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BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[France, follower of the Boucicaut Master, c. 1420]
182 x 127mm. i + 160 + 18 + i leaves: 112, 26, 38, 49(ii an inserted miniature, recto blank), 5-98, 105(of 6, i blank cancelled), 11-208, 214(i cancelled and replaced with a blank), 22-234, 256, COMPLETE, horizontal catchwords centred in lower margin on last verso of most quires, 16 lines written in dark brown ink in a gothic bookhand between 2 verticals and 17 horizontals ruled in brown ink, justification: 100 x 63mm, rubrics in red, one- and two-line initials in burnished gold with grounds and infills of mauve and blue with white penwork decoration, similar line fillers, three-, four- and six-line initials of blue or mauve against a ground of the other colour with white penwork decoration and infill of burnished gold with curling ivyleaf stems of orange, mauve, and blue, the larger initials with marginal extensions of gold ivyleaves and buds and dark pink and blue flowers on black hairline stems, FULL-PAGE MINIATURE with border of gold ivyleaves and mauve and blue buds on black hairline stems, FOURTEEN HALF-PAGE MINIATURES with arched tops and simple baguette borders of mauve, blue and burnished gold, these pages and f.29 with full borders of burnished gold ivyleaves and flowers interspersed with coloured buds and flowers on scrolling black hairline stems, including one also with coloured sprays of acanthus and flowers and inhabited by birds (first leaf darkened, f.i detached, occasional light stains or smudging to borders, several miniatures with loss of pigment, a few careful contemporary corrections in the text). Modern embossed green velvet over pasteboard, two chased clasps and eight bosses of white metal, gilt edges (upper joint splitting, the metal furniture oxidised). Modern brown cloth box.
A LARGELY UNSTUDIED BOOK OF HOURS FROM THE CELEBRATED ARENBERG COLLECTION, PROBABLY BOUGHT FOR A NUN OF SHAFTESBURY ABBEY
PROVENANCE:
1. It is probable that the manuscript was made in Paris during the English occupation of the early 15th century for an English patron. The calendar emphasizing English saints, the Sarum use of the Office of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead, and the suffrages featuring St George, all indicate that the book was intended for use in England. The prominence in the calendar of feasts of King Edward the Martyr suggests that the book may have been destined for use at Shaftesbury Abbey, whose patron saint Edward was, and this probability is strengthened by the presence on f.18v of the erased 15th-century ex libris of Sister Lucy Foherse(?), perhaps a connection of the Forsey family of Dorset (Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, vol. 109, 1987, pp.21-25). Few manuscripts survive from Shaftesbury; Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, and supplement, lists only seven.
2. Harry ...: erased 16th-century inscriptions in English, ff.12v, 137, '... pray for the sole of hary ...'
3. Prayers in Polish in a hand of the ?18th century on the added leaves, ff.161-178v
4. Ferdinand comte de Plettenberg, 1733: inscription, f.1
5. Comtesse d'Esterhazy, née Comtesse de Plettenberg: bookplate
6. Dukes of Arenberg: inscription and Nordkirchen library stamp, f.iv. The manuscript was part of the Plettenberg collection at the château of Nordkirchen, purchased by the Dukes of Arenberg in 1903 and subsequently sold to Jacques Seligmann, Illuminated manuscripts (11th century through the 16th century) from the Bibliothèque of their Highnesses the Dukes d'Arenberg, New York 1952, no 78.
7. Lathrop C. Harper, Inc., cat. N.S. 13, no 2, sold to Seven Gables Bookshop, after which it was acquired by the family of the present consignor and disappeared from public view. Claudine Lemaire, in her effort to reconstruct the library of the Dukes of Arenberg, listed it as 'trace perdu' ('La bibliothèque des Ducs d'Arenberg, une première approche', in Liber amicorum Herman Liebaers, Brussels 1984, p.102, no 78). The designation of the manuscript in the Harper catalogue and in Lemaire as the 'Hours of Catherine de Nevers' is a mistaken attribution that derives from a false reading of the erased inscription on f.18v.
CONTENTS:
(ff.1-12v) Sarum calendar, including in red: Wulfstan (Jan. 19), Gregory (Mar. 12), King Edward the Martyr (Mar. 18), Cuthbert (Mar. 20), Benedict (Mar. 21), Alphege (April 19), Alcuin (May 25), Augustine of Canterbury (May 26), Translation of King Edward the Martyr (June 20), Alban (June 22), Translation of Thomas à Becket (July 7), Translation of Benedict (July 11), Translation of Cuthbert (Sept. 4), King Edward (Oct. 13), Wulfram (Oct. 15), Edmund of Abingdon (Nov. 16), King Edward the Martyr (Nov. 20), Thomas à Becket (Dec. 29); (ff.13-17v) Gospel sequences; (ff.17v-18v) Prayers added in a contemporary hand; (ff.19-72) Hours of the Virgin, use of Sarum, interspersed with the Hours of the Cross; (ff. 37-43v) Suffrages, with St George preceding the apostles, and including Mary Magdalene, Anne, Margaret, and Katherine; (ff.72v-75) Hours of the Holy Spirit, Matins-Vespers; (ff.75-77v) Obsecro te, in masculine form; (ff.78-80) O intemerata, in masculine form; (f.80v blank); (ff.81-102) Penitential psalms, litany and prayers; (ff.102v-136v) Office of the Dead, use of Sarum; (ff.137-158) Commendatio animarum; (ff.158-160v) Prayers added in a contemporary hand; (f.161 blank); (ff.162-178v) Prayers in Polish added in a modern hand.
