Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [northern Italy (perhaps Florence) and perhaps America, c.1500 and nineteenth century]

185 leaves (plus 3 modern and one original endleaves at front and back), 175mm. by 125mm., complete, collation: i¹², ii-xviii¹⁰, xix⁴ (including endleaf), 16 lines in brown ink in a rounded gothic bookhand (written space: 100mm. by 65mm.), capitals touched in yellow, rubrics in red, originally left unfinished without initials, borders and miniatures, those here added in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century: one-line initials in gold on red, blue, green and purple grounds, 2-line initials in gold on bi-coloured grounds in the same, some inhabited with little figures, with sprays of coloured leaves in red, blue, green, purple and yellow with gold bezants extending into the margins, line-fillers in geometric shapes or as fish or dragons, twenty three-quarter page miniatures above 4-line historiated initials with full borders including coloured acanthus, flowers and gold bezants, occasionally empty shields for heraldic arms, spine broken in several places, now held together by nineteenth-century red velvet cover

1. The script of this book appears Florentine, and it was most probably written for a monk: “commemoratio defunctorum” for 4 November in the Calendar. The Calendar also includes St. Romulus of Genoa on 13 October, and more surprisingly the extremely rare English saint, Gilbert of Sempringham on 4 February (founder of the Gilbertine Order, who was imprisoned at the age of ninety for assisting the exiled Thomas Becket, died in 1189/90 and canonised in 1202; the order followed an adapted rule of St. Augustine, and the feast of that saint is in the Calendar in red on 28 August). There were no Gilbertine foundations outside of Britain and Ireland, but numerous business relationships in the wool trade existed between Gilbertine houses and Florentine merchants (cf. Golding, Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertine Order, 1995, p.425), and this book was perhaps made as a gift from a merchant to a member of the order, or was commissioned by a Gilbertine visiting northern Italy.

2. Oliver Henry Perkins (d.1902) of Des Moines, Iowa: his late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century armorial bookplate on front pastedown; his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 23-24 March 1926, lot 533 (illustrated).

3. Virginia Luke: her name added in early twentieth-century pen to Perkins’ bookplate.

text

The book comprises: a Calendar (fol.1r); the Hours of the Virgin with Matins (fol.13r), Lauds (fol.25r), Prime (fol.37v), Terce (fol.42v), Sext (fol.48r), None (fol.52v), Vespers (fol.57v) and Compline (fol.66r); the Office for Advent (fol.71r); the Office of the Dead (fol.91r); the Hours of the Cross with Matins (fol.139r), Prime (fol.140v), Terce, erroneously designated by the scribe as Sext (fol.142r), Sext (fol.143v), None (fol.145v), Vespers (fol.148v) and Compline (fol.150r); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol.152v); the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol.161r) with a Litany (fol.174v); and the Obsecro te (fol.181v).

 illumination

This Book of Hours was an ambitious commission with large miniatures planned for all texts and a full cycle of images for the Hours of the Cross. For some reason, it was abandoned after the scribe finished his work. The decoration here with initials, borders and miniatures was added in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

The modern illuminations comprise: (1) fol.13r, the Virgin and Child Enthroned and a Woman in Prayer; (2) fol.25r, the Flight into Egypt; (3) fol.37v, the Visitation; (4) fol.42v, the Nativity; (5) fol.48r, the Presentation in the Temple; (6) fol.52v, the Adoration of the Magi; (7) fol.57v, Christ among the Doctors; (8) fol.66r, Christ with his Parents; (9) fol.91r, a funeral service; (10) fol.139r, the Betrayal of Christ; (11) fol.140v, Christ before Pontius Pilate; (12) fol.142r, Christ carrying the Cross; (13) fol.143v, the Crucifixion; (14) fol.145v, the Crucifixion; (15) fol.148r, the Descent from the Cross; (16) fol.150r, the Entombment; (17) fol.152v, Pentecost; (18) fol.161r, David in Prayer; (19) fol.174v, All Saints; (20) fol.181v, the Virgin and Child.