Beschreibung:

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Bruges, c.1430 and southern England, c.1440]207 x 140mm. iii paper + 78 leaves + iii paper: 1 4, 2 7(of 6, v an added singleton), 3-4 8, 5 3(ff.28-30 misbound leaves), 6 6(of 8, lacking i and iv), 7 1(f.37, originally probably in gathering of 8 with ff.29-30), 8 4(of 8, f.28 originally vii, lacking ii, iv and v), 9 9(of 8 + ix), 10 6(of 8, lacking i and ii), 11 7(of 8, lacking vi), 12 1 0(of 8 + v and ix miniature leaves), 13 5(of 6, lacking vi), the lacking leaves with miniatures, 25 lines written in three gothic bookhands between two verticals and 26 horizontals ruled in red or brown, justification: 129 x 82mm, rubrics in red, text capitals touched red, one-line initials alternately either in red flourished with blue and in gold flourished in dark blue or in blue flourished with red and in gold flourished with pink, two- and three-line initials in gold on grounds of red and blue or in gold on pink and blue with marginal extensions of burnished gold disks on hairline sprays, similar three- and four-line initials with partial borders of acanthus and leaves in blue, green and pink with burnished gold disks, FIVE LARGE INITIALS WITH STAVES OF BLUE OR PINK AND FOLIATE INFILLS ON GOLD GROUNDS WITH FULL BORDERS of leaves, flowers and fruit in colours and gold on hairline sprays, one with grotesques, TWO LARGE MINIATURES ABOVE LARGE INITIALS ON GOLD GROUNDS WITH FULL BORDERS and TWO FULL-PAGE MINIATURES WITH FULL BORDERS (fragmentary, some leaves misbound, stained, damaged into margins and some borders, miniatures worn, that on f.68v badly rubbed). Limp vellum (stained and torn). PROVENANCE: 1. The core section of the manuscript was written, on red ruling, and illuminated in the southern Netherlands, probably Bruges, for the English market. The Office of the Virgin accords with the Sarum use; the Litany includes Sts Alban, Swithin and Edith; the Office of the Dead is for the use of Sarum. Soon afterwards in England, additional offices and devotions were added for a male owner, on brown ruling, including prayers to Sts Edmund, Osmund and Osyth, ff.5-8v, 10-21; a third hand added a prayer, f.9, and the Hours of Eternal Wisdom, leaving spaces for illuminated initials which were never supplied ff.21-27v. 2. John R. Digby Beste, armorial bookplate inside front cover. Digby Beste 1902 pencilled on first paper leaf. The Digby Beste family had been Catholics since the conversion in 1798 of Henry Digby Beste, son of the Digby heiress who claimed to represent the line of Sir Kenelm Digby. Since prayers to Thomas Becket, f.30, have not been defaced, the book may have remained in recusant hands and was conceivably inherited from the Digbys. Loose typed description in English. CONTENT: The Fifteen Oes of St Bridget ff.1-4v; English additions: O bone Jhesu f.5r and v, and other prayers including to Edmund, Erasmus, Osmund, Leonard, Giles, Anna, the Magdalen, interrupted by inserted leaf with later prayer in the third hand invoking the aid of the company of heaven f.9, Katherine, Apollonia, Osyth, Dorothy with rubric, subsequently cancelled, promising that any house with her name or image will be protected from still births, fires and sudden death, Pantaleon ff.6-11v, the long Hours of the Passion ff.12-21; English addition by the third hand: the Hours of Eternal Wisdom, under the rubric of the Name of Jesus, ff.21-27; leaf from compline of Office of the Virgin f.28, two consecutive leaves from the Memorials, including St Thomas Becket, that would have followed Lauds in the Office of the Virgin, lacking opening and end ff.29-30, Office of the Virgin, use of Sarum, followed by the short Hours of the Cross ff.31-41v: matins, lacking opening f.31, lauds, lacking end f.34, prime lacking, terce, lacking opening f.37, sext, lacking opening f.38, none, lacking opening f.39, vespers lacking, compline ff.40, (28), 41; Penitential Psalms ff.42-46; fifteen Gradual Psalms ff.46-47