Les Heures de Guillaume Mauléon : New York Pierpont Morgan Library M515

Texte publié dans :
Jean-Luc Deuffic, Notes de biblilogie. Livres d’heures et manuscrits du Moyen Age identifiés, dans Pecia. Le livre et l’écrit, 7, 2009 [Lien].

Patrons, Authors and Workshops : Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400

« Patrons, Authors and Workshops » invokes a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of late medieval books and book production in Paris, from the troubled years of the early fifteenth century onwards. It shows the extent to which such activity was able to flourish even against the backdrop of the endemic struggle between Burgundians and Armagnacs, or the subsequent English invasion which led to Agincourt and the regency of Bedford. Extensive coverage is given to the key role played by the libraire, to the author as scribe or copyist (Christine de Pisan, Jean Lebègue), and also to the development of commercial production under figures such as Jean Trepperel. A section on bibliophiles and their various commissions leads into a group of essays that focus on particular texts and authors, whilst a further section concentrates on what we can discover about the role of the scribe. The volume concludes with four essays offering insights into the work of particular artists and illuminators. (Peeters ed.)

Les \ » bibliologues \ », les historiens du livre manuscrit trouveront dans les diffèrentes contributions rassemblées par Godfried Croenen (Université de Liverpool [Lien]) et Peter Ainsworth (Université de Sheffield [Lien]) une documentation remarquable issue de la plume d’éminents spécialistes. Les thèmes abordent ici l’histoire de la production du livre à Paris autour des années 1400, période faste s’il en est, que Richard H. House et Mary A. Rouse avaient déjà méticuleusement exploré dans leur magistrale étude
Illerati et Uxorati: manuscripts and their makers. Commercial book producers in medieval Paris, 1200-1500, H. Miller, 2000.

Nos recherches sur les copistes et les libraires bretons au Moyen Age nous ont conduit bien évidemment sur les mêmes chemins, à remonter aux mêmes sources, et chaque contribution du présent ouvrage nous donne une vision plus large de nos acquisitions documentaires. Il serait vain de reprendre chaque article de ce passionnant recueil. Je me contente pour ceux qui touchent plus précisement à mon domaine de recherche d’apporter certaines précisions:

