Beschreibung:

The Bedford Master (active first half 15th century) The Hours of Anne de Neufville, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1430] A treasure of gold and rich colours that demonstrates the technical refinement and devotional sensitivity of the Bedford Master, the last representative of the great age of Parisian illumination fostered by the Duke of Berry, in a superb 16th-century fanfare binding. 165 x 124mm. ii + 215 (last as pastedown), complete, collation: 112, 2-268, 273(?of 4, iv a cancelled blank), 13 lines ruled in red, ruled space: 89 x 63mm, one-line initials in gold on divided grounds of pink and blue, numerous two-line initials in pink and blue on gold grounds with foliate infills with border to left margin of fine gold leaves with small flowers and fruit in red and blue on hairline tendrils, similar three-line initials with similar borders to both vertical margins, 15 miniatures in full borders of acanthus stems linking fruit and flowers with small gold discs, some with angels, birds, butterflies or pots of flowers. Binding: 16th-century brown morocco gilt tooled à la fanfare, framed with triple fillet, a central oval compartment linked to four oval and four rectangular compartments, with roundels or part-roundels at the frame, all filled with varying combinations of flower and fruit motifs and angel heads, surrounded by spirals and branches of meticulously veined leaves, in the central oval on upper cover ANN’/EN VEV/FIDEL/LE, in central oval on lower cover VNE/NÉ’ A/VN FI=/DELLE, spine smooth and similarly tooled (lacking two tie fasteners). Some of the same tools were apparently used on the five volumes remaining of a six-volume edition of Plutarch, Paris, Michel de Vascosan, 1574, bound for presentation to Charles IX who died that year (Paris, BnF, RES-J-3248 – RES-J-3250, RES-J-3252, RES-J-3253). They apparently recur with the angel heads on a binding executed for Jacques-Auguste de Thou before his marriage in 1587 and dated to c.1575, Liber psalmorum Davidis, Annotationes [...]. Paris, Robert Estienne, 1546 (Wittock Collection, no 60, A. Hobson and Paul Culot, Italian and French 16th-century Bookbindings, Biblioteca Wittockiana, 1991; Christie’s, Paris, 7 October 2005, lot 42). These splendid fanfare bindings are difficult to attribute to a distinct atelier: they seem the work of a small group of exceptionally talented Parisian binders, active from c.1575 to c.1585, who worked to similar patterns. The Charles IX bindings support a date c.1575 for the closely related de Neufville and de Thou bindings, at the beginning of the group’s activity. Content: Calendar including St Genevieve (3 January and 26 November), ff.1-12; Gospel extracts, each followed by a prayer ff.13-24; Obsecro te in masculine and then feminine for michi N famule tue ff.21-25v; O intemerata in feminine ff. 25v-28v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris ff.29-100v; Penitential Psalms ff.101-117v; litany including Marcel, Fiacre, Genevieve and Avia, as well as Firmin and Fuscian, specially revered in Amiens and Lambert, Bishop of Maastricht-Liège ff.117v-127v; Hours of the Cross ff.128-138; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.138v-147; short Office of the Dead ff.147v-186; Quinze joies ff.186v-193v; Cinq plaies ff.194-198; Memorials ff.198-213: Sts Michael f.198, John the Baptist f.198v, Peter and Paul f.199, Christopher (in masculine) f.200, Nicholas f.201, Anthony Abbot f.202, Claude f.203, Eutropius f.203v, Catherine f.204v, Margaret f.205, Genevieve f.205v, Ave verum corpus f.206v, Joachim and Anna f.207, Mary Magdalene f.208, cinq festes de nostre dame f.208v, the Cross f.210, Gervase and Protase f.211, Leonard f.211v, Fiacre f.212v; ruled blanks, last as pastedown ff.214-215. The book was specially written for the lady shown before St Anthony Abbot, f.202; the scribe began the Obsecro te in the masculine before realising, or remembering, and changing to the feminine, then forgetting again for the prayer to St Chri