Breviary, Use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 GBP

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Description

222 leaves, plus vellum flyleaves, 164mm. by 110mm., lacking 2 leaves after fol.35, single leaves after fols.109 and 126, and 2 leaves after fol.199, else complete, collation: i-iv^{8, v^{6 [of 8, lacking iv-v], vi-xiii^{8, xiv^{7 [of 8, lacking viii], xv-xvi^{8, xvii^{7 [of 8, lacking ii], xviii-xxv^{8, xxvi^{6 [of 8, lacking iv-v], xxvii-xxviii^{8, xxix^{4, with a few traces of horizontal catchwords and leaf signatures, double column, 30 lines, ruled in pale red ink, written-space 104mm. by 72mm., written in dark brown ink in two sizes of a small lettre bâtarde, rubrics in red or underlined in red, capitals touched in yellow, some paragraph-marks in liquid gold on blue or dark red grounds,}}}}}}}}}} illuminated initials with partial borders throughout, the initials 2 lines high in decorative designs in liquid silver or gold on panels of blue or dark red supporting sprays of coloured flowers and acanthus leaves infilled with gold dots with whiskery blank stems, twenty-seven miniatures with full borders, the miniatures column-width and in arched compartments when they occur at the top of columns and in rectangular compartments otherwise, full borders in designs of coloured flowers, fruit, acanthus leaves, etc., often with grotesque animals, apes, birds, demons, etc., often with coats-of-arms, sometimes held by angels, lions, etc., some minor wear, corner on fol.31 defective affecting part of border and a few letters of text, some thumbing, extreme edges rather dust-stained, generally sound, nineteenth-century French calf gilt, marbled endleaves, gilt edges, in a black and orange fitted case, title gilt

Provenance

provenance

(1) François Robert, prior of the college of canons of St-Cyr at Issoudun, diocese of Bourges, with his contemporary ownership inscription erased but legible on fol.1r, “Ex libris magistri francisci Robert prioris sancti Cirici Exolduni”. Thirteen borders include a coat-of-arms, presumably that of Robert, quarterly, 1 and 4, argent a lion rampant gules, 2 and 3, or 3 bars azure, mostly with an abbatial cross added, suggesting promotion after having commissioned the book, and twice with an ecclesiastical hat erased (fols.46v and 138v). The church of St-Cyr still stands, notable for its stained glass. The priorate of Robert is recorded in Gallia Christiana, II, 1720, col.156. Another erased but post-medieval inscription on fol.1r begins “Ex libris guillelmi …”.

(2) Henri-Auguste Brölemann (1775-1854), of Lyons, with his blue label, A.39, and by descent to Arthur Brölemann (1826-1904), with his armorial bookplate, no.B.69 (cf. C. Bregot de Lut, Catalogue des manuscrits et livres rares de la Bibliothèque d’Arthur Brölemann, 1897); and by descent again to Mme. Etienne Mallet; her sale in these rooms, 4 May 1926, lot 11.

(3) Louisa Dexter Sharpe Metcalf (d.1960), widow of Jesse Houghton Metcalf (1860-1942), of Providence, Rhode Island, bought apparently in December 1928; presented by her in February 1947 to the John Carter Brown Library, Providence (C.U. Faye and W.H. Bond, Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p.497, no.53); their sale in our rooms, 18 May 1981, lot 11, acquired by the present owner.

(4) Boehlen Collection, MS 1407 ES.

Catalogue Note

text

A Breviary, Use of Rome, the Temporal from the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent (fol.6v, preceded by prefatory rubrics) to the fourth Sunday in November a year later, with all the appropriate responses for the Use of Rome as listed in Leroquais, Les bréviaries, I, 1934, pp.lxxx-lxxxi.

illumination

This jauntily illustrated Breviary belongs in the group of manuscripts illuminated by the Jouvenel Master and his associates, named after a Mare Historiarum in Paris, made in 1448-49 for Guillaume Jouvenel, chancellor of France (BnF, ms. lat.4915). The group is artistically important, since it is from this style that the early work of Jean Fouquet emerges, with its high foreheads, light colours, and fluffy weightless floral borders. The present book shares many of the details of the Jouvenel Master’s style as represented in E. König, Französiche Buchmalerei um 1450, 1982, including long noses, high and rather large solemn earnest faces, a delight in profiles, and the very distinctive pale green and gold leaves in the borders (cf. esp. his figs. 64-93). Subsequent work has complicated the Jouvenal style, suggesting a wider base for the manuscripts than the products of a single workshop, or perhaps a larger workshop that operated for clients as wide apart as Brittany and up the line of the Loire river, in Nantes, Angers and probably Tours (cf. J. Plummer, The Last Flowering, 1982, pp.32-36, and F. Avril in Avril and Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, 1993, pp.109-118). If the present book was actually made for Prior François Robert in Issoudun, it may extend the patronage of the style further upstream beyond the Tourraine into Berry. The hand is very engaging and distinctive, and it will certainly be recognisable in other manuscripts. The miniatures here are:

1. Folio 7v, Isaiah’s vision of God, 48mm. by 33mm., the white-bearded prophet kneeling in the porch of a gothic church, holding his hat and speaking to God who appears in the sky; full border including a grotesque camel and a coat-of-arms.

2. Folio 14v, The Baptism of Christ, 47mm. by 31mm., Christ standing up to his ankles in the Jordan as Saint John the Baptist reaches up to pour a jug over his head, an angel holding Christ’s robe on the bank, God sending down the Holy Dove above; full border including a grotesque Pegasus and a coat-of-arms held by an angel.

