The Breviary of St Mathurin, in Latin [France (Paris), c.1340-50]

184x134mm, vellum, iii+400+iii, 35 quires of 12 leaves, except i6, xxii6, xxx12-1 (vi wanting after f.341, text leaf), xxxv5 (last blank cancelled), catchwords, 2 columns, 33 lines, 141x93mm, with many calligraphic extensions incorporating faces and fantastic animals in upper margin, 8 HISTORIATED INITIALS with marginal extensions terminating in ivy leaves, three- to six-line initials in red or blue on burnished gold grounds with marginal extensions, small initials with fine flourishing and decorated line-fillers; borders slightly cropped, historiated initial on f.7r with small smudge in patterned background, overall in excellent condition; 19th-century red morocco with gold flowers and geometric inlay of black, green and orange stripes, signed by the Paris bookbinder Léon Gruel (1841-1923), lower right corner of upper cover slightly bumped, black inlay with small scratch at top, fitted case 

A DELUXE MANUSCRIPT MADE IN PARIS FOR THE ORDER OF THE TRINITARIANS OF ST MATHURIN, DELICATELY PAINTED BY A FOLLOWER OF JEAN PUCELLE, WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE ILLUMINATION OF THE BIBLE MORALISÉE FOR JEAN LE BON, KING OF FRANCE (1350-64)

provenance

(1) MADE FOR THE TRINITARIAN ORDER OF ST MATHURIN IN PARIS. The Calendar, Sanctorale, Temporale, as well as the added prayers, correspond closely with the Breviary-Missal of the Trinitarians of the second half of the 13th century (Paris, BnF, ms.lat.1022; see V. Leroquais, Bréviaires, 1934, II, pp.464-5, and Sacramentaires et missels, 1924, II, pp.123-4). The Order of Trinitarians was founded by Jean de Matha (d.1213) in order to liberate Christians taken prisoner by the infidels (see P. and M.-L. Biver, Abbayes, monastères et couvents de Paris, 1970, pp.231-40). In France the Trinitarians were as much favoured by the kings as by the popes. St Louis installed a house of their order in his château of Fontainebleau. He chose Trinitarians as his chaplains, and was accompanied by them on his crusades. Their convent in Paris was dedicated to St Mathurin, hence they are also known in France as Mathurins. Founded in 1228, the Paris house soon eclipsed Cerfroid, the cradle of the Trinitarians, and eventually became the residence of the general, also called grand minister, of the order. Towards the end of the 12th century the order had 250 houses throughout Christendom, where its benevolent work was manifested by the return of liberated captives. The order was suppressed during the French Revolution in 1790. The church existed until 1863 when it was demolished; only one arcade remains at 7 Rue de Cluny.

(2) PRINCE ROBERT PHILIPPE LOUIS EUGÈNE FERDINAND D'ORLÉANS, DUKE OF CHARTRES (1840-1910). Note on first flyleaf: 'Ce beau manuscrit, offert à Msr. le Cardinal par S.A.R. Msr. le Duc de Chartres, m’a été donné par son Eminence, à l’occasion du Sacre de Monseigneur Billard, Evêque de Carcassonne et comme souvenir de cette cérémonie que j’avais été chargé de préparer. Rouen, le 6 Aout 1881 [signed] G. Périer'. The Duke, president of the Société des bibliophiles français, reserved an entire wing of his mansion in Paris for his library; he wrote most of the 5000 entries in the catalogue of his collection himself (see Dictionnaire de biographie française, 1959, vol.8, pp.685-6). A portion of his library was sold in 1949 (P. Berès, Catalogue de la collection du duc de Chartres, 1949).

(3) Henri-Marie-Gaston Boisnormand de Bonnechose, Cardinal of Rouen (1800-83; see F. Dumont in Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907, vol.2; see note on flyleaf above).

(4) G. Périer, Rouen, 1881 (note on first flyleaf signed by him).

