Beschreibung:

The Coëtivy Master (active 1450-1485) Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Paris or the Loire Valley, c.1470s] An intimate work by ‘the most important artist practising in Paris in the third quarter of the century’, the Coëtivy Master, graced with fine borders filled with plants, birds, angels and imaginative vignettes, in a splendid late sixteenth-century fanfare binding. 112 x 82mm. 288, lacking six leaves, collation: 112, 27 (of 8, lacking i), 3-58, 67 (of 8, viii a cancelled blank), 7-88, 97 (of 8, lacking ii), 108, 116 (of 8, lacking iii & iv), 128, 135 (of 6, lacking iv), 14-158, 166, 17-258, 266 (of 8, lacking iv, viii a cancelled blank), 27-378, sporadic modern pencil foliation throughout, 12 lines, ruled space: 53 x 36mm, some prickings evident, flourished capitals alternately gold and blue, one- to three-line illuminated initials throughout, many text pages with one-sided panel borders of acanthus, flowers and berries, nine historiated initials with three-sided borders of acanthus, flowers, fruit and birds, and nine large miniatures with gold bars on two sides within full borders containing acanthus, flowers, fruit, birds and human figures (lacking six leaves, five of these miniature leaves opening the Gospel extracts, lauds, prime and sext in the Hours of the Virgin and the opening of the Hours of the Cross). Late-16th-century Parisian dark brown morocco gilt à la fanfare, raised spine bands, metal catches (missing clasps, corners bumped, worn at hinges). Chemise slip case stamped ‘J. MacDonald Co., Norwalk, Conn.’, quarter-morocco box, gilt title on spine. Content: Ruled blank f.1; Calendar ff.2-13v; Gospel extracts f.14-22v (opening imperfectly); Obsecro Te ff.23-29; O intemerata ff.29-35v; Stabat mater ff.35v-41; Passion according to Luke ff.41-45; Prayer to Saint Avoie [Avoye], in French ff.45v-49; Seven verses of St Bernard ff.49-51; Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris ff.52-137; Office of St Sebastian ff.137-149; Suffrages ff.149v-163; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.164-198v; Hours of the Cross ff.199-202v (opening imperfectly); Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.203-208; prayer to the Trinity ff.208-209v; Office of the Dead, use of Paris ff.210-287; ruled blank f.288. Illumination: The miniatures in this petite Book of Hours were painted by the Coëtivy Master, active in Paris from c.1450-1485, perhaps with some assistance from his workshop. Called by Avril and Reynaud ‘the most important artist practising in Paris in the third quarter of the century’, the Master is named for a Book of Hours painted for the chamberlain of Charles VII, Olivier de Coëtivy, and his wife Marie de Valois (Vienna, ÖNB cod 1929); he also worked across the figural arts as a panel painter, a designer of stained glass and of tapestries. His illustrious clients included Louis XI's brother, Charles of France; his work adorned the great Parisian church of Saint-Séverin and royal courts. Described as the third great painter of the French court with Jean Fouquet and Barthélemy d'Eyck, he has most recently been identified as Colin d'Amiens, recorded in Paris 1461-88. Colin's only documented work, a monumental stone Entombment group carved by Adrien Wincart in 1495-6 to his design, is compatible with the oeuvre assembled for the Coëtivy Master but cannot conclusively prove the identification (F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1460-1520, 1993, pp.58-69; D. Thiébaut et al, Primitifs français, Découvertes et redécouvertes, 2004, pp.97-102). Both Otto Pächt and Dagmar Thoss attribute the miniatures in our manuscript to the Coëtivy Master, though Plummer points to the softer, ‘less incisive’ drawing, a darker and cooler palette, and a lack of certain characteristic Coëtivy types, such as ‘the strong-jawed males with heads thrust forwards or the elegant, narrow-waisted ladies’, in support of these Hours being painted by a close follower, perhaps the same hand who painted a m