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Details
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Sarum, in Latin with additional devotions in Middle English, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[London, c.1410-1415]
174 x 110mm. i + 180 leaves: 16 + 1(of 6, with a final modern inserted vellum leaf), 28, 37(of 8, lacking i), 48, 54, 6-78, 82, 9-128, 136, 14-168, 176, 188, 1910, 209, 219(of 10, lacking i), 2213, 232, 249, seventeen lines written in a gothic bookhand in black or brown ink between two verticals and 18 horizontals (ff.1-147v ruled in red with the top two and the lowest horizontals across the margins, ff.148-179v ruled in brown with the outer horizontals across the margins), justification: 98 x 59mm, rubrics of red, calligraphic line-endings of blue, one- and two-line initials alternately of gold and blue with flourishing respectively of purple and red, THREE LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS ACCOMPANIED BY FULL-PAGE BORDERS of dagged-edge acanthus of pink, blue and green against a ground of burnished gold, sprays of golden disks with green leaves and tendrils into the margins, ONE SMALL HISTORIATED AND SEVEN LARGE FOLIATE INITIALS WITH THREE-SIDED BORDERS of similar type (slight rubbing of folio 8 especially affecting the gold disks of the lower border, small spots and stains in the margins of some folios). Contemporary wooden boards covered in modern crimson velvet. Red morocco box.
ILLUMINATED IN ONE OF LONDON'S LEADING WORKSHOPS AND WITH UNRECORDED MIDDLE ENGLISH DEVOTIONS
PROVENANCE:
1. The Cheyne or Cheney family: two births, of Myrabyl Cheyne in 1[4]81 (14 January) and Anne Cheyne in 1480 (19 February), and the marriage of Thomas Cheyne to Johanna, daughter of John Warde, in 1479 (7 November), are recorded in the Calendar. Branches of the Cheyne family were widespread. Other books owned by Cheynes are known, for example Pierpont Morgan Library M.124, Lydgate's Fall of Princes and an Hours of Sarum use, no 13 in the Collection of the Endowment for Biblical Research with an obit for 'William Cheyne militio'.
2. Jane Ffyne: her ownership inscription written in a 16th-century hand on the verso of the medieval endleaf, is followed by the verse Let godd worke his will and let man seke hym to plese sothat godd may lowe ws wher in we shall fynde ese.
3. A brief description of the manuscript, in Latin, written on the front endleaf is signed with the monogram WA and the year 1804.
4. Henry Huth (1815-1878): his letter to Edward Cheney, dated 29 June 1874, records the despatch of the manuscript, for which Huth had paid Quaritch 60 pounds, and that he was 'glad it is now in [Cheney's] possession'.
5. Edward Cheney
CONTENT:
Calendar ff.1-6v; Office of the Virgin, use of Sarum, interspersed with the Hours of the Cross ff.8-48, matins f.8, lauds (lacking opening) f.16, followed by suffrages to the Holy Spirit, Sts Michael, Thomas Becket, George, Richard of Chichester, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Paul, Thomas Becket, Lawrence, Christopher, Mary Magdalene, Catherine, Margaret, Nicholas, All Saints ff.24-31, prime f.31v, terce f.35v, sext (rubric'd ad vesperas) f.38, none f.40, vespers f.42v, compline f.44v: sequence of prayers and devotions opening with Salve regina mater misericordie ff.48-52: Seven Penitential Psalms ff.53-70: Litany ff.70-78v: Office of the Dead ff.79-115v: Commendation of Souls ff.116-128v: sequence of prayers and devotions opening with Salve sancta facies ff.129-147v: Psalms 21-30 (lacking opening of Ps. 21) ff.148-156v: Psalter of St Jerome ff.157-169v: To the worchipe of the wonds ff.170-171:suffrages to St Apollonia f.171v: In what man[ner] preyer sholde be used ff.172-178v: suffrages to Sts Edmund and Anna in Latin followed by the prayers Almygty lord ih[es]u[s] criste the whiche for synners were bore of oure lady mayde marie and God mygtiest in mercy and lord of alle mankynde ff.178v-180.
