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Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1485]
Details
The 'Marie de Medici' Hours
Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1485]
A generously illuminated Book of Hours from the circle of the Master of Anne of Brittany with a traditional French royal provenance.
162/5 x 110mm. 170 leaves: iii (original ruled blanks, i as pastedown) + 170 + ii (ii as pastedown), 112, 28, 37(of 8, lacking v), 4-98, 107(of 8, lacking v), 117of 8, lacking viii cancelled blank), 12-138, 147(of 8 lacking vii), 157(of 8 lacking v), 16-198, with no further catchwords 20 to the end are apparently: 204, 217(of 8 lacking v), 224 (of 6 lacking iv and v), 234, some catchwords, modern pencilled foliation, 18 lines, ruled space: 88 x 51mm, rubrics in blue, one-line initials and line-endings in gold on grounds of pink and blue patterned with white, two-line initials in blue patterned with white on gold grounds with infills of fruit, flowers or stylised leaves, every text page with a border to the outer margin for the height of the ruled space of sprays of acanthus, fruit and flowers on gold, maroon, red or brown grounds, many divided, sixteen small miniatures with similar borders, with the addition of birds, insects, beasts or grotesques, on gold grounds to three sides, the calendar with 24 border miniatures of the occupations of the months and zodiac signs with similar borders to two sides including unframed figures and scenes from the feasts celebrated, 14 full-page miniatures, most with architectural framing, with the opening words of each text incorporated into the imagined space, one with an historiated border within its architectural framing (lacking eight leaves, four with full-page miniatures and three with small miniatures and one cancelled blank, small paint losses in sky in miniatures ff.66, 75 and 105; a few borders slightly worn in calendar).
Binding:
16th-century red morocco gilt tooled with a semis of MM monograms, with one M inverted, and fermesses, closed S, on both covers within a double and single fillet and on the smooth spine within a double fillet (lacking two clasps and one catch, slight wear, the first gathering detaching from spine).
Provenance:
(1) Text and illumination indicate that the book was made in Paris. The Calendar is Parisian with St Genevieve (3 Jan.), Sts Leu and Giles (1 Sept.) and St Denis (9 Oct.) among the feasts written in gold; St Genevieve is invoked in the memorials, f.166v. Comparatively few saints are invoked in the Litany: none is indicative of a particular locality. The illuminators are securely localised to Paris. Prayers are in the masculine. Not long after, prayers in the feminine were added. A stuck in ?ownership note has been removed from inside the upper cover.
(2) Sotheby’s, 10 December 1980, lot 110, sold by a descendant of the Saint-Germain family, when said to have been a gift from the Queen of Henry II of France, Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), to her chaplain the Abbé de Saint Germain. Although known for her library, which included manuscripts, Catherine is not known to have had a chaplain of that name. According to a popular anecdote recorded in the 16th century, she was attended at her deathbed by Julien de Saint-Germain, first confessor of her son Henry III, thus fulfilling a prophesy that she would die if she failed to avoid Saint-Germain. Of the various clerics bearing this name, none was in the service of Henry III and the veracity of the anecdote is doubtful (C. Zum Kolk and J. Vons, ‘Maladies, mort et funérailles de Catherine de Médicis’, J. Cornette and A.-M. Helvétius eds., La mort des rois de Sigismond (523) à Louis XIV (1715), 2016, pp.149-173). The handsome binding would be appropriate for a queen but the emblems are not Catherine’s. They are closer to those of a later queen, Marie de Medici (1575-1642), Queen of Henry IV of France from 1600, who did have an Abbé de Saint-Germain in her household. Matthieu de Morgues, Sieur de Saint-Germain (1582-1670), appointed her preacher in 1620 and first almoner in 1634, was a prolific polemicist on her behalf, sharing her exile in Flanders and only returning to Paris after Richelieu’s death in 1642 (C. Perroud, ‘Essai sur la vie et les œuvres de Mathieu de Morgues’, Annales de la Société d’agricultutre, sciences et arts du Puy, XXVI, 1863, pp. 207-383). Marie de Medici owned at least one 15th-century manuscript Book of Hours (Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, ms 1180), while M. de Saint-Germain owned the famed Salisbury Breviary (Paris, BnF, ms lat.17294), one of the manuscripts from which the Bedford Master was named. It is highly likely that Saint-Germain received gifts from the Queen and his seven surviving siblings ensured his family’s survival: the tradition of a royal gift could have a basis in fact, although becoming attached to the wrong Medici Queen. Marie de Medici used the MM monogram and the closed S of the binding but so did others: the style of the binding suggests an earlier owner, from whom the book could have passed to the Queen, a passage perhaps encouraged by the appropriate binding, to be given to her fervent supporter the Abbé de Saint-Germain (for the books and bindings of Marie de Medici, see I. de Conihout, ‘Bijoux de dévotion. Canivets, reliures et livres de luxe pour Marie de Médicis’, C. Nativel, ed., Henri IV: Art et pouvoir, 2016, pp. 219-257).
