Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin [southern Netherlands (Ghent or Bruges), c.1500]

74x57mm, vellum, iii+359+iii, textually apparently complete, 10 lines, 45x28mm, 16 LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS WITH FULL BORDERS OF NATURALISTIC FLOWERS STREWN ON GOLD GROUNDS; some water-staining mainly noticeable on the first and last leaves; 19th- or 20th-century blue velvet binding, somewhat worn, gilt edges

A CHARMING SMALL VOLUME, DESIGNED TO BE HIGHLY PORTABLE AND PERHAPS CARRIED FOR PROTECTION AS A TALISMAN WHEN MAKING DANGEROUS JOURNEYS IN THE ALPS

provenance

(1) The calendar includes the very unusual feast of St Bernard 'canonici' (15 May), presumably the Augustinian canon after whom are named the Alpine mountain pass and the dogs who rescue lost travellers; in light of this and Italianate rounded gothic script, the book may have been commissioned by a north Italian patron.

(2) Thomas Charles Tasman Littleton (1907–85), 7th Baron Hatherton; sold by him in our rooms 13 July 1977, lot 85; to Tulkens.

text and illumination

Calendar (f.1r); prayer ‘Salva sancta facies’ (f.13r); Hours of the Cross (f.17r) and of the Holy Spirit (f.33r); Mass of the Virgin (f.47r); Hours of the Virgin 'secundum usum Romanum', with Matins (f.61r), Lauds (f.105r), Prime (f.133r), Terce (f.145r), Sext (f.153r), None (f.162r), Vespers (f.170r), Compline (f.185r), and seasonal variants (f.195r); Penitential Psalms (f.215r), with litany etc.; Office of the Dead (f.252r); prayer ‘Obsecro te’ (f.348r); and Athanasian Creed (f.351r).

There is no clear evidence that the volume ever included miniatures.