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Details
BOOK OF HOURS, in Latin and French, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Rouen, c.1445-1450]
185 x 129mm. 55 leaves (2 detached): 18 (vi detached), 23 (of 2 + ii), 38 (i detached), 46, 5-68, 76, 88. 13 lines written in black ink in a gothic bookhand between two verticals and 14 horizontals ruled in red, rubrics in red, text capitals touched yellow, line endings and one-line initials in burnished gold on grounds of pink and blue patterned with white, two-line foliate initials in blue, pink and orange with white on burnished gold grounds, BORDERS IN THE OUTER MARGIN OF EVERY PAGE and in the innermargins of rectos with two-line initials, 12 four-line initials on gold grounds with borders to three sides and with gold bars to one side, ONE HISTORIATED INITIAL with full border and bars to two sides, NINE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES above large initials on gold grounds within full borders, some with animals (slight wear to some borders, smudging to face f.1 (slight), f.3v and f.37 (slight) and to robe f.46 (slight), detached leaf f.6 trimmed to outer and lower margin, detached leaf f.12 cut into border at top, stub remains, small losses of white from miniature). Mid-16th-century Parisian brown calf gilt tooled with interlacing fillets, some painted in grey or black, with giltfloral or foliate motifs, two of tools close to those of Claude de Picques, spine in seven compartments gilt-tooled each with a fleuron (joints restored). PROVENANCE: Although a self-contained volume, these leaves were originally part of a Book of Hours now in Paris (BnF, ms lat. 13283) that contains the Calendar, Office of the Virgin, Penitential Psalms and Litany, suffrages to the saints and Office of the Dead (F. Avril and N. Reynauld, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, 1993, p.170, see V. Leroquais, Les livre d'heures manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale, 1927, II, p.85, pls XXXVI-XXXVII). Texts and illumination localise the manuscript to Rouen; the absence from the Calendar of the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, instituted in Rouen in 1454, would accord with a date in the later 1440s or early 1450s. Both volumes have similar bindings indicating that the book was divided c.1550 in Paris. The BnF volume had to be supplied with a new Annunciation miniature suggesting that the two detached leaves from the present lot had also been excised before the division. They had been reinserted, perhaps with the c.1550 binding, when the volume was sold at Sotheby's, 23 June 1985, lot 97. BnF, lat. 13283 passed with the library of Pierre Séguier (1588-1672) to the abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés. It is not known when it became separated from the present lot. CONTENT: Gospel extracts ff.1-11; Quinze joys ff.12-19v; Sept requêtes ff.20-25; Hours of the Cross ff.26-36v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.37-45; Obsecro te ff.46-50v; O intemerata ff.50v-55v. ILLUMINATION: The illumination is by the Talbot Master, named for his work for Sir John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, immortalised by Shakespeare as the heroic leader of the English armies in the last stages of the Hundred Years War. The miniatures are closely comparable to the best work in one of the manuscripts from which he takes his name: the Shrewsbury Book, a great compilation of romances presented by Talbot to Margaret of Anjou on the occasion of her marriage to Henry VI in 1445(BL, Royal 15 E vi, S. McKendrick, J. Lowden and K. Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: the Genius of Illumination, 2011, no 143). The slightly stocky figures and heads with features carefully delineated in fine black lines, with touch of red to the lips, are the same types, portrayed with the same techniques, that are found at the court of Henry VI and his Queen in the Presentation miniature of the Shrewsbury Book, f.2v. The Master's delight in attractively strong colours and carefully defined shapes and patterns may have derived from the Fastolf Master with whom he shares many features. Whereas the Fastolf Master retreated with his English patrons over the Channel, the Talbot Master remained in Rouen after its reconquest in 1449. This Book of Hours could have been made for a French patron while the city was still under English rule or be part of the subsequent resurgence of French patronage, marked by important commissions from the town government, such as the compilation of treatises, BnF, ms fr. 126, dated to soon after 1450 (Avril and Reynaud, pp.170-171). Its author portrait of Cicero, f.153, is the type of the older Evangelists in the Hours and its borders are extremely close to those in the Hours, which also correspond to the later borders in the Shrewsbury Book, completed by 1445. THE ILLUMINATION OF THIS BOOK OF HOURS REPRESENTS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE AND ACCOMPLISHED WORK OF THE TALBOT MASTER. The subjects of the miniatures are as follows: St Luke, apparently writing a musical scroll, with his ox f.1; St John on Patmos with a devil stealing his inkpot and pencase f.3v; St Matthew with his angel holding his inkpot f.6; St Mark, with his lion f.9; the Pietà with two angels at the foot of the Cross with a background of the Instruments of the Passion f.12; the Trinity with the Dove hovering between the Father and Son, enthroned above the firmament f.20; the Crucifixion f.26; Pentecost with the Apostles ranked either side of the enthroned Virgin f.37; the Virgin suckling the Child as the Woman of the Apocalypse, standing on the crescent moon against the rays of the sun, being crowned by two of the surrounding seraphs f.46. The subject of the historiated initial is the Virgin enthroned with the Child f.50v.
