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![BOOK OF HOURS, use of the Dominicans, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Tournai, 2nd quarter 14th century]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_01584_0007_002(book_of_hours_use_of_the_dominicans_in_latin_illuminated_manuscript_on012603).jpg?w=1)
![BOOK OF HOURS, use of the Dominicans, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Tournai, 2nd quarter 14th century]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_01584_0007_003(book_of_hours_use_of_the_dominicans_in_latin_illuminated_manuscript_on012641).jpg?w=1)
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Details
BOOK OF HOURS, use of the Dominicans, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Tournai, 2nd quarter 14th century]
120 x 90mm, 170 leaves, ruled space: 75 x 50mm. FIFTEEN LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS WITH FULL BORDERS, often with drolleries in the margins, small illuminated initials throughout, PARTIAL BORDERS ON MOST PAGES, ONE FULL-PAGE MINIATURE (a large portion of the miniature missing due to the excision of an illuminated initial on the verso, but preserving one complete figure, several texts beginning imperfectly due to the loss of leaves, one other initial excised). 19th-century red velvet (worn and faded).
PROVENANCE:
(1) The style of illumination is immediately identifiable as Tournai-work. Although for Dominican use, the manuscript was apparently produced by a libraire without a ready purchaser in mind: the calendar is non-specific (although it includes some uncommon entries, such as Gilbert of Sempringham, 4 February, and Joseph, husband of Mary, 19 March), and the end of each sequence of names in the litany (martyrs, confessors, virgins) has a space for extra names to be inserted, and another space has been left for the insertion of extra A/Ab petitions. (2) HENRY YATES THOMPSON, given to (3) ALLAN HEYWOOD BRIGHT: inscription, upper pastedown.
CONTENT:
Calendar with feasts in gold, red, or brown, ff.1-6v; Hours of the Virgin ‘secundum ordinem fratrum predicatorum’ ff.7-45 (with prime, terce, sext, none and vespers starting imperfect); Long Hours of the Cross ff.46-82v (with sext and compline starting imperfect); Short Office of the Dead, with three lessons, ff.83-100v; Seven Penitential Psalms (lacking first leaf), followed by litany and collects, ff.101-118; prayers, including one with an indulgence of Pope Clement V (d.1314) of 40 days, and O intemerata, ff.118v-124; Suffrages, the males ending with Dominic, Francis, Bernard, and Thomas Aquinas, the females ending with Marina and Clare, ff.124-130v; collects, antiphons, and other prayers, ff.130v-138; Hours of the Cross, attributed in the rubric to Pope John XXII (r.1316-34) and with an indulgence of a year and 40 days, ff.138v-142v; the prayer on the Seven Last Words and other prayers ff.143-154v; Hours of the Seven Joys of the Virgin (lacking the first leaf) ending ‘Explicit officium beatissime virginis Marie de septem gaudiis ipsius’, ff.155-186v, with Litany of the Virgin f.182v and a prayer to the Seven Joys, ff.182v-184.
ILLUMINATION:
An intriguing amalgam of several different artists working in Tournai in the orbit of Pierart dou Tielt, with lively drolleries and grotesques throughout. The sadly maimed miniature depicting Christ before Pilate can be linked to the work of the artist responsible for the first part of MS. Bodl. 264. The text includes the extremely unusual Hours of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, as well as some unusual prayers.
120 x 90mm, 170 leaves, ruled space: 75 x 50mm. FIFTEEN LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS WITH FULL BORDERS, often with drolleries in the margins, small illuminated initials throughout, PARTIAL BORDERS ON MOST PAGES, ONE FULL-PAGE MINIATURE (a large portion of the miniature missing due to the excision of an illuminated initial on the verso, but preserving one complete figure, several texts beginning imperfectly due to the loss of leaves, one other initial excised). 19th-century red velvet (worn and faded).
PROVENANCE:
(1) The style of illumination is immediately identifiable as Tournai-work. Although for Dominican use, the manuscript was apparently produced by a libraire without a ready purchaser in mind: the calendar is non-specific (although it includes some uncommon entries, such as Gilbert of Sempringham, 4 February, and Joseph, husband of Mary, 19 March), and the end of each sequence of names in the litany (martyrs, confessors, virgins) has a space for extra names to be inserted, and another space has been left for the insertion of extra A/Ab petitions. (2) HENRY YATES THOMPSON, given to (3) ALLAN HEYWOOD BRIGHT: inscription, upper pastedown.
CONTENT:
Calendar with feasts in gold, red, or brown, ff.1-6v; Hours of the Virgin ‘secundum ordinem fratrum predicatorum’ ff.7-45 (with prime, terce, sext, none and vespers starting imperfect); Long Hours of the Cross ff.46-82v (with sext and compline starting imperfect); Short Office of the Dead, with three lessons, ff.83-100v; Seven Penitential Psalms (lacking first leaf), followed by litany and collects, ff.101-118; prayers, including one with an indulgence of Pope Clement V (d.1314) of 40 days, and O intemerata, ff.118v-124; Suffrages, the males ending with Dominic, Francis, Bernard, and Thomas Aquinas, the females ending with Marina and Clare, ff.124-130v; collects, antiphons, and other prayers, ff.130v-138; Hours of the Cross, attributed in the rubric to Pope John XXII (r.1316-34) and with an indulgence of a year and 40 days, ff.138v-142v; the prayer on the Seven Last Words and other prayers ff.143-154v; Hours of the Seven Joys of the Virgin (lacking the first leaf) ending ‘Explicit officium beatissime virginis Marie de septem gaudiis ipsius’, ff.155-186v, with Litany of the Virgin f.182v and a prayer to the Seven Joys, ff.182v-184.
ILLUMINATION:
An intriguing amalgam of several different artists working in Tournai in the orbit of Pierart dou Tielt, with lively drolleries and grotesques throughout. The sadly maimed miniature depicting Christ before Pilate can be linked to the work of the artist responsible for the first part of MS. Bodl. 264. The text includes the extremely unusual Hours of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, as well as some unusual prayers.
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