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Details
THE LANDAU HOURS, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1500]
An elegant Book of Hours from the workshop of Jean Pichore and the collection of Baron Horace de Landau.
173 x 112mm. 165 leaves. 23 lines, ruled space: 117 x 65mm. Twelve calendar miniatures, usually bipartite and containing a scene of the occupation and a scene with the zodiac sign for the month, twenty-one small miniatures usually accompanied by three-sided borders, one with three small miniatures in the fourth margin and three with full-page emblematic borders, nine large miniatures with full-page borders (lacking 5 leaves, of which 4 with miniatures, spotting to margins of first leaves, small losses of pigment to some miniatures, repainting and abrasion to obscure the nakedness of Aquarius on f.1v, Gemini on f.5v, Bathsheba on f.56, and Job on f.75v). Old rose velvet over wooden boards with metal corner-pieces.
Provenance: The manuscript was illuminated for a man and woman who are portrayed in three of the miniatures. He is shown kneeling beside the Cross on f.105, before Christ on f.117, and before the instruments of the Passion on f.163v and she kneels before St Francis on f.134v. The man's dress shows him to have been a high-ranking clerk - a notary or secretary - in the royal chancery. No doubt the metallic object repeated in the borders was of some emblematic significance. It appears combined with knotted cords and roses. The texts suggest a particular devotion to St Francis, who is one of the few confessors in the Litany, and it is before St Francis that the owner's wife is depicted. The tasselled cord which appears in some of the borders is not knotted like the Franciscan cord and appears in different forms. In conjunction with the metallic object, perhaps an arrowhead, it is likely to be a personal emblem. The roses would seem to relate to the rosary, although neither man nor wife holds a rosary, because of the sequence of unabbreviated, repetitive rosary devotions, each sequence of prayers separated by a band of brushed gold strewn with the flowers. The book's contents are very individual and it was clearly designed for someone greatly concerned with the specific nature of his devotions — Baron Horace de Landau (1824-1903), his bookplate and shelfmark 13a inside upper cover. Probably acquired after 1890, since it does not appear in the Catalogue des livres, manuscrits & imprimés composant la bibliothèque de M. Horace de Landau published 1885-1890. The Baron's property was inherited by his niece Madame Hugo Finaly (d.1938). Her son had a life interest in the property and it was sold following his death in 1945; lot 61 in the sale of the library, Sotheby's 12 July 1948 — Christie's London, 29 November 1999, lot 15.
Content: Calendar ff.1-12v; Office of the Virgin ff.13-54 (lacking opening for prime); Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.56-67; Hours of the Cross ff.67v-71v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.72-75 (lacking opening); Office of the Dead ff.75v-104v; Prayers opening with Dieu soit en ma teste et en mon entendement and followed by Rosary sequences ff.105-121v (lacking opening to the Rosary sequence f.108); Suffrages ff.122-148 (lacking opening of Suffrage to the Trinity); Prayers and invocations to the Virgin ff.148v-163v; Prayer against disease ff.163v-165
Illumination: A particularly elegant and polished example of the manuscripts produced in the workshop of the Parisian illuminator Jean Pichore. The scheme of illustration and decoration is not only extensive and rich but executed with an unusual finesse and delicacy. Jean Pichore is documented in Paris between 1502 and 1520 as illuminator and, briefly, printer. The style of the fashionable dress of the owner's wife makes its likely that this Hours dates from early in his known career. Pichore's work is identified from a luxury manuscript commissioned by the town of Amiens for François Ier's mother in 1518 (Paris, BnF Ms fr. 145); he had earlier produced a magnificent copy of Petrarch's Les Remedes de fortune for Louis XII. He was also employed by the great bibliophile, Georges d'Amboise, archbishop of Rouen. Pichore was much in demand and ran a busy workshop so that his personal contribution to books in his style was sometimes limited: F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1430-1515, Paris, 1993, pp.282-5, 410-15. The degree of personalisation of this manuscript, the unusual provision of some elements - including having a large miniature at vespers as well as at matins in the Office of the Virgin, or the miniatures of the owner before the crucified Christ, the enthroned Saviour and being menaced by disease - perhaps all this encouraged Pichore himself to take a significant part in its manufacture. The refinement with which the miniatures are painted and the variety of the decorated borders are in accord with the book's exceptional nature.
The subjects of the large miniatures are as follows: Annunciation f.13, Flight into Egypt f.46v; David and Bathsheba f.56 ; Betrayal and Arrest of Christ f.67v; Job on the Dungheap f.75v; Crucifixion f.105v; Christ enthroned, with Apostles and kneeling patron f.117; St Francis with kneeling patron f.134v; Assumption of the Virgin f.148v.
The small miniatures are on ff.38v, 41, 43v, 51,122, 123v,125, 127, 129v, 131, 132v, 136, 137v, 139, 142v, 144, 145v, 146v,152, 160v, 163v.
