![BOOK OF HOURS, use of Paris, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [?western France, c.1430].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0027_001(book_of_hours_use_of_paris_in_latin_and_french_illuminated_manuscript070258).jpg?w=1)
![BOOK OF HOURS, use of Paris, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [?western France, c.1430].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0027_002(book_of_hours_use_of_paris_in_latin_and_french_illuminated_manuscript070422).jpg?w=1)
![BOOK OF HOURS, use of Paris, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [?western France, c.1430].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0027_000(book_of_hours_use_of_paris_in_latin_and_french_illuminated_manuscript055356).jpg?w=1)
Details
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Paris, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [?western France, c.1430].
184 x 132mm. ii paper + 241 + ii paper, ff.199-214, an early addition, ruled space: 85 x 60mm. BORDERS ON EVERY PAGE, SIX LARGE MINIATURES WITH FULL BORDERS (lacking eight leaves, of which seven with miniatures, ff.67-71 have corners repaired into borders which are continued in ink, including miniature page f.69v where ink detailing and patterning has been added to the miniature, small patches in margins of ff.209-210, some wear to many borders and most miniatures, the miniature border partly erased f.91, ink faded on some pages with some smudging). 18th-century marbled calf gilt, spine in six compartments gilt (joints split, spine worn, some gatherings detached).
PROVENANCE:
(1) The Offices of the Virgin and of the Dead are the Use of Paris but divergences in the calendar from usual Parisian feasts and the choice of saints in the short litany (Sts Julian, Guy and Maurice patron of the Cathedral in Angers). (2) The prayers on ff.13 and 201-210 were early additions made for a lady called Isabella: ego ysabella peccatrix f.207. (3) J. Dunoyers: inscribed inside upper cover. (4) Record in French of purchase from Manouri, a family of libraires in Caen in business from at least 1755 into the 1830s: slip of paper pasted inside front cover and repeated in pencil on the pastedown.
CONTENT:
Calendar ff.1-12; prayer to St Gregory with space for miniature added on originally ruled blank leaf f.13; Gospel extracts ff.14-20v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris, ff.21-90v; Penitential Psalms and litany ff.91-114v; Hours of the Cross ff.115-122v: Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.123-126v; Quinze joies ff.127-134; Cinq plaies ff.134v-137v; Office of the Dead, use of Paris, ff.138-198v; added devotions in various hands, including Obsecro te and O intemerata in the feminine, ff.199-213v.
ILLUMINATION:
The miniatures present strongly coloured figures with faces detailed by fine lines; one of the singers at the lectern at the Office of the Dead has a pair of spectacles. Their fairly simple draperies form more elaborate folds and varied shapes as they spill over the ground. Set against diapered grounds of red, blue and burnished gold, they all stand on grass, even for interior scenes but the addition of trees to the Annunciation to the Shepherds and of trees and rocky outcrops for King David create more emphatically outdoor settings. These stylized abstracted settings continued to feature into the 1430s outside Paris. The David miniature, with more elaborate setting and drapery, derives from patterns established by the Boucicaut and Mazarine Masters whose models spread west with the Rohan Master who left Paris probably for Angers and the bulky figures with small heads are reminiscent of some of this master’s followers. The combination of these style features and the non-Parisian feasts in the Calendar suggest a possible origin in Anjou.
The miniatures are on ff.35, 58v, 69v, 83v, 91 and 138.
184 x 132mm. ii paper + 241 + ii paper, ff.199-214, an early addition, ruled space: 85 x 60mm. BORDERS ON EVERY PAGE, SIX LARGE MINIATURES WITH FULL BORDERS (lacking eight leaves, of which seven with miniatures, ff.67-71 have corners repaired into borders which are continued in ink, including miniature page f.69v where ink detailing and patterning has been added to the miniature, small patches in margins of ff.209-210, some wear to many borders and most miniatures, the miniature border partly erased f.91, ink faded on some pages with some smudging). 18th-century marbled calf gilt, spine in six compartments gilt (joints split, spine worn, some gatherings detached).
PROVENANCE:
(1) The Offices of the Virgin and of the Dead are the Use of Paris but divergences in the calendar from usual Parisian feasts and the choice of saints in the short litany (Sts Julian, Guy and Maurice patron of the Cathedral in Angers). (2) The prayers on ff.13 and 201-210 were early additions made for a lady called Isabella: ego ysabella peccatrix f.207. (3) J. Dunoyers: inscribed inside upper cover. (4) Record in French of purchase from Manouri, a family of libraires in Caen in business from at least 1755 into the 1830s: slip of paper pasted inside front cover and repeated in pencil on the pastedown.
CONTENT:
Calendar ff.1-12; prayer to St Gregory with space for miniature added on originally ruled blank leaf f.13; Gospel extracts ff.14-20v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris, ff.21-90v; Penitential Psalms and litany ff.91-114v; Hours of the Cross ff.115-122v: Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.123-126v; Quinze joies ff.127-134; Cinq plaies ff.134v-137v; Office of the Dead, use of Paris, ff.138-198v; added devotions in various hands, including Obsecro te and O intemerata in the feminine, ff.199-213v.
ILLUMINATION:
The miniatures present strongly coloured figures with faces detailed by fine lines; one of the singers at the lectern at the Office of the Dead has a pair of spectacles. Their fairly simple draperies form more elaborate folds and varied shapes as they spill over the ground. Set against diapered grounds of red, blue and burnished gold, they all stand on grass, even for interior scenes but the addition of trees to the Annunciation to the Shepherds and of trees and rocky outcrops for King David create more emphatically outdoor settings. These stylized abstracted settings continued to feature into the 1430s outside Paris. The David miniature, with more elaborate setting and drapery, derives from patterns established by the Boucicaut and Mazarine Masters whose models spread west with the Rohan Master who left Paris probably for Angers and the bulky figures with small heads are reminiscent of some of this master’s followers. The combination of these style features and the non-Parisian feasts in the Calendar suggest a possible origin in Anjou.
The miniatures are on ff.35, 58v, 69v, 83v, 91 and 138.
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