Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

61 leaves, 151mm. by 90mm., lacking single leaves after fols.8, 22 and 39, else complete, collation: i^{3 [of 4, blank i cancelled], ii^{5 [of 6, lacking vi], iii-iv^{6, v^{5 [of 6, lacking iii], vi^{6+1 [fol.32 an added sheet], vii^{6, viii^{5 [of 6, lacking ii], ix-xi^{6, 36 lines, ruled in red ink, written-space 109mm. by 52mm., written in dark brown ink in two sizes of a very small lettre bâtarde, headings in purplish red, capitals touched in yellow, line-fillers and one- and 2-line initials (and up to 4-line) throughout in designs of liquid gold on brown and red-brown panels, Calendar initials alternately red and blue,}}}}}}}} twenty-one small miniatures, six of them 13 lines high beside full-length panel borders of coloured flowers and fruit with blue and gold acanthus leaves on parti-coloured liquid gold grounds, others set within similar panel borders, four full-page miniatures in elaborate architectural frames with dark brown or black surround bled to the very edge of the pages, some wear and thumbing, miniatures at end rather flaked, some outer extremities of borders slightly cropped, sixteenth-century French brown calf profusely gilt, sides panelled with broad roll-tooled floral border, central compartments stamped with arabesque corner- and centre-pieces infilled with a semé of clusters of dots, cockerels in spine compartments, name carefully scraped away from panels on sides (probably a woman, first name ending ‘A’, partially replaced by the name ‘Lambert’), gilt edges, vellum pastedowns and flyleaves, invocations of saints added on front pastedown, edges of binding defective, lacking 2 pairs of ties

Provenance

provenance

The style of illumination suggests an origin in west central France, perhaps Bourges, and the text has a slight flavour of southern France. The book has the eighteenth-century bookplate of P[ierre] Goyet, a canon of ‘Francopolitani’, who also owned Bryn Mawr College MS Gordan 28 (de Ricci, Census, p.1628), Munich, Staatsbibl. cod. gall.728, and a printed Montaigne of 1659, now in the Houghton Library at Harvard. ‘Francopolitanus’ is Villefranche, the most likely of several places of this name being Villefranche-de-Rouergue, west of Rodez in southern central France.

Catalogue Note

text

A Calendar, in French (fol.1r), with a entry for every day but relatively few in red, including Saint Severin (25 August, perhaps the bishop of Bordeaux, correctly on the 23rd); the Gospel Sequences (fol.4r); the Obsecro te (fol.6r) and O intemerata for male use; the Hours of the Virgin [Use of Rome], with Matins (fol.9r), Lauds (fol.15v), Prime (fol.20r), Terce (fol.21v), Sext (fol.23r), None (fol.23v), Vespers (fol.25r) and Compline (fol.28r), followed by the seasonal variants; the Penitential Psalms (fol.33r) and Litany, including Saints Martial (Limoges), Eutropius (southern France) and Lubin (born near Poitiers, later bishop of Chartres); the Hours of the Cross (fol.40r) and of the Holy Ghost (fol.41r); the Office of the Dead (fol.42v); and the Suffrages (fol.59r).

illumination

The miniatures are in the late style of the illuminators of Bourges in the circle of Jean and Jacquelin de Montluçon, known 1461-1505, and the illuminator of the Monypenny Breviary, perhaps Laurent Boiron, recorded 1480-1510; cf. N. Reynaud in Avril and Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, 1993, pp.338-42, and the most recent sale of the Monypenny Breviary itself in these rooms, 6 July 2000, lot 79 (£3,000,000). There are characteristic architectural settings and frames, rather like windows into the sacred world, set against almost black grounds to the edges of the pages. The text floats in front of these, as if on ragged banners attached to the edge of the frame.

The subjects of the large miniatures are:

1. Folio 4r, Saint John on Patmos, full-page surrounding a panel of 10 lines of text, the saint with a book on his lap seated with his back against a rock, his eagle before him, landscape background, pillared architectural frame including four cherubim, black surround.

2. Folio 33r, King David with his harp, full-page surrounding a panel of 10 lines of text, the king strumming his harp before a canopy suspended in a circular classical room, courtiers peering out from behind, pillared architectural frame, dark brown surround.

3. Folio 41r, Pentecost, full-page surrounding a panel of 9 lines of text, the Virgin and the apostles to the right side of a classical room watching in prayer as the Holy Dove appears above, pillared architectural frame, black surround.

4. Folio 42v, Job comforted by his Friends, full-page surrounding a panel of 10 lines of text, Job seated on the dung heap with his arms crossed beside a rock, three friends reasoning with him on the left, landscape background including Job’s manor house in partial ruins, pillared architectural frame, dark brown surround.

The smaller miniatures are: (1) Saint Luke with a lion (should be ox), 38mm. by 20mm., fol.4v, marginal miniature; (2) Saint Matthew with an angel, 41mm. by 20mm., fol.5r, marginal miniature; (3) Saint Mark with an ox (should be lion), 37mm. by 20mm., fol.6r, marginal miniature; (4) the Virgin and Child, 37mm. by 20mm., fol.6r, marginal miniature; (5) the Visitation, 39mm. by 38mm., fol.15v; (6) the Nativity, 38mm. by 39mm., fol.20r; (7) the Annunciation to the Shepherds, 38mm. by 38mm., fol.21v; (8) the Presentation in the Temple, 40mm. by 38mm., fol.23v; (9) the Flight into Egypt, 38mm. by 37mm., fol.25r; (10) the Coronation of the Virgin, 40mm. by 36mm., fol.28r; (11) the Trinity, 41mm. by 20mm., fol.59r, marginal miniature; (12) Saint Michael, 33mm. by 20mm., fol.59r, marginal miniature; (13) Saint John the Baptist with the Agnus Dei, 35mm. by 20mm., fol.59r, marginal miniature; (14) Saint John the Evangelist blessing the poisoned chalice, 41mm. by 21mm., fol.59v, marginal miniature; (15) Saints Peter and Paul, 32mm. by 21mm., fol.59v, marginal miniature; (16) Saint James the Greater, 36mm. by 21mm., fol.59v, marginal miniature; (17) Saint Christopher and the Christ Child, 37mm. by 20mm., fol.60r, marginal miniature; (18) Saint Sebastian, 38mm. by 20mm., fol.60r, marginal miniature; (19) Saint Mary Magdalene, 40mm. by 18mm., fol.60v, marginal miniature; (20) Saint Katherine, 38mm. by 21mm., fol.61r, marginal miniature; and (21) Saint Barbara, 39mm. by 21mm., fol.61r, marginal miniature.