The Fortesque Hours, Use of Sarum, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands (probably Bruges), c.1460-70]

141 leaves (plus early endleaves and pastedowns), 146mm. by 102mm., wanting a number of leaves and misbound, 20 lines in dark brown ink, one-line initials in blue or gold with contrasting penwork, rubrics in red, 2-line initials in gold on blue and pink grounds heightened with white penwork, twenty full-page miniatures in rectangular frames (each approximately 80mm. by 50mm.; fols.8v, 21v, 23v, 26v, 35v, 51v, 57v, 68v, 70v, 75v, 78v, 80v, 82v, 84v, 93v, 100v, 102v, 105v, 131v and 137v; that on 102v slightly rubbed), all within full borders of acanthus-leaf sprays and single-line foliage terminating in buds, some enclosing realistic birds, each miniature page facing a text page with a 6-line initial in blue or pink enclosing foliate sprays on burnished gold grounds, with a full border as before, gold slightly rubbed in places and a bifolium (fols.66-67) coming loose at top, else in excellent condition, early (possibly even contemporary) red velvet over wooden boards (reassembled and partly restored), worn velvet splitting along spine

1. Most probably written and illuminated in Bruges c.1460-70 for an English patron (SS. Dunstan, Alphege and Aldhelm in the Calendar, with Botulph a near-contemporary addition), evidently a member of the Fortesque family of Devon: late fifteenth-century additions to the calendar marking the births of members of this family (Elizabeth Fortesque in June 1475, Anne in December 1473, and Edward 'son of John Fortesque, knight' in December 1476; most probably the children of Sir John Fortesque the younger of Punsbourne, who inherited his titles and estates in 1464, and his wife, Alice Boleyn, d.pre-1495, the aunt of Anne Boleyn). There is a prayer added in an English hand at the end for use by a woman.

2. John Arundel, a member of the Devon recusant family, who gave it to John Napper (or more probably Napier) in 1614: inscriptions on the endleaves by Napper recording this, his presence in Cherbourg in 1615, a plague in the Bay of Balshannon in Ireland and a short verse noting that in this "owld Primer" is found "The Antient faith wh. owr for-fathers helde".

text

The volume is now misbound and many leaves and bifolia are misplaced. Originally it comprised a Calendar; the Hours of the Virgin (Use of Sarum), mixed with the Hours of the Cross (as commonly in manuscripts of English use); the Penitential Psalms and Litany; the Office of the Dead; the Psalter of St. Jerome; the Commendation of Saints; and other prayers on the Passion, including those attributed to Bede.

illumination

The artist here is an accomplished follower of Willem Vrelant (fl.1450s-1481), employing his stiff figures, deep and rich palette and distinctive liquid gold hairline strokes to heighten drapery. He was one of the most prolific, influential, and commercially successful illuminators in Bruges in the fifteenth century (Kren and McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance, 2003, pp.117-19). The unusual and  apparently incongruous image of the Tree of Knowledge surmounted by the Crucifixion on fol.105v is characteristically English, and visually unites the Fall and Redemption of mankind (C. de Hamel, Gilding the Lilly, 2010, no.60).

The miniatures are: (1) fol.8v, the Nativity, Mary and Joseph kneeling while a shepherd looks on; (2) fol.21v, Christ led before an enthroned Pilate by a band of armoured soldiers and a man in a pointed Jewish hat; (3) fol.23v, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, with two male shepherds and a woman joining hands as the angel descends; (4) fol.26v, the Scourging of Christ, as two men look on; (5) fol.35v, Judgement Day, with three angels lifting up naked souls in a white cloth as the heavens open to reveal God; (6) fol.51v, St. Jerome standing in a gothic interior reading, his attribute the lion at his feet; (7) fol.57v, the Raising of Lazarus; (8) fol.68v, Christ carrying the Cross; (9) fol.70v, the Presentation in the Temple; (10) fol.75v, the Kiss of Judas; (11) fol.78v, St. Margaret emerging from the dragon before a tessellated background of green, blue, red and burnished gold; (12) fol.80v, St. John the Baptist in the wilderness, dressed in sheepskins and holding a lamp and a book; (13) fol.82v, the Virgin and Child with St. Anne; (14) fol.84v, St. Mary Magdalene; (15) fol.93v, the Coronation of the Virgin, kneeling between God the father, Christ and the Holy Spirit before a tessellated background; (16) fol.100v, Christ laid in his tomb, surrounded by followers and mourners; (17) fol.102v, the Massacre of the Innocents before a seated Herod; (18) fol.105v, the Garden of Eden, with a naked Adam and Eve standing either side of the Tree of Knowledge, the serpent with a human face entwined around its trunk, and a Crucifixion in its branches; (19) fol.131v, Christ standing holding an open book, before a rich blue cloth and a tessellated background; (20) fol.137v, the Deposition, Joseph of Arimathea pulling the nail out of Christ's feet with a pair of pincers as onlookers mourn.