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Details
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Bruges, c.1405-1415]
An early example of a Book of Hours made in Bruges for the English market, illuminated by the Master of the Beaufort Saints and associates, with a notable provenance from families prominent in English Catholicism.
176 x 115mm. 101 + i leaves, probably lacking one inserted miniature leaf, text complete, 25 lines ruled space: 110 x 64mm. Twelve full-page miniatures on inserted leaves with borders to three sides, three facing rectos with full borders (some wear and paint losses to some miniatures, mostly to frames; wear to margins with staining on f.21v). 20th-century brown morocco stamped in black (slight cracking to joints)
Provenance:
(1) The book can be dated and localized to Bruges from comparison with an Hours, now Durham, Ushaw College, ms 10, dated by the scribe in Bruges on 21 January 1409 (n.s.). It was made for England: the use is Sarum with texts customary in England; the calendar mixes a few Netherlandish saints with predominantly English feasts; the litany is more Netherlandish. The English annotations show it reached its intended market in the 15th century; a later owner did not obey Henry VIII’s legislation of 1538 to erase celebrations of Thomas Becket.
(2) Bybbesworth, in a 15th-century English hand f.9v: the main family from Bibbesworth in Hertfordshire also held lands in Middlesex and Essex. A possible first purchaser would be Edmund Bybbesworth (d.1443), adult in 1402 and MP for Middlesex 1421-1437; his grandson Thomas (d.1485) was his last heir in the male line.
(3) Sir Edward Stanley, Lord Monteagle, KG (d.1523): Elas et qant E. Stanley on f.21v is the motto – Hélas et quand – and signature of Edward Stanley, son of the Earl of Derby and stepbrother of Henry VII. He had the same formulation carved in stone at Hornby Castle in Lancashire. His grandson William, 3rd Lord Monteagle (d.1581), left only a daughter Elizabeth (d. 1585), married to the 12th Lord Morley; all were active Catholics. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was discovered when a fellow Catholic warned their son, William, Lord Monteagle (1574/5-1622) to avoid Parliament.
(4) Anne Shouldham (d.1592): Anne, daughter of Edward Cocket of Ampton in Suffolk (d. c.1543) and Anne Froxmere; in 1556/7 she married Humphrey Shouldham of Marham (c.1511-1566). Anne’s previous ownership of the book was recorded by her nephew Edward Yelverton of Grimston in Norfolk, eldest son of William and his second wife, her sister, Jane Cocket (f.2); evidently a Catholic, she may have removed the miniature of St Anne for independent use. The Morley estates were in East Anglia: the book possibly reached her through Elizabeth, Lady Morley.
(5) Edward Yelverton (d. 1623): probably a bequest from Anne Shouldham; on f.2 Edward contrasted Anne’s ownership with Nazareth Yelverton’s love of, and desire for, the book, especially its pictures, and invited prayers for both their souls above the initials ENY, for Edward and his wife Nazareth (d.1593). In the calendar, along with additional feasts and family obits, Edward noted Anne’s death in 1592 by 28 December and, Nazareth’s in 1593 by 29 March; in the miniature frames before the Office of the Dead and the Commendation of Souls he touchingly asked for prayers for the souls of Nazareth (f.67v), and of Nazareth and Anne (f.81v). Nazareth was the daughter of Edmund Bedingfeld of Oxburgh Hall, now famed for its priest hole and seen as an embodiment of the Bedingfelds’ unshakeable Catholic faith; her grandfather Sir Henry Bedingfeld was gaoler of the future Elizabeth I during Mary’s reign. The Yelvertons were not united in religion but Edward was among the staunch Catholics, protecting the Jesuit missions and fostering Catholic practice.
(6) Quaritch, A Catalogue of Illuminated and Other Manuscripts, 1931, no 54; A Catalogue of Books comprising Bibles, etc, no 474, 1933, no 89.
Content: Former pastedown with verse in a 15th-century English hand f.1, Calendar ff.2-7; Memorials, ff.9-20: Trinity f.9, Sts Christopher f.11, George f.13, Thomas Becket f.15, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist f.17, Katherine, Margaret f. 19, Anne f.20; Office of the Virgin, use of Sarum, with memorials after lauds and interspersed with the Hours of the Cross from lauds ff.22-41v; farsed version of the Salve regina ff.42-45; prayers ff.45-55v; Penitential Psalms ff.57-61v; Fifteen Gradual Psalms ff.61v-62v; Litany ff.62v-66v; Office of the Dead, use of Sarum ff.68-80; Commendation of Souls ff.82-89; Psalter of St Jerome ff.91-97v; Psalms of the Passion ff.99-101v.
