Beschreibung:

Workshop of Jean d'Ypres
Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, last decade of the 15th century]
A substantial fragment of what would once have been a deluxe Book of Hours produced in the innovative workshop of Jean d'Ypres, also known as the Master of the Très Petites Heures d’Anne de Bretagne for the Hours he painted around 1498 for Anne, wife of Charles VIII and Queen Consort of France.
186 x 114mm. 141 + i leaves, collation impractical due to extent of misbinding, 16 lines, ruled space: 103 x 59mm, rubrics in blue, illuminated initials and line-fillers throughout, every page with an illuminated panel border, often inhabited by fantastical beasts, animals and grotesques, 24 calendar miniatures with Zodiac signs and occupations of the month within full inhabited borders, one large miniature with David and Goliath, 9 smaller miniatures within three-sided borders (misbound throughout and lacking c.20 leaves, including probably 12 with miniatures opening the Hours of the Virgin, the Office of the Dead, the Gospel extract of John, and the O intemerata, see Content for more detail, opening leaves a little soiled and yellowed, some leaves a little loose, else in good condition). In a vellum sleeve and modern purple velvet binding (loose within binding).
Provenance:
(1) 'Ce livre appartient à Camille Gilloire se n'est pas elle qui ecrit cela': 17th-century inscription on verso of final endleaf.
Content: Calendar ff.1-12v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.13-29v; Office of the Dead ff.30-68v; Hours of the Virgin ff.69-125 (misbound as follows): matins ff.69-77v (the text immediately consecutive to f.108v), none ff.78-80v, vespers ff.81-86v, compline ff.87-91v, prime ff.92-96v, terce ff.97-100v, sext ff.101-102v, matins ff.103-108v (the text of this section continues on f.69), Hours of the Cross ff.109-110v, matins ff.111-113v (continuing the text on f.77v), lauds f.114 (a singleton), matins ff.115-116v (continuing the text on f.113v), lauds f.117-125 (the gathering itself misbound, with f.123 following the text of f.114); Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.126-126v; Gospel extracts ff.127-131v; Suffrages ff.132-135v; Obsecro te and O intemerata ff.136-141v.
Illumination:
The present manuscript was illuminated in the workshop of Jean d'Ypres, also known as the Master of the Très Petites Heures of Anne of Brittany, as well as many other conventional names in the literature, including the Master of the Apocalypse Rose of the Sainte-Chapelle, the Master of the Hunt of the Unicorn, and the Master of the Life of Saint John the Baptist (see I. Nettekoven, Der Meister des Apokalypsenrose der Sainte Chapelle und die Pariser Buchkunst um 1500, 2004). A recent consensus has solidified around the identity of this master as Jean d’Ypres (see C. Vrand, 'Jean d’Ypres, peintre ed dessinateur,' Mystérieux coffrets: Estampes au temps de la Dame à la Licorne, Paris, 2019, pp.26-43). Like Pichore, Jean d’Ypres worked in numerous media, including painted altarpieces, stained glass windows, designs for tapestries, and illuminated manuscripts: his most important manuscript commission was the splendid Book of Hours produced around 1498 for Charles’ spouse, Anne of Brittany, now Paris, BnF, NAL 3120. The very accomplished and engaging hand of our specific illuminator is identical to that of another Book of Hours sold at Christie's, 12 July 2017, lot 18, from the same workshop: we see an identical treatment of the billowing, gold-streaked hair, and the same oval, pale faces.
The large miniature with David and Goliath is on f.13.
The subjects of the historiated initials are as follows: St Luke f.128v; St Mark f.130; St Matthew f.131; St John the Evangelist f.132; Sts Peter and Paul f.132v; St James f.133v; St Nicholas f.134v; St Anthony f.135; the Virgin and Child f.136.