Beschreibung:

THE DE LAPORTE HOURS, use of Rome, in French and Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Lyons or Bourges, c.1490s] A lavishly illuminated Book of Hours with numerous striking miniatures and a lively and imaginative pictorial program, bound for an early owner in a splendid 16 th -century French binding. 155 x 105mm. 194 leaves, complete. 20 lines, ruled space: 90 x 50mm. Illuminated initials throughout, several inhabited, 32 full-page miniatures and 18 smaller miniatures, 12 calendar miniatures, all pages with three-sided borders (except ff.189-194v) (some borders of the full-page miniatures cropped, several miniatures rubbed with some loss of pigment). Mid-16th-century gilt-tooled binding stamped ‘K. DE. LAPORTE’ on upper and lower boards. Provenance : Made for the lady kneeling before the Virgin and Child on f.31, possibly named Catherine (Catherine is in gold in the calendar, and an Office of St Catherine is on ff.114v-116v) – K. DE LA PORTE: stamped on upper and lower boards of the mid-16th-century binding. This is likely Charles de Laporte de Puyferrat (d.1595), of Saint-Astier, in the Dordogne – by descent to the current owners. Content : Calendar ff.1-12v; Gospel sequence of the Passion according to St John ff.13v-22v; Gospel extracts ff.23v-30: John ff.23v-24v, Luke ff.25v-26v, Matthew ff.27v-28v; Mark ff.29v-30; Obsecro te ff.31v-34; O intemerata ff.35v-38v; Mass of the Virgin ff.39v-41v; Fifteen Joys of the Virgin ff.42v-46; Seven requests to Our Lord ff.46v-48v; Stabat mater and other prayers to the Virgin ff.49-52v; Office of the Virgin, use of Rome, ff.54v-107v: matins f.54v, lauds f.69v, prime 79v, terce f.84v, sext f.88v, none f.92v, vespers f.96v, compline f.103v; Hours of the Cross ff.108v-110v; Hours of the Holy Ghost ff.111v-113v; Office of St Catherine ff.114v-116v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.117v-131v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome, ff.132v-169; Verses of St Bernard ff.169v-170v; Suffrages ff.171-188; Prayers to be said at various times ff.188v-194v. Illumination : There are a number of artists at work in the present manuscript: with the exception of the miniature depicting the Mass of St Gregory, which is in the Parisian style of Jean Pichore or the Master of Martainville, all other hands are to be linked to the work of Jean and Jacquelin de Monluçon, a father and son team documented primarily in Bourges from 1461 to 1505. Some miniatures are the work of Jean de Monluçon himself; others (the Virgin and Child on f.31, for example) are particularly close to the style of the ‘autre enlumineur’ in the Heures de Chappes (Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, ms.438: see F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à Peintures en France, 1440-1520 , 1993, no 187, p.339), especially in the treatment of faces, with their slanted eyes and porcelain-white complexions, and of the classical architectural borders populated with playful putti. As in the Heures de Chappes , there is evidence of the mutual exchange of artistic influence between Bourges and Lyons. The composition of the miniature of the Virgin and Child with kneeling patron is an almost exact copy of a miniature which appears in a Lyons Book of Hours, W. 447 of the Walters Art Gallery (described by L. Randall, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, France, 1430-1520, II, 2, pp.414-418); while the Crucifixion on f.108 is based on the same model as a miniature depicting the same scene in another Lyons Book of Hours (Yale Beinecke Library MS 435, f.60). The subjects of the full-page miniatures are as follows: Crucifixion f.13; Harrowing of Hell f.13v; John on Patmos f.23; St Luke f.25; St Matthew f.27; St Mark f.29; Virgin and Child with patron f.31; Deposition f.35; Mass of St Gregory f.39; Virgin and Child f.42; Tree of Jesse f.53; Annunciation f.53v; Visitation f.69; Nativity f.79; Annunciation to the Shepherds f.84; Adoration of the Magi f.88; Presentation in the Temple f.92; Flight into Egypt f.96; Coronation