A Fine, Especially Substantial Book of Hours with
Lively Borders, 38 Charming Historiated Initials

A FINE, ELABORATELY DECORATED, AND PROFUSELY HISTORIATED ILLUMINATED VELLUM MANUSCRIPT BOOK OF HOURS IN LATIN AND FRENCH.

USE OF ROME.

(1460). 175 x 121 mm (6 7/8 x 4 3/4"). 313 vellum leaves (304 original, plus 9 at the end added in the 16th century) as well as two paper leaves at the front and two at the back, lacking at least 7 leaves with text and probably a number of inserted single leaves with miniatures. Single column, 18 lines to the page, written in a very pleasing quite regular bâtarde hand with frequent flourishes.

Very attractive 17th century French mottled calf, neatly rebacked reusing the original spine, raised bands, backstrip in six compartments with elaborate floral gilt decoration. In a fine fleece-lined brown morocco box with raised bands and gilt titling (by the Lakeside Press, Chicago). Rubrics in red, 24 calendar leaves in red, blue, and considerable gold with 12 three-line "KL" openings and quarter panel borders; well over 1,000 one-line initials and line endings, 365 two-line initials, 14 three-line initials (in addition to those in the Calendar), 13 four-line initials, and 50 five-line initials, all in pink, blue, white, and burnished gold; 250 quarter panel borders in all, each incorporating burnished gold leaves and disks as well as colored leaves, flowers, and fruit on hairline tendrils; eight similar half-borders accompanied by four-line initials, and three three-quarter borders with four-line initials; 13 FULL-PAGE BORDERS (all of these accompanied by a five-line capital), SOME CONTAINING DROLLERIES, ANIMALS, OR BIRDS; AND 38 VERY CHARMING HISTORIATED INITIALS ACCOMPANIED BY THREE-QUARTER BORDERS. Inside upper cover with the engraved bookplate of H.R.H. Frederick Augustus, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), son of George III, and also with the bookplate of Isabelle Corwith Cramer (1861-1954), with a note in her hand laid in at front indicating that she had given the book to her daughter, Isabelle Ryerson, in 1920; inside lower cover with the armorial gilt leather bookplate of Yorkshire antiquarian and book collector Edward Hailstone (1818-90). Slight signs of use to the binding, but the volume solid and attractive externally. One leaf with upper margin excised (costing part of the border but not affecting the text), otherwise the text and decoration with only minor defects--the lower margin with intermittent light soil, some faint offsetting from gilt ivy leaves, a hint of rumpling here and there, other trivial imperfections, but QUITE WELL PRESERVED IN GENERAL INTERNALLY, the painted historiation without noticeable erosion, and THE GOLD ESPECIALLY BRILLIANT THROUGHOUT.

This handsome Book of Hours has almost certainly had a grand provenance from the very beginning. There are a number of clues to indicate that it was made in Bruges, probably for a member of the French-speaking court of the duke of Burgundy. We know it was created after 1450 because it includes a suffrage for Saint Bernadino, who was canonized that year. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, commissioned a number of manuscripts from Bruges illuminator Willem Vrelant, and the decorations in our prayer book seem to combine Vrelant's animated style with the attractive scrolling backgrounds typical of the workshop of the Masters of the Gold Scrolls, who dominated the illumination scene in mid-15th century Bruges. The calendar highlights the feast day of Saint Basil, and the litany invokes Omer, Bertin, and Bavo, saints especially revered in the area of Bruges. The inclusion of three particular saints is persuasive evidence that this manuscript was made for a member of the Burgundian court: Saint Iodocus or Josse, name saint of the son of Philip the Good; Saint Louis, patron of the French royal family and thus of the dukes of Burgundy; and Saint Denis, the patron of France. The volume is very substantial, much bigger than the typical Book of Hours. It contains an unusually large collection of prayers, including the Hours of the Passion, of the Cross, and of the Holy Spirit. In addition to the usual Office of the Virgin, we have the Mass of the Virgin, the Hours of the Compassion of the Virgin, prayers to the Virgin of Compassion at the seven hours, and Litany of the Virgin. The Suffrages, Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Office of the Dead are followed by the Psalter of Saint Jerome, One Hundred Meditations on the Passion, additional prayers to Christ, and the Hours of the Dead. Saint Anselm of Canterbury's Meditation on Chastity is an uncommon inclusion here that also appears in the prayer book made for Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and later used by his grandson Philip the Good. Prayers added to the manuscript include those to Saint Edmund the Martyr, placed at the beginning of the book, and those to Saints Andrew, Peter of Luxembourg, Eustace, Michael, and Eugenia, which appear at the end. Prayers are in both the masculine and feminine forms, with the latter more common, and in some cases they ask for blessings on "your Servants," suggesting the book may have been used jointly by a married couple. The decoration is excellent throughout, from the Calendar with its lavish use of gold letters to the plethora of fine borders filled with the usual flowers, berries, and ivy leaves--along with amusing animals and grotesques. The monkey and bear playing chess in the border at the opening of the Mass of the Virgin (a border also containing a rabbit and a lion) are especially charming. The historiated initials feature a surprising amount of detail. For example, tiny boats dot the sea we glimpse beyond the hills on which John the Baptist stands, and the book Saint Anna is reading to her daughter the Virgin and the infant Jesus is complete with lines of text. A number of the male saints depicted in the historiated initials are wearing a knight's armor, usual attire for Saint George, Saint Michael, and Saint Martin, but rarely seen on the martyr Saint Sebastian, who here clutches the arrows more commonly seen piercing his naked torso. (ST11803)