Lot 38

Book of Hours, in Latin, Use of Rome, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands (probably Bruges), c.1440]

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

74 leaves (plus original endleaves at front and back), 190mm. by 130mm., wanting a leaf after fol.6 and and 42, and some leaves with miniatures throughout, else complete, collation: i^{6, ii^{8 (ii and viii singletons), iv^{8, v^{11 (iii, vi and ix singletons), vi^{6 (iii and vi singletons), vii^{5 (last leaf blank and cancelled), viii^{9 (i a singleton), ix^{9 (iv a singleton), x^{4, single column, 18 lines in a good gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, small initials in blue with red tracery or gold with black tracery (and often with tracery extending up and down outer margin and into bas-de-page), 2-line initials in burnished gold on pink and blue grounds heightened with white penwork,}}}}}}}}} eleven large initials in pink or blue enclosing coloured foliage and all on burnished gold grounds (fols.9r, 16r, 23r, 30r, 34r, 37r, 54r, 66r all 5 lines in height, 48r, 2 lines in height), with full text border of acanthus leaves and single-line foliage terminating in gold leaves and bezants, coloured leaves, flowers and tubular seed-pods, these leaves commonly facing the seven full-page rectangular miniatures within similar borders (fols.8v, 33v, 36v, 39v, 44v, 53v, 65v; the first, second and fifth with significant damage), marks on fol.1r showing pilgrim badges once attached there, some smudging and thumbing to edges throughout, section cut from base of first folio, endleaves at back bound in upside down, else good condition, limp vellum

Provenance

provenance

1. Written and illuminated for a patron in Flanders (almost certainly Bruges), with SS. Amand and Vedast (6 February) and Donatian (14 October) in Calendar.

2. Janneken Jaspers; early sixteenth-century ownership inscription on endleaf. She may have been the 'Janneken Jasper Heyndricksz [dochter]' who occurs in a list of tradespeople resident in Nieuwveen in 1531.

Catalogue Note

text

The manuscript comprises a Calendar (fol. 1r); Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (16r), Lauds (23r), Prime (30r), Terce (34r), Sext (37r), None (40r), Vespers (42) and Compline (45r); the O intemerata (48r) and Obsecro te (49v) in the male form; the Penitential Psalms (54r) and a Litany; and the Office of the Dead (66r). To this has been added the 10-line responsory chant Discubuit Jesus (cf. Nilsson, 'Discubuit: a Service, a Procession, or Both?', in Labores fratres in unum: festschrift Laszlo Dobsay, 1995) in a sixteenth-century hand.

illumination

The miniatures, with oval-faced figures set in either landscapes with jagged hills and mushroom-like trees or gothic interiors with black and silver tiled floors and silver windows are recognisable as products of the workshop of the Master of Otto van Moerdrecht (Pächt and Alexander, I, pl.xv, figs..211a-b; Delaissé, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination, 1968, fig.128; Alexander, Medieval and Early Renaissance Treasures of the North West, 1976, fig.9a). The central devotional miniatures in the volume, those of Christ carrying the Cross on fol.36v and the Crucifixion on 39v, are especially luxurious, with wide open skies of burnished gold or brown heightened with streams of liquid gold lines.

The miniatures comprise:

1. folio 8v, full-page miniature of the Virgin and Child, 95mm. by 63mm., seated in a gothic interior before a window, full border of acanthus-leaf sprays and other foliage, terminating in coloured fruit and flowers; two tears to vellum leading from inner border repaired with a strip of vellum, smudges to areas of Virgin's dress and feet, else good condition.

2. folio 33v, full-page miniature of the Scourging of Christ, 100mm. by 65mm., with full border as above; some cockling to upper and inner part of leaf with rubbing from areas of miniature there (including damage to Christ's face), else fair condition.

3. folio 36v, full-page miniature of Christ carrying Cross, 103mm. by 75mm., with Christ surrounded by supporters within a hilly landscape as soldiers and a Jew peep over the hills in the background as if they are a theatrical set, all before a wide burnished gold sky; full border as above, very slight smudge to lower border of miniature, else excellent condition.

4. folio 39v, full-page miniature of the Crucifixion, 100mm. by 63mm., with Christ on the Cross between Joseph of Arimathea and Mary, liquid gold lines used to show light streaming from sky in background, full border as above; occasional minor scuffs here and there, overall very good condition.

5. folio 44v, full-page miniature of the Deposition of Christ, 100mm. by 65mm., with Christ's body been lain in a pink stone sarcophagus before a hilly landscape, full border as above; significant damage to face of Christ, else good condition.

6. folio 53v, full-page miniature of Judgement Day, 96mm. by 65mm., with Christ seated on a rainbow as the dead lift their faces from the grave, full border as above; some slight damage to border, else very good condition.

7. folio 65v, full-page miniature of a Burial Service, 100mm. by 62mm., with two tonsured clerics singing from a book on a lectern before a coffin draped in blue cloth and two mourners all in black, full border as above; slight smudging in two places to outermost edge of miniature and flaking from edge of coffin, else very good condition.