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Auction archive: Lot number 47

THE HOURS OF FRANÇOIS I, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED ...

Estimate
£300,000 - £500,000
ca. US$458,453 - US$764,088
Price realised:
£337,250
ca. US$515,377
Auction archive: Lot number 47

THE HOURS OF FRANÇOIS I, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED ...

Estimate
£300,000 - £500,000
ca. US$458,453 - US$764,088
Price realised:
£337,250
ca. US$515,377
Beschreibung:

THE HOURS OF FRANÇOIS I, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
THE HOURS OF FRANÇOIS I, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Paris or Tours] 1539-1540 200 x 135mm. 93 leaves, including 3 blanks, COMPLETE without a calendar: 1-2 2 (probably originally a single quire of 4 leaves), 3-17 4 , 18 2 , 19-23 4 , 24 2 , 25 5 (of 4+v), foliated in modern pencil 1-93, unfoliated thin paper interleaves facing miniatures, traces of vertical catchwords in italic script (ff.40v, 78v), 20 lines written in script imitating roman type in black ink between two verticals and 21 horizontals ruled in pale red ink (ff.12, 20, 65v-66, 80v-82v, 88v, and 93v are ruled, otherwise blank), justification: 140 x 85 mm, rubrics in black, red, blue, and burnished gold, one-line initials and paragraph marks in gold on alternate red or blue grounds, line-fillers in gold on coloured grounds, sometimes in the form of knotty branches or knotted cords, two- and occasionally three-line initials in gold on alternate red or blue grounds, one HISTORIATED INITIAL, each miniature accompanied by LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS with conventional and naturalistic floral and foliate designs on a gold ground, EIGHTEEN LARGE MINIATURES WITH FULL BORDERS incorporating naturalistic plants and flowers, butterflies, ladybirds, a caterpillar, other borders of Renaissance architectural forms, with Renaissance motifs (putti, wreaths, garlands, cartouches, escutcheons, etc.), the text often written on trompe-l'oeil grounds (f.4 somewhat loose, thumbing and signs of use). Late 18th-century dark blue-green polished leather with gilt panels and foliate designs, the gilt spine with five raised bands, the spine densely gilt with sceptre-like motifs and cherubim, the edges of the leaves gilt, endpapers of coloured and gilt patterned paper, flyleaves with the 'Maid of Dort' form of the 'Pro Patria' watermark, a red leather title-piece lettered in gilt 'MISSAL. DE. HENRY.DE.ALBRET. ROY.DE.NAVARRE' (upper pastedown), probably added for Beauclerk c.1780 (some scuffing). Blue cloth box with gilt morocco spine. A MASTERPIECE OF EARLY FRENCH RENAISSANCE PAINTING, MADE FOR - AND CONTAINING A PORTRAIT OF - FRANCE'S FIRST GREAT RENAISSANCE MONARCH PROVENANCE: 1. King François I of France (1494-1547), generally considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch as a patron of the arts, man of letters, employer of Leonardo da Vinci and effectively the founder of the Louvre art collections: with his arms f.21, and portrait f.89. Several of the miniatures are dated 1539 or 1540, although the first of these has been read as '1532' by more than one scholar. The final payers addressed to St Marculf are known to exist in only three books: (i) the present manuscript, (ii) the earlier unfinished Hours of François I (London, BL Add. 18853), and (iii) the later Hours of Henri II (Paris, BnF, lat. 1429). St Marculf was a 6th-century abbot whose relics were at Corbigny, between Laon and Reims. It became the custom of French kings after their coronation at Reims cathedral to make a pilgrimage to Corbigny, to touch the relics, and then to heal those sick with the skin disease scrofula, known as 'the king's evil' because of the belief that it could be cured by the touch of a monarch. The practice continued in England until the reign of George I, and in France until that of Louis XV. It was the subject of a classic study by Marc Bloch, Les Rois thaumaturges , 1924, translated into English as The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France , 1973. 2. John Ives, Jr (1751-1776), antiquary and herald, on whom see DNB : a slip of paper inscribed perhaps in his hand, apparently cut from the flyleaf of a previous binding is stuck to the penultimate flyleaf of the present binding, and reads 'This Missal was Henry of Albret's King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV of France, who married Margaret of Valois in 1527'; sold as part of his library by Baker and Leigh, Covent Garden, 3 March 1777, lot 650, for £10 15s, described as 'A most beautiful Roman M

