Book of hours, Paris, 1522, contemporary calf gilt for Catherine de la Croix

Book of Hours. Use of Paris

Ces presentes heures a lusaige de Paris toutes au long sans rien req[ue]rir avec plusieurs belles hystoires: nouvelleme[n]t i[m]primees. (Paris: widow of Thielman Kerver, 16 February 1522)

Median 4to (228 x 158mm.), printed on paper, printed in red and black throughout, woodcut printer's device of Kerver on title-page within woodcut border, fine woodcut illustrations within woodcut borders (a few with red colouring added by hand), later sixteenth-century French mottled calf with gilt arabesque centrepiece and single gilt fillet border with the name "Catherine" on upper cover and "De La Croix" on lower cover, gilt edges, rebacked with new spine gilt in compartments, a few pencil notes by Mendham, lacking 13 leaves (B7, C2, C5-6, E2, F2, F6, G8, H3-4, L1, M5 and O3), a few marginal repaired tears, extremities rubbed and repaired

A book of hours with charming illustrations in a named binding.

LITERATURE:

Bohatta 314; Lacombe 324

PROVENANCE:

Catherine de la Croix, name on binding; Celestines of Amiens, "Sancti Martini ad Gemellos ambianensis", inscription at head of title-page (dissolved 1781); Joseph Mendham (1769-1856), clergyman and book collector, bequeathed to; Law Society of England and Wales, armorial bookplate, sale, Sotheby's, 5 June 2013, lot 35