The subjects of the full-page miniatures are: Trinity f.8v, St Christopher f.10v, St George f.12v, martyrdom of St Thomas Becket f.14v, Sts John the Baptist and John the Evangelist f.16v, Sts Katherine and Margaret f. 18v, Annunciation f.21v, Last Judgement f.56v, Office of the Dead f.67v, God the Father bearing three souls f.81v, St Jerome in his study f.90v; Agony in the Garden f.98v.
The miniatures, with their delicately patterned backgrounds, are by the Master of the Beaufort Saints and associates. The Master was named from the miniatures added to the Hours owned by Margaret, wife of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (British Library, Royal ms 2 A XVIII); those miniatures were previously in a Psalter where three of the sequence remain (Rennes, Bibl. mun. ms 22; see S. McKendrick, J. Lowden and K. Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination, 2011, no 25). In the present lot Sts George, Christopher and Thomas Becket are simplified versions of their equivalent Beaufort Saints. Although more than one hand can be distinguished in the Beaufort Saints miniatures, the majority seem by the same, most skilful hand, presumably that of the Master. There was apparently a small group of illuminators around him, sharing his compositions and painterly style.
Within this group, the present lot belongs with four Hours with miniatures derived from shared patterns; the same hand is responsible for at least some miniatures in each of them. One is for the use of Rome: New York, Morgan Library, M 1073; three are for the use of Sarum: London, BL, Royal 2 A VIII, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, mss Canon. liturg. 116, and lat. liturg. f. 2 (see S. Vertongen and K. Smeyers in Vlaamse Miniaturen voor Van Eyck Catalogus, 1993, nos 21-22). Repetitions can be almost exact: from the present lot, for example, St Jerome is in Royal 2 A VIII (reversed), the Office of the Dead in Canon. liturg. 116, Katherine and Margaret and the Annunciation in lat. liturg. f. 2. In all five manuscripts, the principal illuminator is distinguished by his refined detail in describing faces and modelling drapery and by his strong sense of shape established through smoothly simplified contours and a concentration on pink, blue and red, all features that mark the unusually elaborate Beaufort Saints miniatures. Allowing for their different ambition, the miniatures admired by Nazareth Yelverton also show the hand of the Master.
An early example of a Book of Hours made in Bruges for the English market, illuminated by the Master of the Beaufort Saints and associates, with a notable provenance from families prominent in English Catholicism.
176 x 115mm. 101 + i leaves, probably lacking one inserted miniature leaf, text complete, 25 lines ruled space: 110 x 64mm. Twelve full-page miniatures on inserted leaves with borders to three sides, three facing rectos with full borders (some wear and paint losses to some miniatures, mostly to frames; wear to margins with staining on f.21v). 20th-century brown morocco stamped in black (slight cracking to joints)
Provenance:
(1) The book can be dated and localized to Bruges from comparison with an Hours, now Durham, Ushaw College, ms 10, dated by the scribe in Bruges on 21 January 1409 (n.s.). It was made for England: the use is Sarum with texts customary in England; the calendar mixes a few Netherlandish saints with predominantly English feasts; the litany is more Netherlandish. The English annotations show it reached its intended market in the 15th century; a later owner did not obey Henry VIII’s legislation of 1538 to erase celebrations of Thomas Becket.
(2) Bybbesworth, in a 15th-century English hand f.9v: the main family from Bibbesworth in Hertfordshire also held lands in Middlesex and Essex. A possible first purchaser would be Edmund Bybbesworth (d.1443), adult in 1402 and MP for Middlesex 1421-1437; his grandson Thomas (d.1485) was his last heir in the male line.
(3) Sir Edward Stanley, Lord Monteagle, KG (d.1523): Elas et qant E. Stanley on f.21v is the motto – Hélas et quand – and signature of Edward Stanley, son of the Earl of Derby and stepbrother of Henry VII. He had the same formulation carved in stone at Hornby Castle in Lancashire. His grandson William, 3rd Lord Monteagle (d.1581), left only a daughter Elizabeth (d. 1585), married to the 12th Lord Morley; all were active Catholics. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was discovered when a fellow Catholic warned their son, William, Lord Monteagle (1574/5-1622) to avoid Parliament.
