including two birds and roundels of the Meeting at the Golden Gate, the Birth of the Virgin, and the young Virgin spinning.

2. Folio 39r, The Crucifixion, 37mm. by 46mm., Saint John supporting the swooning Virgin on the left, the centurion and his army riding up on the right; full border including two grotesques.

3. Folio 60v, The Flight into Egypt, 65mm. by 48mm., Joseph leading the donkey off to the right attended by two angels, set in a landscape with the pagan statues falling from their pillars as the Holy Family passes; full border including two grotesques.

4. Folio 73r, Bathsheba bathing, 64mm. by 44mm., the maiden dipping her ankles in the water watched by five courtiers on the grass and by David and an attendant from a window in a house behind; full border including a jousting grotesque in a top hat creeping up on a snail.

5. Folio 90r, Death mounted on an ox, 65mm. by 45mm., galloping across a landscape to spear a group of people, including an emperor, standing by a wayside cross; full border including grotesques with the heads of a maiden, a unicorn and an angel.

The historiated initials show: (1) fol.13r, Saint John on Patmos, 7 lines, 30mm. by 32mm., full border including a grotesque in a hood; (2) fol.14r, Saint Luke with his ox, 4 lines, 17mm. by 20mm., full border including a moth and a dragon; (3) fol.15v, Saint Matthew with his angel, 6 lines, 26mm. by 22mm., full border including an oriental grotesque playing music; (4) fol.17r, Saint Mark with a tiny lion, 6 lines, 25mm. by 26mm., full border including a grotesque ape turning its back on a hen; (5) fol.18r, Saint John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness (should be the Crucifixion), 5 lines, 20mm. by 23mm., full border including a winged grotesque; (6) fol.30r, the Visitation, landscape background, 8 lines, 37mm. by 31mm., full border including a hybrid grotesque; (7) fol.40r, Pentecost, 7 lines, 31mm. by 33mm., full border including a grotesque in spectacles clapping as a dog dances; (8) fol.41r, the Nativity, 8 lines, 37mm. by 33mm., full border including two grotesques; (9) fol.47r, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, a shepherdess spinning, 8 lines, 37mm. by 31mm., full border including a grotesque in glasses pulling its own tail; (10) fol.51v, the Adoration of the Magi, 8 lines, 36mm. by 34mm., full border including two grotesque animals, one based on a camel; (11) fol.56r, the Presentation in the Temple, 8 lines, 36mm. by 29mm., full border including a grotesque sniffing a flower; (12) fol.67r, the Coronation of the Virgin, 7 lines, 32mm. by 30mm., full border including a grotesque archer shooting another creature; (13) fol.115r, the Virgin and Child enthroned below a canopy, 8 lines, 36m. by 34mm., full border including a Moorish grotesque blowing a pipe; (14) fol.118v, the Pietà, 6 lines, 26mm. by 24mm., full border including a grotesque animal looking over its shoulder; (15) fol.124r, the Meeting at the Golden Gate, 7 lines, 32mm. by 25mm., full border including two grotesques, one shooting; (16) fol.125r, the Crucifixion, 5 lines, 24mm. by 19mm., full border including a demure maiden in a shell; (17) fol.128v, Saint John the Baptist, 4 lines, 18mm. by 17mm., full border including a bald man in glasses with a flag; (18) fol.129r, Saint John the Evangelist, 5 lines, 23mm. by 19mm., full border including two animals, one probably a beaver biting off his own genitalia; (19) fol.130r, Saint Katherine, 4 lines, 18mm. by 20mm., full border including a grotesque with a long neck and many bosoms; (20) fol.131r, Saint Denis holding his own head, 5 lines, 24mm. by 21mm., full border including a hybrid grotesque; (21) fol.131v, a guardian angel killing a devil, 5 lines, 26mm. by 17mm., full border including another hybrid grotesque; (22) fol.132r, Saint Fiacre with a spade, 5 lines, 22mm. by 19mm., full border including a flying grotesque; (23) fol.132v, the Trinity (no Holy Ghost), 6 lines, 26mm. by 25mm., full border including a flying grotesque; (24) fol.133v, Saint Michael, 5 lines, 23mm. by 24mm., full border including a little man scratching his bottom; (25) fol.134r, Saints Philip and James, 4 lines, 17mm. by 25mm., full border including a man sitting on a bench; (26) fol.135r, Saint Paul, 6 lines, 27mm. by 29mm., full border including a naked jester; (27) fol.135v, Saint James, 5 lines, 23mm. by 23mm., full border including another naked jester gesticulating across the page; (28) fol.136r, Saint Andrew, 5 lines, 23mm. by 22mm., full border including a grotesque looking back at the jester on the facing page; (29) fol.136v, Saint Bartholomew, 6 lines, 27mm. by 23mm., full border including a grotesque; (30) fol.137r, Saint Matthew, 5 lines, 22mm. by 21mm., full border; (31) fol.137v, Saint Thomas, 6 lines, 27mm. by 25mm., full border including a grotesque bird; (32) fol.138r, Saint Claude, 6 lines, 28mm. by 29mm., full border including a grotesque snail; and (33) fol.139v, Saint Apollonia, 6 lines, 26mm. by 28mm., full border including a hybrid grotesque.