Beschreibung:

Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin and Italian, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy (Rome), dated 5 March 1494] 142 leaves (plus a modern parchment bifolium at front, and two paper endleaves at each end), complete, collation: i12, ii-xiv10, with catchwords, single column with 15 lines in the angular Italian gothic hand of Johannes Francigena (see below), capitals in ornamental penstrokes touched in yellow wash, opening words of each major section in complex calligraphic bands and pale wash, red rubrics (some opening with calligraphic penwork), initials in split bands of red and blue with contrasting penwork, occasional large gold initials with coloured baubles at their midpoints and coloured penworks or in coloured acanthus leaves on wide gold grounds with penwork foliage enclosing gold leaves and seedpods extending into margin, five large historiated initials in fleshy coloured acanthus leaf sprays heightened with white penwork (fols. 13r, 39v, 62r, 71v, 83r and 115r), on wide gold grounds framed and heightened with thin yellow brushstrokes, larger initials with sprays of gold and coloured foliage in margin, the initial on frontispiece supported by a naked putti and with decorated border on two sides of stylised coloured and gold foliage, two putti in lower margin holding a wreath meant for coat-of-arms but perhaps originally left blank, later arms now inserted, some leaves with ink partly flaked away, trimmed at edges with losses to border decoration of frontispiece, gold crackled with some small flakes from a few initials, some small spots and stains, else good condition, 176 by 123mm.; Italian nineteenth-century green morocco, profusely gilt-tooled with frames of flowers on boards and in compartments of spine, spine with: Officium /Mariae Virg/ Membr. MS./ 1494 in gilt and remnants of paper label with Mss VII, marbled endleaves and gilt edge, front board splitting from spine at base, but overall solid in binding Provenance: 1. Written by Franciscan Friar Johannes Francigena and completed on 5 March 1494: colophon on fol. 140v, unusually listing its contents and perhaps reflecting the wording of the scribes original commission: Officium beate marie virginis & septem psalmis penitentialibus & officium defunctorum. Sancti spiritis et sancte crucis. cum pluribus orationibus. Accuratissime scriptum per fratrem Johannem francigenis ordinis minorum. Anno domino Mo cccco lxxxxiiiio. Die va Martii. In the grand scheme of the Middle Ages his name is not uncommon (its second part meaning of France) but he is perhaps to be identified with the printer of the same name who worked in Rome in 1481 (see G. Amati, Ricerche storico-critico-scientifiche sulle origini: Tipografia del secolo V, 1830, p. 231). By the time of the writing of this volume, some thirteen years later, he may well have retired into the Franciscan order. If correct, then this would be the first evidence of his producing manuscript as well as printed books, and perhaps allow us to identify his hand in other Roman works of the late fifteenth century. The focus on Franciscan observance here and the long series of texts in Italian is suggestive that the original commissioner was a lay follower of the popular Third Order that emerged in the fifteenth century from the Franciscan Order. Members of this Third Order undertook the responsibilities of a holy life according to a version of the Franciscan Rule, but without taking holy orders and without study in Latin (see the Italian and Latin copy of the rule sold in our rooms 6 July 2017, lot 112). 2. Cardinals arms at front on added leaf of nineteenth century (these perhaps invented). Text: The volume contains a Calendar (fol. 1r; for Rome and with focus on Franciscan saints); Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol. 13r), Lauds (fol. 21r), Prime (fol. 29v), Terce (fol. 32r), Sext (fol. 34v), None (fol. 37r), Vespers (fol. 39r) and Compline (fol. 44v), with readings for entire liturgical year; Penitential Psalms (fol. 62