Introduction
Godfried Croenen, Patrons, Authors and Workshops : Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400
Mention, page 16, de deux copistes bretons bien connus. Henri de Trévou, copiste et libraire, très productif à la fin du XVe s. Il participa entre autres à la confection d’un exemplaire du Polycratus pour le roi Charles V (Paris BnF Fr. 24287), des Grandes Chroniques de France (Paris BnF Fr. 2813), etc. Trévou (arrondissement de Lannion, Côtes d’Armor) faisait partie jadis de l’ancien diocèse de Dol. Il existe aussi dans le Finistère Le Trevoux, mais avec une forme ancienne Treffou (1426). Raoul Tainguy, est sans conteste, par son \ »jargon\ », un des copistes les plus originaux de ce début du XVe s. Voir M.-H. Tesnière, Les manuscrits copiés par Raoul Tainguy, un aspect de la culture des grands officiers royaux au début du XVe siècle, dans Romania, t. 107, 1986, p. 282-368. On retiendra de ses quelques colophons pitoresques celui du manuscrit Paris BnF Fr. 6475, des Chroniques de Froissart:
\ » Raoul Tainguy, qui point n’est yvre
A Jaingny acomplit cest livre
Le mardi IIIIe jour de juillet
Puis ala boir chiés Tabouret,
Avec Pylon et autres catervaulx
Qui aiment ongnons, trippes et les aulx
Catervaument\ ».
Part I. Libraires an commercial book production
Kouky Fianu [Lien & Lien], Métiers et espace: topographie de la fabrication et du commerce du livre à Paris (XIIIe-XVe siècle)
>>> L’auteur fait mention, p. 27, de Yves du Run, et de Marion, sa femme, un couple de libraires. J’ai donné sur ce même blog [Lien] quelques informations sur ces derniers. Kouky Fianu montre que vers la fin du XIVe et au XVe siècle les artisans du livres multiplient leurs zones de production, alors limitées surtout sur la rive gauche et rue Neuve Notre Dame. Le cas du copiste breton Yves le Gourgeu est assez significatif. Notre maître écrivain, qui travailla entre autres pour le mécène bourgignon Philippe Le Hardi, demeurait dans \ » une maison assise a paris en la rue des bretons ou du puys pres de la porte saint jacques\ ». Cf. Jean-Luc Deuffic, Yves Le Gorgeu, maistre escripvain de Paris en la rue des Bretons (ca 1385), Pecia, 4, 2004, p. 113-114.
Richard H. Rouse, Pierre le Portier and the Makers of the Antiphonals of Saint-Jacques
>>> Le libraire Pierre le Portier exerçait aussi comme stationnaire universitaire et notaire royal et apostolique. Le cas est fréquent de cette double fonction, notariale et livresque, et j’en ai relevé quelques exemples chez les artisans bretons du livre: Brice le Breton, que nous avons identifié avec \ »Brice de la Court\ », copiste très productif dans la première partie du XIVe s.; Yves Grall; Guillaume de Lesconet, attesté en 1359, rue neuve Notre Dame, avec sa femme, Peronelle le Boucher; Geoffroy le Breton, dit de la Rue Neuve [Notre-Dame], stationnaire et libraire (+ avant 1336), notario publico, se porte caution, en 1312, pour son compatriote Alain de Trevelec, chanoine de Saint-Opportune (Paris AN L 617, 46), etc…
Je relève aussi dans la contribution de Richard H. Rouse le nom du relieur Yves (Yvonnet) Riou[t] dont l’origine bretonne ne semble faire aucun doute, qui travailla à la confection de plusieurs livres liturgiques pour la confrairie de Saint-Jacques-aux-Pèlerins. Une famille Riou, seigneur de Kerangoes était possessionée dans l’ancien diocèse de Saint-Pol-de-Léon. La parenté de Yvonnet avec l’enlumineur Jean Riou[t], lequel exerçait en 1365 rue Erembourg de Brie, ne me parait pas établie car le nom est fréquent en Bretagne.
Mary A. Rouse, Archives in the Service of Manuscript Study: The Well-Known Nicolas Flamel
Hilary Maddocks, The Rapondi, the Volto Santo di Lucca, and Manuscript Illumination in Paris ca. 1400