(3) Sotheby’s, 2 December 1986, lot 65.
(4) The Schøyen Collection, MS 13.
Content:
Calendar ff.1-12v; Gospel extracts ff.13-20; ruled blank f.20v; Obsecro te in the masculine ff.21-24v; O intemerata in the masculine, lacking opening, ff.25-27v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris, ff. 28-89v: matins f.28, ruled blank f.49v, lauds f.50, prime f.60, ruled blank f.65v, tierce f.66, ruled blank f.70v, sext f.71, ruled blank f.75, none f.76, vespers lacking opening f.80, compline f.85; the Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.90-104v; the Hours of the Cross ff.105-111v; the Hours of the Holy Spirit, lacking opening, ff.112-116; ruled blank f.116v; Office of the Dead, use of Paris, lacking opening ff.117-155v; Memorials ff.156-167v: to the Trinity f.156, Sts Michael f.156v, John the Baptist f.157, Peter and Paul f.157v, John the Evangelist f.158, James f.158v, Stephen f.159, lacking memorial to Laurence, Sebastian lacking opening f.160, Denis f.161, Anthony Abbot lacking end f.161v, Nicholas lacking opening f.162, Martin f.162, Stabat mater f.162v, Ave cuius conceptio f.164v, to Sts Mary Magdalene, lacking end f.165v, Margaret f.166, Genevieve f.166v, All Saints f.167; added sequence of prayers in the feminine opening Ave caro Christi cara on original ruled blanks in a cursive hand leaving spaces for initials that were never supplied ff.168-170v.
Illumination:
The fine miniatures have been attributed to the illuminator, painter and designer variously known as the Master of the Très petites heures of Anne of Brittany, Queen of France (Paris, BnF, ms nouv. acq. lat.3120), the Master of the Hunt of the Unicorn, as designer of the great tapestries in The Cloisters, New York, or the Master of the Rose or Apocalypse window of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, which he also designed (Paris, Grand Palais, exh. cat. Paris 1500, 2010, p.243, see Avril and Reynaud pp.265-70). The art of the Master of Anne of Brittany was rooted in that of the Coëtivy Master – the source of the distinctive facial type with retroussé nose and forward thrusting chin – itself derived from that of the Master of Dreux Budé. If these masters were three generations of the same family, they could be the painter-illuminators of Netherlandish origin active in Paris: André d’Ypres or d’Amiens, his son Colin d’Amiens and grandson Jean d’Ypres, whose death in 1508 roughly coincides with the end of the activity of the Master of Anne of Brittany. His work reached a wide audience as he designed not only for stained glass and tapestry but also for the Parisian publishers of printed Books of Hours.
