Book of Hours, Use of Tournai, in Latin and French [Southern Netherlands (perhaps Tournai), c.1500]

165x115mm, vellum, i+i+105+ii leaves, COMPLETE, collation: i6, ii8+1 (i inserted), iii6+3 (i and final bifolium inserted), iv8+1 (i inserted), v-viii8, ix6+1, x8+1 (i inserted), xi-xiii8, 5 LARGE MINIATURES with full borders facing LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS with full borders, large illuminated initials with foliate extensions, small illuminated and flourished initials throughout, small pigments losses and slight rubbing, 18th-century red morocco with gilt filets and title 'Heures MSS sur velin' on spine

A NEWLY DISCOVERED WORK BY THE DOCUMENTED SCRIBE-MINIATURIST JEAN MARKANT, ACTIVE IN TOURNAI, LILLE AND BRUGES AT THE TURN OF THE 16TH CENTURY

PROVENANCE

(1) Probably made for a man named Anthony; a suffrage to this saint, presumably the namesake of the owner, opens with a large miniature and appears towards the beginning of the volume. The suffrage to this saint was originally copied onto ff.93v-94r (as part of the suffrages) but was professionally removed, perhaps at the request of the prospective buyer who preferred a more prominent treatment of this text; the suffrage to St Anthony is indeed added on a separate bifolium. (2) Inscribed by a 16th-century hand 'Ceste heures appartienne / a madamoyselle de guadins' (f.iir). (3) 'Je suis a Ignace Ostrelin demourant en Citte les Arras: 1626', and other inscriptions (ff.iir, 105r). (4) Sold in our rooms, 28 November 1949, lot 10 (ill.). 

TEXT AND ILLUMINATION

Calendar (f.1); Hours of the Cross (f.8r); Hours of the Holy Spirit (f.17r); suffrage to St Anthony (f.24r); Hours of the Virgin (f.26r); Penitential Psalms (f.74r), litany (f.85r); prayers and suffrages (f.89r), one of them with an indulgence of 46,000 years. 

Dominique Vanwijnsberghe attributes the miniatures to JEAN MARKANT, a scribe-miniaturist active in Tournai, Lille and Bruges at the turn of the 16th century (on the artist see Vanwijnsberghe's 'Marketing books for Burghers', in Flemish Manuscript Painting in Context, 2006, pp.135-148). The reconstruction of Markant’s oeuvre is based on a manuscript called the Le Sauvage Hours, cited as 'whereabouts unknown' but subsequently at Les Enluminures. The Le Sauvage Hours refers directly to the name of the artist: 'Ces heures furent escriptes et illumines par moy a tous indigne serviteur Jennin Markant, l’an 1502...'. The present manuscript is unpublished except for our 1949 auction catalogue.

The subjects of the large miniatures are: (1) Crucifixion (f.7v); (2) Pentecost (f.16v); (3) St Anthony (f.23v); (4) Annunciation (f.25v); (5) David in Prayer (f.73v).