![[CUT-VELLUM WORK.] -- PRIERES CHRESTIENNES, prayerbook in French and Latin, ILLUMINATED CUT-OUT MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2006/NYR/2006_NYR_01769_0285_000(122636).jpg?w=1)
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[CUT-VELLUM WORK.] -- PRIERES CHRESTIENNES, prayerbook in French and Latin, ILLUMINATED CUT-OUT MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Paris. c.1660s]
161 x 95mm. iii + 87 + iii leaves (including one blank), with 62 coloured paper interleaves, intermittent foliation in pencil by Quaritch, followed here, 15-18 lines written in a neat italic hand within double-ruled borders in red, and cut filigree borders of scrolling foliage, fruit, fleur-de-lys, geometric patterns, monograms and inscriptions, rubrics and versal initials in red, seven illuminated initials opening the Psalms and two tailpieces, 57 large miniatures, some as roundels, and 23 vignettes, on 30 leaves, all set in elaborate cut-out filigree borders, 19 incorporating the gilded monograms of L, and MA, (a few cut-out borders with minor tears, some edges of interleaves lightly stained, occasional yellowing of vellum). Late 18th-century French olive morocco gilt, the covers with broad roll-tooled dentelle border, spine in six compartments with alternate red morocco onlays, lettered in the second 'Heures Chret.', others with a semé of flower tools, gilt inner dentelles, (slight rubbing at lower corners and at head and foot of spine), edges gilt.
LACE-CUT VELLUM MANUSCRIPT APPARENTLY MADE FOR THE SUN-KING, LOUIS XIV
PROVENANCE:
1. The frequent appearance of the fleur de lys, the sun, the monograms L and MA and the known taste at the French court for cut-work illuminated manuscripts points to the ownership of this book by Louis XIV and his wife Marie-Thérèse. Louis's father, Louis XIII and his grandmother, Marie de' Medici are known to have commissioned and owned such manuscripts. One of those owned by Marie de' Medici also went into the Barrois-Ashburnham collections.
2. Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Barrois, Deputy for Lille, his manuscript no.228, with a manuscript index for the royal ciphers used in the cut-out borders inserted at front paste-down, sold in 1849 to:
3. Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878) who purchased the Barrois collection en bloc in 1849, by descent to:
4. Bertram, 5th Earl of Ashburnham (1840-1913) who gifted the manuscript to his daughter Lady Catherine Charlotte (1890-1953) inscribed on verso front free endpaper "on the day of her first communion the feast of Corpus Christi, 1901 from her loving father".
5. Offered by Quaritch in July 1954 and sold to Lathorp Harper for £900.
CONTENT:
Prayers opening with 'Priere pour le Matin' ff.1-7; 'Les Sept Pseaumes' ff.8-37; 'Les quinze misteres du saint rosaire' ff.39-69; 'Antiennes et oraisons des Apostres' ff.70-82; Suffrages to Saints Jerome, Augustine, Dominic, Gregory, Francis, Ambrose and Albert ff.83-86; leaf with border only f.87.
The miniatures on the rectos are mostly religious narratives while the versos have half- or full-length figures of saints and prophets. There are leaves with small miniatures above and below the central scene and these often show scenes of hunting or other rural pursuits. These miniatures are vigorous and colourful and burnished and liquid gold are used to great decorative effect. This is an excellent example of the illuminated lace-cut manuscripts in vogue among royal and noble patrons in the 17th century: every text-page has a filigree border on all four sides, and all of the miniatures are surrounded by fields of intricately patterned lattice of great variety and delicacy.
Two cut-work books in the Doheny collection (Christie's, London 2 December 1987, lots 179 and 189) demonstrate the popularity of this form at the royal court in Paris: one was made for Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV and the other, for her daughter-in-law Anne of Austria, was one of several canivets of the Prieres du roy au Saint Esprit made for members of the royal family and the Grand-Almoner of the Ordre du Sainct Esprit in 1614. The latter group have been identified as the work of the notary and scribe Nicolas Gougenot who was paid on 19 August 1614 for 'un livre d'enluminure et decoupure'. A description that perfectly suits the present later manuscript. A further cut-work Horae made for Marie de' Medici is described by E. Quentin - Bauchart Les femmes bibliophiles de France (1886), vol.1, pp.177-188. It is now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, W.494.
The assertive presence of the monograms MA and L combined with the proliferations of fleur de lys and the frequent appearance of rayed golden suns on the pages with miniatures make it seem almost certain that the present manuscript was made for the grandson of Marie de' Medici, Louis XIV and his wife Marie-Thérèse (m.1660). The sentiments of the only cut-out inscriptions in the manuscript seem further evidence of this ownership: VIVE LE ROI in the border of folio 9 and SAGITTAE TUAE ACUTAE POPULI SUB TE CADENT IN CORDA INIMICORUM REGIS on folio 69. This is around a prayer for the king 'Domine Salvum fac Regem', written in a different but contemporary hand: 'conserva christianissimo regi nostro ludovico, tibi placentem filium ad regni francorum prosperitatem et pacem'. The final sequence of prayers asking Fathers and Confessors of the church for their intercession is written in the same hand and each prayer ends with the initial L.
