Western Manuscripts

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Lot 88
  • 88

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

Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 GBP
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Description

194 leaves (last originally blank), 120mm. by 80mm., lacking single leaves after fols.58, 169 and 185, else apparently complete, collation: i-ii6, iii8, iv4, v6, vi8, vii6, viii8, ix6, x7 [of 8, lacking i], xi-xii8, xiii7 [of 8, lacking ii], xiv6, xv-xvi8, xvii6, xviii-xxiii8, xxiv4, xxv3 [probably of 4, lacking ii], xxvi8, xxvii6, xxviii5 [of 6, lacking i], xxix4, with vertical catchwords,15 lines, ruled in pale red ink, written-space 64mm. by 40mm., written in dark brown ink in two sizes of a lettre bâtarde, rubrics in red, capitals touched in yellow, one- to 3-line initials throughout in designs in liquid gold on blue and red-brown panels, panel borders throughout in the outer margins of every leaf in patterns of blue and gold acanthus leaves with coloured flowers, thirty-eight large miniatures, 37 of them in arched compartments above large initials and 4 lines of text and within full borders of acanthus leaves and coloured flowers and fruit, sometimes on partly or entirely liquid gold grounds, often with grotesques and other creatures, early additions in Calendar and on last pages, very worn, many miniatures smudged and rubbed, many pages thumbed and battered, some stains, a few tiny spots of retouching of faces, other wear, French sixteenth-century red-brown morocco profusely gilt with large panel of interlacing strapwork infilled in gilt, rosettes on spine, edges gilt and painted in a floral design, vellum endleaves, binding worn, in a pale brown fitted case

Provenance

provenance

(1) The Use of the Hours of the Virgin is that of Nantes, but not that of the Office of the Dead, which is consistent with Rome and Rouen.  The Calendar points unambiguously to Amiens.  The style of illumination is closest to that of Rouen, one of the great centres for the export of manuscripts to elsewhere.   The manuscript was commissioned for a couple: his arms are erased from fol.13r and hers from fol.117r.  Perhaps one of the patrons came from Nantes and the other from Amiens.  The man is shown in the miniature on fol.28r.  He was perhaps related to the J. Guyot who added prayers at the end in 1520 and sixteenth-century birth dates of the Guyot family in the Calendar.  The Guyot family also owned the celebrated Missal of Jean Rolin (Lyons, ms.517).

 

(2) R.A. Stevens; his sale in these rooms, 17 December 1928, lot 573; again on 8 July 1957, lot 65; booklabel of Phillip C. Duschnes, New York.

 

(3) Marie-Louise and Samuel Robert Rosenthal, major benefactors of cultural institutions in Chicago, with their joint bookplate, and now the property of the estate of Marie-Louise Rosenthal, d.2003.

Catalogue Note

text

A Calendar, in French (fol.1r), relatively sparse but singling out in red the two Saints Firminus, 13 January and 25 September, and Saint Fuscian, 11 December, all of Amiens; the Gospel Sequences (fol.13r); the Obsecro te (fol.22v) and O intemerata (fol.28r), both for male use, and other prayers including the Verses of Saint Bernard, the Passion Sequence, prayers to Christ and to one’s guardian angel, prayers for use at Confession and before Mass, prayers to the Holy Face, the Te Deum of the Virgin (“Te matrem dei laudamus …”, fol.55r), etc.; the Hours of the Virgin [Use of Nantes], of ‘mixed’ use with the Hours of the Cross and of the Holy Ghost, with Matins (fol.59r), Lauds (fol.70v), Prime (fol.86v), Terce (fol.93r), Sext (fol.98r), None (fol.102v), Vespers (fol.107v) and Compline (fol.111v); the Penitential Psalms (fol.117r) and Litany, with universal saints only; the Office of the Dead, in shorter form (fol.138r); the Hours of Saint Katherine (fol.155v); the Hours of Saint Barbara (fol.163v); Suffrages (fol.169v); and the sacred names of Christ, to be written over a doorway for the protection of those who recite them (fol.190v), ending on fol.192r.

