Book of Hours written entirely in silver and gold, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 GBP

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Description

104 leaves, 117mm. by 80mm., missing a number of leaves (probably those with miniatures), else complete, collation: i^{8, ii-iii^{4, iv^{7 (i excised), v^{4, vi^{8, vii^{5 (iv excised), viii^{7 (iii pasted in), ix^{2, xi^{8, xii^{7 (ii a singleton), xiii^{2, xiv-xv^{8, xvi^{7 (i excised), xvii^{7 (perhaps 4 leaves excised from this gathering; v a singleton), xviii^{8, remnants of horizontal catchwords, written space 66mm. by 48mm., single column, 13 lines in an accomplished gothic liturgical hand in}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}liquid silver paint (now mostly oxidised, but probably restorable), two contemporary faces drawn in simple penwork in silver ink in lower margin (fols.26v & 42v) incipits in liquid gold or pale red ink, rubrics in red, numerous 1-, 2- or 3-line initials in burnished gold on blue or pink grounds with white penwork, compartments of initials infilled with contrasting colour, occasional penwork flourishing in margins touched in colour, five 4- or 5-line initials in blue with white penwork, enclosing foliage terminating in red and blue leaves touched with white, all on pink grounds with a burnished gold border which extends up and down entire margin terminating in foliage sprays and burnished gold ivy-leaves (fols.37r, 42v, 48v, 93r, 96v; all but two somewhat rubbed), some leaves at end dampstained at top, overall in good condition, seventeenth-century red morocco, gilt-tooled on front and back boards, profusely gilt-tooled on spine

Provenance

provenance

Written (apparently in the southern Netherlands, most probably Bruges) for a patron from south-west France; the calendar includes St.Quitherie:Quiteria (22 May) St.Papulus of Toulouse (3 November), St. Gerald of Aurillac (13 October), and St. Lazarus (17 December); the Bible records nothing of Lazarus' life after Christ raised him from the dead, but in the medieval period it was believed that Lazarus had been cast adrift in an oarless and rudderless boat with Mary Magdalene, St. Martha and St. Maximinus and landed in southern Gaul, becoming the first bishop of Marseilles.

Catalogue Note

text

The text comprises a calendar (fol.1r); the Gospel sequences (fol.13r); Hours of the Virgin consistent with the Use of Rome: Matins (fol.17r), Lauds (fol.24v), Prime (fol.35r), Terce (fol.37r), Sext (fol.40v), Nones (fol.44r); Vespers (fol.46v), Compline (fol.48r); Penitential Psalms with litany (fol.50r); other prayers (fol.89r); Hours of the Cross (fol.93r); Obsecro te (fol.100v).

decoration

Books entirely written in silver or gold are incredibly rare, and Books of Hours in silver are almost unheard of; Leroquais apparently knew of none. The tradition of using silver in this way in medieval books has a particularly long lineage, beginning with the 'Codex Argentus' (now in Uppsala University Library) a copy of the Four Gospels in Gothic written c.520 in Ravenna in silver and gold letters on purple vellum. However, such a vast and luxurious undertaking is a noteworthy exception to the rule, and throughout much of the medieval period silver ink was used in manuscripts for only small areas or as highlights to larger decorations, most probably due to the difficulties of using the material (and the ease with which gold can perform the same tasks). In fact, only in the southern Netherlands in the third quarter of the fifteenth century among the artistic communities which were working for aristocratic clients such as the Burgundian court did widespread use of silver ink appear in a number of interrelated manuscripts. Seven survive from that period, the most well-known of which are the 'Black Hours' (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library M.493), and the 'Black Prayer Book' (Vienna, ÖNB. Codex Vindobonensis MS.1856), both entirely written and illuminated in silver and gold ink on black tinted vellum (I. F. Walter & N. Wolf, Codices Illustres, 2001, pp.362-3 & 372-3). These demonstrate that under the lavish patronage of the Burgundian dukes the skills to work in this medium been refined and developed in the workshops of Bruges, and the chance survival of the present manuscript suggests that the artists and scribes there were occasionally producing manuscripts in this media for a number of lesser patrons who wished to aspire to the most rarefied aesthetic tastes.