Book of Hours, Use of Troyes, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [northern France (perhaps Troyes), c.1500]

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

116 leaves (plus 2 modern flyleaves at each end), 173mm. by 125mm., complete, collation: i⁶, ii⁶ (middle bifolium made up from 2 single leaves), iii-viii⁸, ix⁹ (last a singleton), x-ix⁸ (i, iii, iv and v singletons, but text contiguous), x⁷ (iv a singleton, text contiguous), catchwords, 16 lines in dark brown ink in a fine late gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, one-line initials in red and blue, 2- to 4-line initials in burnished gold on blue and burgundy grounds touched with white penwork (that on fol.111r enclosing a bearded man’s face), 12 pages with single border panels of coloured acanthus leaves and other foliage and fruit, three-quarter page arch-topped miniature (fol.27r: the Annunciation to the Virgin by an accomplished follower of Maître François, with 2 small spots of damage to the body of the Virgin and small smudges to adjacent border), spaces left for the miniatures on fols.19r, 23r, 70r, 85r (each approximately 73mm. by 75mm.), occasional small smudges, else in excellent condition on thick vellum with wide and clean margins, nineteenth-century dark brown morocco over pasteboards, turquoise silk doublures, some small scuffs to edges, inside joins of boards to volume repaired with strips of leather, fitted leather gilt-tooled slipcase

Provenance

provenance

(1) Most probably written and illuminated in Troyes for a female patron: the Calendar with the local saint, Mastidia (7 May), and the Obsecro te in the feminine form: “famula tua” on fol.113r.

(2) Eugene Field (1850-95), American writer and humourist most famous for his authorship of the children’s poem, Wynken, Blynken and Nod. His armorial ex libris and note dated 5 September 1923 on endleaves by his son Eugene Field Jr., recording that the book “was prized by … [his father] very highly”.

(3) E.A. Melchert of Hollywood, Florida: a copy of a 1959 appraisal of the book for him enclosed.

Catalogue Note

text

The volume comprises: a Calendar (fol.1r); the Gospel Sequences (fol.13r); the Short Hours of the Cross (fol.19r); the Short Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol.23r); the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol.27r), Lauds (fol.37r), Prime (47r), Terce (fol.50v), Sext (fol.53v), None (fol.56r), Vespers (fol.59r), and Compline (fol.64r); the Penitential Psalms (69r); a Litany of Saints (fol.80r); the Office of the Dead (fol.84r); and the Obsecro te (fol.111r).

A rare and unusual feature of this book is that its series of miniatures is unfinished. Perhaps through error on behalf of the workshop or the sudden death of the original patron, four of the five miniatures planned for the volume were never executed. Manuscripts in this state have begun to receive scholarly attention, as they offer insights into the physical production of medieval books, and the interaction of scribes and artists within production-centres (cf. R.G. Calkins, ‘Stages of Execution: Procedures of Illumination as Revealed in an Unfinished Book of Hours’, International Center of Medieval Art 17, 1978, pp.61–70).