Book of Hours, Use of Rouen, in Latin and French [France (Paris), c.1430]

c.180x125mm, vellum, i+121 leaves, mainly in quires of 8, but with five bifolia and five single leaves missing, catchwords, 14 lines (c.95x70mm), ONE MEDIEVAL (and one modern) MINIATURE with full borders by the HARVARD HANNIBAL MASTER and 2 VERY FINE HISTORIATED INITIALS with full borders by the BOUCICAUT MASTER, five large illuminated initials with four-sided borders, and many small ones, EVERY TEXT PAGE WITH AN ILLUMINATED BORDER, some borders slightly cropped, thumbed, preserving medieval sewing, bound in pale brown velvet

Provenance

(1) The calendar includes Taurinus, bishop of Evreux (11 Aug.) and Ouen of Rouen (24 Aug.), both in red. (2) ‘Justin G. Turner’ (pictorial bookplate depicting the Declaration of Independence and busts of U.S. Presidents).

Text and Illumination

Calendar in French (f.1r), April and September missing; Hours of the Virgin, Use of Rouen, the first page covered with a stuck-on miniature, border, and incipit, cut from a 19th- or 20th-century neo-Gothic manuscript (f.11r), Lauds followed by suffrages, large initials at the beginning of Sext (f.34r), None (f.36v), and Vespers (f.39r); Penitential Psalms (f.54r); Litany of saints, starting imperfect (f.56r), petitions, and collects; Gospel extract from John (f.60r); Hours of the Cross (f.62r) and of the Holy Spirit (f.64v); O intemerata (f.69r); devotion to St Christopher beginning with a hymn in French verse (‘Saint Christofle martir tres doulx. Pries le roy des roys pour nous ...’; Sonet no.1816) (f.72r); Office of the Dead, Use of Rouen (f.76r); the prayer ‘Je te salve, o Maria’ in French verse (Sonet no.878), beginning imperfect (f.119r).

The subjects of the miniatures are: (1) the Virgin at her loom (f.11r; modern); (2) King David in the Wilderness (f.45r); and of the historiated initials: (1) Crucifixion (f.62r); (2) Pentecost (f.64v).