[Rouen, c.1445-1450]
185 x 129mm. 55 leaves (2 detached): 18 (vi detached), 23 (of 2 + ii), 38 (i detached), 46, 5-68, 76, 88. 13 lines written in black ink in a gothic bookhand between two verticals and 14 horizontals ruled in red, rubrics in red, text capitals touched yellow, line endings and one-line initials in burnished gold on grounds of pink and blue patterned with white, two-line foliate initials in blue, pink and orange with white on burnished gold grounds, BORDERS IN THE OUTER MARGIN OF EVERY PAGE and in the innermargins of rectos with two-line initials, 12 four-line initials on gold grounds with borders to three sides and with gold bars to one side, ONE HISTORIATED INITIAL with full border and bars to two sides, NINE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES above large initials on gold grounds within full borders, some with animals (slight wear to some borders, smudging to face f.1 (slight), f.3v and f.37 (slight) and to robe f.46 (slight), detached leaf f.6 trimmed to outer and lower margin, detached leaf f.12 cut into border at top, stub remains, small losses of white from miniature). Mid-16th-century Parisian brown calf gilt tooled with interlacing fillets, some painted in grey or black, with giltfloral or foliate motifs, two of tools close to those of Claude de Picques, spine in seven compartments gilt-tooled each with a fleuron (joints restored). PROVENANCE: Although a self-contained volume, these leaves were originally part of a Book of Hours now in Paris (BnF, ms lat. 13283) that contains the Calendar, Office of the Virgin, Penitential Psalms and Litany, suffrages to the saints and Office of the Dead (F. Avril and N. Reynauld, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, 1993, p.170, see V. Leroquais, Les livre d'heures manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale, 1927, II, p.85, pls XXXVI-XXXVII). Texts and illumination localise the manuscript to Rouen; the absence from the Calendar of the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, instituted in Rouen in 1454, would accord with a date in the later 1440s or early 1450s. Both volumes have similar bindings indicating that the book was divided c.1550 in Paris. The BnF volume had to be supplied with a new Annunciation miniature suggesting that the two detached leaves from the present lot had also been excised before the division. They had been reinserted, perhaps with the c.1550 binding, when the volume was sold at Sotheby's, 23 June 1985, lot 97. BnF, lat. 13283 passed with the library of Pierre Séguier (1588-1672) to the abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés. It is not known when it became separated from the present lot. CONTENT: Gospel extracts ff.1-11; Quinze joys ff.12-19v; Sept requêtes ff.20-25; Hours of the Cross ff.26-36v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.37-45; Obsecro te ff.46-50v; O intemerata ff.50v-55v. ILLUMINATION: The illumination is by the Talbot Master, named for his work for Sir John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, immortalised by Shakespeare as the heroic leader of the English armies in the last stages of the Hundred Years War. The miniatures are closely comparable to the best work in one of the manuscripts from which he takes his name: the Shrewsbury Book, a great compilation of romances presented by Talbot to Margaret of Anjou on the occasion of her marriage to Henry VI in 1445(BL, Royal 15 E vi, S. McKendrick, J. Lowden and K. Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: the Genius of Illumination, 2011, no 143). The slightly stocky figures and heads with features carefully delineated in fine black lines, with touch of red to the lips, are the same types, portrayed with the same techniques, that are found at the court of Henry VI and his Queen in the Presentation miniature of the Shrewsbury Book, f.2v. The Master's delight in attractively strong colours and carefully defined shapes and patterns may have derived from the Fastolf Master with whom he shares many features. Whereas the Fastolf Master retreated with his English patrons over the Channel, the Talbot Master remained in Rouen after its reconquest in 1449. This Book of Hours could have been made for a French patron while the city was still under English rule or be part of the subsequent resurgence of French patronage, marked by important commissions from the town government, such as the compilation of treatises, BnF, ms fr. 126, dated to soon after 1450 (Avril and Reynaud, pp.170-171). Its author portrait of Cicero, f.153, is the type of the older Evangelists in the Hours and its borders are extremely close to those in the Hours, which also correspond to the later borders in the Shrewsbury Book, completed by 1445. THE ILLUMINATION OF THIS BOOK OF HOURS REPRESENTS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE AND ACCOMPLISHED WORK OF THE TALBOT MASTER. The subjects of the miniatures are as follows: St Luke, apparently writing a musical scroll, with his ox f.1; St John on Patmos with a devil stealing his inkpot and pencase f.3v; St Matthew with his angel holding his inkpot f.6; St Mark, with his lion f.9; the Pietà with two angels at the foot of the Cross with a background of the Instruments of the Passion f.12; the Trinity with the Dove hovering between the Father and Son, enthroned above the firmament f.20; the Crucifixion f.26; Pentecost with the Apostles ranked either side of the enthroned Virgin f.37; the Virgin suckling the Child as the Woman of the Apocalypse, standing on the crescent moon against the rays of the sun, being crowned by two of the surrounding seraphs f.46. The subject of the historiated initial is the Virgin enthroned with the Child f.50v.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni