Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [south-eastern France, c.1460] 126 x 83mm. 189 leaves: 1 1 2, 2 7(of 8, lacking iii), 3-15 8, 16 6, 17-21 8, 22 4, 23 8, 24 8 (lacking further folios after gatherings 12 and 16), with vertical catchwords in the inner margin of the final versos, 11 lines written in a gothic bookhand in brown ink between 2 verticals and 2 horizontals ruled in brown, justification: 60 x 46mm, rubrics in red, one- and two-line initials alternately of burnished gold and blue with pen-work flourishing of black and red, major texts opening with three-line initials of blue or dark pink with white penwork decoration and infill sprays of red and blue trefoils, all against grounds of burnished gold, eight of them accompanied by three-sided borders with sprays of acanthus, strawberries and flowers and curling hairline tendrils of gold leaves and trefoils terminating in naturalistic fruit and flowers, ONE SMALL BAS-DE-PAGE MINIATURE with a full-page border of similar type, FIVE LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES, with full-page borders including birds and beasts and a coat of arms (waterstaining to outer margins of Calendar folios, slight losses of pigment to all miniatures, f.104 smudged and miniature replaced with a later cut-out historiated initial). 19th-century blind-ruled sheep (back-strip defective). PROVENANCE: A shield, perhaps with the emblem of the first owner, in the lower border of f.20 shows a white dog leaping through flames against an azure field. CONTENT: Calendar ff.1-12; Gospel extracts ff.13-18; Office of the Virgin ff.20-99v (lacking the end of Variants); Hours of the Cross ff.100-104v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.105-107v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.108-129v (lacking final prayers); Office of the Dead ff.130-173v; indulgenced prayers and Psalms opening with Dulcissime d[omi]ne ih[es]u... ff.174-189v ILLUMINATION: Several features of this charming, although somewhat worn, manuscript indicate its production in south-eastern France; more specifically in the ambit of the Master of the Hours of Saluces, who is probably to be identified with the itinerant artist Antoine de Lonhy. The tonality of the miniatures, with their use of strong blue and green for drapery falling in broad folds, the architectural settings, the neat-featured faces, and the borders populated with birds and figures can all be paralleled in manuscripts painted by de Lonhy in Savoy and Toulouse. The most telling comparisons can be made with the Book of Hours (Paris, Bib. de l'Arsenal, ms 1194) that has been localised to Toulouse: F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits peintures en France, 1440-1520 (Paris, 1993), no 120a. The same restrained cycle of illustration and some of the compositions are common to both. The initial pasted on to f.104 to replace the damaged miniature is of high-quality Parisian workmanship of the beginning of the 16th century. The subjects of the miniatures are as follows: f.1 The Annunciation, with the Virgin kneeling in a raised gothic structure f.100 The Crucifixion with the Virgin and the Evangelist f.104 A half-length bishop saint appearing to a crowd f.108 David praying to God the Father f.130 Burial service f.174 Man of Sorrows with the Virgin and Evangelist seated at either side of the sarcophagus (marginal miniature)