(4) Anne Shouldham (d.1592): Anne, daughter of Edward Cocket of Ampton in Suffolk (d. c.1543) and Anne Froxmere; in 1556/7 she married Humphrey Shouldham of Marham (c.1511-1566). Anne’s previous ownership of the book was recorded by her nephew Edward Yelverton of Grimston in Norfolk, eldest son of William and his second wife, her sister, Jane Cocket (f.2); evidently a Catholic, she may have removed the miniature of St Anne for independent use. The Morley estates were in East Anglia: the book possibly reached her through Elizabeth, Lady Morley.
(5) Edward Yelverton (d. 1623): probably a bequest from Anne Shouldham; on f.2 Edward contrasted Anne’s ownership with Nazareth Yelverton’s love of, and desire for, the book, especially its pictures, and invited prayers for both their souls above the initials ENY, for Edward and his wife Nazareth (d.1593). In the calendar, along with additional feasts and family obits, Edward noted Anne’s death in 1592 by 28 December and, Nazareth’s in 1593 by 29 March; in the miniature frames before the Office of the Dead and the Commendation of Souls he touchingly asked for prayers for the souls of Nazareth (f.67v), and of Nazareth and Anne (f.81v). Nazareth was the daughter of Edmund Bedingfeld of Oxburgh Hall, now famed for its priest hole and seen as an embodiment of the Bedingfelds’ unshakeable Catholic faith; her grandfather Sir Henry Bedingfeld was gaoler of the future Elizabeth I during Mary’s reign. The Yelvertons were not united in religion but Edward was among the staunch Catholics, protecting the Jesuit missions and fostering Catholic practice.
(6) Quaritch, A Catalogue of Illuminated and Other Manuscripts, 1931, no 54; A Catalogue of Books comprising Bibles, etc, no 474, 1933, no 89.
Content: Former pastedown with verse in a 15th-century English hand f.1, Calendar ff.2-7; Memorials, ff.9-20: Trinity f.9, Sts Christopher f.11, George f.13, Thomas Becket f.15, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist f.17, Katherine, Margaret f. 19, Anne f.20; Office of the Virgin, use of Sarum, with memorials after lauds and interspersed with the Hours of the Cross from lauds ff.22-41v; farsed version of the Salve regina ff.42-45; prayers ff.45-55v; Penitential Psalms ff.57-61v; Fifteen Gradual Psalms ff.61v-62v; Litany ff.62v-66v; Office of the Dead, use of Sarum ff.68-80; Commendation of Souls ff.82-89; Psalter of St Jerome ff.91-97v; Psalms of the Passion ff.99-101v.
The subjects of the full-page miniatures are: Trinity f.8v, St Christopher f.10v, St George f.12v, martyrdom of St Thomas Becket f.14v, Sts John the Baptist and John the Evangelist f.16v, Sts Katherine and Margaret f. 18v, Annunciation f.21v, Last Judgement f.56v, Office of the Dead f.67v, God the Father bearing three souls f.81v, St Jerome in his study f.90v; Agony in the Garden f.98v.
The miniatures, with their delicately patterned backgrounds, are by the Master of the Beaufort Saints and associates. The Master was named from the miniatures added to the Hours owned by Margaret, wife of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (British Library, Royal ms 2 A XVIII); those miniatures were previously in a Psalter where three of the sequence remain (Rennes, Bibl. mun. ms 22; see S. McKendrick, J. Lowden and K. Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination, 2011, no 25). In the present lot Sts George, Christopher and Thomas Becket are simplified versions of their equivalent Beaufort Saints. Although more than one hand can be distinguished in the Beaufort Saints miniatures, the majority seem by the same, most skilful hand, presumably that of the Master. There was apparently a small group of illuminators around him, sharing his compositions and painterly style.
Within this group, the present lot belongs with four Hours with miniatures derived from shared patterns; the same hand is responsible for at least some miniatures in each of them. One is for the use of Rome: New York, Morgan Library, M 1073; three are for the use of Sarum: London, BL, Royal 2 A VIII, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, mss Canon. liturg. 116, and lat. liturg. f. 2 (see S. Vertongen and K. Smeyers in Vlaamse Miniaturen voor Van Eyck Catalogus, 1993, nos 21-22). Repetitions can be almost exact: from the present lot, for example, St Jerome is in Royal 2 A VIII (reversed), the Office of the Dead in Canon. liturg. 116, Katherine and Margaret and the Annunciation in lat. liturg. f. 2. In all five manuscripts, the principal illuminator is distinguished by his refined detail in describing faces and modelling drapery and by his strong sense of shape established through smoothly simplified contours and a concentration on pink, blue and red, all features that mark the unusually elaborate Beaufort Saints miniatures. Allowing for their different ambition, the miniatures admired by Nazareth Yelverton also show the hand of the Master.
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