3. Folio 18r, The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist, 38mm. by 32mm., the young saint dressed in skins standing in the wilderness preaching to a seated crowd on the right as two standing men engage in conversation on the left; full border including a peacock and an ape.

4. Folio 31v, The Nativity of Christ, 41mm. by 31mm., the Virgin and Joseph kneeling before the Child who lies in the straw on the ground, a thatched shelter to the left with the ox and ass; full border including an ape riding a grotesque lion in a cape.

5. Folio 36v, The Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist, 42mm. by 32mm., the saint holding the poisoned chalice and standing naked in a cauldron as two evil thugs stoke the fire and fan it with bellows, set in a town with an emperor and his attendants watching over a wall; full border including a coat-of-arms and a cockerel riding a grotesque bird.

6. Folio 39r, The Massacre of the Innocents, 46mm. by 32mm., King Herod enthroned on the right directing his soldiers to seize babies from their mothers and to stab them to death, a battle raging in the background; full border including a coat-of-arms held by two salamanders and an imp riding backwards on the back of a grotesque elephant.

7. Folio 41v, The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, 45mm. by 33mm., the bishop entering a church carrying a processional cross as a bearded and grinning giant in armour creeps up behind him with a scimitar; full border including grotesque imps and devils.

8. Folio 46v, Saint Leo the Great, 53mm. by 32mm., the pope in full liturgical robes standing in a pulpit outside a city wall, addressing a group of lay men and women seated on the grass; full border including a coat-of-arms.

9. Folio 50r, Saint Bernard, 48mm. by 33mm., the abbot in a pulpit in a gothic church preaching to a group of laity (and a sleeping monk) seated on benches and on the floor; full border including an ape riding a grotesque animal in a blue hat.

10. Folio 76r, Saint Paul, 44mm. by 31mm., the apostle seated in a canopied gothic chair writing an epistle on a scroll, set in the porch of a gothic church with a tiled floor and the saint’s sword laid on the ground, with a distant cityscape and God appearing in the sky; full border including a man riding on the back of an animal with the forequarters of a young woman, pursuing a long-eared grotesque.

11. Folio 78v, The Conversion of Saint Paul, 48mm. by 31mm., the apostle tumbling forwards as his horse stumbles on a road through a landscape, God appearing in the sky; full border including a grotesque.

12. Folio 80v, Saint Paul giving a letter to the Galatians, 42mm. by 32mm., the apostle holding his sword and standing in a pulpit in a pillared building passing a sealed letter to group of lay men and women standing and seated before him; full border including a cockerel with the torso of a young man and a coat-of-arms suspended from a tree.

13. Folio 84v, God creating the Animals, 36mm. by 32mm., God standing with the orb in one hand and blessing the animals, birds and fish with the other; full border including an ape and a lion with coat-of-arms round its neck.

14. Folio 89r, Noah’s Ark, 34mm. by 31mm., the Ark floating in the sea, a vulture scavenging on a drowned deer in the foreground, the animals in the lower windows of the Ark, the birds at the top, Noah and his family at the middle windows sending out the dove which returns with a fresh branch; full border including an ape and a lion with a coat-of-arms round its neck.

15. Folio 115r, Moses on Mount Sinai, 42mm. by 30mm., the patriarch with red face and horns kneeling on a rock to receive the tablets of the Law from God in the sky, as the Israelites wait in the valley; full border including an owl and a golden vase.

16. Folio 121r, Jeremiah, 37mm. by 32mm., the prophet standing with his name on a long banderole; full border including a woman with a baby and hound chasing a hare.

17. Folio 138v, The Resurrection, 41mm. by 33mm., Christ stepping from the tomb in a landscape, two soldiers sleeping, one waking up, the distant and shadowy figures of the three Maries approaching in the early dawn; full border including two fighting men and a coat-of-arms.

18. Folio 150r, Saint John on Patmos, 37mm. by 32mm., the evangelist writing on a scroll on a tiny island, his eagle holding the pencase; full border including a dancing bear and a man aiming a crossbow at an imp’s bare bottom.

19. Folio 163r, The Ascension of Christ, 34mm. by 32mm., the apostles gathered around a hill where Christ’s feet have left an impression as he disappears into Heaven; full border including two apes playing a game with sticks and a coat-of-arms.

20. Folio 174v, Pentecost, 45mm. by 33mm., the Virgin and the apostles gathered in prayer in a circular room as the Holy Dove hovers above them; full border including a grotesque centaur and an ape.

21. Folio179v, Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Peninnah, 45mm. by 32mm., standing in a landscape; full border including a climbing bear and a winged grotesque.

22. Folio 202r, Job on the Dungheap, 36mm. by 32mm., visited by his wife, with the burnt-out ruins of his house behind; full border.

23. Folio 204v, Tobit and the Angel, 31mm. by 31mm., blind Tobit seated on a bench sending out his son Tobias on a journey, with a hired companion who is none other than the archangel Raphael; full border including a grotesque and a coat-of-arms.

24. Folio 206r, Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes, 34mm. by 32mm., the queen giving the head to her maid, set among the coloured tents of an army camp; full border including a dragon.

25. Folio 214r, Ezekiel, 35mm. by 32mm., the prophet standing in a medieval room with his name on a banderole; full border including a grotesque eating the foliage.

26. Folio 217r, Daniel, 38mm. by 32mm., the prophet standing in a landscape with his name on a scroll; full border including a coat-of-arms and a grotesque with a club.

27. Folio 218v, Hosea, 37mm. by 33mm., the prophet standing in a gothic room pointing to a banderole with his name; full border including a coat-of-arms and two grotesques.