![BOOK OF HOURS, use of Langres, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [eastern France, c.1510].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0032_000(book_of_hours_use_of_langres_in_latin_and_french_illuminated_manuscrip085009).jpg?w=1)
![BOOK OF HOURS, use of Langres, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [eastern France, c.1510].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0032_001(book_of_hours_use_of_langres_in_latin_and_french_illuminated_manuscrip085009).jpg?w=1)
![BOOK OF HOURS, use of Langres, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [eastern France, c.1510].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0032_002(book_of_hours_use_of_langres_in_latin_and_french_illuminated_manuscrip085009).jpg?w=1)
![BOOK OF HOURS, use of Langres, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [eastern France, c.1510].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0032_006(book_of_hours_use_of_langres_in_latin_and_french_illuminated_manuscrip085009).jpg?w=1)
Details
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Langres, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [eastern France, c.1510].
198 x 130mm. iii paper + 108 + iii paper leaves with modern foliation 1-109 omitting 81, COMPLETE, ruled space: 73 x 113 mm. THREE SMALL MINIATURES, two with partial borders, FOURTEEN LARGE MINIATURES WITH FULL BORDERS, eight of them of Renaissance architectural forms (some loss of pigment affecting miniature depicting the Flight into Egypt on f.53v). Modern red morocco gilt by Zaehnsdorf. Red morocco box with Pell crest.
PROVENANCE:
(1)The Office of the Virgin is for the use of Langres; the Office of the Dead has only three lessons, which conform to Langres use; the calendar seems to have been adapted towards Langres use: St Mammes, to whom Langres Cathedral is dedicated (11 May) and Didier of Langres (22 May for 23 May) have been underlined in red. The book was made for the lady who appears in the miniature on f.98. She was presumably the wife, or daughter, of the merchant whose mark appears on the shield held by the angel in the border of f.13. (2) JOHN NAYLOR OF LEIGHTON HALL, Montgomeryshire, Wales (1813-1889): armorial bookplate dated 1860 inside upper cover. One of the heirs of the immensely wealthy Leyland-Bullin Liverpool mercantile and banking firm, John Naylor rebuilt Leighton Hall in a grandiose medieval style, with a tower as well as a library wing, and amassed a considerable collection of painting and sculpture. He was also responsible for building Leighton church: a handsome book of hours could have appealed to his piety as well as his ‘medieval’ tastes. (3) HENRY WHITE, JP DL FSA , of 30 Queen’s Gate, London and of Stone, Dartford, Kent, d.1900: the sale of his notable library, Sotheby’s, 21 April 1902, lot 1129. (4) THE HON. HERBERT CLAIBORNE PELL JNR of Newport, Rhode Island (1884-1961): armorial bookplate inside upper cover, with manuscript note ‘Bought 1923 Paris chez Mme. Belin’; de Ricci p.2134: by descent to the present owner. Letter loose in box recording loan by C.T.H. Pell for an exhibition at the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport, Rhode Island, 1983.
CONTENT:
Calendar ff.1-6; Gospel extracts ff.7-12; Office of the Virgin, use of Langres, with seasonal variations ff.13-61v; Hours of the Cross ff.62-64v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.65-67v; Penitential Psalms and litany ff.69-85; ruled blank f.84v; Office of the Dead (3 lessons only) ff.86-97v; Prayer to Christ Conditor celi et terre in the masculine ff.98-100v; rubric for prayers to the saints f. 100v; prayers to Sts John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Nicholas ff.101v-102v; prayers to Sts Anne, Catherine, Margaret, Barbara, ff.103v-105v; Obsecro te in the masculine ff.105v-107v; added prayers to Christ O bonne [sic] Jesu o piissime jesu and on the elevation of the host and the chalice ff.107v-109v.
ILLUMINATION:
The finest miniatures, including the large miniatures on ff.7, 13, 53v, 69 and 98 are by the Master of Antoine de Roche, named from the Missal made c.1500 for the Grand Prior of Cluny (BnF ms lat. 881; F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits a peintures, 1993, no 226). Antoine de Roche (1422-1505) came from Poligny in the Franche-Comté and was a lecturer in canon law at the University of Dole. The Master has therefore been associated with eastern France, a deduction supported by the present book and by the relationship of his soft, free manner of painting and imaginative compositions with those of the Masters of the Burgundian Prelates. His distinctive double-arched gold architectural frames with inscriptions are attractively deployed here to produce effectively full-page miniatures ‘interrupted’ by the text on fictive scrolls. Their classicising architecture is typical of the revival of interest in the Italianate legacy of Jean Fouquet that accompanied the new receptiveness to Italian art fostered by the presence of French armies in Italy from 1494.
