Book of Hours, Use of Paris, in Latin and French [France (Paris), c.1460]

160x115mm, ii+199+ii, several leaves and miniatures missing, 14 lines, 80x47mm, 10 LARGE MINIATURES AND ONE HISTORIATED INITIAL with full borders, several of them historiated, PANEL BORDERS ON ALL TEXT PAGES, the top margin of f.193 repaired, not affecting the text or decoration, somewhat grubby and rubbed throughout, and the edges of some leaves with rodent(?)-damage, not affecting the text or decoration, bound with very unusual panels of deeply blind-stamped leather, perhaps c.1800, laid on a late 19th-century calf binding, each cover with a central roundel surrounded by foliage, the front panel with the Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist, the lower cover with a classical profile bust, somewhat worn and the upper joint cracked

 

PROVENANCE

(1) Produced in Paris, as suggested by the style of illumination and the presence of St Genevieve depicted in one of the borders, and her presence in gold in the calendar (3 Jan.); the arms of the first owner are over-painted in blue (f.13r); she is depicted kneeling before St Margaret, perhaps her name-saint (f.174v). (2) W. Miller, F.S.A., his posthumous sale in our rooms, 25-26 March 1941, lot 281.

TEXT AND ILLUMINATION

Calendar in French (f.1r); Gospel extracts from John and Luke, only (f.13r); Obsecro te (f.16v); Suffrages to St Barbara (f.21v); Hours of the Virgin, Use of Paris, with Matins (f.23r), Lauds (f.36r), Prime (f.50v), Terce (f.58r), Sext (f.62r), None (f.67r), Vespers (f.71v), Compline (f.80v), but lacking the first leaf of Matins, Terce, Sext, and None; Penitential Psalms (f.87r), litany (f.103r); Hours of the Cross, ending imperfectly (f.108v) and Hours of the Holy Spirit, beginning imperfectly (f.118r); short Office of the Dead (f.125r); the Quinze joies of the Virgin, beginning imperfectly (f.164r) and Sept requetes (f.170r), in French; suffrages and prayers (f.173v) including one to St Margaret in French (f.174v); prayers to the Virgin and Christ, and the Ten Commandments, all in French (f.192r).

Six of the remaining miniatures were painted by the COÉTIVY MASTER, so named after a Book of Hours that includes the portraits and arms of Olivier de Coëtivy and his wife, Marie Marguerite de Valois (Vienna, ÖNB, Cod.1929). His vibrant colours, dense modelling, and atmospheric effects of light and shadow suggest that he was originally trained in northern France or the southern Netherlands. He was not only an illuminator but also a painter and designer of stained glass and tapestries. The Coëtivy Master is the direct successor of the Dreux Budé Master who might be identical with André d'Ypres from Amiens, and who left northern France before 1450 to work in Paris. His son Nicolas became famous under the name Colin d’Amiens who might be the Coëtivy Master. The other illuminator who painted four large miniatures (ff.80v, 87r, 108v, 125r) might be identified with the MASTER OF ÉTIENNE SAUDERAT who was active in Paris around the same time as the Coëtivy Master.

The subjects of the miniatures are: (1) f.36r, Visitation, with St Genevieve in the border; (2) f.50v, Nativity, with St Catherine in the border; (3) f.71v, Flight into Egypt; (4) f.80v, Coronation of the Virgin; (5) f.87r), David in Penitence; (6) f.108v, Crucifixion, with an angel carrying the Cross in the margin; (7) f.125r, Burial in a graveyard with an ossuary; (8) f.170r, Last Judgment, with St John the Baptist in the margin; (9) f.174v, a female patron kneeling before St Margaret; (10) f.192r, Dormition of the Virgin. There is one historiated initial: f.13r, St John preaching before the Emperor, with St John the Evangelist being boiled in a vat of oil, and St John on Patmos in the borders.