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BOOK OF HOURS AND PSALTER, use of the Cistercians, in Latin and Middle Dutch, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [southern Netherlands, c.1470
BOOK OF HOURS AND PSALTER, use of the Cistercians, in Latin and Middle Dutch, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [southern Netherlands, c.1470] 147 x 100mm. 140 leaves, COMPLETE , rubrics and initials in red or blue throughout, written space: 57 x 87mm, contemporary coloured devotional woodcut with rebus in Middle Dutch pasted in (some staining to opening leaves – originally pastedowns – and occasional wormholing). CONTEMPORARY southern Netherlandish dark blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, brass clasp and corner-pieces (lightly scuffed and rubbed with minor losses to tooling and a few worm holes). PROVENANCE : (1) The present manuscript was made for Cistercian devotional use; the binding, the prayers in Middle Dutch and the Saints in the calendar and litany indicate a southern Netherlandish provenance, as does the inclusion of the early woodcut rebus on f.140. (2) M. VAN DER HELLE , of Lille: his bookplate ‘Ex Museo Van der Helle’ on upper cover; his sale Bibliothèque de M. van der Helle , Paris, Bachelin-DeFlorenne, 10 February 1868, lot 151. CONTENT : Prayers (formerly pastedowns) ff. 2-3v; Calendar ff.5-16v; Hours of the Virgin, use of the Cistercians, ff.17-37; prayers, in Latin and Middle Dutch, including to the Holy Face, the Virgin and the Holy Sacrament ff.37-52v; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.52v-55; Votive mass of the Virgin and Gospel extracts ff.55v-59v; Office of the Dead, use of the Cistercians, ff.60-76v; Psalter ff.77-108v; Collects, commemorations of the Saints and antiphons ff.108v-138; Credo f.139; coloured devotional woodcut with rhyming rebus in Middle Dutch: ‘Hebt Jesus Dicwylc In uwen Mont / Draecht Jesus Altijts In uwen Gront / Nempt Jesus Voor u in uwen wercken / So sal u Jesus In sunden minnen stercken’ f.140. The woodcut with rhyming rebus on f.140 is listed by J. Van der Stock in The Print Collection of the Royal Library of Belgium , 2002; no 109. For more information on the tradition of similar verse rebuses and mnemonics in the Netherlands see H. Mulder, 'Middelnederlandse rijmspreuken: iets over vloertegels, doodkisten en Latijnse voorbeelden', Queeste , 11, 2004, pp.44-55. A PORTABLE SOUTHERN NETHERLANDISH CISTERCIAN HOURS AND PSALTER IN A CONTEMPORARY BINDING .