Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, in Latin, French and Middle English, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Rouen, 1430s] 192 x 140mm. 260 leaves: 1 12 , 2-14 8 , 15 7 (lacking iii), 16-32 8 , 33 1 , the lacking leaf probably with a miniature, 16 lines written in a gothic bookhand between two verticals and 17 horizontals ruled in red, justification: 95 x 61mm, rubrics in red, one-line initials with staves of burnished gold against grounds alternately blue or pink with white decoration and with infills of the other colour, line-endings of the same colours, two- and three-line initials with staves of pink or blue against grounds of burnished gold with an ivy-leaf spray in the infills, PANEL BORDERS on every page with a two-line initial made up of hairline tendrils with golden trefoils and flowerhead terminals FIFTEEN LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES SURROUNDED BY FULL-PAGE BORDERS some of flowers and sprays of acanthus, interspersed with gold disks, others with gold baguettes with red and blue flowers on three sides surrounded with sprays of golden trefoils, fronds of acanthus at the corners (water-staining to top margins throughout, causing cockling from f.87 and small corrosion losses from the blank margin of 15 leaves, slight rubbing or smudging to some borders and to the tops of two miniatures, the faces of Joseph and Elisabeth slightly rubbed on f.30v, and two miniatures, ff.116v and 122v, with the face of the Virgin smudged or worn). Late 15th-century ?English blindstamped, panelled goatskin, the covers with double fillets containing four impressions of a panel with a foliate border around three vertical registers, a central ihesus maria flanked by scrolling foliage containing birds and a monkey (upper cover detached, spine defective, small losses of leather at joints and clasps, clasps and pins lacking). English red morocco box. AN ENTRANCING BOOK OF HOURS WITH SOME OF THE FINEST MINIATURES EVER PAINTED BY THE MASTER OF THE MUNICH GOLDEN LEGEND PROVENANCE: 1. The texts and style of illumination show that the book was made in Rouen for an English patron; prayers are in the masculine. The initial on f.21 encloses an empty shield. The Offices of the Virgin and of the Dead are for the use of Sarum and the Calendar includes English saints, with Dunstan 18 May and Edmund 16 November in red, as well as saints particular to Rouen, such as Romain in red, 25 October, with octave. Some confusions have occurred with the English saints: Oswald King, instead of Archbishop, 28 February; Richard Bishop in red, 20 June, is probably the translation, properly 16 June, of Richard of Chichester, whose feast is in red on 3 April, or, less probably, a celebration of Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, who was executed 18 June 1405 and venerated as a saint. Some red feasts were omitted and then inserted in an informal hand: Peter and Paul 29 June, Paul 30 June, and the Assumption of the Virgin 15 August. The Litany invokes English and Norman saints. 2. Shortly after the book's completion further prayers were added and illuminated in England, ff.236-259. The prayers are in the feminine for someone anxious about the plague and with a particular devotion to St Christopher: feminine endings were added to the prayer to St Christopher, f.80v. The prayers in French suggest that the lady was either French, married to an Englishman, or one of the decreasing number of English who regarded French as a second vernacular, perhaps encouraged by living in Normandy. St Romain is among the saints named in the prayer opening on f.251. A slightly later hand used the remainder of f.259 and f.260 for a prayer to the angels. 3. John Burgwin: inscribed in a 17th-century hand on f.260. The surname was found in Hereford, Worcester and the Welsh Marches but the owner may have lived elsewhere. In 1631 a John Burgwin was married at St Clement Dane's London. 4. Iacobus omoydo (?): inscribed on f.82v. 5. N. Milward: inscribed on f.83. 6. Pencilled annotations in margins in Fre