Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris or Besançon, c.1440-60]

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 GBP

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Description

Vellum

136 leaves (plus 2 original endleaves), 240mm. by 170mm., lacking 27 leaves (including several with miniatures), collation: ii¹², iii⁷ (wanting i), iv⁶, v⁷ (i wanting), vi-vii⁸, ix⁵ (ii-v probably wanting), x⁵ (wanting last but one leaf), xi² (wanting all but last 2 leaves), xii⁷ (i wanting), xiii¹ (perhaps once a bifolium and wanting i), xiv⁵ (i wanting), xv⁷ (i wanting), xvi⁸, xvii⁷ (iii wanting), xviii⁴ (iv-v wanting), xix-xxi⁸, xxii⁷ (i wanting), xxiii⁴ (i-ii wanting), xxiv², catchwords, 17 lines in dark brown ink in 2 sizes of an accomplished gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, one- to 3-line initials in burnished gold and red with penwork to contrast, line fillers in same, decorated border panels on each page with central sprigs of flowers or fruit surrounded by rinceaux terminating in gold ivyleaves and bezants, five three-quarter page miniatures with full border in same, damage to face of St. Matthew on fol.15v, cuts to inner gutters of a few leaves and fol.58 nearly cut out, some small stains and wormholes at end, else in excellent condition, contemporary blind-stamped binding of tanned leather over bevelled wooden boards, stamped in concentric rectangles with two facing birds, the divine monogram ‘IHS’, a hound chasing a rabbit, a swan, and an eagle, remains of two clasps, small tears and scuffs to spine, traces of original painted edges (gilt with coloured dots)

Provenance

provenance

(1) Most probably produced in Paris. The illumination suggests an origin there, but while the Calendar has St. Louis in gold, Geneviève is absent (although she does appear in the Litany). St. Gervais is an uncommon addition to the Calendar (19 June), to whom one of the great Parisian churches was dedicated, and that rebuilt in 1420.

(2) Dr Léon Bourée: his ex libris on first endleaf, dated 8 October 1867, and recording its gift from his father.

(3) Roger Laloy: his ‘dance of death’ bookplate, dated 1904.

(4) F.P. Leclercq: his bookplate; his sale in our rooms, 3 July 1984, lot 78.

(5) Sold in our rooms, 20 June 1995, lot 91, to the present owner.

Catalogue Note

text

The volume comprises: a Calendar (fol.1r); the Gospel Sequences (fol.13r); the Obsecro te (fol.18v) and O intemerata; the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol.26r), Lauds (fol.41v), Prime (fol.51r), Terce (fol.55r), Sext (fol.58r; lacking None), Vespers (fol.59r) and Compline (fol.65r); the Hours of the Cross (fol.69r) and of the Holy Ghost; the Penitential Psalms (fol.74r) and a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol.91r); the Quinze Joyes (fol.124r) and the Sept Requêtes in French; ending with a prayer to St. Mary Magdalene (fol.131r).

illumination

This is a large and high quality Book of Hours. The miniatures are derived ultimately from the Parisian style of the Bedford Master, adapted by the Master of the Munich Golden Legend (Plummer, The Last Flowering, pl.9a with fol.41v). Books in this style were made for Rouen and Besançon (with the heavy eyelids of some figures here perhaps pointing to the latter). The late work of the Master of the Munich Golden Legend seems to be located in Besançon and eastern France (ibid., no.84, pp.63-4).

The significant illuminations are:

(1) Folio 13v, St. Luke seated at a desk in a vaulted room, writing as his attribute, the ox, sits on the floor; (2) folio 15v, St. Matthew writing in a meadow, assisted by his angel; (3) folio 17v, St. Mark seated at a low octagonal table as his lion paws his knee; (4) folio 41v, the Visitation, set among trees in a rocky landscape with a castle; (5) folio 128r, Christ displaying his wounds, supported by two angels.