The Master was awarded at least one extremely prestigious commission: for the enchanting miniatures in the Primer of Claude of France (1499-1524). This can be dated c.1505-1510 as it was made to instruct the infant daughter of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, who became Queen of France as the wife of Francis I (Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum ms 159; Cambridge Illuminations no 105). His hand has also been identified in two books of hours, one with the coat of arms of the Breton family of Guémadeuc (Heribert Tenschert, cat. 44, 2001) and in a Book of Hours now in Oregon (St Benedict, Mount Angel Abbey, ms 29).
Eberhard König has identified his collaborator in the Guémadeuc Hours as a Lyon illuminator and so suggested Lyon or Paris as their place of origin. The Master himself, König argued, is Guido Mazzoni (c.1445-1518), who was first recorded in 1472 in Italy as a painter, but who was primarily active as a sculptor. He was brought to France and the service of Charles VIII and was responsible for the king’s great bronze tomb in St Denis. Any attribution to him, especially of painting and illumination, is rendered extremely problematic by the fact that no certain works survive from his time in France.
His collaborator in the present lot was an illuminator who preferred stronger colours and simpler architectural frames for his full-page compositions. That the two worked concurrently on the book, with the Master of Antoine de Roche as the leading illuminator completing all the first miniatures and that of the owner at prayer, is suggested by the fact that both illuminators also produced miniatures restricted to the dimensions of the ruling and surrounded by borders of stylized flowers and foliage. His figures are more naturalistically proportioned and less mannered in pose. In contrast to the more pastel hues of the Master of Antoine de Roche, he concentrates on red, blue and green with a generous use of gold to highlight and detail. Elements of his style suggest that he may be a local artist, perhaps even from Dijon, the principal city in the archdiocese of Langres. His inventive bas-de-pages with grotesques and putti indicate that he was also responsible for the figural elements in the non-architectural borders.
The two ruled blanks ff.101 and 103 were possibly left for miniatures of groups of male and female saints to precede the two groups of suffrages.
The subjects of the small miniatures are: St Luke f.8v, St Matthew f.10, St Mark f.11v.
The subjects of the large miniatures are: St John on Patmos f.7, the Annunciation f.13, the Visitation f.29, the Nativity f.38v, the Annunciation to the Shepherds f.43v, the Adoration of the Magi f.47, the Presentation in the Temple f.50, the Flight into Egypt f.53v, the Coronation of the Virgin f.58v, the Crucifixion f.62, Pentecost f.65, David in penitence f.69, Job on the dung heap f.86, the female owner kneeling before Christ enthroned in a landscape f.98.
198 x 130mm. iii paper + 108 + iii paper leaves with modern foliation 1-109 omitting 81, COMPLETE, ruled space: 73 x 113 mm. THREE SMALL MINIATURES, two with partial borders, FOURTEEN LARGE MINIATURES WITH FULL BORDERS, eight of them of Renaissance architectural forms (some loss of pigment affecting miniature depicting the Flight into Egypt on f.53v). Modern red morocco gilt by Zaehnsdorf. Red morocco box with Pell crest.
PROVENANCE:
(1)The Office of the Virgin is for the use of Langres; the Office of the Dead has only three lessons, which conform to Langres use; the calendar seems to have been adapted towards Langres use: St Mammes, to whom Langres Cathedral is dedicated (11 May) and Didier of Langres (22 May for 23 May) have been underlined in red. The book was made for the lady who appears in the miniature on f.98. She was presumably the wife, or daughter, of the merchant whose mark appears on the shield held by the angel in the border of f.13. (2) JOHN NAYLOR OF LEIGHTON HALL, Montgomeryshire, Wales (1813-1889): armorial bookplate dated 1860 inside upper cover. One of the heirs of the immensely wealthy Leyland-Bullin Liverpool mercantile and banking firm, John Naylor rebuilt Leighton Hall in a grandiose medieval style, with a tower as well as a library wing, and amassed a considerable collection of painting and sculpture. He was also responsible for building Leighton church: a handsome book of hours could have appealed to his piety as well as his ‘medieval’ tastes. (3) HENRY WHITE, JP DL FSA , of 30 Queen’s Gate, London and of Stone, Dartford, Kent, d.1900: the sale of his notable library, Sotheby’s, 21 April 1902, lot 1129. (4) THE HON. HERBERT CLAIBORNE PELL JNR of Newport, Rhode Island (1884-1961): armorial bookplate inside upper cover, with manuscript note ‘Bought 1923 Paris chez Mme. Belin’; de Ricci p.2134: by descent to the present owner. Letter loose in box recording loan by C.T.H. Pell for an exhibition at the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport, Rhode Island, 1983.