Stéphanie Öhlund-Rambaud, L’atelier de Jean Trepperel, imprimeur-libraire parisien (1492-1511)
Part II. Bibliophiles: their collections and their commissions
Gilbert Ouy, Jean Lebègue (1368-1457), auteur, copiste et bibliophile
>>> (Page 163) Parmi les manuscrits possédés par Jean Lebègue notons le ms Paris Mazarine 780 (Recueil): Alcoranus; Ibn Tumart, Opera; Alexandri Magni vita. Parchemin. 23 octobre 1400. 157 f. 344 x 264 mm. 2 colonnes. Sommaire à la marge à l’encre rouge. Une seule main. Au f. 113, cette note: “Explicit liber Alchorani infedilissimi Sarraceni scriptus per me Iohanemm Dogueti, clericum Maclouiensis diocesis in Britannia, sub anno a nativitate Domini millesimo quadringentesimo, indictione octava et die vicesima tercia mensis octobris, tempore Benedicti tercii decimi de nacione Cathalanorum”. Il s’agit entre autres de la traduction latine du Coran du mozarabe Marc de Tolède, effectuée (ca 1209/1210) à la demande de l’archevêque Rodrigo Ximenez. Marie-Thérèse D’Alverny, Deux traductions latines du Coran au Moyen Age, dans Archives d’Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age, 15, 1947-1948, p. 113, 114, 116, 118-125; Marc de Tolède, traducteur d’Ibn Tumart, dans Al-Andalus, 17, 1952, p. 124-131. Nicole Pons, Érudition et politique. La personnalité de Jean le Bègue d’après les notes marginales de ses manuscrits, dans Les serviteurs de l’État au Moyen Âge. Actes du XXIXe Congrès de la SHMESP (Pau, 1998), Paris, Publ. de la Sorbonne, 1999, p. 281-297 (p. 284, n° 32 & 33).
Un copiste nommé Jehan Douguet travailla pour la Chartreuse de Champmol à la confection d’un missel. Peut-être est-ce le même, quoique les deux formes, Douguet et Doguet, existent en Bretagne: « A Jehan Douguet, breton, escripvain, pour l’escripture d’un Missel, par marchié fait par Dom Jehan de Lengres, ou temps du dit Dom Nicholas, baillé par le dit frère Thiébaut … 27 frans.
Anne D. Hedeman, Making the Past Present: Visual Translation in Jean Lebègue’s “Twin” Manuscript of Sallust
John Lowden, Beauty or Truth? Making a \ »Bible Moralisée\ » in Paris around 1400
Part III. Authors and Texts
Janet F. van der Meulen, Simon de Lille et sa commande du \ »Parfait du Paon\ ». Pour en finir avec le \ »Roman de Perceforest\ »
Silvère Ménégaldo, Les relations entre poète et mécène dans \ »La Prison Amoureuse\ » de Jean Froissart
Alberto Varvaro, Problèmes philologiques du livre IV des Chroniques de Jean Froissart
Susanne Röhl, Le Livre de Mandeville à Paris autour de 1400
James Laidlaw, Christine de Pizan: the Making of the Queen’s Manuscript (London, British Library, Harley 4431)
Part IV. Scribes
Margaret Connolly & Yolanda Plumley, Crossing the Channel: John Shirley and the Circulation of French Lyric Poetry in England in the early Fifteenth Century
Émilie Cottereau, Les copistes en France du Nord autour de 1400: un monde aux multiples visages
Maria Kalatzi, Georgios Hermonymos: a Greek Scribe and Teacher in Paris
Part V. Artists and Illuminators
Sue Ellen Holbrook, The Properties of Things and Textual Power: Illustrating the French Translation of \ »De Proprietatibus Rerum\ » and a Latin Precursor
Heidrun Ost, Illuminating the \ »Roman de la Rose\ » in the Time of the Debate: The Manuscript of Valencia
>>> Sur le \ »Roman de la Rose\ », voir le précédent billet.
Catherine Reynolds, The Workshop of the Master of the Duke of Bedford: Definitions and Identities
>>> Pages 442, 444, mention de l’exemplaire de l’Arbre des batailles (Paris BnF Fr. 1276) de Tanguy du Chastel, fig. 68, f. 4v.
Jenny Stratford, The Illustration of the \ »Songe du Vergier\ » and some Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts
>>> Sur l’auteur de ce texte, et les manuscrits voir sur ce blog [Lien]

