Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [?Paris, c. 1430] 225 x 165mm. 228 leaves (lacking one leaf of text). Collation: 1 12 , 2-10 8 , 11 6 , 12-25 8 , 26 6 , 27-28 8 (lacks 28/8), 29 6 (lacks blank f.6); ruled in red, justification 96 x 63mm., 12 lines, written in brown ink in a gothic textura, rubrics in red, one- and two-line initials in gold on red and blue ground with white tracery and similar line-fillers, 6 three- or four-line initials with similar decoration, illuminated outer and mostly inner panel borders throughout of sprays, gold ivyleaves on hairline stems and painted flowers, 21 LARGE MINIATURES, ARCHED, WITHIN FULL BORDER of gold ivy leaves and bezants on hairline stems and painted acanthus leaves, surrounding three-quarter baguette borders, IN VERY GOOD CONDITION WITH WIDE MARGINS, 18th century French red morocco (holes for clasps), green silk liners, edges gilt, in half morocco case. PROVENANCE: 1). The Hours may have been intended for the use of a lay Dominican. The Office of the Dead is of Dominican use. The use of the Office of the Virgin is unrecorded. 2). Didier-Petit 1849 (note in pencil on fly-leaf) 3). Firmin-Didot-Collection, sale 11 June 1883 (lot 8), there attributed to the Bedford Master. 4). Baron Horace de Landau - Madame Finaly, sale Sotheby's, 12 July 1948 (lot 58) 5). H. Harvey Frost, booklabel. TEXT: Calendar (f.1); Gospel Sequences (f.13); Hours of the Virgin, Matins (f.21), Lauds (f.35v), Prime (f.50), Tierce (f.57v), Sext (f.63v), None (f.69), Vespers (f.74v), Compline (f.83v); Hours of the Cross, Lauds (f.91), Prime (f.93), Tierce (f.94v), Sext (f.96), None (f.97v), Vespers (f.99), Compline (f.100v); Hours of the Holy Ghost (f.102v); Les quinze joyes de nostre dame (f.110v); Sept requestes de nostre seigneur (f.117v); Prayers (f.121); Penitential Psalms (f.124); Office of the Dead (f.146); Obsecro te (f.201); Seven verses of St. Bernhard (f.206); Prayers and Suffrages to the Saints (f.208). DECORATION: This is an exceptionally fine manuscript and it is particularly tantalising that it has not proved possible to identify or even localise the workshop that furnished its rich and attractive illumination. The style of both the borders and miniatures appears to be thoroughly grounded in Parisian illumination of the 1420s, but without precise analogy in any known manuscript. Most of the miniatures are the work of two artists. One was responsible for the miniatures in the first half of the manuscript up to and including the Presentation in the Temple (f.69) and the final two, David in Prayer (f.124) and the Funeral Service (f.146). His miniatures are close to those of some manuscripts attributed to the Master of the Munich Golden Legend, for example the Book of Hours in the British Library (Additional 18192). He shares with the Master the debt, which was recognised by John Plummer, to the Master of Egerton 1070. But our Master worked in a distinctive and individual style, his figures are differently proportioned from those of the Munich Golden Legend Master, they are more compact and have larger heads, and his technique is more painterly, showing less reliance upon a dark definite outline to flesh and feature. Where a motif seems to have been borrowed, for example Joseph being seated in a wooden chair in the Nativity (f.50) as he is in the British Library Hours, something is added, in this case the delightful gesture of Joseph proferring a flower to the Virgin. The miniature of David in Prayer (f.124), where the King is shown in the act of kneeling, the tails of his mantle flying out behind him, is equally original. With the exception of the Virgin and Child (f.110v) and the Betrayal (f.91), the remaining miniatures were painted by a second illuminator. His first appearance in the manuscript is the stunning sunset Flight into Egypt (f.74v) where the sky and distant landscape are coloured red and the clouds are gilt. This artist's use of green underpainting for flesh tones