Many of the compositions in the Schøyen Hours correspond closely, even in colour, to those in the Master’s name work and two related Books of Hours in Chantilly (Musée Condé mss 81 and 82); Anne of Brittany’s Hours also has architectural framing replacing conventional borders on miniature pages. Yet the distinctively lankier figures predominant in the Schøyen miniatures, inspired by Maître François and the Master of Jacques de Besançon (?François le Berbier the Elder and Younger), suggest a distinct creator with an intimate and direct knowledge of the Master’s work that was enriched by wider influences. The integration of text into framing and miniature to make each miniature page a coherent illusion of spatial unity, developed by the earlier royal illuminators, Jean Fouquet and Jean Colombe, is a striking feature of the Schøyen Hours but not of the architectural framing of Anne of Brittany’s Hours. Similarly designed miniature pages are, however, present in an Hours for the Use of Rome in a private collection (Heribert Tenschert, Leuchtendes Mittelalter II (1990), no 52), which, along with the Schøyen Hours and the de Simony Hours (Christie’s, 14 December 2022, lot 43), have been attributed by Ina Nettekoven to an associate of the Master of Anne of Brittany, named from a collection of theological treatises in Paris (BnF ms fr. 9608, Der Meister der Apokalypsenrose der Saint Chapelle und die Pariser Buchkunst um 1500, 2004, pp.56-7), where the Crucifixion on f.3v is an elaborate version of that in the Schøyen Hours, f.105 and could well be by the same hand.
The Master of the Theological Treatises was responsible for most of the full-page illuminations, with the Nativity, f.60, painted in his favoured, attractively muted, colours but with stockier figures. The Annunciation, f.28, and the intensely coloured and dramatic Last Judgement, f.90, are by a different, stylistically related hand. The Master of Anne of Brittany painted a very similar Last Judgement in a Book of Hours in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (MSL/1910/2388, f.19v) and used the design for the cut in the Hours printed by Pigouchet for Simon le Vostre, Paris, 1498. The Schøyen Last Judgement and Annunciation, with their stronger colour and dark lines to detail and contour, show some connection with the Master of Charles VIII, named by Nettekoven from an illuminated printed Hours owned by Charles VIII of France (private collection, Leuchtendes Mittelalter I, Katalog XXI, no 62; Nettekoven, Der Meister der Apokalypsenrose... pp.56-58). Both hands probably contributed to the Calendar, where the framed rectangles of the occupations of the months and the signs of the zodiac contrast with the figures and scenes incorporated into the border decoration; a third hand may have joined them for the small miniatures of saints. Boundaries between hands are blurred by shared models and conventions of technique, like the lavish use of liquid gold to model drapery and indicate the fall of light on landscapes.
The accomplished miniatures are matched by the refinement of the borders, present on every page to make the book a luxurious object, worthy of the divine office it contains; it was still treasured when it received the handsome, personalised binding many decades later.
Full-page miniature with historiated border: the Annunciation, with the opening words of matins written in red on the gold architectural framing, the border with the Birth of the Virgin below, her Presentation in the Temple, lower right, and her weaving in the Temple, upper right.
Full-page miniatures with opening words of text in gold letters on pink scrolls or otherwise incorporated into the framing: St John on Patmos with his eagle holding his pen case and ink pot f.13, St Luke with his ox in a palatial study f.15, St Matthew writing from a book held by his angel f.17, St Mark in a palatial study with his lion f.19, the Virgin and Child with music making angels f.21, the Visitation with the text scroll held by putti f.50, the Nativity in a fictive bejewelled picture frame, the text scroll held by two angels kneeling before it f.60, the Annunciation to the Shepherds with text scroll held by putti f.66, the Adoration of the Magi with text scroll held by putti f.71, the Presentation in the Temple , with text scroll held by putti f.76, the Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity in a glory of seraphim, the text scroll held by putti f.85, the Last Judgement, the resurrecting blessed on the left pray towards Christ enthroned on the rainbow above, between the Virgin and the Baptist with the Apostles behind, below on the right a devil drives a damned soul into a hell mouth, the text written in red on the architectural framing f.90, the Crucifixion, with Christ between the two thieves with the Virgin St John the Evangelist and the Maries to the left and the Centurion on horseback and Jews to the right, the text scroll held by putti f.105.