Patrons, Authors and Workshops. Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400.
G. Croenen & P. Ainsworth (ed.), Peeters, Leuven, 2006, xxii-508 p., 82 fig., 17 colour plates. ISBN: 90-429-1707-5.

PEETERS Publishers [Link]

University of Chicago Library : Le Roman de la Rose & Le Jeu des Échecs Moralisé : Exposition

La Bibliothèque Universitaire de Chicago [Lien] expose deux manuscrits précieux de la littérature médiévale: Le Roman de la Rose (ms 1380) et le Jeu des échecs moralisés (ms 392) …
Communiqué donné sur le site University of Chicago News Office [Lien]:

University of Chicago Library reunites ‘most popular medieval love poem’ with its mate …
The University of Chicago Library acquired a 14th-century manuscript of “Le Roman de la Rose,” or “The Romance of the Rose”—which scholars have referred to as the most popular medieval love poem — reuniting it after a 100-year separation with a manuscript with which it was previously bound.
In 1907, the manuscript of “Le Roman de la Rose” was separated from that of “Le Jeu des Échecs Moralisé,” or “The Moralized Game of Chess,” which the University of Chicago Library acquired in 1931.

Both manuscripts will be on display in the Library’s Special Collections Research Center at 1100 E. 57th St., beginning Feb. 14 as part of the exhibition: “Romance and Chess: A Tale of Two Manuscripts Reunited.” Opening remarks will be made at 12:30 p.m. at the Valentine’s Day opening by Alice Schreyer, Director of the Special Collections Research Center; Daisy Delogu, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literature; and Aden Kumler, Assistant Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture at the University of Chicago. The event is free and open to the public. The exhibit will run through March 14.
“Bringing the two parts of this book back together will enable discoveries that would not be possible if they remained apart,” Schreyer said.
Added Delogu, “This ‘Le Roman de la Rose’ manuscript has extraordinary potential to enrich research and teaching opportunities here at Chicago, and will be of interest to scholars of manuscript culture and literary studies worldwide. ‘Le Roman de la Rose’ is arguably the single-most influential vernacular text of the late French Middle Ages.”
In addition to selected photographs and information already available online, the Library plans to add digital surrogates of the manuscripts to its Web site by Feb. 14 at http://roseandchess.lib.uchicago.edu.
The initial section of “Le Roman de la Rose,” an allegorical poem on the art of love, was written by Guillaume de Lorris beginning in the late 1230s — at the height of the age of courtly love and chivalry. The poem was extended and completed between 1270 and 1280 by Jean de Meun, who presented a more rational and cynical view of love. Numerous copies of the poem were made. The copy acquired by the University of Chicago Library was created in France about 1365 — almost 100 years before the invention of the printing press. The manuscript includes more than 40 miniatures by the Master of Saint Voult, an artist associated with illuminators who worked for King Charles V.
Chicago’s manuscript of “Le Jeu des Échecs Moralisé” was also created in France about 1365, and includes 13 illuminations by the Master of Saint Voult. The recorded provenance, or ownership history, of the two manuscripts bound together in one book dates to the 16th century.
In 1907, the manuscripts were purchased at Sotheby’s by Sir Sydney Cockerell, who had the volume disbound. The University of Chicago acquired “Le Jeu des Échecs Moralisé” in 1931; Cockerell sold “Le Roman de la Rose”to an antiquarian bookseller, Pierre Berès, in 1957, who later sold it to a private individual. The manuscript remained in private hands until it was purchased by the gallery Les Enluminures LTD of Paris and Chicago.
Sandra Hindman, a University of Chicago alumna who represented Les Enluminures, recognized the unusual provenance of the manuscript.
“Very few manuscripts of ‘Le Roman de la Rose’ now exist in private hands, so the opportunities for collectors — individuals or libraries — to acquire a copy remain very limited,” Hindman said. “This one, with its sterling provenance and its rich 14th-century cycle of illumination by an artist of the French court, is unusually fine.”
Members of the Library Visiting Committee, the University of Chicago Library Society, individual donors and the B.H. Breslauer Foundation also recognized the importance of bringing the manuscripts together. Their donations, combined with library endowments, made the purchase of this “Le Roman de la Rose” possible. It is now one of the highlights in the University of Chicago Library’s collection of early manuscripts, which also includes more than 60 Goodspeed New Testament manuscripts.
University faculty members in the departments of art history, music, Romance languages and literatures, English and history are pleased about the impact that the acquisition will have on research and teaching at Chicago.
“The reunion of parts of a medieval manuscript provides a rare and wonderful opportunity,” said Christina von Nolcken, Associate Professor in English Language & Literature and Chair of the Committee on Medieval Studies. “This is especially the case today, when scholars tend to work with manuscripts as a whole rather than with individual texts.”
Source:
University of Chicago News Office
5801 South Ellis Avenue – Room 200
Chicago, Illinois 60637-1473
Permalink: http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/08/080207.love.poem.shtml
Discover Two Reunited Medieval Manuscripts [Link]
Les manuscrits numérisés:
¤ Le Jeu des échecs moralisé (The Moralized Game of Chess) University of Chicago Library MS 392 [Link]
¤ Le Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose) University of Chicago Library MS 1380 [Link]
Illustration: (c) University of Chicago Library MS 1380

Voir sur notre blog [Lien] et la suite [Lien] pour les manuscrits du Roman de la Rose, et ICOROSE, le nouveau site de l’Université de La Laguna (Espagne) [Lien] 
Ici [Lien] pour le Jeu des échecs moralisés.

Auction : History roll ~ Psalterium ~ Horae …

Sur ebay, plusieurs pièces intéressantes. Les notices sont celles des vendeurs …
§ Un document d’origine française assez exceptionnel: une pancarte chronique du XIVe s.

