Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Flanders, c.1490] 175 x 120mm. 162 leaves: 1 9(vii an inserted singleton with miniature), 2 9(iv an inserted singleton with miniature), 3 9(vi an inserted singlton with miniature), 4 8, 5 9(vi an inserted singleton with miniature), 6 8, 7 9(iv an inserted singleton with miniature), 8 8, 9 9(vii an inserted singleton with miniature), 10 4, 11 7(of 7), 12 8, 13 9(viii an inserted singleton with miniature), 14-17 8, 18 7(of 7), 19 9(of 9), 20 8(i an inserted singleton with miniature, final blank cancelled), likely lacking a Calendar and six or seven further inserted leaves with miniatures, otherwise text complete; rubrics in red, 17 lines in brown ink in a gothic bookhand between two verticals and 18 horizontals, top and bottom across margins, ruled in pink, text justification: 94 x 60mm, one-line initials alternately of blue and burnished gold with penwork flourishing of red and black respectively, two-line initials of burnished gold against grounds of pink and blue patterned with white and with hair-line tendrils with golden leaves and trilobe flowers of pink or blue into the margins, EIGHT FULL-PAGE MINIATURES SURROUNDED BY AND FACING FULL-PAGE BORDERS, mostly with sprays of flowers scattered against yellow grounds and including insects, birds or animals, SEVEN FURTHER FULL-PAGE BORDERS of the same type, TWELVE SMALL MINIATURES WITH PANEL BORDERS, gilt edges (minor surface rubbing affecting a few borders and the face of the seated Evangelist in the Pentecost miniature, slight thumbing to blank margins). Eighteenth-century red velvet (rubbed and splitting to lower joint). Modern red morocco clam-shell case. PROVENANCE: In spite of the high quality of the illumination the manuscript does not appear to have been a special commission and there is no indication of early ownership. The Offices of the Virgin and of the Dead are for the liturgical use of Rome and prayers are in the masculine form. The only marks of later ownership are the ink inscription, in a 19th-century hand, Cat....Droit Canon. upside-down at the foot of the lower paste-down and modern dealer's notes in French on the upper paste-down. CONTENT: Hours of the Cross ff.1-6v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.8-12; Mass of the Virgin followed by Gospel Extracts ff.14-24v; Office of the Virgin, use of Rome ff.26-89: matins f.26, lauds f.42, prime f.52, terce f.57, sext f.61, none f.65, vespers f.69, compline f.77, variants for Advent f.82; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.90-104v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome ff. 106-145v; Suffrages to the Trinity, St Michael, St John the Baptist, St Christopher, St Sebastian, St Anthony Abbot, St Nicholas, St Francis, St Mary Magdalene, St Catherine, St Barbara and All Saints ff.146-154; Prayers to the Virgin, Obsecro te and O Intemerata ff. 156-161v. ILLUMINATION: Most of the full-page miniatures are the work of an exceptional illuminator who marries the delicacy and precision of his technique with a thoughtful attention to detail in both narrative and setting. There is an unusual quality of emotional engagement and intensity in his protagonists. This is particularly evident, appropriately, in the scenes of divine manifestation, whether the neurotic distraction of some of the Apostles in Pentecost or the startled shepherds at the appearance of the angels. The hooded mourner standing and contemplating the freshly dug grave in the burial scene is no less forceful. Some debt to illuminators active in the 1470s is evident in these compositions -- the night-time Annunciation to the shepherds goes back at least to the Master of the First Prayer Book of Maximilian in the London Hours of William Lord Hastings (BL, Add.Ms 54782) and the Lamentation recalls the Vienna master of Mary of Burgundy in the Vienna Hours (ÖNB, Ms.1857). This indicates a date no later than around 1490 for the present manuscript, a suggestion supported by the conservative style of the sub