Beschreibung:

Book of Hours, in German, illuminated manuscript on vellum [south-eastern France (Lyon), c.1482] 378 leaves (plus five modern paper flyleaves at each end), 94mm. by 75mm., original but partly cropped foliation in Roman numerals from fols.17r to 366r, complete, collation: i2, ii14, iii-xxxvii10, xxxviii12, 14 lines in a German gothic bookhand, written space 63mm. by 45mm., rubrics in red, one- and 2-line initials and line-fillers in liquid gold on red or blue grounds, 3-line initials in red or blue heightened in liquid gold on red and blue grounds, one 4-line initial in burnished gold on a red and blue ground (fol.17v), sixteen full-page miniatures in illusionistic gold frames incorporating three lines of text, partial panel borders with flowers, acanthus, strawberries, birds, a small dragon and hybrid creatures on gold, red and blue grounds (fols.17v, 48v, 54r, 59v, 92r, 95r, 271r, 272v and 367r), blank pages at both ends with a lengthy prayer in contemporary German to be said daily, volume cropped closely to upper and outer edges of miniatures and borders, vellum cockled, many miniatures slightly rubbed, overall in good condition, nineteenth-century gold-tooled brown leather binding, gilt title on spine ‘Officium B.V.M. Germanice Cod. Membr. 1482’, spine split at top of upper board, leather stained in places with black ink, remains of a paper cutting pasted to lower board, inscribed by a modern hand “M.I.d.9” and twice “6376” inside upper cover and on flyleaves at front