Comment Godefroy de Billon conquist Ierusalem et en fut fait roy. etc

A 14 or 15th century sheet of parchment (125 x 57 cm) which traces the history and descent of the Popes, the Holy Roman Emperors, the Kings of France and of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Lot 111 in the celebrated Hauck sale (the History of the Book, 28 june 2006) was the last time to my knowledge that a complete roll came up for auction 55.5 x 1915cm (63’10\ » x 1’10\ ») and made a staggering 140.000 $.
In the last section of the sheet, the following genealogy of kings and queens is mentioned:
Philip IV (April-June 1268 – November 29, 1314)
Philip V (c.1292/93 – 3 January 1322)
Blanche of Valois (1317–1348)
On left side is a list with popes
Clement VI (1342-52)
Innocent VI (1352-62)
Urban V (1362-70)
Gregory XI (1370-78)
Urban VI (1378-89)
As I can figure out the segment next to Clement VI talks about indulgences, and I take this to refer to the Bull Unigenitus, January 27, 1343, in order to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences.
For it says in the HAUCK catalogue:
Other versions survive, showing that it was a composition (meaning the history of the kings of France, the conquest Jerusalem etc) that was repeatedly updated to provide a pedigree for the current King of France. For example the introduction to the manuscript in Paris (Bib. Nat. MS fr. 61) that ends with Charles VII (d.1461) declares the scope of the work to continue until 1375 and Charles V. The copyist obviously overlooked this anachronism. There is a similar scribal oversight in the present manuscript showing that this too was an updated copy of an earlier text.
Four other Chronicle rolls closely related to the Hauck manuscript and apparently copies of the same version are in the New York Public Library, MS 124 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the end of the Middle Ages, 1975, p.166), Cambridge, Mass., Houghton Library, bMS Typ 41 [Link] (Roger Wieck, Late Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts 1350-1525 in the Houghton Library, Cambridge, Mass. 1983, pp. 22-23), A roll in the London Borough of Croydon Archive and a roll formerly the property of the Earl of Derby sold at Christie’s, London, 26 November 1997 lot 5, for £40,000.
Illumination:
There are three miniature roundels: two of a king and one of a knight or king in a boat. Most likely depicting Godefroy de Bouillon on board a ship to conquer the Holy land (his name is mentioned in the manuscript). In the text 39 illuminated capitals, in blue with burnished gold.
Link: ebay Item number: 300198922634

§ Un psautier-hymnaire du XIV. Sud de la France, ou Italie.

111 f. 142 x 102 mm
Description: Measures approx. 6\ » x 4.25\ » (142 x 102mm) Collation is as follows: (1-11(8), 12(9) (of 10, lacking v, a blank? exised during construction?, a3(8), 14(6). 11 and vIII are blanks, as both 141 and v1. Both 1(8) and 14 have been folded back to form fly leaves when the present binding was put on. 28 lines written in a round gothic bookhand in dark brown and black ink. In two columns, except for the Kalendarium, between 4 verticals and 29 horizontals. Justification, written space 102 x 71mm; rubrics in red. Two-line initials in red or blue to begin with; hymns and canticles with penwork infill decoration and flourishes extending into margins. Each sentence beginning with a one-line initial in alternate red and blue. Eight historiated initials (Five seven-line; two six-line, and one five-line). Of very high quality. Some rubbing in places with a slight loss of text (except under UV light) at 12.8 recto. Written in one main hand, with a few additions by two other hands, the neater of which may have written the Kalendarium. There is no foliation, but 12 of the 14 gatherings have catchwords at the bottom of the verso of their last leaf, answered by the first word of the next gathering. These are from gatherings 2 to 13 inclusive. Content: (1) Kalendarium. (1.2 recto to 1.7 verso). Then (2) The 150 Psalms, interspersed with 25 hymns, dominical and ferial, with canticles, antiphons, and rubrics for offices of Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext etc. (On 2.1 recto to 12.1 verso column a). Then (3) Hymns, Canticles, including Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, TeDeum etc and Litany. The main text begins at 2. 1 recto with Incipit Liber Hymnorum vel Soliloquiorum Prophetans de Christo etc. Quire 12 has nine leaves. One leaf (the 5th in order) has been neatly removed, leaving only a stub. One would expect the bibliofola to conjunct thus; 1+10, 2+9, 3+8, 4+7, 5+6 but 5 is not conjunct with 6. Without stressing the binding, it is difficult to see its fellow. However it may have been cut out during the writing of this quire, as otiose. Comparison with the list of saints invoked in the Litany in York Minister Library Psalterium XVI.0.19 (of the 13th Century) reveals that ‘Omnes Sancti Confessores’ is immediately followed by ‘Sancta Maria Magdalena’. This is exactly the same sequence as we find here from the last entry on 12.4 verso and the and the first entry on the recto of the next text leaf. There is the further point that had a text leaf been lost, it would have had to contain an additional 112 saints names. For both these reasons, it seems safe to conclude that no text is missing, and that this handsome volume from circa 1350 A.D.
Illumination: The subjects of the historiated initials, and their placing are as follows: 2.1 Recto: Beatus Vir Qui. (Psalm 1) King David against cobalt blue background; the aged King plucks a four-stringed harp and wears a golden crown and halo. 3.5 Verso: Dominus Illuminatio Mea. (Psalm 26). S.James the Great. Against a pink oval field, clutching a black cross, with his left side covered by a lime green gown. Also a rough brown hair shirt etc. 5.4 Verso. Dixit Insipiens. In Corde Suo. (Psalm 52). A Fool against a light blue background, wearing a five-pointed jesters crown, and a three-buttoned orange tunic. His right hand loosely grips a curiously-headed rattle. There are further miniatures for Psalm 68 (S. Laurence); Psalm 80 (S.Benedict?), Psalm 97 (St. Barbara) and Psalm 109 (Christ). The 150 Psalms were sung each week. The historiated initials placed at the head of the Psalms mentioned, mark the first Psalms for Matins each day, and the first Psalm for Sunday Vespers. Hence there are, as there should be, eight such initials. The Hymarium with its 68 hymns begins at 12.8 recto. Its beginning is marked by an initial ‘P’ (for Primo dierium omnium). The figure which would originally have been within the bowl of the ‘P’ has, puzzingly, been rubbed out. (May one guess at a saint who subsequently fell into disfavour, or who’s feast was suppressed?)
Binding: The hollow back indicates the present binding to be later than 1770, probably 19th century. The covers are blindtooled to a panel design using a 7-line fillet, Inside this border is an intricate interlace pattern etc. Vellum pastedowns and rougher parchment endleaves. The four compartments of the spine are decorated with an X pattern framed by a 3-line fillet on each side. The sewing does not correspond with the three false raised bands, and its brightness suggests it may well be contemporary with the binding. The slight worming in the gutter margin of the Kalendarium leaves is not continued into the Incipit leaf which follows. This, coupled with the different hand of the Kalendarium from that of the main text, may suggest that the Kalendarium was written a little later than the main text.
Dating: A terminus post quem for the Kalendarium is provided by the presence of Peter Martyr O.P. among the April Saints. He was not canonised until 1253. A terminus for the main text is given by the inclusion (13.5 recto) of the Feast of Corpus Christi, whose observance was commanded by Urbanus IV in the Bull Transiturus of 1264. The liturgical, gothic bookhand remained remarkably consistent even to the end of the 15th century, but to suggest a date in the middle of the 14th century would seem reasonable. (1270 A.D.-1350 A.D.) Colouring and stylistic features of the historiated initials are both consonant with this date of 1350 A.D. Research into costume dress and features (eg. The three buttons of the Fools smock) (5.4 verso) may help to furnish a more precise date still.
Provenance: Of the saints in the Kalendarium whose feasts have a local rather than a general celebration, some 29 enjoy special veneration in the South of France and North Italy. The Feasts have either three or nine readings attached to them – a mark of a secular rather than a monastic church. This Psalterium seems likely to have been written then for a secular church somewhere near the borders between Provence and Northern Italy, a church rich enough to pay the services of an accomplished painter of miniatures.
Link: ebay Item number: 330208582330

