Leaf from a Book of Hours, perhaps Augustinian, manuscript in Latin on vellum, [France (northern), 13th century]

Property from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Leaf from a Book of Hours, perhaps Augustinian

Manuscript in Latin on vellum. [France (northern), 13th century (c.1270s)]

Single leaf, c.137×96mm, 12 lines per page written in fine gothic bookhand (c.100×60mm); the psalm initial in gold on a rose and blue ground with delicate white and red ornament, the verse initials alternately burnished gold with blue penwork or blue with red penwork; line-fillers in the same colours, alternately with or without gold.

A leaf from a very fine example of a very early Book of Hours. The text is Psalms 119:7–120:8.

LITERATURE:

Scott Gwara, Otto Ege’s Manuscripts (Cayce, SC, 2013), Handlist no. 325 and fig. 65, citing only two other leaves, at Roanoke, VA, and Phoenix, AZ.

Barbara A. Shailor, ‘Otto Ege: Portfolios vs. Leaves’, Manuscripta, 53 (2009), 13–27, col. pl. 2c.

PROVENANCE:

(1) Described by a dealer (Ege?) as from ‘a French Book of Hours made by the Augustinian Order, c.1310’: the date is too late, and the evidence for the Augustinian connection is now unknown.

(2) A leaf at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, has a late 15th or 16th-century ownership(?) inscription beginning with the name ‘Louys …’; the rest probably legible in due course.

(3) Otto Ege/Philip Duschnes

(4) Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Gallery purchase, 1940 (1940:355.25)