Beschreibung:

EARLY FIFTEENTH CENTURY BOOK OF HOURS. Horae. Book of Hours, Use of Paris. Illuminated Latin and French manuscript on vellum. [Paris, c.1400-10]. 113 ll. (4 originally blank), plus 4 added preliminaries. 8vo (166 x 114 mm). Lacking single leaves after fols.21 and 107, else complete, 2 further blanks cancelled at end, with horizontal catchwords, 15 lines, ruled in red ink, written in dark brown ink in a gothic liturgical hand, rubrics in red, Calendar in alternate lines of red and blue with major entries in burnished gold, capitals touched in yellow, line-fillers and one- and 2-line initials throughout in burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, a few larger initials similar, nine large miniatures in square compartments above large illuminated initials and within full borders of colored and burnished gold ivyleaves. Late sixteenth-century northern European vellum gilt over pasteboards, sides framed with double lines, floral corner-pieces, oval central plaques on each cover showing the Virgin and Child on a crescent moon within the legend 'ora. pro. nobis. santa. Maria,' in a brown morocco case. Late medieval additions on preliminaries and fols.17v-21v, some upper and outer extremities of borders slightly cropped, some illumination rubbed and smudged including border on f43 and initial on f 78v, a few wormholes at end, offsets from pilgrim badges once on f l, many pages thumbed and used, lacking 2 pairs of ties, rebacked with calf binding a bit battered, else good. TEXT: A Calendar, in French (fol.1r), with an early addition of St.Hilevertus, 27 May, bishop of Meaux; the Gospel Sequences (fol.13r); the Hours of the Virgin [Use of Paris], with Matins (fol.22r), Lauds (fol.43r), Prime (fol.54r), Terce (fol.59v), Sext (fol.64r), None (fol.68r), Vespers (fol.72r) and Compline (fol.78v); the Penitential Psalms (fol.85r) and Litany; a: prayer to the boy-martyr St.Agapitus (fol.i); a prayer to Christ in French (fol.ii); prayers to SS.Cosmas and Damian (f.iv verve); prayers to the Virgin in French and Latin (fol.17v, including one intended for use by a woman "michi indigne peccatrici"); and prayers to St.Barbara (fol.83v). ILLUMINATION: This is an illustrated Book of Hours from Paris in the greatest decade of French book illumination. The 9 miniatures are in the style of the Master of the Coronation of the Virgin, who was probably a Netherlandish artist who arrived in Paris about 1400 and either died or disappeared in about 1405. During its short period of activity, however, the workshop produced a number of important manuscripts including a Book of Hours dated 1402 in the Morgan Library (M.515), and a whole series of manuscripts made for or in the circle of Philippe le Hardi (d.1404), Duke of Burgundy. The link may be important, for Jean de Croy who may have commissioned the present book was himself a member of the Duke's household. Other manuscripts from this workshop include at least three from the Burgundian ducal library (now in the national collections of St.Petersburg, Paris and Brussels) and one which Philippe le Hardi gave to his brother, the Duc de Berry, as a New Year's present in 1403 (cf. M. Meiss, The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, 1974, pp.383-4). The miniatures here are: 1. Folio 43r, The Visitation, in semi-grisaille, with the Virgin standing and St.Elizabeth kneeling. 2. Folio 54r, The Nativity of Christ, the Virgin lying on a large bed, a midwife leaning over a fence. 3. Folio 59v, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, with the angel apparently appearing from a clump of trees (perhaps based on a pattern sheet showing Moses and the burning bush from a Bible Historiale or similar text). 4. Folio 64r, The Adoration of the Magi who kneel before the Virgin who sits on a marble bench with the Child on her lap. 5. Folio G8r, The Presentation in the Temple, with the Virgin accompanied by a maid with a candle and a basket of doves. 6. Folio 72r, The Flight into Egypt, with the donkey led off to the right by