(5) Private collection of James E. and Elizabeth J. Ferrell, the present owners (bookplate with initials).

text and illumination

Calendar for Paris (f.1r), with the translation of the Crown of Thorns (to the Ste Chapelle) (11 Aug.) and three feasts of St Mathurin: his translation (10 May), his main feast (9 Nov.), and its octave, all as 'totum duplex'; Psalms (f.7r), beginning with the rubric 'In adventu domini…'; followed by prayers and canticles (f.72r); litany (f.73v) and collects, in the litany Sts Victor second among the martyrs, Mathurin among the confessors, and Geneviève first among the virgins; Temporale (f.75v), beginning with Advent; the feast of St Eutropius added in a 15th-century hand to originally blank pages (f.233r); Votive Masses (f.235r); Prefaces, in larger script (f.241v); Canon of the Mass (f.245v); further addition in same 15th-century hand (f.251v); f.252r-v blank; Sanctorale (f.253r), Use of Paris, beginning with St Stephen; other offices: Agnes (15 Jan.; f.268v), Augustine (28 Aug.; f.322v) and octave (4 Sept.), Mathurin (9 Nov., f.346v); Common of the Saints (f.362v); Office of the Virgin (f.376v); Ordo for visiting the sick (f.381v), including litany (f.382v), Commendation of the soul (f.383v), Office of the Dead (f.384v), and Burial service (f.387r); further feasts for the Sanctorale, rubric 'In translacione sancte corone' (f.388v), and rubric 'De sancto Ludovico' (f.390v); further additions by a contemporary hand, with following rubrics 'Legenda sancto ambrosio' (f.391v), 'Legenda in translacione sancti nicholay' (f.392r), 'Oratio de translacione sancti nicholay' (f.393r), 'De sancto fiacrio' (f.394r), 'Legenda per octavas omnium sociorum' (f.394v), 'Domenica infra octavam legenda' (f.396r), 'Tres ultime lectiones … Incipit legenda per octava sancti maturini' (f.396v), 'Legenda de sancta maria in sabbato' (f.399v), and 'Oracio de sancto bernardo' (f.400v); and added 15th-century text has been erased (f.400v).

illumination

JEAN PUCELLE was one of the most outstanding Parisian illuminators of the early 14th century. He was a favourite of the French court, and worked closely with a number of collaborators. At the end of the 14th century, long after Pucelle's death in 1334, Parisian manuscript illumination was still influenced by him. The Bible Moralisée made for Jean le Bon, King of France from 1350 until his death in 1364, dates from the 1340s and was illuminated by no less than 15 artists working in Pucelle's style (Paris, BnF, fr.167; see F. Avril, 'Un chef-d'œuvre de l'enluminure sous le règne de Jean le Bon', Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot, 58, 1972, pp. 91-125; complete digital facsimile on Gallica: gallica.bnf.fr). The illuminator of the present Breviary (dubbed ARTIST D IN JEAN LE BON'S BIBLE MORALISÉE) is described by François Avril as an artist who works most closely in the style of Pucelle ("De tous les artistes de la Bible, D est celui qui se rattache le plus nettement à l'art de Pucelle", op.cit., p.102). He was responsible for a number of other works, notably a Bible in Montpellier (Faculté de Médicine, ms.195), a Franciscan Breviary in the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York, M.75), the so-called Bible of Queen Christina of Sweden (Stockholm, Nat. Lib., MS A 165; see C. Nordenfalk, Gyllene Böcker, exh.cat., 1952, no.93), and other manuscripts (see F. Avril, op.cit., p.104 notes 1-2). Characteristic of the 'Pucelle style' is a new sense of three-dimensionality in modelled figures and architectural space. Most remarkable is the linear quality of the outline drawing and the refinement through soft shading.

The subjects of the historiated initials are:
(1) f.7r, Psalm 1, David playing the harp;
(2) f.16r, Psalm 26, David pointing to his eye;
(3) f.22r, Psalm 38, David pointing to his mouth;
(4) f.28r, Psalm 52, God appearing to a fool;
(5) f.34r, Psalm 68, David, in water, praying for deliverance;
(6) f.41v, Psalm 80, David playing a cymbalum (a mounted series of bells);
(7) f.49r, Psalm 97, two tonsured clerics singing at a lectern;
(8) f.57v, Psalm 109, the Trinity.