 

illumination

Despite the condition, this is an extremely richly-illuminated Book of Hours, with a long and complex text and very extensive illustration.  The general style is that of the late work of the Master of the Geneva Latini, or Master of the Échevinage de Rouen, which lasted until the 1480s or even 1490s.   The subjects of the miniatures are: (1) folio 13r, Saint John on Patmos, his eagle with a pencase, landscape background, full border including a bird, an ape with bagpipes, and a coat-of-arms (mostly erased); (2) folio 16r, Saint Luke writing at a desk, his ox lying before him, full border including a dragon; (3) folio 18v, Saint Matthew writing, an angel in prayer before him, full border including a long-eared grotesque; (4) folio 21r, Saint Mark writing a scroll on his lap, his diminutive lion seated before him, full border including a peacock and a grotesque playing the lute; (5) folio 22v, the Pietà, the Virgin at the foot of the Cross with the Body on her lap, full border including a hooded grotesque running away; (6) folio 28r, the owner of the manuscript kneeling before the Virgin and Child enthroned in a gothic interior, full border including a grotesque; (7) folio 70v, the Visitation, Saint Elizabeth placing her hand on the Virgin’s belly, landscape background, full border; (8) folio 84v, Pentecost, set in a gothic interior, full border including a smiling grotesque; (9) folio 86v, the Nativity of Christ, the Child on the ground, landscape background, full border including a bird and a grotesque with a swan’s head and dragon’s wings; (10) folio 93r, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, a pastoral hillside, a blue angel in the sky with a scroll, full border including a butterfly and a grotesque bird; (11) the Adoration of the Magi, standing and kneeling before the Virgin and Child, full border including a grotesque emerging from a snail shell; (12) folio 102v, the Presentation in the Temple, the priest with the Child, the Virgin kneeling, a maid with a basket of doves, full border; (13) folio 107v, the Flight into Egypt, Joseph leading the donkey to the right through a landscape, full border including a dog emerging from a snail shell; (14) folio 111v, the Coronation of the Virgin, God enthroned, the Virgin kneeling, an angel hovering with a crown, full border; (15) folio 117r, David in prayer, kneeling in an interior with his harp before him and God appearing in the sky, full border including a grotesque and a lozenge-shaped coat-of-arms (mostly erased); (16) folio 137r, a funeral Mass set in a church, mourners to the left, priests on the right, full border including a bearded grotesque; (17) folio 115v, Saint Katherine, seated in an interior, a sword and wheel beside her, full border including a bird and an ape with a distaff; (18) folio 163v, Saint Barbara, standing outside her tower in a landscape, full border including a bird and a grotesque; (19) folio 169v, Saint Michael vanquishing the Devil, landscape background, full border including a bird and a grotesque; (20) folio 170v, Saint James dressed as a pilgrim, with book and staff, full border; (21) folio 171v, Saint Christopher carrying the Child across a river, the hermit on a high cliff, full border including a swan and a grotesque soldier; (22) folio 172v, the lapidation of Saint Stephen, the martyr kneeling, two men throwing stones, full border including a bear; (23) folio 173v, Saint George and the dragon, the princess in prayer in the background, full border including a grotesque; (24) folio 174v, Saint Adrian, with anvil and lion, set in an interior, full border including a grotesque; (25) folio 175v, the shooting of Saint Sebastian, tied to a tree, full border; (26) folio 176v, Saint Laurence standing in an interior with a book, palm and gridiron, full border; (27) folio 177v, Saint Eustace standing in the Nile, with a lion on one bank eating one of his sons and a wolf on the other eating the other son, full border including a bird; (28) folio 179r, Saint Denis, holding his own decapitated head, full border including a grotesque bird; (29) folio 180v, Saint Fiacre as a monk with a book and spade, full border including a grotesque in a hat and cape; (30) folio181v, Saint Eligius as a bishop with a crozier and a hammer, full border; (31) folio 182v, Saint Hubert riding into a woodland clearing and seeing a stag with a crucifix between its antlers and an angel descending with a girdle, full border including a grotesque; (32) folio 183v, Saint Anthony standing in an interior with a staff, fire and pig, full border including a small grotesque; (33) folio 184v, Saint Nicholas blessing the three children who step from the pickling tub, full border; (34) folio 185v, the Mass of Saint Gregory, who kneels at an altar attended by two priests and sees Christ appearing from a sarcophagus, full border including a goose-stepping grotesque in a hat and cape; (35) folio 187v, Saint Apollonia, standing with pliers and book, full border including a grotesque camel; (36) folio 188r, Saint Margaret emerging from a dragon, full border including a grotesque with big ears; (37) folio 189v, Saint Clare, dressed as an abbess in a cloister, holding a crozier and a monstrance, full border including a snail; and (38), fol.193r, Saint Veronica’s handkerchief with the Holy Face.