An unrecorded leaf from the Hungerford Hours, in Latin [England, c.1320s]

single leaf, c.165×105mm, vellum, 17 lines, c.125×75mm, with text from part of Terce in the Hours of the Virgin, including from Psalm 120:7 to the end of Psalm 121, stained and dirty

 

The most detailed study of the parent manuscript, its origin, and its stylistic affiliations, is M.A. Michael, ‘Destruction, Reconstruction and Invention: the Hungerford Hours', English Manuscript Studies: 1100–1700, 2, 1990, pp.33–108, listing 22 leaves. A more recent discussion is C. de Hamel, Gilding the Lilly, 2010, no.44, recording further leaves, to which can be added Sotheby’s, 5 December 1995, part of lot 3, and 7 December 2010, lot 8; and a leaf offered online by Christie’s, December 2016.

The place of production is uncertain, but the calendar, litany, and related manuscripts point to the diocese of Ely. The book takes its name from Robert Hungerford, 2nd Baron Hungerford (d.1459) and his wife Margaret (d.1478) whose obits are in the calendar, but two of the other leaves have heraldry that suggests original patronage by Sir John Patteshulle (d.1349) or one of his relatives. It perhaps descended through the family as an heirloom: Robert Hungerford’s sister married a Patteshulle. The book was apparently broken up c.1970, and leaves were offered in the following years by Alan Thomas, Maggs, and others.

English Books of Hours earlier than the mid-14th century are very rare; only 26 others are recorded, of which only one is in private hands, in England. Leaves of the Hungerford Hours are therefore the only realistic opportunity for anyone to acquire a specimen of this type of manuscript. A number of leaves are already in institutions: the calendar and other leaves are at the British Library; a leaf was given to Indiana University in 2006; Quaritch, Catalogue 1396, 2010, no.12 was bought by Stanford University.

The present leaf is unrecorded.

From the same manuscript as the following lot.