Beschreibung:

Book of Hours, Unidentified Use, in Latin. Illuminated manuscript on vellum, [France: Angers, c. 1460s], i + 155 + i leaves, with catchwords, lacking the calendar and other leaves with illumination, perhaps including miniatures, some leaves bound out of place; part of f. 96 excised; 13 lines per page written in a fine gothic textura script (c. 50 × 35 mm); illuminated throughout with one- and two-line initials, and with LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS CONTAINING FLOWERS ACCOMPANIED BY A BORDER (ff. 1r, 52r, 56v, 61r, 70r, 143v); some smudging of pigments, the vellum generally slightly cockled and thumbed, with a few small holes and a few stains from rusted paper clips, a few leaves becoming loose, decorated gilt endpapers, burgundy morocco gilt bookplate of W. A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey, 16th-century red velvet, each cover with gilt metal corner- and centre-pieces, the spine with a pierced metal panel and the fore-edge with intact clasp, the velvet worn and the metal tarnished, but sound overall, small 8vo (108 × 78 mm) (Quantity: 1) Provenance: Doubtless made at Angers, to judge by the style of illumination and a prayer that includes the names of at least five bishop-saints of Angers (f. 152v): Maurilius, Renatus, Albinus, Licinius, and Magnobod; others are Maurice (to whom Angers Cathedral is dedicated) and the rare Serenedus (venerated at Angers); the litany includes most of the same saints. Despite this, neither the Hours of the Virgin nor the Office of the Dead seem to be the normal texts for the Use of Angers, which suggests that the book may have been made for a nearby town that followed a different liturgy. Sold at Sotheby’s, 16 May 1955, lot 92 (lot 90 in the same sale was also in the Foyle collection and is now at the Bodleian Library, Oxford). W. A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey (bookplate). Hours of the Virgin (f. 1r), Lauds followed by suffrages to Sts Michael, Peter & Paul, Sebastian, Nicholas, Mary Magdalene, and Catherine; Hours of the Cross (f. 47r) and of the Spirit intermixed; Seven Penitential Psalms (f. 78r); Litany (f. 92v); Office of the Dead (f. 101r); Obsecro te (f. 143v); the usual extract from St John’s Gospel (f. 148v); prayers (f. 151r), including one mentioning Angers saints, one to St Barbara in rhyming verse, and another to St Martin. Although defective, this is a substantially complete medieval illuminated Book of Hours, in an unusual binding and with some unusual texts, whose very incompleteness makes it ideal for study and research.