Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, Premonstratensian use, in Latin and Dutch, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [?Antwerp, 1420-30]R 146 x 111mm. i (lifted pastedown) + 231 + i leaves: 1 8, 2 6, 3 1 1(i, iv & ix inserted singletons with miniatures), structure uncertain from f.25 to f.38, likely two gatherings and lacking two text leaves, one after f.34 and another after f.38, and with ff.26, 28, 33 & 35 inserted singletons with miniatures, 6 6(i inserted singleton with miniature), 7 6(of 7, i an inserted singleton with miniature, lacking ii), 8-14 8, 15 7(of 8, viii cancelled blank), 16 8, 17 6(of 8, lacking iv/v), 18-20 8, 21 9(i singleton with miniature), 22-30 8(including final blank and lifted pastedown), horizontal catchwords in lower margins of many final versos, some cropped, 16 lines written in black/brown ink in a gothic bookhand between two verticals and seventeen horizontals ruled in lilac, prickings survive in outer margin, justification: 88 x 59mm, rubrics in red, text capitals touched red, one-line initials alternately of burnished gold flourished with dark blue or blue flourished with red, the flourishing sometimes extending into the upper and lower margins and terminating in a caricature head, two- to four-line initials of burnished gold with grounds of pink or blue with infills of the opposite colour with white decoration, accompanied by bar-borders in the outer margin with sprays of foliage and flowerheads of orange/red, pink, blue and burnished gold on hairline tendrils extending to the upper and lower margins, TEN FULL-PAGE MINIATURES framed with burnished gold and blue and pink fillets and surrounded by borders of scrolling tendrils with small flowerheads and leaves of gold and colours and, at the corners, large four-petalled flowers of red and blue, ELEVEN LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS with staves of blue patterned with white on grounds of burnished gold, with similar full-page borders, the inner margins with bar-borders of burnished gold, three richly decorated with flowerheads, ivyleaves or acanthus, and two large illuminated initials with borders of similar forms (darkening of first and last folios, a few spots and stains, mainly to margins, loss of two original patches to vellum flaws, small losses or areas of abrasion to gold or pigment of some illumination but only significantly affecting the miniatures of the Crucifixion and Funeral Mass, f.113 with sewing-holes and offsets from pilgrim badges, certainly lacking four text leaves, probably lacking further miniatures). Early 18th-century red morocco gilt, bordered with a double fillet, scrolling stems and flowerheads at the corners and forming a central lozenge with the additional tool of a bunch of grapes, spine gilt with five raised bands (slight wear at extremities, including tiny loss of leather at foot of spine, lower third of upper joint cracking, lower half of front hinge split). PROVENANCE: 1. The Calendar is more indicative of the southern than the northern Netherlands. St James may have been paired with St Jodocus or Joos in the opening memorial as saints especially connected with pilgrimage or the confessor Jodocus could have been invoked among the apostles and before the martyrs because he was a special patron of the owner, perhaps called Joos. His prominent position and the presence in the Calendar of St Nicasius of Rheims in red suggests a connection with the southern Netherlands, which was under the archbishopric of Rheims; the bishopric of Utrecht was under Cologne. The unusual mixing of entire texts in Dutch and Latin might also indicate an owner more familiar with southern Netherlandish conventions where Dutch Hours were less common. The illumination, however, is north Netherlandish in style and the book may have been produced in northern Brabant or Antwerp, where the Premonstratensian Abbey of St Michael was a major presence lodging the Duke and his court when they visited the town. 2. Added prayer in Dutch on f.ii 3. The Sotheby Family: inscription f