Small miniatures in the Memorials: Trinity f.156, Sts Michael f.156v, John the Baptist f.157, Peter and Paul f.157v, John the Evangelist f.158, James f.158v, Stephen f.159, Denis f.161, Anthony Abbot lacking end f.161v, Martin f.162, the Lamentation f.162v, Virgin enthroned with Child f.164v, Sts Mary Magdalene f.165v, Margaret f.166, Genevieve f.166v, All Saints led by John the Baptist, Paul and James with a deacon (?Stephen) and a bishop, f.167.
In the Calendar: the occupations of the months in rectangular scenes at the foot of rectos: man dining f.1, couple with dog seated before a fire f.2, two men pruning f.3, two ladies in a flower garden f.4, a a man and a lady on horseback, hunting with hawk and hounds f.5, a man scything f.6, man harvesting with sickle and woman tying a sheaf f.7, two men threshing in a barn f.8, man treading grapes and man filling barrels with the juice f.9,man sowing, watched by his dog f.10, man knocking down acorns for pigs f.11, a man slitting a pig’s throat as a woman collects the blood, the large sheaf of straw will be set to smoulder to singe off the pig’s bristles f.12.
The signs of the zodiac in matching framed scenes on versos: Aquarius standing naked in a river f.1v. Pisces seen against a river f.2v, Aries in a landscape f.3v, Taurus in a landscape f.4v, Gemini, a man and woman holding a golden shield f.5v, Cancer, as the usual lobster, in a landscape f.6v, Leo, seated in a landscape f.7v, Virgo standing between two large sheaves of grain f.8v, Libra held by an elegant lady f.9v, Scorpio in a landscape f.10v, Sagittarius as a centaur with bow in a landscape f.11v, Capricorn as sea-goat in a landscape f.12v.
Figures, in appropriate settings where required, representing the major feasts, unframed to form part of the borders: the Circumcision and the Adoration of the Magi f.1, St Anthony Abbot and the Conversion of St Paul f.1v, the Presentation in the Temple (Purification of the Virgin, Chandeleur) and St Agatha f.2, St Peter enthroned and St Matthias f.2v, a bishop saint and St Gregory f.3, the Annunciation and St Sabina f.3v, Sts Ambrose and Leo f.4, St George killing the dragon and St Mark f.4v, Sts James and Philip and St John the Evangelist in the boiling oil, at the Latin Gate f.5, two bishop saints f.5v, a bishop saint and St Barnabas f.6, the birth of St John the Baptist and Sts Peter and Paul f.6v, Sts Martin and Benedict f.7, Sts Mary Magdalene and Christopher, bearing the Christ Child through the water f.7v, St Peter and the Coronation of the Virgin for the feast of the Assumption f.8, St Bartholomew and the martyrdom of St John the Baptist f.8v, the birth of the Virgin, the Emperor Heraclius embracing the True Cross f.9, St Matthew and St Michael defeating the devil f.9v, bishop saint, ?Remy, and St Denis f.10, St Luke with his ox and Sts Simon and Jude f.10v, God presides over saints in heaven and souls in purgatory, for All Saints and All Souls, and St Martin f.11, Sts Catherine and Andrew f.11v, St Barbara and the Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate for the Conception of the Virgin f.12, St Thomas, the Nativity, St Stephen beside St John the Evangelist and the Massacre of the Innocents f.12v.
Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1485]
A generously illuminated Book of Hours from the circle of the Master of Anne of Brittany with a traditional French royal provenance.
