Book of hours, use of Rome, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1470]

Book of Hours, Use of Rome

in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands (Bruges), 15th century (c.1470)]

iii + 151 + iii leaves, c.100×75mm; 17 lines per page (c.65×42mm); collation impractical due to the tightness of the binding; ILLUMINATED WITH EIGHT HISTORIATED INITIALS, EACH SIX LINE HIGH AND ACCOMPANIED BY A THREE-SIDED BORDER; MOST TEXTS INTRODUCED BY A FIVE-LINE FOLIATE INITIAL ACCOMPANIED BY A FULL BORDER, lesser texts introduced by two three-line illuminated initials with flowerbud sprays; one-line initials alternately blue or gold, flourished in red or blue. Bound in 19th-century French brown calf, with the octagonal printed ticket of François Rouanet Libraire, Rue Verdelet, ‘No. 6, près la Poste aux Lettres’, Paris; the covers deeply tooled with a lattice pattern, the spine gilt and titled ‘Praeces piae | Manuscrit sur velin’, the joints repaired; in a cloth slip-case

PROVENANCE

1. Written probably in Bruges: the borders are in a style close to that employed by Willem Vrelant, the small miniatures in a style much less close.

2. THE CELESTINE ABBEY OF SAINT-MARTIN-LES-JUMEAUX (perhaps so-called because of the nearby Roman gate carved with the figures of Romulus and Remus), Amiens, with their 18th-century ownership inscription: ‘Ex libris S(anc)ti Martini ad Gemel(los). amb(ianensis)’ (f.2r); the community was dissolved in 1781.

3. Rebound in Paris in the first half of the 19th century.

4. Inscribed ‘Property of Rev. James M. Butler’ (or Butcher?) (f.i verso).

5. Mary Hayward Weir (1915–1968), American steel heiress, socialite, and benefactress of art institutions and libraries; bequeathed to the Brooklyn Museum of Art (their no. 69.4.11), as recorded on a printed label (back pastedown). Acquired too late to be included in de Ricci, Census, or its Supplement.

TEXT

Hours of the Cross (f.1r) and of the Spirit (f.7r); Mass of the Virgin (f.12r), including the usual gospel pericopes; prayers ‘Obsecro te’ (f.22r) and ‘O intemerata’ (f.25v), using masculine forms; suffrages to saints (f.28r) (listed below nunder Illumination); added prayer to St Anne (f.32v); Hours of the Virgin, ‘secundum usum Romane curie’: Matins (f.34r), Lauds (f.50r), Prime (f.60r), Terce (f.64r), Sext (f.68r), None (f.72r), Vespers (f.76r), Compline (f.83r), followed by the Advent Hours (f.88r); the 7 Penitential Psalms (f.96r) and litany (f.105v); Office of the Dead (f.114r).

ILLUMINATION

Major texts each begin on a new recto, so that full-page miniatures on single leaves could be inserted to face each of them; if they ever existed, they have been removed, leaving only the smaller integral miniatures illustrating the suffrages to the saints:

1. (f.28r) John the Baptist

2. (f.28v) Peter & Paul

3. (f.29r) Nicholas

4. (f.29v) Anthony

5. (f.30r) Mary Magdalene

6. (f.30v) Katherine

7. (f.31r) Margaret

8. (f.31v) Barbara

PROVENANCE

Property from the Brooklyn Museum, sold to support Museum Collections