Beschreibung:

Book of Hours, in Dutch, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern Netherlands (almost certainly Maastricht), fifteenth century] 154 leaves (plus 2 modern paper endleaves at each end), wanting a number of single leaves throughout and a bifolium (these perhaps once containing illuminated initials), collation: i7 (first leaf blank and cancelled), ii7 (first a singleton, but no apparent loss of text), iii7 (wants first leaf), iv8, v6 (probably wanting outer bifolium), vi7 (wants last leaf), vii7 (fourth leaf tipped in), viii7 (last wanting), ix6 (a full-page devotional picture once on verso of fifth leaf here, now removed), x5 (fifth leaf wanting), xi6, xii5 (fifth leaf wanting and another leaf missing between third and fourth leaf), xiii7 (fourth leaf loose in book), xiv7 (first leaf wanting), xv4, xvi-xvii6, xviii7 (first leaf wanting), xix-xx8, xxi7 (second leaf probably a singleton), xxii-xxiii8 (ending mid-text), single column, 16 lines in an angular vernacular Dutch bookhand, simple initials in alternate red or blue, larger examples of these with contrasting penwork, one large initial in burnished gold on blue and burgundy grounds heightened with white floral penwork, terminating in single-line foliage with gold ivy-leaves and coloured buds in the margin, first and last leaf scuffed and stained, with losses to edges of leaves at each end of volume and the first leaf repaired with strips of paper, large stains throughout, many leaves with later ink stains and pen trials, fair condition overall, 110mm. by 80mm., eighteenth- or nineteenth-century binding of dark brown leather over pasteboards, now becoming loose, losses at spine repaired with large piece of leather (now becoming old and brittle), two clasps Provenance: (1) This simple Dutch Book of Hours was produced in the fifteenth century, almost certainly for a patron who lived in the parish of the Basilica of St. Servatius (Dutch: Servaas, here in Calendar: Servaeus) in Maastricht or who was an ecclesiastic in the community there. It is the oldest church in the Netherlands, originally begun in the sixth century and was given the status of an imperial church in 1087. The Calendar includes the local saints Ludger (born in Utrecht in 742, 26 March in the Calendar), Wiro (named by Boniface as bishop of Utrecht c. 741, 8 May), and Boniface (the ‘apostle of the Germans’ who was martyred in 754 in Frisia, in red on 5 June), but also includes in red St. Servatius (an Armenian who held office as first bishop of Maastricht and died in 384, 13 May). Near-contemporary notes at the foot of two leaves of the Calendar also record the acquisition of the relics of St. Thomas and a piece of the True Cross in 1400. The arm of St. Thomas was clad in a silver reliquary in the fifteenth century, and the relics of the Cross were housed in another reliquary by the Maastricht silversmith Master Ulrich Peters c. 1490. Both are still in the Cathedral treasury there, and that containing the relic of St. Thomas is the oldest surviving example of stamped Maastricht silver. The original owner must have seen these reliquaries when new and exhibited on the high altar. (2) Thore Virgin (1886-1957) of Qvarnfoss, Sweden, with his probable acquisition date, “26.9.1944”, on endleaf at back. Text: The manuscript opens with a vernacular text discussing the days of the week when certain prayers are to be said; followed by a Calendar (fol.1r) with calculation tables; the Hours of the Virgin (fol.15r); three further minor hours (fols. 61v, 77r and 109r) and the Hours of the Holy Ghost (fol. 99r).