An elegant Book of Hours from the workshop of Jean Pichore and the collection of Baron Horace de Landau.
173 x 112mm. 165 leaves. 23 lines, ruled space: 117 x 65mm. Twelve calendar miniatures, usually bipartite and containing a scene of the occupation and a scene with the zodiac sign for the month, twenty-one small miniatures usually accompanied by three-sided borders, one with three small miniatures in the fourth margin and three with full-page emblematic borders, nine large miniatures with full-page borders (lacking 5 leaves, of which 4 with miniatures, spotting to margins of first leaves, small losses of pigment to some miniatures, repainting and abrasion to obscure the nakedness of Aquarius on f.1v, Gemini on f.5v, Bathsheba on f.56, and Job on f.75v). Old rose velvet over wooden boards with metal corner-pieces.
Provenance: The manuscript was illuminated for a man and woman who are portrayed in three of the miniatures. He is shown kneeling beside the Cross on f.105, before Christ on f.117, and before the instruments of the Passion on f.163v and she kneels before St Francis on f.134v. The man's dress shows him to have been a high-ranking clerk - a notary or secretary - in the royal chancery. No doubt the metallic object repeated in the borders was of some emblematic significance. It appears combined with knotted cords and roses. The texts suggest a particular devotion to St Francis, who is one of the few confessors in the Litany, and it is before St Francis that the owner's wife is depicted. The tasselled cord which appears in some of the borders is not knotted like the Franciscan cord and appears in different forms. In conjunction with the metallic object, perhaps an arrowhead, it is likely to be a personal emblem. The roses would seem to relate to the rosary, although neither man nor wife holds a rosary, because of the sequence of unabbreviated, repetitive rosary devotions, each sequence of prayers separated by a band of brushed gold strewn with the flowers. The book's contents are very individual and it was clearly designed for someone greatly concerned with the specific nature of his devotions — Baron Horace de Landau (1824-1903), his bookplate and shelfmark 13a inside upper cover. Probably acquired after 1890, since it does not appear in the Catalogue des livres, manuscrits & imprimés composant la bibliothèque de M. Horace de Landau published 1885-1890. The Baron's property was inherited by his niece Madame Hugo Finaly (d.1938). Her son had a life interest in the property and it was sold following his death in 1945; lot 61 in the sale of the library, Sotheby's 12 July 1948 — Christie's London, 29 November 1999, lot 15.
Content: Calendar ff.1-12v; Office of the Virgin ff.13-54 (lacking opening for prime); Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.56-67; Hours of the Cross ff.67v-71v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.72-75 (lacking opening); Office of the Dead ff.75v-104v; Prayers opening with Dieu soit en ma teste et en mon entendement and followed by Rosary sequences ff.105-121v (lacking opening to the Rosary sequence f.108); Suffrages ff.122-148 (lacking opening of Suffrage to the Trinity); Prayers and invocations to the Virgin ff.148v-163v; Prayer against disease ff.163v-165
Illumination: A particularly elegant and polished example of the manuscripts produced in the workshop of the Parisian illuminator Jean Pichore. The scheme of illustration and decoration is not only extensive and rich but executed with an unusual finesse and delicacy. Jean Pichore is documented in Paris between 1502 and 1520 as illuminator and, briefly, printer. The style of the fashionable dress of the owner's wife makes its likely that this Hours dates from early in his known career. Pichore's work is identified from a luxury manuscript commissioned by the town of Amiens for François Ier's mother in 1518 (Paris, BnF Ms fr. 145); he had earlier produced a magnificent copy of Petrarch's Les Remedes de fortune for Louis XII. He was also employed by the great bibliophile, Georges d'Amboise, archbishop of Rouen. Pichore was much in demand and ran a busy workshop so that his personal contribution to books in his style was sometimes limited: F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1430-1515, Paris, 1993, pp.282-5, 410-15. The degree of personalisation of this manuscript, the unusual provision of some elements - including having a large miniature at vespers as well as at matins in the Office of the Virgin, or the miniatures of the owner before the crucified Christ, the enthroned Saviour and being menaced by disease - perhaps all this encouraged Pichore himself to take a significant part in its manufacture. The refinement with which the miniatures are painted and the variety of the decorated borders are in accord with the book's exceptional nature.
The subjects of the large miniatures are as follows: Annunciation f.13, Flight into Egypt f.46v; David and Bathsheba f.56 ; Betrayal and Arrest of Christ f.67v; Job on the Dungheap f.75v; Crucifixion f.105v; Christ enthroned, with Apostles and kneeling patron f.117; St Francis with kneeling patron f.134v; Assumption of the Virgin f.148v.
The small miniatures are on ff.38v, 41, 43v, 51,122, 123v,125, 127, 129v, 131, 132v, 136, 137v, 139, 142v, 144, 145v, 146v,152, 160v, 163v.
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Robert Tyrwhitt