Beschreibung:

Book of Hours, Use of Rome, illuminated manuscript in Latin and French on parchment [southern Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1520] 88 leaves (plus two paper endleaves, and including two blank leaves), wanting 7 single leaves, some leaves from last gathering and perhaps a Calendar from front, collation: i3 (wants iv), ii-iii6, iv-v4, vi4 (wanting leaf from front), vii4 (perhaps wanting outermost bifolium), viii6, ix5 (wants v), x6, xi6, xii4 (wants a leaf or two at front, the rest bound in as singletons, else text continuous), xiii6 (wants a leaf at end), xiv4, xv6, xvi6, xvii6, xviii2 (wanting at least a bifolium from this gathering), single column, 25 lines in a good calligraphic late Flemish lettre bâtarde, rubrics and some capitals in dark red, small initials in liquid gold bars or acanthus scrolls on blue or burgundy grounds (dents in edges of grounds to allow for edges and descenders of adjacent letters), larger initials in white or liquid gold foliage on dull gold or coloured grounds, a few enclosing delicately painted foliage, and one with a full-length study of the Virgin in blue robes and surrounded by seven swords (fol. 14v, accompanying the ‘Seven Sorrows’), four pages with full borders of in trompe d’oeil style of Ghent/Bruges with insects, birds, realistic jewels, an armed dwarf and a man trying to lure a tame owl who sits on a perch (fols. 10r, 16r, 19r, 24r, 65r), seven small square miniatures set within realistic frames (fols. 4r, 12r, 37v, 40r, 43v, 87v, 88rv), two large square miniatures, approximately a third of the page in height (fols. 46r, 50), one half-page miniature of St. Margaret (fol. 87r), some small chipping of paint, small smudges in places, cockling to leave at end of volume, with slight discolouration, else good condition, 172 by 110 (written space 145 by 75mm.), sixteenth- or seventeenth-century red velvet (now worn through handling) over pasteboards (the whole skilfully refreshed), in fitted red leather folding case A Book of Hours with refined illumination by an artist probably with access to Simon Bening’s compositions and patterns, as well as a familiar knowledge of Bening’s painting techniques Provenance: Written and illuminated for a French-speaking patron (note French rubrics accompanying the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin) with a particular devotion to St. Margaret (note importance of miniature for this saint and arms in initial beneath). The coats-of-arms of the original owner’s family are most probably southern Netherlandish: fol. 24r (Or, a bordure azure, and in an escutcheon party per pale sable and gules, within a bordure azure; in chief a label of three points azure), and fol. 87r (party per pale, right argent with a lion of gules and gules within an or bordure, left gules as bend argent). Text: The volume comprises: the Gospel Sequences (fol. 1r), and Passion according to John; the Obsecro te (fol.10r) in male form “famulo tuo” (fol. 11r), followed by other prayers to Virgin, and ending with the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin (fol. 14v); the Hours of the Cross (fol. 16r); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol. 19r); the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol. 24r), Lauds (fol. 32r), Prime (fol. 37v), Terce (fol. 40r), None (fol. 43v), Vespers (fol. 46r), Compline (fol. 50r); Penitential Psalms (fol. 55r) followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol.87r); and the Suffrages to the Saints (fol. 87r). Illumination: The artist of this volume was well versed in the techniques of Ghent-Bruges in the early sixteenth century, and in particular those employed by Simon Bening (1483-1561, active in Bruges from 1500) and his workshop. “The art of no other Flemish illuminator so fully epitomizes the triumph of Flemish manuscript painting in Europe” (T. Kren in Illuminating the Renaissance, 2003, p. 447, see also pp. 447-86). Bening and his workshop produced illuminations for the Hapsburg imperial family as well as many of the upper nobles within their domains in the Low Countries, Spain and Portugal. Dami