Beschreibung:

Workshop of the Master of Etienne Poncher (fl. first decades 16th century) The Hours of Nicole Bourguette, use of Reims, in French and Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Reims, first decade 16th century]. A highly personalised Book of Hours with numerous and unusual prayers in the French vernacular selected by its original owner Nicole Bourguette, charmingly illuminated in the style of the Master of Etienne Poncher, and later owned by the Comte d’Antraigues, the diplomat-spy who was dramatically assassinated by a disgruntled Italian servant. 182 x 130mm. iii (paper) +ii+144+ii+iii (paper), complete, collation: 1-38, 43 (of 4, i a cancelled blank), 5-88, 94, 10-168, 1710, 18-198, 20 lines, ruled space: 126 x 75mm, illuminated initials in gold on red and blue grounds throughout, rubrics in red, 4 large miniatures within a full border, 11 historiated initials with one-sided borders (occasional fading, thumbing and marginal staining, a few smudges and small losses of pigment, e.g. to the forehead of the Virgin on f.28 or to the face of Christ on f.64). 19th-century brown calf tooled in gold, title on spine and date ‘1593’ gilt (edges scuffed, spine cracked and detaching from text block). Provenance: (1) Nicole Bourguette: her ownership inscription on f.144v: ‘Ceste p[rese]nte heures app[ar]tie[n]ne[n]t a Nicole Bourguette’. The inscription is in the same hand as the rest of the manuscript, so Nicole was presumably the original owner. The almanac for the years 1508-20, the liturgical use of the Offices of the Virgin and of the Dead and St Remy in the calendar and Litany, indicate that the manuscript was produced in Reims in the first decade of the 16th century. The selection of unusual prayers, mostly in French (one to ward off thunder, one for pregnant women and women in labour, and another with a lengthy explanatory rubric regarding Canon Arnoul’s vision of the Virgin), and the Life of St Margaret (ff.129-144v), must point to Nicole’s own interests and affinities. (2) Sister Perrette Renault: her inscription in a 16th-century hand ‘Ses ditz heures m’ont estes venduz a moy sœur perrette renault religieuse de St Claire au Cordelliers’. This is likely the Clarissan Monastery of Sainte-Claire de Reims, founded in 1220. (3) H. Baillia: ownership inscription, initialled: ‘Qui me les a donnez le jour et an souscrits / le 27 mars 1593. H Baillia. H.B. ’ (4) Later, ?17th-century inscription ‘Cardunes’ at the foot of the page on f.144v. (5) Jules Pierre Antoine Emmanuel de Launay d’Antraigues (b.1792), of 27 Montague Place: ownership note in English signed ‘J.S.’ on the third paper flyleaf recounting how the book had been received on 24 July 1814 from the son of Louis-Alexandre-de Launay, comte d'Antraigues (1753-1812), French pamphleteer, diplomat, spy and political adventurer during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, who was assassinated with his wife at 27 Barnes Terrace either by a disgruntled Italian servant, or for political motives. The son is presumably Jules, comte d’Antraigues whom Jane Austen mentions in one of her letters to her sister Cassandra after a visit to tea at the d’Antraigue’s home in 1811. Most of his library was sold at auction in 1817. (6) Near-illegible notes in an early 20th-century English hand in pencil on the second paper flyleaf, beneath a sale catalogue clipping, where the present manuscript is no 81. (7) Sotheby’s, 18 July, 1949, lot 275. Content: Almanac for 1508-1520 and Calendar ff.1-7v; blank f.8; ‘O Royne qui fustes mise et assise’, in French, ff.9-12; prayer to one’s own guardian angel and to St Michael Archangel, in Latin, ff.12-13; prayers, in French, including: to Jesus, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Credo, the Ten Commandments, the Five Commandments of the Church, the ‘three truths’ to save one’s soul (beginning: ‘Mon Dieu, mon redempteur, par ta clemence infinite […]’), to St Gregory, ff.13-17v; prayers, in Latin, to the Holy Spirit and St Fiacre ff.17v-18v; Douce Dame, and ind