Auction archive: Lot number 47
Auction:
Datum:
7 Jul 2010
Auction house:
Christie's
7 July 2010, London, King Street
Beschreibung:

THE HOURS OF FRANÇOIS I, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
THE HOURS OF FRANÇOIS I, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Paris or Tours] 1539-1540 200 x 135mm. 93 leaves, including 3 blanks, COMPLETE without a calendar: 1-2 2 (probably originally a single quire of 4 leaves), 3-17 4 , 18 2 , 19-23 4 , 24 2 , 25 5 (of 4+v), foliated in modern pencil 1-93, unfoliated thin paper interleaves facing miniatures, traces of vertical catchwords in italic script (ff.40v, 78v), 20 lines written in script imitating roman type in black ink between two verticals and 21 horizontals ruled in pale red ink (ff.12, 20, 65v-66, 80v-82v, 88v, and 93v are ruled, otherwise blank), justification: 140 x 85 mm, rubrics in black, red, blue, and burnished gold, one-line initials and paragraph marks in gold on alternate red or blue grounds, line-fillers in gold on coloured grounds, sometimes in the form of knotty branches or knotted cords, two- and occasionally three-line initials in gold on alternate red or blue grounds, one HISTORIATED INITIAL, each miniature accompanied by LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS with conventional and naturalistic floral and foliate designs on a gold ground, EIGHTEEN LARGE MINIATURES WITH FULL BORDERS incorporating naturalistic plants and flowers, butterflies, ladybirds, a caterpillar, other borders of Renaissance architectural forms, with Renaissance motifs (putti, wreaths, garlands, cartouches, escutcheons, etc.), the text often written on trompe-l'oeil grounds (f.4 somewhat loose, thumbing and signs of use). Late 18th-century dark blue-green polished leather with gilt panels and foliate designs, the gilt spine with five raised bands, the spine densely gilt with sceptre-like motifs and cherubim, the edges of the leaves gilt, endpapers of coloured and gilt patterned paper, flyleaves with the 'Maid of Dort' form of the 'Pro Patria' watermark, a red leather title-piece lettered in gilt 'MISSAL. DE. HENRY.DE.ALBRET. ROY.DE.NAVARRE' (upper pastedown), probably added for Beauclerk c.1780 (some scuffing). Blue cloth box with gilt morocco spine. A MASTERPIECE OF EARLY FRENCH RENAISSANCE PAINTING, MADE FOR - AND CONTAINING A PORTRAIT OF - FRANCE'S FIRST GREAT RENAISSANCE MONARCH PROVENANCE: 1. King François I of France (1494-1547), generally considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch as a patron of the arts, man of letters, employer of Leonardo da Vinci and effectively the founder of the Louvre art collections: with his arms f.21, and portrait f.89. Several of the miniatures are dated 1539 or 1540, although the first of these has been read as '1532' by more than one scholar. The final payers addressed to St Marculf are known to exist in only three books: (i) the present manuscript, (ii) the earlier unfinished Hours of François I (London, BL Add. 18853), and (iii) the later Hours of Henri II (Paris, BnF, lat. 1429). St Marculf was a 6th-century abbot whose relics were at Corbigny, between Laon and Reims. It became the custom of French kings after their coronation at Reims cathedral to make a pilgrimage to Corbigny, to touch the relics, and then to heal those sick with the skin disease scrofula, known as 'the king's evil' because of the belief that it could be cured by the touch of a monarch. The practice continued in England until the reign of George I, and in France until that of Louis XV. It was the subject of a classic study by Marc Bloch, Les Rois thaumaturges , 1924, translated into English as The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France , 1973. 2. John Ives, Jr (1751-1776), antiquary and herald, on whom see DNB : a slip of paper inscribed perhaps in his hand, apparently cut from the flyleaf of a previous binding is stuck to the penultimate flyleaf of the present binding, and reads 'This Missal was Henry of Albret's King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV of France, who married Margaret of Valois in 1527'; sold as part of his library by Baker and Leigh, Covent Garden, 3 March 1777, lot 650, for £10 15s, described as 'A most beautiful Roman M

Auction archive: Lot number 47
Auction:
Datum:
7 Jul 2010
Auction house:
Christie's
7 July 2010, London, King Street
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