[Paris. c.1660s]
161 x 95mm. iii + 87 + iii leaves (including one blank), with 62 coloured paper interleaves, intermittent foliation in pencil by Quaritch, followed here, 15-18 lines written in a neat italic hand within double-ruled borders in red, and cut filigree borders of scrolling foliage, fruit, fleur-de-lys, geometric patterns, monograms and inscriptions, rubrics and versal initials in red, seven illuminated initials opening the Psalms and two tailpieces, 57 large miniatures, some as roundels, and 23 vignettes, on 30 leaves, all set in elaborate cut-out filigree borders, 19 incorporating the gilded monograms of L, and MA, (a few cut-out borders with minor tears, some edges of interleaves lightly stained, occasional yellowing of vellum). Late 18th-century French olive morocco gilt, the covers with broad roll-tooled dentelle border, spine in six compartments with alternate red morocco onlays, lettered in the second 'Heures Chret.', others with a semé of flower tools, gilt inner dentelles, (slight rubbing at lower corners and at head and foot of spine), edges gilt.
LACE-CUT VELLUM MANUSCRIPT APPARENTLY MADE FOR THE SUN-KING, LOUIS XIV
PROVENANCE:
1. The frequent appearance of the fleur de lys, the sun, the monograms L and MA and the known taste at the French court for cut-work illuminated manuscripts points to the ownership of this book by Louis XIV and his wife Marie-Thérèse. Louis's father, Louis XIII and his grandmother, Marie de' Medici are known to have commissioned and owned such manuscripts. One of those owned by Marie de' Medici also went into the Barrois-Ashburnham collections.
2. Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Barrois, Deputy for Lille, his manuscript no.228, with a manuscript index for the royal ciphers used in the cut-out borders inserted at front paste-down, sold in 1849 to:
3. Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878) who purchased the Barrois collection en bloc in 1849, by descent to:
4. Bertram, 5th Earl of Ashburnham (1840-1913) who gifted the manuscript to his daughter Lady Catherine Charlotte (1890-1953) inscribed on verso front free endpaper "on the day of her first communion the feast of Corpus Christi, 1901 from her loving father".
5. Offered by Quaritch in July 1954 and sold to Lathorp Harper for £900.
CONTENT:
Prayers opening with 'Priere pour le Matin' ff.1-7; 'Les Sept Pseaumes' ff.8-37; 'Les quinze misteres du saint rosaire' ff.39-69; 'Antiennes et oraisons des Apostres' ff.70-82; Suffrages to Saints Jerome, Augustine, Dominic, Gregory, Francis, Ambrose and Albert ff.83-86; leaf with border only f.87.
The miniatures on the rectos are mostly religious narratives while the versos have half- or full-length figures of saints and prophets. There are leaves with small miniatures above and below the central scene and these often show scenes of hunting or other rural pursuits. These miniatures are vigorous and colourful and burnished and liquid gold are used to great decorative effect. This is an excellent example of the illuminated lace-cut manuscripts in vogue among royal and noble patrons in the 17th century: every text-page has a filigree border on all four sides, and all of the miniatures are surrounded by fields of intricately patterned lattice of great variety and delicacy.
Two cut-work books in the Doheny collection (Christie's, London 2 December 1987, lots 179 and 189) demonstrate the popularity of this form at the royal court in Paris: one was made for Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV and the other, for her daughter-in-law Anne of Austria, was one of several canivets of the Prieres du roy au Saint Esprit made for members of the royal family and the Grand-Almoner of the Ordre du Sainct Esprit in 1614. The latter group have been identified as the work of the notary and scribe Nicolas Gougenot who was paid on 19 August 1614 for 'un livre d'enluminure et decoupure'. A description that perfectly suits the present later manuscript. A further cut-work Horae made for Marie de' Medici is described by E. Quentin - Bauchart Les femmes bibliophiles de France (1886), vol.1, pp.177-188. It is now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, W.494.
The assertive presence of the monograms MA and L combined with the proliferations of fleur de lys and the frequent appearance of rayed golden suns on the pages with miniatures make it seem almost certain that the present manuscript was made for the grandson of Marie de' Medici, Louis XIV and his wife Marie-Thérèse (m.1660). The sentiments of the only cut-out inscriptions in the manuscript seem further evidence of this ownership: VIVE LE ROI in the border of folio 9 and SAGITTAE TUAE ACUTAE POPULI SUB TE CADENT IN CORDA INIMICORUM REGIS on folio 69. This is around a prayer for the king 'Domine Salvum fac Regem', written in a different but contemporary hand: 'conserva christianissimo regi nostro ludovico, tibi placentem filium ad regni francorum prosperitatem et pacem'. The final sequence of prayers asking Fathers and Confessors of the church for their intercession is written in the same hand and each prayer ends with the initial L.