Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, in Latin, use of Bayeux, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON
BOOK OF HOURS, in Latin, use of Bayeux, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Bayeux, c.1415 and c.1430-40] 180 x 130mm. i + 175 + i leaves: 1-2 6, 3-5 8, 6 2 (later addition of 2 + iii, lacking ii), 7-16 8, 17 9 (viii an inserted singleton), 18-23 8, modern foliation (correct from f.57 onwards), prickings visible in outer margins, guide words or letters to rubricator in the upper or middle margins of many folios, horizontal catchwords to lower margins on final folios of 16 gatherings, 14 lines written in brown ink in a gothic bookhand between two verticals and 15 horizontals ruled in red, justification: 91 x 72mm, rubrics in red, text capitals touched red, one- and two-line initials in burnished gold on blue and red grounds patterned in white, similar line-endings, several three- or four-line initials of blue or mauve on grounds of burnished gold with foliate infills and accompanying border sprays of vine-leaves in burnished gold, EIGHTEEN LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS with bars of burnished gold and/or blue and mauve and partial borders of vine-leaves, foliage and flowers in gold, orange, blue and green, some with dragon terminals, EIGHTEEN LARGE MINIATURES, most arch-topped, with accompanying large initials and full-page borders of foliate or patterned baguettes or bars, with scrolling foliage and naturalistic flowerheads linked by hairline tendrils with burnished gold vine-leaf terminals, some interspersed with naturalistic birds, butterflies, or grotesques and an angel, some with large dragon terminals in upper margins, and TWO MINIATURES of 7 lines height, later prickings above miniatures for sewn-in protective curtains, now lacking but some still sewn with remnants of silk (occasional small losses of pigment, visible notably in the Virgin's robe in Annunciation miniature, with slight soiling to initial below and to Crucifixion miniature and initial). 15th-century panelled calf over wooden boards, the covers with double fillets forming rectangular border compartments containing, on the upper cover, fleur-de-lys, double-headed eagles and deer, and on the lower cover, flowerheads, dogs and hares, the lower cover set with two later metal flowerhead bosses (rebacked, possible sophistication to cover). Provenance : From the collection of Dr Anton Philips (1874-1951), Eindhoven; and thence by descent. AN IMPORTANT AND LAVISHLY ILLUMINATED BOOK OF HOURS, AN EXTREMELY RARE INSTANCE OF A MANUSCRIPT STILL RETAINING PILGRIM BADGES. PROVENANCE: 1. The liturgical use of the Offices of the Virgin and of the Dead indicate that this Hours was made for use in Bayeux. The Calendar is also appropriate to that diocese, containing the bishops of Bayeux, St Vigor (14 July) and St Lupus (25 October). In red are Saints Regnobert (16 May, and translation 3 September), Rasyphus and Ravennus (23 July), the martyrs from Britain whose relics were transferred to Bayeux. The man and woman for whom the manuscript was made are shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the miniature opening the prayer Obsecro te (f.110v). The coat of arms above the couple has been overpainted. Two uncoloured arms are drawn in the margins below the openings of the Office of the Virgin and the Penitential Psalms. The first is quartered with a crescent in 2 (f.13) and the second has a bend and three charges that could be inverted bugle horns (f.66). These may be those of the original owners. The arms added to folio 110v (argent, a bordure azure, three hunting horns ?gules stringed and garnished) have some similarity to those of the Norman families of Boissonouze and of Le Cornu de La Boissière, du Buat, et de la Balivière. Shortly after its production the manuscript appears to have been owned by a woman, who is represented kneeling before St Giles in a miniature on one of the two leaves added after the first group of suffrages. The style of the two miniatures indicates that they were added in Normandy after the beginning of English rule. 2. Leo S. Olschki, Geneva, 1918 (i