Book of Hours, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France (probably Rouen), c. 1470]

177 by 127mm., 137 leaves, complete, with numerous catchwords (that at end of third quire giving erroneous “Obsecro” most probably due to scribal error: the Obsecro te included in unusual place at end of volume here), collation: i-iii6, iv-vi8, vii-viii9 (both of these with singletons at front to complete previous text), ix5 (last a cancelled blank), x6, xi8, xii6, xiii-xv8, xvi4, xvii-xix8, written in single column of 18 lines of a professional late gothic bookhand, gold ink used for special feasts in Calendar (this now oxidised in places), capitals coloured with yellow wash, red rubrics, 2-line initials in gold on pink and blue grounds with white penwork, line-fillers in same, almost every page with decorated borders of flowers, fruit and acanthus leaf sprays on blank vellum or dull gold grounds (these forming a variety of geometric shapes), three large historiated initials in pink or blue on gold grounds (see below), three small square miniatures (see below), the final prayers and Suffrages to the Saints accompanied by portraits of those appealed to set within the decorated borders in the margins, fourteen three-quarter page arch-topped miniatures (see below), most accompanied by a 4-line initial in blue with white penwork, enclosing coloured foliage on gold grounds, some small areas of thumbing to edges of some borders, a few chips to paint in places, a few spots and stains, else excellent and fresh condition, and with original line-pricking marks visible at edges of many leaves showing the volume has not been substantially trimmed; finely bound in blue morocco, gilt-tooled, with “Ancienne Heures Manuscrites” on spine, and recesses left for devotional carvings in centre of each board (cross on front; heart on back), by Bradstreet’s of New York (one of the founding firms of American fine binding, active in late nineteenth and first half of twentieth century): their gilt stamp at foot of front pastedown

Text:
This volume comprises: a Calendar; the Passion readings; the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers and Compline; the Hours of the Cross and the Holy Spirit; the Seven Penitential Psalms, with a Litany of Saints; the Office of the Dead; the Obsecro te and O intemerata, followed by the Missus est Gabriel and prayers appealing to God, the Virgin, Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Suffrages to the Saints.

Illumination:
The artist here was well versed in the book arts of nearby Paris and especially Rouen, with his border decoration pointing towards the latter. The larger miniatures here include: (1) fol. 13r, three-quarter miniature of St. John writing in a scroll as his attribute looks on; (2) fol. 19r, the Annunciation to the Virgin, as she kneels in prayer within a sumptuous medieval interior; (3) fol. 35r, the meeting of the Virgin and St. Elizabeth, as angels look on; (4) fol. 44r, the Nativity; (5) fol. 49r, the Annunciation to the Shepherds; (6) fol. 53r, the Adoration of the Magi; (7) fol. 56r, the Presentation in the Temple, within a medieval interior with a finely carved wooden arched ceiling; (8) fol. 59r, the Flight into Egypt, with the Miracle of the Cornfields in the background; (9) fol. 62r, the Coronation of the Virgin; (10) fol. 66r, the Crucifixion; (11) fol. 69r, Pentecost; (12) fol. 72r, David kneeling before a throne and baldachin as God the Father appears to him, his harp and crown on the floor before him; (13) fol. 86r, the Meeting of the Three Living and the Three Dead, with the noblemen in shock with raised arms and their horses rearing as three rotting corpses meet them at the crossroads (denoted by a golden cross marker); (14) fol. 128r, the Trinity, with God the Father enthroned and cradling Christ’s body as the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove appears at his shoulder. The smaller miniatures here comprise: (i) fol. 15r, Luke writing in a book, holding his pen up to examine it as his attribute looks on; (ii) fol. 16v, Matthew seated and writing as his attribute looks on; (iii) fol. 18r, Mark seated and writing as his attribute looks on; (iv) fol. 114r, the Virgin in a mandorla within an initial ‘O’ (opening the Obsecro te); (v) fol. 115v, the Virgin within golden flames, within an initial ‘O’ (opening the O intemerata); (vi) fol. 116v, the Virgin and Child seated on a throne within an initial ‘M’ (opening the Missus est Gabriel); followed by small marginal portraits of the Virgin and Child, God the Father, Christ, the Holy Spirit as a dove, the Veil of St. Veronica, the Pieta, St. Michael the Archangel, John the Baptist, St. Stephen, St Laurence, St. Anne, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Barbara.

With our thanks to Dr. Timothy Bolton for assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.

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