Beschreibung:

THE INCE BLUNDELL HOURS, Book of Hours, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Bruges, c.1500] 115 x 80mm. 244 leaves: 1 2 , 2 7 (vii a singleton), 3 6 , 4 1 1 (i, iv and ix singletons with miniature on verso), 5 1 2 (iii and vi singletons with miniature on verso), 6 9 (ii singleton with miniature on verso), 7 9 (vi singleton with miniature on verso), 8 8 , 9 9 (ix singleton), 10 7 (ii singleton with miniature on verso), 11 8 , 12 1 0 (i and viii singletons with miniature on verso), 13 1 0 (ii and ix singletons with miniature on verso), 14 9 (v singleton with miniature on verso), 15 9 (v singleton with miniature on verso), 16 9 (iii singleton with miniature on verso), 17 1 0 (vi and vii singletons, vi with minature on verso), 18 8 , 19 6 , 20 6 , 21 9 (i singleton with miniature on verso), 22 8 , 23 9 (viii singleton with miniature on verso), 24-28 8 , 29 9 , 30 4 , COMPLETE, the Calendar with 17 lines written in black and pink, two-line initials with grey staves against ochre grounds, each month extending over facing verso and recto with TWENTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE BORDERS COMPRISING TWELVE CONTINUOUS SCENES OF THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE MONTHS IN EXTENSIVE LANDSCAPE SETTINGS, the remainder of the manuscript in 15 lines written in black ink in a round gothic bookhand between 2 verticals and 16 horizontals ruled in red, justification: 59 x 40mm, rubrics in red, one- and two-line initials with grey foliate staves against grounds of red heightened with liquid gold, each devotion opening with a five-line initial with brown and gold foliate staves against grounds of blue, pink or green, EIGHTEEN FULL-PAGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES WITH SURROUNDING BORDERS and matching borders on the facing pages, TWENTY-SEVEN BAS-DE-PAGE OR SMALL MINIATURES WITH THREE-SIDED OR FULL-PAGE BORDERS, one historiated initial in camïeu d'or with a three-sided border, the borders mostly of two types, either Ghent-Bruges scatter borders of flowers and fruit with insects or birds against gold or coloured grounds or complex architectural borders, several including figures of sculpture, putti or the donor (slight thumbing to the outer margins of the first 40 folios). French 19th-century maroon morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and blind, gilt doublures and gilt vellum liners, edges gilt and gauffered, brown straight-grain morocco slipcase. AN ENTIRELY UNRECORDED MANUSCRIPT LAVISHLY AND EXQUISITELY ILLUMINATED BY ONE OF THE FOREMOST ARTISTS OF THE 'GHENT-BRUGES' SCHOOL PROVENANCE: 1. The manuscript is written in the round script, characteristically Italian, that was used for books produced for southern Europeans resident in Bruges, and was clearly illuminated for the young woman in Italian dress who is portrayed three times. She is shown in two miniatures: on folio 30 in prayer to the Lamentation on the facing verso, on folio 142 in prayer to the Virgin and Child on the facing verso, and kneeling in a niche in the border of folio 153 praying to the figure of St Michael the Archangel. In all cases her portrait is accompanied by a coat of arms, or three pales sable , that is also painted on folios 16v, 96, 107v and 162v. Although the shields were clearly painted after the completion of the borders, there is no sign of any prior underpainting and these arms undoubtedly belong to the earliest owner of the book. Two Italian families used this coat of arms: the Agliata, or Alliata of Pisa and Sicily, and the Negrone of Genoa. In 1465 a Pisan merchant appeared before the magistrates of Bruges on behalf of another Pisan merchant, 'Baptiste Aliate', and again in 1469 as executor and factor for Alliata's children. The coat of arms is included in the border of the page with the suffrage to the Magdalene, and, in the Raising of Lazarus miniature, that saint is in an unusually prominent position and bears a marked resemblance to the portraits of the owner of the manuscript; could the manuscript have been destined for a Maria Maddalena Alliata? 2. Ince Blundell H