Book of Hours, use of Sarum, illuminated manuscript on vellum, [England, late 14th or early 15th century]

Book of Hours, use of Sarum

in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum. [England (perhaps London), late 14th or early 15th century]

i+4+ii+152 leaves, c.195×140mm, paginated in modern pencil ignoring the preliminaries and omitting 2 leaves after p.75, two after p.185, and jumping from 266 to 277, repeating 277, and then jumping to 288, thus reaching ‘319’ by the end, most missing leaves replaced by unnumbered blank paper leaves, lacking at least two original leaves before p.1 and single leaves after pp.20, 58, 68, 74, 96, 108, 166, 182, 252, and 260, two leaves after pp.82 and 230, at least two after p.162, and four after p.88, collation: 1⁴, 2^8-2 (1st & 2nd leaves missing), 3^8-1 (5th missing), 4–5⁸, 6^8-2 (1st and 7th missing), 7^8-1 (3rd missing), 8^8-5 (1st, 2nd, and 6th–8th missing), 9^8-2 (1st and 6th missing), 10^8-1 (5th missing), 11–13⁸, 14^8-6? (only the last two remain), 15^8-1 (1st missing), 16^8-1 (2nd missing), 17–18⁸, 19^8-2 (middle bifolium missing), 20⁸, 21^8-2 (1st and 6th missing), 22⁸, 23⁴, 24^8-2 (last 2 blanks cancelled), mostly with catchwords, several of them with drawings, e.g. a monk and a bishop, p.26, a fantastical beast, p.70, an angel, p.82, a king, p.100, a queen, p.114, written in fine gothic textura, 13 lines per page (130×90mm), ILLUMINATED INITIALS THROUGHOUT, mostly two lines high, some three, five, or six lines high, many pages spotted with damp, a few defective and repaired, overall signs of wear and use; bound in 18th-century half calf and marbled paper over pasteboards, the spine with a red leather title-piece lettered in gilt capitals ‘Missal | Illuminated’

PROVENANCE

(1) The use of Sarum was used across most of England in the 15th century, but the high quality of script and decoration suggests that the manuscript was produced in a major centre such as London.

(2) The preliminary tables were presumably added within a year of 1438, as they commenced with that year.

(3) In the early 16th century Thomas Robards formally registered his ownership of the volume, before witnesses, and inscribed it ‘This is Thomas Robards booke, Witnes by me John Benfylld and Jone Russell and Walter Crays and John Hayward the baylay [i.e. bailiff] finis’ (f.iir).

(4) At the Reformation references to Thomas Becket were effaced.

(5) Unidentified owner: a clipping from an auction or dealer catalogue describes a ‘Lectionarium et sequentiæ cum antiphonario et orationibus pro festibus ecclesiæ Romanæ […] by an Italian scribe […]’ (front pastedown).

(6) Rev. Nathaniel Castleton Stephen Poyntz (1846–1920): inscribed ‘E Libris Nath. C.S. Poyntz’ (front pastedown); his sale at Sotheby’s, 28 June 1921, lot 595.

(7) Sotheby’s, 7 December 1992, lot 59; bought by the Schuster Gallery, and from them by the present owner.

TEXT

Added calendar tables from 1438 to 1540, and notes on lunar calculations for Easter, ‘Luna prima post Epiphaniam computa decem dies et in proximo sabbato claudetur alleluya …’ (unpaginated added leaves); Hours of the Virgin [Use of Sarum], with Matins (p.1), Lauds (p.21), followed by memorials, that to Thomas Becket (effaced, pp.49–50), Nicholas, Mary Magdalene, Katherine, Margaret, All Saints, and Peace, Prime (p.59), Terce (p.69), Sext (p.75), None (p.83), Vespers (p.89) and Compline (p.97); Penitential Psalms (p.168), Fifteen Gradual Psalms (p.141), and Litany (p.148), with Thomas effaced (p.152); further Memorials (p.163); Office of the Dead, Use of Sarum (p.167); Commendation of Souls (p.231), The Prayer of Bede on the Seven Words on the Cross (p.245) preceded by a long rubric assuring the devout user that s/he will not die an evil or unexpected death and will see the Virgin 30 days before dying; The Five verses beginning ‘Mater digna dei’, preceded by a rubric telling that they were revealed by the Virgin to a certain scholar whose head was cut off, but lived to tell the miracle which occurred in Aragon in 1289; the hymn ‘Anima christi sanctifica me’ (p.252) preceded by a rubric telling that Pope John XXII granted 3000 days’ indulgence to those who use it, as given on 3 May 1331 at the request of the King of France; and other prayers.