ILLUMINATION:
Apparently on the basis of its publication in Jacques Seligmann's 1952 catalogue, Erwin Panofsky attributed this Book of Hours to Flanders, presumably Ghent (Early Netherlandish Painting, p.406, n.121/6). Some of its motifs point in this direction and the border of the full-page miniature on f.28v is of a type found in contemporary Flemish manuscripts. The composition of this miniature of the Visitation is particularly close to that found in Walters Art Gallery, Ms 94, attributed by Lilian Randall to an artist influenced by Pseudo-Jacquemart (Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, I, fig. 151). Although this miniature, the only full-page miniature in the present codex, is on an inserted leaf with the opposite side blank, the style of the drawing makes clear that it belongs to the manuscript. The more direct influence of Jacquemart de Hesdin may be seen in the depiction of the Coronation of the Virgin, which is modelled on the Coronation in the Brussels Hours of Jean, Duc de Berry, a manuscript that appears also to have inspired the backgrounds of scrolling foliage found here with the miniatures of the Visitation and the Burial of the Dead.
The predominant influence on the illumination of this manuscript, however, was clearly that of the Boucicaut Master and his workshop. The Annunciation conforms closely to a type found in the Zwemmer Book of Hours and in Walters Art Gallery, Ms 238 (M. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicaut Master, figs 120, 121), and the Burial of the Dead is modelled on the scene found in Berlin-Dahlem, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, Ms 78 C 4 (Meiss, fig. 152). The Annunciation to the Shepherds, the Flight into Egypt, and the Office of the Dead also correspond to compositions characteristic of the Boucicaut Master and his followers. The majority of the miniatures are placed against the tesselated background, usually of burnished gold, red and blue, that is usually found with miniatures from this school.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f.13 John on Patmos.
f.19 Annunciation.
f.28v Visitation.
f.38 St George.
f.44 Crucifixion.
f.45 Nativity. Mary reclines on a red couch, while Joseph, seated beside her on a floor of plaited rushes, drys a cloth over a brazier. The child, naked in the manger, crawls towards the Virgin.
f.50 Annunciation to the Shepherds.
f.54 Presentation in the Temple.
f.57v Three Kings.
f.61v Flight into Egypt.
f.67 Coronation of the Virgin.
f.72v Pentecost.
f.81 God the Father enthroned, holding the orb and blessing, the tablets of the Old Law on the back of the throne on God's left and the chalice and host of the New Law on His right.
f.102v Office of the dead.
f.137 Burial of the dead. Two men lower the shrouded corpse into the grave in a walled cemetery; behind them a priest with a group of clerics and mourners, two angels above carrying the soul aloft in a patterned cloth, against a background of dark blue scrolling foliage on a black ground.
[France, follower of the Boucicaut Master, c. 1420]
182 x 127mm. i + 160 + 18 + i leaves: 1
A LARGELY UNSTUDIED BOOK OF HOURS FROM THE CELEBRATED ARENBERG COLLECTION, PROBABLY BOUGHT FOR A NUN OF SHAFTESBURY ABBEY
PROVENANCE:
1. It is probable that the manuscript was made in Paris during the English occupation of the early 15th century for an English patron. The calendar emphasizing English saints, the Sarum use of the Office of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead, and the suffrages featuring St George, all indicate that the book was intended for use in England. The prominence in the calendar of feasts of King Edward the Martyr suggests that the book may have been destined for use at Shaftesbury Abbey, whose patron saint Edward was, and this probability is strengthened by the presence on f.18v of the erased 15th-century ex libris of Sister Lucy Foherse(?), perhaps a connection of the Forsey family of Dorset (Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, vol. 109, 1987, pp.21-25). Few manuscripts survive from Shaftesbury; Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, and supplement, lists only seven.
