Book of Hours, Unidentified Use, in Latin and French [French Flanders (St-Omer), late 15th century and c.1500; and 19th century]

214x150mm, vellum, i+76+i leaves (first and last are modern paper), lacking one leaf after f.31, else apparently complete, collation: i3 (i singleton), ii4, iii8, iv4, v6, vi8 (i inserted; wanting vii),vii8, viii10 (ii and vii inserted), ix-x8, xi9 (ix singleton), 18 lines, 132x78mm, 4 half-page miniatures among the prefatory material, 12 small Calendar miniatures, 4 small miniatures mostly with panel borders, 8 full-page miniatures with full borders, 5 historiated initials mostly facing full-page miniatures with full borders; the illuminations mostly retouched, repainted, or entirely post-medieval, 3 lines of text replaced on f.19, most pages reasonably clean with wide margins; bound using the covers of a sixteenth-century blind-stamped calf binding by Nicholas Spierinck (d.1545) of Cambridge, with rolls illustrated in Oldham, English Blind-Stamped Bindings, 1952, pls.XXXIV, no.502, and XXXIX, no.604, modern spine, clasps, and catches, boxed

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
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Textually, iconographically, and stylistically very unusual: a Book of Hours with a working volvelle and significant, perhaps unique, astronomical material relating to St-Omer

provenance

(1)  The manuscript was originally written in the late 15th century, to judge by its script and decoration; the litany includes Sts Leodegar, Marinus, Omer, Bertin, and Lambert, consistent with an origin at St-Omer. Probably in 1499/1500, and doubtless at St-Omer, the calendrical and astronomical materials were added at the beginning: the tables were originally compiled for more than 500 years from literally 1482 to 1995(!) (f.4r) but the text includes specific examples for 1499 and 1500 (ff.4r, 7v and 8r); the instructions on f.6v explain that the tables are valid for “la ville de Sainct Omer”, and the Calendar includes in red Sts Bertin and Omer (5 and 9 September).

(2) Erased inscriptions on the last page have been read with a UV lamp as “Ces heures chy appartienent a guillame sains barbier, Tesmoin [signed:] De sains” and below, “De sains pertinet testus”; the Picard spelling “chy” for “ci” is consistent with the Franco-Flemish region.

(3) Owned by a member of the family whose coat-of-arms appear in the post-medieval miniature on f.75v. The 19^th-century additions to the manuscript suggest that the Book of Hours was unfinished in the late 15^th century.

(4) Inscribed “Joh. C. Jackson” (f.1r; apparently not the autograph of Rev. John Cohen Jackson whose manuscripts were sold in our rooms, 13 December 1895).

(5) Alan G. Thomas (1911–1992), with his price-code on f.1v, in the lower margin.

(6) Probably from the collection of Major W.A. Spowers: sold with a number of items from this source in our rooms, 2 December 1986, lot 69 (ill.), to Axel Bender.

(7) J.R. Ritman, bought from Tenschert, Leuchtendes Mittelalter, I, Kat.21, 1989, no.84 (col. pl.), with the bookplate of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica; Ritman sale in our rooms, 6 July 2000, lot 51 (col. pls.).

text and illumination

The volume begins with a section added probably in 1499 or 1500, comprising: the Creation story (Genesis 1:1–2:1), in Latin (f.1r), followed by a rubric in French explaining the solar system and its application to astrology: “Il ya en lesp[h]ere .12. parale[les] dont lesp[h]ere dentre icelles sont les lieux des estoilles …”, followed by a brief note on eclipses in Latin (f.2r) and a long rubric in French: “Pour che que chy apres est ung kalendrier et plusieurs tables calculeez a lorizon et zenit de la ville de sainctomer …” (f.3r), and the first table (f.3v); a remarkable working volvelle, with six turning discs on one side and five on the other for calculating virtues and vices in accordance with the Calendar (between ff.3 and 4); a text in French about the following tables: “Icy apres trouveres trois tables perpetuelles pour trouver les festes mobiles … Laquelle petitte table [c]ome[n]che a lan 1482 et fine lan 1995 … Item po[ur] exe[mple] nous avons 18 po[ur] no[m]bre dor lan 1499 ... Exe[m]ple en lan 1500 aves 19 po[ur] no[m]bre dor ...” (f.4r, cf. f.8r), the tables themselves (f.4v), the movements of the sun calculated for St-Omer: “Sensieult certaines tables assizes desus kalendrier commun calculees a lorison et zenit de la ville de Sainctomer …” (f.6v), and the signs of the zodiac and their medical applications (f.8v); a Calendar, crammed with astronomical figures (f.9r); planetary tables (f.15r).

The original part of the volume is an unusual, and unusually short, Book of Hours comprising: Gospel Sequences, each, unusually, preceded by a ‘Deprecacio’ (f.18r); the prayer on the Seven Last Words of Christ (f.24r); the Seven Penitential Psalms (f.27r), litany (f.37r), prayers, and ten collects, the fifth mentioning “papa nostro” (f.44r); an abbreviated Hours of the Virgin (similar to the Hours of the Cross and the Holy Spirit, Matins is short and Lauds is omitted), with Matins (f.49r), Prime (f.50r), Terce (f.51r), Sext (f.52r), None (f.53r), Vespers (f.54r), Compline (f.55r); the Hours (not Office) of the Dead, with Matins (f.57r), Prime (f.58v), Terce (f.59v), Sext (f.61r), None (f.62r), Vespers (f.63v), Compline (f.64v); the Hours of the Cross (f.67r); and a single suffrage to St Christopher (f.76r).

The subjects of the large and small miniatures and historiated initials are: (1) f.1v, the solar system around a simple diagram of the world, supported by the Four Doctors of the Church (Sts Gregory, Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose); (2) f.2v, the longitudes and latitudes of the world, supported by four angels; (3) f.3v, the zones of the world from the arctic to the equator followed by “zona ignota” and “artanticus” [sic]; (4) f.7v, Adam and Eve; a castle with a caption “Cest la figure de lorison et zenit avant dit, Artus (i.e. Artois?) 1499” (f.7v); (5-16) ff.9r-14v, the twelve Occupations of the Months; (17) f.17v, the Expulsion from Paradise; (18) f.18r, St John; (19) f.19v, St Luke; (20) f.21r, St Matthew; (21) f.23r, St Mark; (22) f.24r, Christ showing his wounds; (23) f.26v, David and Bathsheba; (24), f.27r, David in prayer; (25) f.36v, the Presentation of the Virgin; (26) f.43v, the Annunciation; (27) f.48v, the Nativity; (28) f.49r, the Adoration of the Magi; (29) f.56v, the Raising of Lazarus; (30) f.57r, the Agony in the Garden; (31) f.66v, the Crucifixion; (32) f.67r) the Resurrection; (33) f.75v, a nun, not nimbed, but holding a palm of martyrdom, above a coat of arms.