Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Ghent, 1460s] 110 x 80 mm. 184 leaves, bound too tightly to allow confident collation, apparently complete textually but with no calendar and likely missing eight inserted miniatures, foliated sporadically in upper right corners, and in lower left corners of rectos, followed here, ruled in very pale brown ink with two verticals and 19 horizontals, justification: 65 x 45 mm, written in brown ink in a formal gothic bookhand with 18 lines per page, rubrics in red, TWENTY-ONE FULL-PAGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES SURROUNDED BY FULL BORDERS OF STYLISED ACANTHUS AND SEMI-NATURALISTIC FLOWERS AND FRUIT, each facing a page with a five-line foliate initial and full border, FIFTEEN SMALLER MINIATURES AND NINE HISTORIATED INITIALS, three- and two-line initials in gold on grounds of red and blue with white ornament with gold ivy-leaf sprays extending into the margin, one-line initials in gold on grounds of red and blue with white ornament, line-filers in gold, blue, red, and white in the Litany (generally thumbed throughout, including many miniatures, with occasional paint-loss, several miniatures bound out of place, a few single leaves becoming loose, fore-edges of ff.115-121 repaired with vellum, decoration occasionally cropped). 19th-century purple blind-tooled calf, gilt title on spine, marbled endpapers (text-block partly detached from binding). PROVENANCE: The style of the miniatures and borders shows that the book was made in the Southern Netherlands, probably Ghent; the choice of texts and the English saints in the litany (Oswald, Sexburga, Milburga) show that it was intended for the thriving English export market. The saints invoked in the litany who were especially revered in the southern Netherlands (Quentin, Lambert, Vedast, Bavo, Amand, Walbert, Aldegunde) do not point to any particular place of production. They are perhaps more indicative of Ghent than of Bruges, where production of books of Sarum use seems to have been concentrated. The book reached England since Thomas Becket's name has been effaced from a prayer and the litany, in accordance with Henry VIII's proclamation banning his cult in 1538. 'Edeth B' 16th? century (f.39v). Rev. William Maskell (1814?-1890), medievalist: signed on f.ii verso. Sir William Tite (1798-1873): architect, inserted note signed and dated March 1862, his sale 18 May 1874, lot 1493. Henry Hucks Gibbs (1819-1907), 1st Baron Aldenham: signed by him (f.ii) and with the armorial bookplate of 'Aldenham House, Herts' (see Helen Rudd, Catalogue of the Aldenham Library , 1917, p.207 no 2: 'No. 2' in pencil on bookplate); his sale 22 March, 1937, lot 183. Charles F. Cutts (1871-1949), 'Bought July 28, 1937, at Dawson's, Los Angeles, Calif.' (f.ii). CONTENT: Office of the Virgin, use of Sarum ff.2-44: matins f.2, lauds f.10 followed by memoriae to the Holy Spirit, Trinity, Cross, Michael, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, Andrew, Stephen, Lawrence, Thomas Becket (effaced), Nicholas, Mary Magdalene, Catherine, Margaret, All Saints, and for Peace, ff.16v-23, prime f.25, terce f.30, sext f.36, none f.36, vespers f.38, compline f.40; the Fifteen O's ff.46-52v; added prayer, with MIDDLE ENGLISH rubric (as in Huntington Library, HM 1344): 'When thou begynnyst to praye thus begynne knelynge.' Discedite a me maligni ff.52v-53; devotions to the Trinity, Barbara, Catherine, Mary Magdalene, Margaret, Helen, Christopher, Anthony Abbot, Anne, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, the Holy Sacrament, an elevation prayer attributed to Boniface VI [sic] carrying 1,000 years indulgence, ff.54-77; prayers to the image of Christ, the Cross, Christ's head crowned with thorns, the wounds in his left and right hands, his side, his left and right feet, the image of the Virgin Mary, and John the Evangelist, ff.78-81; Seven Joys of the Virgin beginning Gaude virgo virginali ff. 83-84v; Seven Joys of the Virgin beginning Virgo templum trinititatis carry