Folios 51 and 52 and 172-180 are contemporary or near-contemporary additions.
The Middle English tract beginning 'When thou shappest the to preye or haue eny deuocion foond the to haue a pryuee place' is an unrecorded copy of no M15 in P. Jolliffe, A Check-List of Middle English Prose Writings of Spiritual Guidance (Toronto, 1974). Jolliffe records 16 other copies of this work in institutional libraries in Britain or on the Continent. It also forms part of a larger devotional work (Jolliffe H15) feruor amoris. The two Middle English prayers that follow are apparently unique.
ILLUMINATION:
One of the most influential and accomplished English illuminators at the beginning of the 15th-century is known by name from his signature, 'iohannes me fecit', on a robe in the miniature showing Marco Polo and his brothers before Kublai Khan (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms Bodley 264, f.220). Around the same date as the Oxford manuscript, Johannes, with colleagues working in a closely related style, illuminated a group of Psalters: K.L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, 1996, pp.68-73. The borders of the present manuscript, with the dagged-edge acanthus leaves that curl and knot around bars and corners, are extremely close to those of one of the group, a Psalter in Oxford (Bodleian Library, Ms Don.d.85). Johannes is described by Scott as 'one of the premier decorators of books in the first quarter of the 15th century' and she attributes an 'impressive group of manuscripts' to him, including the Bedford Hours and Psalter (BL, Add.42131) 'one of the high points of English book production'. The majority of the manuscripts identified as having borders by this artist include illumination by Herman Scheerre and his followers and the same is true of the present manuscript. The iconography of the Annunciation, for example, with the Virgin with her arms crossed, is found in various books related to Scheerre's style, and follows very closely that of the Book of Hours where the signature, 'hermannus scheere me fecit', was first recognised (BL, Add.16998). Such similarities of subject and treatment are also true of the other initials. There are obvious debts to the style as well as the iconography of Scheerre; curving drapery is modelled with a lighter shade of the same colour, complexions are very pale and the eyes are characteristic black dots. The composition for the Office of the Dead, has the same components as the miniature in the Bedford Hours and Psalter but it is most closely comparable to one in a Book of Hours in Lambeth Palace (Ms 474). The only departure in the miniature in the latter manuscript is the omission of the hooded mourners behind the bier; the clerics and acolyte are all singing with the same vigour, their mouths wide open. Both books have the same decorative and illustrative scheme, with historiated initials only opening the major devotions; a relative modesty that did not deter the Lambeth Palace book's subsequent owners, Richard III and Lady Margaret Beaufort.
The historiated initials are as follows:
f.8 Annunciation
f.53 Christ in Judgement
f.79 Praying the Office of the Dead
f.157 St Jerome writing
[London, c.1410-1415]
174 x 110mm. i + 180 leaves: 1
ILLUMINATED IN ONE OF LONDON'S LEADING WORKSHOPS AND WITH UNRECORDED MIDDLE ENGLISH DEVOTIONS
PROVENANCE:
1. The Cheyne or Cheney family: two births, of Myrabyl Cheyne in 1[4]81 (14 January) and Anne Cheyne in 1480 (19 February), and the marriage of Thomas Cheyne to Johanna, daughter of John Warde, in 1479 (7 November), are recorded in the Calendar. Branches of the Cheyne family were widespread. Other books owned by Cheynes are known, for example Pierpont Morgan Library M.124, Lydgate's Fall of Princes and an Hours of Sarum use, no 13 in the Collection of the Endowment for Biblical Research with an obit for 'William Cheyne militio'.
2. Jane Ffyne: her ownership inscription written in a 16th-century hand on the verso of the medieval endleaf, is followed by the verse Let godd worke his will and let man seke hym to plese sothat godd may lowe ws wher in we shall fynde ese.
3. A brief description of the manuscript, in Latin, written on the front endleaf is signed with the monogram WA and the year 1804.
4. Henry Huth (1815-1878): his letter to Edward Cheney, dated 29 June 1874, records the despatch of the manuscript, for which Huth had paid Quaritch 60 pounds, and that he was 'glad it is now in [Cheney's] possession'.
