Beschreibung:

Books of Hours, use of Rome. Horae diuine virginis Marie secundum usum Romanum...vna cum figuris Apocalipsis & destructio Hierasulem & multis figuris Biblie insertis, printed on vellum, collation: A-M8, 96ff., Gothic type, text in Latin, woodcut printer's device on recto of first leaf, each page of text framed within woodcut border composed of different woodblocks, 20 larger woodcuts (fol. A1v, A6r, A8v, B6r, C5r, D2r, D4r, D6v, D8r, E2r, E5r, F7v, F8r, G7v, G8r, I6v, I7r, K1r, K3r, K8v), including lines of text, smaller vignettes depicting different saints on fols. L5r, L5v, L6r, L7v, L8r, M1r, M1v, M2r, M2v, and M3r, one and two-line initials in gold on alternating dark pink and blue ground throughout, line endings in dark pink, blue and gold, lightly spotted in places, repair to lower margin of fol., E3 slightly touching woodcut border, fine 16th-century brown morocco, over pasteboards, covers decorated with elaborate gilt plaque within border of blind and gilt fillets, at the centre the Virgin with Child, spine with four raised bands underlined bygilt fillets, repaired at extremities, overall an excellent copy, preserved in modern cloth case, title lettered in gilt on spine, 8vo (170 x 106mm.), Paris, Germain Hardouyin, [1520]. ⁂ A rare early French edition of the Book of Hours, printed on vellum and datable from the opening Almanach to 1520. The volume was published by Germain Hardouyn who was active in Paris from ca. 1500/1505 to 1539/1541, and together with his brother Gilles printed almost exclusively Books of Hours, producing at least two or three editions per year for a distinguished clientele, often printed on vellum or illuminated. His Books of Hours are rightly praised for the the rich illustrative apparatus, depicting mainly scenes from the lives of the Virgin and Christ, and the elaborate borders framing each page of the volume, which show the use of woodblocks derived from the Legenda aurea, and cycles from the Apocalypse and Dance of Death. This copy is in a handsome Renaissance binding, possibly executed in France, decorated with an elaborate plaque similar in style to those used on volumes bound for Jean Grolier, the prince of Bibliophiles. Text: The volume opens as usual with the Almanach (for the years 1520-1532), and the Calendar; the other sections follow: extracts from the Gospels, the Passion according to John, the Hours of the Virgin, the Seven Penitential Psalms, Litanies, Offices of the Dead, supplemented by short offices and Suffrages. Provenance: Arthur John Dorman (ex-libris on the front pastedown) Pamela and Raymond Lister Literature: Bohatta 1045; Lacombe 304, 305; J. Guignard, "Livres d'Heures de Germain Hardouyn à la Bibliothèque Nationale", Les trésors des bibliothèques de France, VII (1942), pp. 30-42; K. Lee Bowen, Christopher Plantin's Books of Hours: Illustration and Production, Nieuwkoop 1997, pp. 30-34; V. Reinburg, French Books of Hours. Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400-1600, Cambridge 2012.