2. Harry ...: erased 16th-century inscriptions in English, ff.12v, 137, '... pray for the sole of hary ...'
3. Prayers in Polish in a hand of the ?18th century on the added leaves, ff.161-178v
4. Ferdinand comte de Plettenberg, 1733: inscription, f.1
5. Comtesse d'Esterhazy, née Comtesse de Plettenberg: bookplate
6. Dukes of Arenberg: inscription and Nordkirchen library stamp, f.i
7. Lathrop C. Harper, Inc., cat. N.S. 13, no 2, sold to Seven Gables Bookshop, after which it was acquired by the family of the present consignor and disappeared from public view. Claudine Lemaire, in her effort to reconstruct the library of the Dukes of Arenberg, listed it as 'trace perdu' ('La bibliothèque des Ducs d'Arenberg, une première approche', in Liber amicorum Herman Liebaers, Brussels 1984, p.102, no 78). The designation of the manuscript in the Harper catalogue and in Lemaire as the 'Hours of Catherine de Nevers' is a mistaken attribution that derives from a false reading of the erased inscription on f.18v.
CONTENTS:
(ff.1-12v) Sarum calendar, including in red: Wulfstan (Jan. 19), Gregory (Mar. 12), King Edward the Martyr (Mar. 18), Cuthbert (Mar. 20), Benedict (Mar. 21), Alphege (April 19), Alcuin (May 25), Augustine of Canterbury (May 26), Translation of King Edward the Martyr (June 20), Alban (June 22), Translation of Thomas à Becket (July 7), Translation of Benedict (July 11), Translation of Cuthbert (Sept. 4), King Edward (Oct. 13), Wulfram (Oct. 15), Edmund of Abingdon (Nov. 16), King Edward the Martyr (Nov. 20), Thomas à Becket (Dec. 29); (ff.13-17v) Gospel sequences; (ff.17v-18v) Prayers added in a contemporary hand; (ff.19-72) Hours of the Virgin, use of Sarum, interspersed with the Hours of the Cross; (ff. 37-43v) Suffrages, with St George preceding the apostles, and including Mary Magdalene, Anne, Margaret, and Katherine; (ff.72v-75) Hours of the Holy Spirit, Matins-Vespers; (ff.75-77v) Obsecro te, in masculine form; (ff.78-80) O intemerata, in masculine form; (f.80v blank); (ff.81-102) Penitential psalms, litany and prayers; (ff.102v-136v) Office of the Dead, use of Sarum; (ff.137-158) Commendatio animarum; (ff.158-160v) Prayers added in a contemporary hand; (f.161 blank); (ff.162-178v) Prayers in Polish added in a modern hand.
ILLUMINATION:
Apparently on the basis of its publication in Jacques Seligmann's 1952 catalogue, Erwin Panofsky attributed this Book of Hours to Flanders, presumably Ghent (Early Netherlandish Painting, p.406, n.121/6). Some of its motifs point in this direction and the border of the full-page miniature on f.28v is of a type found in contemporary Flemish manuscripts. The composition of this miniature of the Visitation is particularly close to that found in Walters Art Gallery, Ms 94, attributed by Lilian Randall to an artist influenced by Pseudo-Jacquemart (Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, I, fig. 151). Although this miniature, the only full-page miniature in the present codex, is on an inserted leaf with the opposite side blank, the style of the drawing makes clear that it belongs to the manuscript. The more direct influence of Jacquemart de Hesdin may be seen in the depiction of the Coronation of the Virgin, which is modelled on the Coronation in the Brussels Hours of Jean, Duc de Berry, a manuscript that appears also to have inspired the backgrounds of scrolling foliage found here with the miniatures of the Visitation and the Burial of the Dead.
The predominant influence on the illumination of this manuscript, however, was clearly that of the Boucicaut Master and his workshop. The Annunciation conforms closely to a type found in the Zwemmer Book of Hours and in Walters Art Gallery, Ms 238 (M. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicaut Master, figs 120, 121), and the Burial of the Dead is modelled on the scene found in Berlin-Dahlem, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, Ms 78 C 4 (Meiss, fig. 152). The Annunciation to the Shepherds, the Flight into Egypt, and the Office of the Dead also correspond to compositions characteristic of the Boucicaut Master and his followers. The majority of the miniatures are placed against the tesselated background, usually of burnished gold, red and blue, that is usually found with miniatures from this school.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f.13 John on Patmos.
f.19 Annunciation.
f.28v Visitation.
f.38 St George.
f.44 Crucifixion.
f.45 Nativity. Mary reclines on a red couch, while Joseph, seated beside her on a floor of plaited rushes, drys a cloth over a brazier. The child, naked in the manger, crawls towards the Virgin.
f.50 Annunciation to the Shepherds.
f.54 Presentation in the Temple.
f.57v Three Kings.
f.61v Flight into Egypt.
f.67 Coronation of the Virgin.
f.72v Pentecost.
f.81 God the Father enthroned, holding the orb and blessing, the tablets of the Old Law on the back of the throne on God's left and the chalice and host of the New Law on His right.
f.102v Office of the dead.
f.137 Burial of the dead. Two men lower the shrouded corpse into the grave in a walled cemetery; behind them a priest with a group of clerics and mourners, two angels above carrying the soul aloft in a patterned cloth, against a background of dark blue scrolling foliage on a black ground.