BREVIARY, use of Rome, Proprium temporum and Commune sanctorum. illuminated manuscript on vellum [Germany?, second half of the 15th century].

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BREVIARY, use of Rome, Proprium temporum and Commune sanctorum. illuminated manuscript on vellum [Germany?, second half of the 15th century].
100 x 77mm. 222 leaves (of more than 254, without the first 32 text leaves and an undetermined number of leaves at the end, Common of Saints bound out-of-order, collation and sequence of texts available from department), contemporary roman foliation, vertical catchwords at inner margin on final versos, 22 lines written in brown ink in two sizes of tiny gothic script between 2 vertical and 23 horizontal lines ruled in brown, justification: 60 x 44mm, rubrics in red, text capitals touched red two- and one-line Lombard initials alternately of red or blue, some with reserved ornament or delicate pen-flourishing in brown, ascenders and descenders of first and last lines frequently extended with fine brown pen-work ornamentation and drolleries (a few margins slightly darkened from handling, minor flaking to the ink on a few flesh sides, f.33 stained and torn with loss of text, clean tear to f. 81 repaired without loss of text, pencil marks to a few pages), 19th-century brown morocco (slight wear to spine and extremities).

CONTENT: Proper of time, beginning with Easter; from the feast of Corpus Christi and the first Sunday after Pentecost to Christmas, followed by feasts of Christ and the Virgin from Epiphany (Jan. 6) to the Conception of the Virgin (Dec. 8), but concluding with Saint Thecla (Sept. 23) (ff.33-165; 165v-168v blank but ruled); Hymns (f.169-v); Liturgical Psalter, with hymns, responses, etc. (ff.170-237); Common of Saints, incomplete at the end (ff.241-258v).

This small pocket breviary was undoubtedly intended for personal use.

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Lot Essay

Previously owned by John de Rosen, mural painter and mosaicist. De Rosen was born in Poland, the son of Jan de Rosen, a distinguished artist at the court of Tsar Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia, and was raised in France. He spent the bulk of his career painting churches and cathedrals in Europe and North America and is responsible for the mosaic Christ in Majesty at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. and the murals of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.
He made the slip case sold with this breviary. A letter from the artist concerning the manuscript is also included.

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