Dominic Winter Book Auctions : Breton Book of Hours

Dominic Winter Book Auctions / Wednesday 3 & Thursday 4 October 2007
Lot 508. Book of Hours. A Breton Book of Hours of the Virgin with Kalendar and Litany, early 15th c., eighty-five leaves, consisting of ten leaves of kalendar (pp.1-20, March-December only), and seventy-five leaves each with 14 lines of single-column text to each side, written in black & red ink, with numerous dec. initials in red & blue, some heightened with gold, some leaves with attractive floral borders painted in green, blue, red and heightened with gold, trimmed illuminated picture of St. Maur & St. Placid dressed in albs (liturgical vestments) pasted to p.40, together with two floral illuminated dec. pictures from other manascripts pasted to p.56 & final leaf (possibly originally form parts of dec. initials), few leaves with slight damp smudging, a.e.g., 19th c. green morocco gilt, slightly worn & rubbed to spine & extrems., leaf size approx. 160 x 120mm, text approx. 90 x 65mm, binding approx. 165 x 130 mm
The Book of Hours is apparently earlier than 1441 on account of the absence of the feast of the Visitation of Our Lady (2 July) in the kalendar. The Provenance is indicated by the high proportion of Breton saints in the kalendar.

Le calendrier porte saint Lunaire en rouge (1er juillet), saint Malo en rouge (15 novembre), Servais (en noir, 13 mai). De ce fait ce Livre d’Heures a du être à l’usage du diocèse de Saint-Malo.
Autres saints bretons: Yves, Turiaw, Samson, Magloire, Armel.

Dominic Winter Book Auctions
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Telephone : +44 (0)1285 860006
Facsimile : +44 (0)1285 862461
Email : info@dominicwinter.co.uk
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