5. Edward Cheney
CONTENT:
Calendar ff.1-6v; Office of the Virgin, use of Sarum, interspersed with the Hours of the Cross ff.8-48, matins f.8, lauds (lacking opening) f.16, followed by suffrages to the Holy Spirit, Sts Michael, Thomas Becket, George, Richard of Chichester, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Paul, Thomas Becket, Lawrence, Christopher, Mary Magdalene, Catherine, Margaret, Nicholas, All Saints ff.24-31, prime f.31v, terce f.35v, sext (rubric'd ad vesperas) f.38, none f.40, vespers f.42v, compline f.44v: sequence of prayers and devotions opening with Salve regina mater misericordie ff.48-52: Seven Penitential Psalms ff.53-70: Litany ff.70-78v: Office of the Dead ff.79-115v: Commendation of Souls ff.116-128v: sequence of prayers and devotions opening with Salve sancta facies ff.129-147v: Psalms 21-30 (lacking opening of Ps. 21) ff.148-156v: Psalter of St Jerome ff.157-169v: To the worchipe of the wonds ff.170-171:suffrages to St Apollonia f.171v: In what man[ner] preyer sholde be used ff.172-178v: suffrages to Sts Edmund and Anna in Latin followed by the prayers Almygty lord ih[es]u[s] criste the whiche for synners were bore of oure lady mayde marie and God mygtiest in mercy and lord of alle mankynde ff.178v-180.
Folios 51 and 52 and 172-180 are contemporary or near-contemporary additions.
The Middle English tract beginning 'When thou shappest the to preye or haue eny deuocion foond the to haue a pryuee place' is an unrecorded copy of no M15 in P. Jolliffe, A Check-List of Middle English Prose Writings of Spiritual Guidance (Toronto, 1974). Jolliffe records 16 other copies of this work in institutional libraries in Britain or on the Continent. It also forms part of a larger devotional work (Jolliffe H15) feruor amoris. The two Middle English prayers that follow are apparently unique.
ILLUMINATION:
One of the most influential and accomplished English illuminators at the beginning of the 15th-century is known by name from his signature, 'iohannes me fecit', on a robe in the miniature showing Marco Polo and his brothers before Kublai Khan (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms Bodley 264, f.220). Around the same date as the Oxford manuscript, Johannes, with colleagues working in a closely related style, illuminated a group of Psalters: K.L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, 1996, pp.68-73. The borders of the present manuscript, with the dagged-edge acanthus leaves that curl and knot around bars and corners, are extremely close to those of one of the group, a Psalter in Oxford (Bodleian Library, Ms Don.d.85). Johannes is described by Scott as 'one of the premier decorators of books in the first quarter of the 15th century' and she attributes an 'impressive group of manuscripts' to him, including the Bedford Hours and Psalter (BL, Add.42131) 'one of the high points of English book production'. The majority of the manuscripts identified as having borders by this artist include illumination by Herman Scheerre and his followers and the same is true of the present manuscript. The iconography of the Annunciation, for example, with the Virgin with her arms crossed, is found in various books related to Scheerre's style, and follows very closely that of the Book of Hours where the signature, 'hermannus scheere me fecit', was first recognised (BL, Add.16998). Such similarities of subject and treatment are also true of the other initials. There are obvious debts to the style as well as the iconography of Scheerre; curving drapery is modelled with a lighter shade of the same colour, complexions are very pale and the eyes are characteristic black dots. The composition for the Office of the Dead, has the same components as the miniature in the Bedford Hours and Psalter but it is most closely comparable to one in a Book of Hours in Lambeth Palace (Ms 474). The only departure in the miniature in the latter manuscript is the omission of the hooded mourners behind the bier; the clerics and acolyte are all singing with the same vigour, their mouths wide open. Both books have the same decorative and illustrative scheme, with historiated initials only opening the major devotions; a relative modesty that did not deter the Lambeth Palace book's subsequent owners, Richard III and Lady Margaret Beaufort.
The historiated initials are as follows:
f.8 Annunciation
f.53 Christ in Judgement
f.79 Praying the Office of the Dead
f.157 St Jerome writing
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