Book of Hours, Use of Le Mans, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [western France (perhaps Rennes), c.1420]

121 leaves (plus one medieval vellum flyleaf at each end), 106mm. by 88mm., wanting a calendar leaf (July), a miniature for the Hours of the Cross (after fol.35) and a miniature for the Penitential Psalms (after fol.64), else apparently complete, collation: i⁶, ii⁵ (i wanting), iii-v⁸, vi⁷ (i wanting), vii-ix⁸, x⁶, xi⁷ (i wanting), xii⁸, xiii¹⁰, xiv-xvii⁸, single column, 14 lines in a gothic hand, written space 96mm. by 63mm., capitals highlighted in yellow, rubrics in red, one-line initials in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing, line-fillers in gold and blue, 2-line initials in gold on red and blue grounds with white penwork decoration, 3- to 4-line initials in red or blue with white penwork decoration on burnished gold grounds filled with ivy leaves in red, blue and orange, accompanied by partial borders (fols.23v, 36v, 42v, 46r, 49r, 52v, 58r), two three-quarter-page miniatures: (i) fol.12r, the Annunciation, and (ii) fol.85r, a Funeral Service, both accompanied by decorated bars and full borders, prayers to St. Geneviève and St. James added in a contemporary hand (fol.35rv), vellum cockled, heavily cropped from original quarto to octavo size with borders on three sides almost entirely trimmed away, miniatures with pigment losses, that on fol.12r also rubbed, sixteenth- or seventeenth-century blind-tooled brown leather binding including medallions with the Crucifixion over pasteboard, scuffed at edges and large piece of leather missing from spine and lower cover, back board held in place by one thong

Most probably produced for a patron resident in Le Mans c.1420. The book may have soon reached Paris (note the near contemporary addition of a prayer to St. Geneviève on fol.35rv). In the seventeenth century it received a penwork monogram (the initials ‘P’ and ‘C’ joined by a sash) on the verso of the last leaf.

text

The book comprises: a Calendar (fols.1r-11v); the Hours of the Virgin, with the Hours of the Cross and the Holy Spirit intermixed, with Matins (fols.12r-23v), Lauds (fols.23v-35r), Matins for the Hours of the Cross and the Holy Spirit (fol.36rv, wanting beginning), Prime (fols.36v-42r), Terce (fols.42v-46r), Sext (fols.46r-49r), None (fols.49r-52v), Vespers (fols.52v-58r), Compline (fols.58r-63r); the Gospel lesson according to St. John (fols.63v-64v); the Penitential Psalms (fols.65r-84v) with a litany; and the Office of the Dead (fols. 85r-121v).

This volume was illuminated by an artist perhaps working in Rennes. The linear faces and the stylised flowers echo those in the Hours of Jeanne Raguenel (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Ms.Founders 60; Wormald and Giles, Illuminated Manuscripts, 1966, no.73, p.32) which was produced in Rennes in 1417.