Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rouen, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Rouen, c.1470-1475] 184 x 126mm. i + 139 + i leaves, COMPLETE, 15 lines written in a gothic bookhand in dark brown ink between 2 verticals and 16 horizontals ruled in dark pink, justification: 94 x 60mm, rubrics in red, text-capitals touched yellow, one- and two-line initials of burnished gold against grounds and infills of pink and blue with white penwork decoration, line-endings of the same colours, major texts opening with three-line initials of blue with infill sprays of red, orange and blue all against grounds of burnished gold, each page with a two-line initial having a panel border with a spray of blue and gold acanthus and curling hairline tendrils of gold leaves and trefoils terminating in naturalistic fruit and flower sprays, pages with a three-line initial having a three-quarter border of similar type, EIGHT LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES accompanied by FULL-PAGE BORDERS with divided grounds with sprays of naturalistic flowers against plain vellum and shaped fields of liquid gold, the latter also with monochrome sprays of pink or blue acanthus and occasional figures or birds (slight smudging or rubbing in a few borders and to the face of Christ in the Crucifixion). Late 16th-century tan morocco gilt 'à la fanfare', spine gilt in six compartments with raised bands (slight rubbing of corners and lower edge of lower cover, two of bands rubbed). PROVENANCE: 1. The use of the Office of the Virgin and the style of illumination show that the manuscript was made in Rouen; presumably for a woman, who is represented by the figure kneeling in devotion in the miniature introducing the Joys of the Virgin (f.131), who may have been an ancestor of the de Lombelon, one of the most ancient houses of Normandy. 2. The de Lombelon, Seigneurs des Essarts: the birth and baptism in 1592 of Alexandre, son of Louis de Lombelon is recorded on the front flyleaf. Alexandre, Gouverneur des Villes et Château de Verneil married Madeleine de Saint-Aignan in 1609 and the births and baptisms of their children between 1611 and 1618 are recorded in the lower borders of the Calendar, as are those of the children born between 1630 and 1633 of Louise de Lombelon, daughter of Alexandre and wife of Pierre de Montmorency, Baron de Lauresse, Chevalier des Ordres du Roi. The latest birth recorded on ff.13v and 14 is that in 1643 of Pierre-Franois, son of Tanneguy de Lombelon, Baron des Essarts and Grand-Sénéchal de la Province du Maine. The third of Alexandre's children was Madeleine, wife of Franois de la Rivière, it seems probable that she was responsible for the record of the births of her siblings' children. Her own daughter was Louise-Madeleine-Josèphe. 3. Louise-Madeleine-Josèphe de la Rivière de Vaux who married Joseph de Mailly d'Haucourt, Seigneur, Marquis de Mailly-Haucourt, Assigny, St-Léger etc in 1704. Their eldest son was Joseph Augustin, Comte de Mailly, Maréchal de France who, after Louis XVI's flight from Paris, was charged by the king with the defence of his château at Varennes. In spite of being 86 his loyalty cost the Comte de Mailly his life; he was guillotined in 1794. 4. Louis Marie, Comte de Mailly d'Haucourt, Duc de Mailly and Maréchal des camps, son of Joseph-Augustin, Comte de Mailly: an inscription inside the upper cover records both the gift of the manuscript from Louis Marie in 1774, and the fact that he had had the book from his grandmother. 5. ?John Sweetman: his signature on the verso of the rear fly-leaf. 6. Thomas Weld-Blundell (d.1887): his bookplate on the inside of the lower cover. Thomas Weld added Blundell to his name in 1837 after inheriting Ince Blundell Hall and the collections there formed by Henry Blundell and his son Charles. The manuscript continued at Ince Blundell until this century, and by descent to the present owner. Thomas Weld-Blundell was the grandson of Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle (1750-1810), founder of Stonyhur