Description
122 leaves (plus 2 original endleaves at front, and 6 modern vellum endleaves), 164mm. by 120mm., lacking 2 leaves, else complete, collation: i-iii6, iv5 (i a singleton), v-viii8, ix7 (v a singleton), x-xv8, xvi4, single column, 20 lines in dark brown ink in two sizes of a good gothic bookhand, capitals touched in yellow, rubrics in red, one- and 2-line initials in gold in pink and blue grounds, line-fillers in same, large initials in blue or pink with coloured ivyleaves on gold grounds, eight quarter-page miniatures with full borders of acanthus leaves and foliage on dull-gold grounds (that on fol.20r set in upright margin, probably as the scribe omitted to leave room for it within the main text; fols.20r: John the Evangelist with a chalice; 31r: the Visitation; 38v: the Nativity; 41v: the Annunciation to the Shepherds; 44r: the Adoration of the Magi; 46r: the Presentation; 48r: the Flight into Egypt; 52r: the Coronation of the Virgin), five full-page or three-quarter page miniatures with full borders (fols.23v: the Virgin weaving before the owner and St. John the Baptist; 24r: the Annunciation to the Virgin; 57r: the Crucifixion; 63r: Bathsheba bathing; 74v: Job on his Dungheap), sixteenth-century prayers added at each end, rust-holes from early clasps at each end, some miniatures rubbed and a little scuffed, small paint-flake from one face, borders thumbed in places, initial on fol.46r smudged, edges trimmed with slight affect to borders, overall in fair and presentable condition, gatherings now bound in on paper supports, red suede doublures, modern red morocco tooled with gilt and coloured strapwork forming crosses over wooden boards, two modern carved metal clasps, black leather suede-lined fitted case (with earlier binding of tooled brown leather over wooden boards by Hayday, associated endleaves and leather fitted case with gilt monogram “MEG” by Sangorski & Sutcliffe)
Provenance
provenance
(1) Written and illuminated for the female patron who is shown kneeling in the miniature on fol.23v, as she is commended by her patron saint, John the Baptist, to the Virgin. The Office of the Virgin is of the very rare Use of Beauvais (no manuscript of this use is recorded by Leroquais in the Bibliothèque Nationale), and the Calendar singles out in red SS.Lucian (8 January, martyred at Beauvais), Geremarus (19 May and 24 September, seventh-century hermit who founded Flay Abbey near Beauvais), Angadrisma (14 October, abbess at Oroër, near Beauvais), and Justus (18 October, martyr of Beauvais).
(2) Bookplate within nineteenth-century binding with interlocking ‘WB’ and motto “Animo et Fide”.
(3) Mrs Gretchen Kroch Kelsch; her sale in our rooms, 22 June 1982, lot 78.
Catalogue Note
text
The volume includes: a Calendar (fol.1r); the Passion Sequences and Gospel Sequences (fol.13r); Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol.24r), Lauds (fol.31r), Prime (fol.38v), Terce (fol.41v), Sext (fol.44r), None (fol.46r), Vespers (fol.48r) and Compline (fol.52r) followed by prayers for different days of the week; the Hours of the Cross and of the Holy Ghost (fol.57r), the Penitential Psalms (fol.63r) and Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol.74v), followed by Suffrages to the Saints and other prayers; and the Mass of the Virgin (fol.119r).
