Prayerbook, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [French Flanders (perhaps Hainault), c.1480-90]

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

130 leaves (including 2 blanks and original flyleaf at back), 120mm. by 85mm., apparently complete, single column, 12 lines in brown ink in a fine lettre bâtarde, with ornamental cadels and human faces with hooked noses in the ascenders on fols.127r and 130r, rubrics in red, one- to 2-line initials in liquid gold on blue and pink grounds touched in white, line fillers to match, some larger initials with extensions of single-line foliage with prickly gold leaves and tri-petalled flowers in blue and dark pink, eleven three-quarter page miniatures in semi-grisaille (approximately 57mm. high, fols.1r, 5r, 9r, 32r, 36r, 68r, 72r, 78v, 81v, 86v, 89r, the first four slightly rubbed and creased in places), above three line initials in grey touched in white and within full decorated borders of silver-grey acanthus leaves and other foliage in bud, each miniature page with a bird and a drollery (including a corpse rising from a grave and St. John being cooked alive in a cauldron of oil, an eagle with a snake, an agnus dei, two drolleries with upper bodies formed from the torso of armoured knights, a pelican pecking its breast to feed its chicks, a man with squirrel legs and a tail, a winged stag, a unicorn, a hawk snatching at a rabbit, a cat-like animal riding a duck and jousting while wearing a golden pot as a helmet, a colourful griffon), some slight smudges, some leaves slightly cockled, trimmed on outermost edges with slight clipping to vertical edge of decorated borders, else excellent condition, modern gilt-tooled leather over pasteboards, fitted slipcase

Provenance

provenance

(1) Made for the woman who is shown kneeling with three attendants in the border of fol.78v, and whose arms (an eagle azure on argent and a lion gules on or, per pale) appear within the initial and on the pennant hanging from the trumpet being blown by the drollery creature in the bas-de-page. The rare image of the Volto Santo, or Holy Face, of Lucca on the opening page, may suggest a commission from an Italian merchant or visitor to Bruges. The Volto Santo, which still exists in Lucca cathedral is mentioned by Dante (Inferno, canto XXI).

(2) Etienne de montinere, "conseillier du Roy nostre en sa court de parlement a paris": partially erased inscription in sixteenth-century hand on last flyleaf.

(3) Stibolt family: their armorial nineteenth-century bookplate.

Catalogue Note

text

This volume includes a series of prayers, "de la sainte croix de luques" (fol.1r), the Gospel Sequences, prayers and hymns to the Virgin, prayers on the Nativity, the Passion of Christ, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Corpus Christi, etc.; and to the apostles and other saints including SS. Adrian, Quentin, Claude, Fiacre, Geneviève, etc.; and prayers for use at confession and at Mass.

illumination

The tiny and detailed demi-grisaille miniatures as well as the marginal decoration point towards the output of Bruges in the third quarter of the fifteenth century, and the influence of artists there who produced volumes such as the Ter Doest Abbey Missal (M. Smeyers and J. Van der Stock, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts, 1996, no.18) and the Duinen Abbey Missal (ibid., no.19).

The depiction of the Holy Cross of Lucca is extraordinarily rare, and may be unique. This is perhaps a special commission from a Luccan merchant or visitor to Bruges.

The miniatures comprise:

1. fol.1r, the Holy Cross of Lucca; an eagle with a snake and an agnus dei in the border.

2. fol.5r, John the Evangelist seated with his attribute the eagle, writing on a scroll; a bearded corpse with a halo rising from a grave and St. John in a cauldron of boiling oil.

3. fol.9r, the Annunciation to the Virgin, a peacock and a half-knight half-dog drollery in the border.

3. fol.32r, the Nativity; an agnus dei and a half-human drollery in the border.

4. fol.36r, the Crucifixion; a pelican pecking its breast to feed its chicks, a man with squirrel legs and a tail in the border.

5. fol.68r, Christ rising from the tomb, while three Roman soldiers dressed as medieval knights with ornamental shields sleep in the foreground; a crowing cockerel and a winged stag in the border.

6. fol.72r, the Ascension, with Christ rising into the heavens leaving only his footprints behind; a peacock and a white unicorn in the border.

7. fol.78v, a procession within a church; the original owner and a drollery creature blowing a trumpet in the border.

8. fol.81v, St. John the Baptist; a hawk snatching at a rabbit and a drollery creature blowing a hunting horn in the border.

9. fol.86v, the Virgin carried into the heavens by a host of angels; a white stork with a wine barrel for a body and a cat-like animal riding a duck and jousting while wearing a golden pot as a helmet in the border.

10. fol.89r, All Saints, with the Virgin and Child surrounded by a host of other saints with their attributes; a griffon and a half-knight half-fish drollery in the border.