CONTENT:
Calendar ff.1-6; Gospel extracts ff.7-12; Office of the Virgin, use of Langres, with seasonal variations ff.13-61v; Hours of the Cross ff.62-64v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.65-67v; Penitential Psalms and litany ff.69-85; ruled blank f.84v; Office of the Dead (3 lessons only) ff.86-97v; Prayer to Christ Conditor celi et terre in the masculine ff.98-100v; rubric for prayers to the saints f. 100v; prayers to Sts John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Nicholas ff.101v-102v; prayers to Sts Anne, Catherine, Margaret, Barbara, ff.103v-105v; Obsecro te in the masculine ff.105v-107v; added prayers to Christ O bonne [sic] Jesu o piissime jesu and on the elevation of the host and the chalice ff.107v-109v.
ILLUMINATION:
The finest miniatures, including the large miniatures on ff.7, 13, 53v, 69 and 98 are by the Master of Antoine de Roche, named from the Missal made c.1500 for the Grand Prior of Cluny (BnF ms lat. 881; F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits a peintures, 1993, no 226). Antoine de Roche (1422-1505) came from Poligny in the Franche-Comté and was a lecturer in canon law at the University of Dole. The Master has therefore been associated with eastern France, a deduction supported by the present book and by the relationship of his soft, free manner of painting and imaginative compositions with those of the Masters of the Burgundian Prelates. His distinctive double-arched gold architectural frames with inscriptions are attractively deployed here to produce effectively full-page miniatures ‘interrupted’ by the text on fictive scrolls. Their classicising architecture is typical of the revival of interest in the Italianate legacy of Jean Fouquet that accompanied the new receptiveness to Italian art fostered by the presence of French armies in Italy from 1494.
The Master was awarded at least one extremely prestigious commission: for the enchanting miniatures in the Primer of Claude of France (1499-1524). This can be dated c.1505-1510 as it was made to instruct the infant daughter of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, who became Queen of France as the wife of Francis I (Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum ms 159; Cambridge Illuminations no 105). His hand has also been identified in two books of hours, one with the coat of arms of the Breton family of Guémadeuc (Heribert Tenschert, cat. 44, 2001) and in a Book of Hours now in Oregon (St Benedict, Mount Angel Abbey, ms 29).
Eberhard König has identified his collaborator in the Guémadeuc Hours as a Lyon illuminator and so suggested Lyon or Paris as their place of origin. The Master himself, König argued, is Guido Mazzoni (c.1445-1518), who was first recorded in 1472 in Italy as a painter, but who was primarily active as a sculptor. He was brought to France and the service of Charles VIII and was responsible for the king’s great bronze tomb in St Denis. Any attribution to him, especially of painting and illumination, is rendered extremely problematic by the fact that no certain works survive from his time in France.
His collaborator in the present lot was an illuminator who preferred stronger colours and simpler architectural frames for his full-page compositions. That the two worked concurrently on the book, with the Master of Antoine de Roche as the leading illuminator completing all the first miniatures and that of the owner at prayer, is suggested by the fact that both illuminators also produced miniatures restricted to the dimensions of the ruling and surrounded by borders of stylized flowers and foliage. His figures are more naturalistically proportioned and less mannered in pose. In contrast to the more pastel hues of the Master of Antoine de Roche, he concentrates on red, blue and green with a generous use of gold to highlight and detail. Elements of his style suggest that he may be a local artist, perhaps even from Dijon, the principal city in the archdiocese of Langres. His inventive bas-de-pages with grotesques and putti indicate that he was also responsible for the figural elements in the non-architectural borders.
The two ruled blanks ff.101 and 103 were possibly left for miniatures of groups of male and female saints to precede the two groups of suffrages.
The subjects of the small miniatures are: St Luke f.8v, St Matthew f.10, St Mark f.11v.
The subjects of the large miniatures are: St John on Patmos f.7, the Annunciation f.13, the Visitation f.29, the Nativity f.38v, the Annunciation to the Shepherds f.43v, the Adoration of the Magi f.47, the Presentation in the Temple f.50, the Flight into Egypt f.53v, the Coronation of the Virgin f.58v, the Crucifixion f.62, Pentecost f.65, David in penitence f.69, Job on the dung heap f.86, the female owner kneeling before Christ enthroned in a landscape f.98.
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