Book of Hours, in Latin and French, manuscript on vellum

127 leaves (plus 6 endleaves), 157mm. By 102mm., some apparently superfluous leaves cut from beginning and 2 leaves cut out from main text and now replaced with modern blank leaves (fols. 16 and 20), else complete, written space 110mm. by 70mm., single column, c. 30 lines in dark brown ink in a small, cramped and somewhat unskilled lettre batârde, rubrics in faded red, initials in faded red or blue with line fillers in same, copious annotations in margin in same hand, original front endleaves dry and brittle, one re-used from a letter, now a scrap (traces of same at back), and others showing marks of having borne a number of small pilgrim badges, poor repair with modern tape to two endleaves, contemporary tooled leather binding over wooden boards with metal corner pieces with foliate designs, traces of clasps, skilfully repaired in nineteenth century and extra endleaves added, back board now loose, in card box with a number of late nineteenth-century letters and notes regarding the manuscript

provenance

1. Compiled and written by Jean du Chastelet and completed by him in Amiens on 6 June 1492; inscription on first leaf: Ces p(re)sentes heures sont a Jeha(n) du chastelet qui les treuve se lui es rende et Il donna le vin Lesquelles furent par achevees a amiens le VIe io(ur) de Juing Lan mil cccc iiiixx et xiii de sa main.  The armorial device of 3 small castles on the binding is doubtless that of Chastelet.  Signed and dated Books of Hours are unexpectedly rare.

2. Subsequently owned by the house of Franciscan Minims in Dieppe; with Minimes de Dieppe in hand of c. 1700 on first leaf.

3. Elizabeth Jane Sewell May 1871: ownership inscription on modern endleaf.

 

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
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text

This manuscript compensates for its rather rustic appearance with a number of fascinating personal touches. It names its author and scribe, and records the date on which he finished his work, and the place he resided. Moreover, its calendar and additional prayers are clearly a personal compilation, perhaps made over some considerable time. The volume contains: endleaf with prayers (fol. 1rv; lengthy rubrics in French and text in Latin throughout); a calendar, with all major Amiens saints in red, including SS. Fremin, Honoré and Fuscien (2r-7v); Gospel readings (8r-14v); prayers to Virgin and a prayer for help at hour of death (14v-15v; 16 a blank inserted leaf); the Hours of the Conception from terce to compline (17r-19r); the hours of Virgin (19r-34v; 20 a blank insert; apparently unknown Use, but Nones consistent with Use of Hainault); a Litany of the Virgin (35rv); the Hours of Holy Spirit (36r-40v); the Hours of the Passion of Christ (40v-7r); the Hours of the Sacrament (47r-9v); various prayers including an orison du venerable bede and a prayer to the queen of the heavens, the stars and the sea to ask for safety at sea (49v-55v); the seven penitential psalms (56r-9r); a Litany of the saints (59r-61v); various prayers (61r-79r); the office of the dead (79v-88v); various bible readings (88v-97v); prayers to God and the suffrages of the saints (97v-111r); various prayers (111v-112v); the Hours of the Cross and Hours of the Holy Spirit (112v-113r); prayers and liturgical additions including the Pater Noster and a supplication from lordre des freres mineurs (113r-27r).