Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Bruges, c.1480] 96 x 68mm. 208 leaves (pencilled foliation repeats 84 and 126): 1 4, 2 1 2, 3 8, 4-14 8, 15 3(lacking at least 2 leaves, before f.114 and f.115), 16 9(of 8 + i), 17 8, 18 7, 19 6(probably of 8 lacking i-ii), 20-23 8, 24 4, 25 8, ff.188-204 uncertain (lacking at least one leaf before f.191 and before f.198), ff.205-206 a bifolium added at the same time as gatherings 1 and 3 to carry additional prayers; 17 lines written in black ink in a lettre bâtarde between two verticals and 18 horizontals ruled in pink, justification: 52 x 36mm, rubrics in red, text capitals touched yellow, line-endings in pink and blue with white decoration, numerous two- and one-line initials with staves in burnished gold on divided grounds of pink and blue patterned with white, the two-line initials with hairline tendrils with gold foliate and painted flower terminals extending into the margin, SIX LARGE FOLIATE INITIALS five- or six-lines high in grisaille on grounds of burnished gold with full grisaille borders of black, grey and liquid and burnished gold, of which two face the full-page miniatures, THIRTY-THREE HISTORIATED INITIALS in semi-grisaille seven-lines high with staves in blue or pink patterned with white with burnished gold surrounds, with partial borders of hairline tendrils with gold foliate and painted flower terminals, SIX SMALL MINIATURES in semi-grisaille of less than text width, TWO FULL-PAGE MINIATURES in semi-grisaille with full grisaille borders in black, grey and liquid and burnished gold (one full-page miniature and four historiated initials with late sixteenth-century repaint, smudging of some borders, lacking some text leaves and possibly four miniature leaves). Brown morocco by Canapé. PROVENANCE: 1. The decoration shows the book to have been illuminated in Bruges. The Calendar includes saints popular in the south-western Netherlands, notably in red: Amand (2 February), Basil (14 June), Eligius (1 September and 1 December), Remy and Bavo (1 October), Nicaise (14 December); in black Valery (1 April), Amalberga (13 July), Bertin (5 September), Donatian (14 October), Wulfran (15 October), Quentin (31 October), Livinus (12 November); a few British feasts are insufficient to suggest a British patron but may have entered the scribe's model from books for the export market: Milburga (23 February), David (1 March), translation Thomas Becket (7 July). In the Litany the geographical range extends to Hainault and Brabant: Sts Quentin, Livinus, Amand, Vedast, Remy, Eligius, Omer, Bertin, Winnoc, Bavo, Amalberga, Walburga, Dympna, Genevieve, Gertrude, Aldegund. Various prayers are in the masculine and a male owner appears kneeling before the crucified Christ, f.180, praying with his guardian angel, f.199 and perhaps with another man and woman kneeling before the Host, f.191. 2. Many prayers were added for a subsequent owner. 3. The few overpaintings of the later 16th century seem to have been occasioned not by damage but by aesthetic or iconographic considerations, seen in the ingenious transformation of the Annunciation to the Shepherds into a Holy Family. 4. Typed description in French loose in volume 5. Chas. J. Sawyer Ltd., Booksellers, 12-13 Grafton St, London W1: typed description loose in volume CONTENT: Added prayer f.1; Calendar ff.5-16; added prayers in French and Latin ff.17-19; Hours of the Cross ff.25-32; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.33-38; Mass of the Virgin ff.39-43v; Gospel Extracts, ff.44-49v; Obsecro te ff.49v-54; O Intemerata ff.54-56v; Office of the Virgin use of Rome, followed by prayers (lacking end) ff.57-114: matins f.57, lauds f.75v, prime f.86, terce f.90v, sext f.94v, none f.98v, vespers f.102v, compline f.110; prayer (lacking opening) f.115; Seven Penitential Psalms ff.116-126v; Litany and prayers ff.116v-137; Office of the Dead use of Rome (lacking opening and ending) ff.138-179v; prayer on the Seven Last Words from th