162/5 x 110mm. 170 leaves: iii (original ruled blanks, i as pastedown) + 170 + ii (ii as pastedown), 112, 28, 37(of 8, lacking v), 4-98, 107(of 8, lacking v), 117of 8, lacking viii cancelled blank), 12-138, 147(of 8 lacking vii), 157(of 8 lacking v), 16-198, with no further catchwords 20 to the end are apparently: 204, 217(of 8 lacking v), 224 (of 6 lacking iv and v), 234, some catchwords, modern pencilled foliation, 18 lines, ruled space: 88 x 51mm, rubrics in blue, one-line initials and line-endings in gold on grounds of pink and blue patterned with white, two-line initials in blue patterned with white on gold grounds with infills of fruit, flowers or stylised leaves, every text page with a border to the outer margin for the height of the ruled space of sprays of acanthus, fruit and flowers on gold, maroon, red or brown grounds, many divided, sixteen small miniatures with similar borders, with the addition of birds, insects, beasts or grotesques, on gold grounds to three sides, the calendar with 24 border miniatures of the occupations of the months and zodiac signs with similar borders to two sides including unframed figures and scenes from the feasts celebrated, 14 full-page miniatures, most with architectural framing, with the opening words of each text incorporated into the imagined space, one with an historiated border within its architectural framing (lacking eight leaves, four with full-page miniatures and three with small miniatures and one cancelled blank, small paint losses in sky in miniatures ff.66, 75 and 105; a few borders slightly worn in calendar).
Binding:
16th-century red morocco gilt tooled with a semis of MM monograms, with one M inverted, and fermesses, closed S, on both covers within a double and single fillet and on the smooth spine within a double fillet (lacking two clasps and one catch, slight wear, the first gathering detaching from spine).
Provenance:
(1) Text and illumination indicate that the book was made in Paris. The Calendar is Parisian with St Genevieve (3 Jan.), Sts Leu and Giles (1 Sept.) and St Denis (9 Oct.) among the feasts written in gold; St Genevieve is invoked in the memorials, f.166v. Comparatively few saints are invoked in the Litany: none is indicative of a particular locality. The illuminators are securely localised to Paris. Prayers are in the masculine. Not long after, prayers in the feminine were added. A stuck in ?ownership note has been removed from inside the upper cover.
(2) Sotheby’s, 10 December 1980, lot 110, sold by a descendant of the Saint-Germain family, when said to have been a gift from the Queen of Henry II of France, Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), to her chaplain the Abbé de Saint Germain. Although known for her library, which included manuscripts, Catherine is not known to have had a chaplain of that name. According to a popular anecdote recorded in the 16th century, she was attended at her deathbed by Julien de Saint-Germain, first confessor of her son Henry III, thus fulfilling a prophesy that she would die if she failed to avoid Saint-Germain. Of the various clerics bearing this name, none was in the service of Henry III and the veracity of the anecdote is doubtful (C. Zum Kolk and J. Vons, ‘Maladies, mort et funérailles de Catherine de Médicis’, J. Cornette and A.-M. Helvétius eds., La mort des rois de Sigismond (523) à Louis XIV (1715), 2016, pp.149-173). The handsome binding would be appropriate for a queen but the emblems are not Catherine’s. They are closer to those of a later queen, Marie de Medici (1575-1642), Queen of Henry IV of France from 1600, who did have an Abbé de Saint-Germain in her household. Matthieu de Morgues, Sieur de Saint-Germain (1582-1670), appointed her preacher in 1620 and first almoner in 1634, was a prolific polemicist on her behalf, sharing her exile in Flanders and only returning to Paris after Richelieu’s death in 1642 (C. Perroud, ‘Essai sur la vie et les œuvres de Mathieu de Morgues’, Annales de la Société d’agricultutre, sciences et arts du Puy, XXVI, 1863, pp. 207-383). Marie de Medici owned at least one 15th-century manuscript Book of Hours (Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, ms 1180), while M. de Saint-Germain owned the famed Salisbury Breviary (Paris, BnF, ms lat.17294), one of the manuscripts from which the Bedford Master was named. It is highly likely that Saint-Germain received gifts from the Queen and his seven surviving siblings ensured his family’s survival: the tradition of a royal gift could have a basis in fact, although becoming attached to the wrong Medici Queen. Marie de Medici used the MM monogram and the closed S of the binding but so did others: the style of the binding suggests an earlier owner, from whom the book could have passed to the Queen, a passage perhaps encouraged by the appropriate binding, to be given to her fervent supporter the Abbé de Saint-Germain (for the books and bindings of Marie de Medici, see I. de Conihout, ‘Bijoux de dévotion. Canivets, reliures et livres de luxe pour Marie de Médicis’, C. Nativel, ed., Henri IV: Art et pouvoir, 2016, pp. 219-257).
