Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin and Dutch, illuminated manuscript on vellum

provenance

(1) Written for a woman (the Obsecro te is in the female form: mihi peccatrix on fol.129v); her portrait appears on fol.25v, kneeling in prayer at her prie-dieu with this book before her, with her patron saint, Barbara, and her pet dog. Her arms appear in a shield mounted on the side of her prie-dieu (parti per pale azure & gules, a cross ancré or), and repeatedly in the manuscript in slightly modified forms: on fol.126r with the motto "Au surplus" on a scroll intertwined in the border; and again on fol.136r, supported by two dogs, with scrolls in the margin above and below a helmet surmounted by a drollery creature, bearing the same motto. Four more arms appear in the corners of fols.25v-26r, surrounding the portrait of her and the Annunciation, and these are presumably her immediate ancestors. One of these coats of arms, that in the upper left hand corner (d'or à une croix de sable chargée de cinq coquilles d'argent) is that of the prolific and influential Boubers of Picardy, who took these arms in 1320. At the end of the fifteenth century the three legitimate branches of the family held the seigneurships of Vaugenlieu, Bernâtre & Tunq, and d'Ivregny, and a fourth illegitimate line were bourgeois inhabitants of Douai. They made a number of advantageous marriages into the aristocratic families of the southern Netherlands, and it must be through one of these links that a woman who spoke Flemish as her vernacular language sought to immortalise her descent from them in this little book.

(2) Hodgson's, Chancery Lane, 12 January 1922, lot 531.

(3) Ralph Aston Hamlyn, his sale in our rooms, 14 July 1981, lot 114.

(4) Sold in our rooms 15 May, 1997, lot 47.

text

A Calendar in Dutch (fol.1r), including in red SS. Amand (6 February), Boniface (5 June), Bavo (1 October), Donatian (14 October) and Nichasius (14 December); the Hours of the Cross (fol.14r) and of the Holy Ghost (fol.20r); the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol.26r), Lauds (fol.40v), Prime (fol.56r), Terce (fol.61r), Sext (fol.65r), None (fol.68v), Vespers (fol.73r) and Compline (fol.80r); the Penitential Psalms (fol.85r) and Litany (including SS. Bavo & Winoc); the Office of the Dead (fol.106r); the Obsecro te (fol.126r); Memorials to the Saints (fol.132r); the Hymn to the Holy Ghost (fol.138v); and the verses of St. Gregory in Dutch (fol.140r).

illumination

The illumination is by a follower of the Master of Edward IV, and displays some subtlety in the depiction of the elaborate backgrounds to his scenes (see for example the detailed architectural compositions that form the backdrop to the Annunciation to the Shepherds on fol.61r & David in prayer on 84v). The same attention to fine detail can be found in the marginal illumination, and apart from the wealth of naturalistic flowers, the depictions of a man crawling through a glass orb (fol.68v), Gideon kneeling in prayer (fol.19v), and a soldier in armour clubbing three lions (fol.105v), are worth noting. There is much about this manuscript that is individual and appealing: the script is a fine and perhaps even flamboyant lettre bâtarde of a type usually found in literary texts, and the general style of the borders is that of Ghent or Bruges with remarkably naturalistic flowers and plant cuttings strewn across the borders or set in mille-fleur tapestries in repeating geometric frames. We might suppose that the commission for this manuscript was a highly individual one, with many details specified by the original owner.

The miniatures show:

(1) Folio 13v, The Crucifixion; the Virgin and St. John on one side and two Jews on the other; the border including Synagogue, blind-folded and with her staff broken, the old laws falling from her hand.

(2) Folio 14r, border including Ecclesia holding a Cross, Chalice and Wafer.

(3) Folio 19v, Pentecost; set in a gothic church; the border including Gideon kneeling in prayer for dew to fall on the fleece (an Old Testament prefiguration of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Virgin).

(4) Folio 25v, The owner of the manuscript dressed in black with a wimple on her head, kneeling at her prie-dieu, her white dog beside her, and St. Barbara standing behind her; border including two shields.

(5) Folio 26r, The Annunciation, border including two shields.

(6) Folio 40v, The Visitation; set outside the walls of a medieval town; the border including a dragon and a grotesque centaur.

(7) Folio 56r, The Nativity; the Child being adored by the Virgin, St. Joseph and an angel; the border including Moses and the Burning Bush.

(8) Folio 61r, The Annunciation to the Shepherds; a kneeling shepherd and a shepherdess with a distaff; landscape background with a view of Bethlehem.

(9) Folio 68v, The Presentation in the Temple; the border including a grotesque man clambering through the glass orb traditionally held by God.

(10) Folio 73r, The Massacre of the Innocents; a soldier in a classical helmet lancing a child while its mother watches in prayer; Herod to the left directing the murder; border including Samson killing the lion.

(11) Folio 84v, David in prayer; his harp before him; the background showing his residence as a medieval palace with a moat in which ducks are swimming; border including figures of David and Goliath.

(12) Folio 85r, border including David carrying back the head of Goliath being met by women with musical instruments.

(13) Folio 105v, The Raising of Lazarus; set in a medieval cloister; border including a soldier clubbing three lions to death.

(14) Folio 126r, The Pietà with SS. John & Mary Magdalene; border including coats of arms and the motto "Au surplus".

(15) Folio 132r, St. Michael trampling on one devil and swinging at another with his sword.

(16) Folio 133r, St. Nicholas and the three Children in the pickling vat at Myra; border including a coat of arms, a crest and two scrolls with the motto "Au surplus".

(17) Folio 134r, St. Mary Magdalene with a jar of ointment; border including the Three Maries at the tomb and Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene as a gardener.

(18) Folio 135v, St. Katherine; border including her in prayer before the wheel on which she is to be martyred.

(19) Folio 137r, St. Barbara, with her book, palm and tower; border including scenes of the tower being built as Barbara directing the foreman to construct it with three windows as secret symbols of the Trinity; in the distance she is martyred.

(20) Folio 138v, The Holy Dove in flight over a tranquil landscape.

(21) Folio 140r, The Mass of St. Gregory, with two cardinals in attendance.