§ HORAE B.M.V. Illuminated Manuscript Book of Hours.
Très modeste Livre d’heures.

Use of Poiters, France, Circa 1460 – 1480.
107 leaves on vellum, 99 x 77.5 mm with 17 lines per page.
Written in brown ink of letter batarde script. Rubrics in red, initials throughout in burnished gold on red and blue grounds and calendar with major feasts in red.
Seven leaves with ¾ borders of acanthus leaves and flowers with burnished gold bezants, three and four line initials of burnished gold on colored grounds, and colored initials on burnished gold grounds. Two miniatures in arched compartments above two and eight lines of text with full borders of colored acanthus leaves, flowers, branches and a bird.
Rebound in recent years in genuine 15th century red brocade velvet having string closures and nail studs on fore-edge of binding.
Fifteenth century English lead pilgrim badge mounted on front fly-leaf, probably remounted there when rebound.
f. 1-12. Calendar
f. 13. Fragments of Passion according to St John
f. 14v-17. Intercessory Prayers to the Virgin
f. 18-20. Blanks, ruled and lined
f. 21r-29r. The Hours of the Virgin (Matins); opens with a miniature of the Annunciation in a Gothic interior
f. 29v-38. Lauds through Vespers, each Hour opened with a ¾ border
f. 39r-56. Compline opened with a ¾ border
f. 57r-66. Penitential Psalms opens with miniature of King David in Prayer
f. 67r-70v. Litany of Saints
f. 71-100. Miscellaneous prayers
f. 101-102. Blanks, ruled and lined
f. 103. Prayers in Fench
f. 104-107. Prayers in Latin
Largely fine throughout, text lightly faded, a few leaves slightly rumpled, miniatures lightly thumbed with some light chipping. An elegant little personal prayer book no-doubt once owned by a wealthy nobleman or woman.
Link: ebay Item number: 270207745449