Lot 112

Book of Hours of Dominican Use, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [western France (perhaps Le Mans), late fifteenth century]

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

71 leaves (including an original endleaf), 115mm. by 85mm., complete, collation: i-ii^{8, iii^{6, iv-viii^{8, ix^{9 (last blank and cancelled), single column, 14 lines in dark brown ink in a textualis hand, rubrics in red, one- and 2-line initials in red and blue, other 2- to 5-line initials in gold (some on coloured grounds, some with contrasting penwork, that on fol.23v enclosing a coat-of-arms), spaces on fols.1r and 31r for miniatures, border on fol.20v crudely coloured (perhaps in nineteenth century), some slight discolouration through use, else good,}}}}contemporary blind-stamped calf over bevelled wooden boards, small areas of leather missing, cracked at spine and thongs now cracking where they attach to text block, remains of clasp

Provenance

provenance

1. Most probably written for a Dominican nun, perhaps from the convent of Le Mans: St. Dominic appears twice in the Litany, alongside the Le Mans saints, Sebastian, Eutropius, Serenicus, Fiacre and Avertinus. A simple coat-of-arms appears in the initial on fol.23v.

2. Francorys Pinaard: his sixteenth-century ownership inscription on fols.8v and 31r.

3. Le Normand du Coudray: his paraphe on fol.1r.

4. Chanoine Hitzler: nineteenth-century ownership inscription on fol.1r.

5. John Rolls (1807-70), the father of the 1^st Baron Llangattock and the grandfather of the founder of Rolls-Royce: ownership inscription on fol.1r dated 1824, by descent to the Llangattock sale, Christie's, 8 December 1958, lot 187, to Alan Thomas.

6. Mrs. June O'Donnell (d.1979), of Guildford; bought in these rooms, 5 July 1965, lot 223; her sale in these rooms, 25 June 1985, lot 93.

7. Bergendal MS.73; bought by J. Pope in our rooms, 25 June 1985, lot 93: Bergendal catalogue no.73; Stoneman, 'Guide', pp.194-95.

Catalogue Note

text

The volume comprises the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol.1r); a Litany (fol.12v) followed by prayers to various saints; the Hours of the Cross (fol.20v); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol.23v); Memorials to the saints (fol.26r); the Office of the Dead (fol.31r); prayers for use at Mass (fol.63v), the hymn Ave verum corpus (fol.66r) and the Obsecro te (fol.67r).