Prayerbook containing the Fifteen Oes of St. Bridget of Sweden, Litanies of Christ and the Virgin, and prayers to reduce time in purgatory, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France, c. 1650] 78 leaves, wanting a single leaf from first gathering, perhaps with frontispiece naming original owner, else complete, collation: i5 (wants iii), ii-iii6, iv-xx2, xxi3 (last a singleton to complete text), xxii-xxxiii2, single column of 20 lines in remarkably fine roman and italic hands identified below as those of Nicholas Jarry the royal court scribe, red rubrics, initials in liquid gold, larger initials in silver on gold grounds (silver now oxidised and spread), almost every page with text within thin gold frame, titles of each text in gold ink, frontispieces and openings of each text in softly coloured architectural frames and enclosing scenes of a bee seeking a flower, a pelican stabbing its own breast, doves with olive branches, a sacrificial lamb, a flower opening to the sun and numerous images of finely painted grinning human skulls and flowers, first leaves slightly cockled, occasional spots and small stains, else in excellent condition, 163 by 110mm.; contemporary binding of gilt-tooled red morocco over pasteboards (floral frame on each board, spine with six compartments in same), tooled olive leather doublures, two clasps formed from metal crosses, these clasps having caused boards to indent into text block very slightly at fore-edge, a few of thongs split between boards and textblock, but all held in place by leather and solid in binding The hand here is of the greatest refinement, and is identical in its roman and italic forms, as well as the flowery decoration and the use of gold, with these features in prayerbooks written by the grand scribe Nicholas Jarry (d. before 18 September 1666; see Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. Lescalopier 25; partly reproduced on Biblissima website; and Lilly Library, Ricketts 155: C. de Hamel, Gilding the Lilly, 2010, no. 99). Unlike many of their neighbours, the French continued to refine the scribal arts following the advent of printing, and perhaps were even spurred on by it. Nicholas Jarry was the zenith of the seventeenth century in this respect, and worked predominantly for Louis XIV and members of his court (on Jarry see, J. Bradley, Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, Calligraphers and Copyists, London, 1887, II:143-8, and R. Portalis, Nicolas Jarry et la calligraphie au XVIIe siècle, Paris, 1896). His script was described by Meridel Holland as 'if it could have been produced by a little, delicate typewriter' (in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 65, 1983, p. 148), and the resulting books were 'as frivolous and costly as Fabergé eggs' (de Hamel, p. 214).
Prayerbook containing the Fifteen Oes of St. Bridget of Sweden, Litanies of Christ and the Virgin, and prayers to reduce time in purgatory, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France, c. 1650] 78 leaves, wanting a single leaf from first gathering, perhaps with frontispiece naming original owner, else complete, collation: i5 (wants iii), ii-iii6, iv-xx2, xxi3 (last a singleton to complete text), xxii-xxxiii2, single column of 20 lines in remarkably fine roman and italic hands identified below as those of Nicholas Jarry the royal court scribe, red rubrics, initials in liquid gold, larger initials in silver on gold grounds (silver now oxidised and spread), almost every page with text within thin gold frame, titles of each text in gold ink, frontispieces and openings of each text in softly coloured architectural frames and enclosing scenes of a bee seeking a flower, a pelican stabbing its own breast, doves with olive branches, a sacrificial lamb, a flower opening to the sun and numerous images of finely painted grinning human skulls and flowers, first leaves slightly cockled, occasional spots and small stains, else in excellent condition, 163 by 110mm.; contemporary binding of gilt-tooled red morocco over pasteboards (floral frame on each board, spine with six compartments in same), tooled olive leather doublures, two clasps formed from metal crosses, these clasps having caused boards to indent into text block very slightly at fore-edge, a few of thongs split between boards and textblock, but all held in place by leather and solid in binding The hand here is of the greatest refinement, and is identical in its roman and italic forms, as well as the flowery decoration and the use of gold, with these features in prayerbooks written by the grand scribe Nicholas Jarry (d. before 18 September 1666; see Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. Lescalopier 25; partly reproduced on Biblissima website; and Lilly Library, Ricketts 155: C. de Hamel, Gilding the Lilly, 2010, no. 99). Unlike many of their neighbours, the French continued to refine the scribal arts following the advent of printing, and perhaps were even spurred on by it. Nicholas Jarry was the zenith of the seventeenth century in this respect, and worked predominantly for Louis XIV and members of his court (on Jarry see, J. Bradley, Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, Calligraphers and Copyists, London, 1887, II:143-8, and R. Portalis, Nicolas Jarry et la calligraphie au XVIIe siècle, Paris, 1896). His script was described by Meridel Holland as 'if it could have been produced by a little, delicate typewriter' (in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 65, 1983, p. 148), and the resulting books were 'as frivolous and costly as Fabergé eggs' (de Hamel, p. 214).
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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