(3) Sotheby’s, 2 December 1986, lot 65.
(4) The Schøyen Collection, MS 13.
Content:
Calendar ff.1-12v; Gospel extracts ff.13-20; ruled blank f.20v; Obsecro te in the masculine ff.21-24v; O intemerata in the masculine, lacking opening, ff.25-27v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris, ff. 28-89v: matins f.28, ruled blank f.49v, lauds f.50, prime f.60, ruled blank f.65v, tierce f.66, ruled blank f.70v, sext f.71, ruled blank f.75, none f.76, vespers lacking opening f.80, compline f.85; the Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.90-104v; the Hours of the Cross ff.105-111v; the Hours of the Holy Spirit, lacking opening, ff.112-116; ruled blank f.116v; Office of the Dead, use of Paris, lacking opening ff.117-155v; Memorials ff.156-167v: to the Trinity f.156, Sts Michael f.156v, John the Baptist f.157, Peter and Paul f.157v, John the Evangelist f.158, James f.158v, Stephen f.159, lacking memorial to Laurence, Sebastian lacking opening f.160, Denis f.161, Anthony Abbot lacking end f.161v, Nicholas lacking opening f.162, Martin f.162, Stabat mater f.162v, Ave cuius conceptio f.164v, to Sts Mary Magdalene, lacking end f.165v, Margaret f.166, Genevieve f.166v, All Saints f.167; added sequence of prayers in the feminine opening Ave caro Christi cara on original ruled blanks in a cursive hand leaving spaces for initials that were never supplied ff.168-170v.
Illumination:
The fine miniatures have been attributed to the illuminator, painter and designer variously known as the Master of the Très petites heures of Anne of Brittany, Queen of France (Paris, BnF, ms nouv. acq. lat.3120), the Master of the Hunt of the Unicorn, as designer of the great tapestries in The Cloisters, New York, or the Master of the Rose or Apocalypse window of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, which he also designed (Paris, Grand Palais, exh. cat. Paris 1500, 2010, p.243, see Avril and Reynaud pp.265-70). The art of the Master of Anne of Brittany was rooted in that of the Coëtivy Master – the source of the distinctive facial type with retroussé nose and forward thrusting chin – itself derived from that of the Master of Dreux Budé. If these masters were three generations of the same family, they could be the painter-illuminators of Netherlandish origin active in Paris: André d’Ypres or d’Amiens, his son Colin d’Amiens and grandson Jean d’Ypres, whose death in 1508 roughly coincides with the end of the activity of the Master of Anne of Brittany. His work reached a wide audience as he designed not only for stained glass and tapestry but also for the Parisian publishers of printed Books of Hours.
Many of the compositions in the Schøyen Hours correspond closely, even in colour, to those in the Master’s name work and two related Books of Hours in Chantilly (Musée Condé mss 81 and 82); Anne of Brittany’s Hours also has architectural framing replacing conventional borders on miniature pages. Yet the distinctively lankier figures predominant in the Schøyen miniatures, inspired by Maître François and the Master of Jacques de Besançon (?François le Berbier the Elder and Younger), suggest a distinct creator with an intimate and direct knowledge of the Master’s work that was enriched by wider influences. The integration of text into framing and miniature to make each miniature page a coherent illusion of spatial unity, developed by the earlier royal illuminators, Jean Fouquet and Jean Colombe, is a striking feature of the Schøyen Hours but not of the architectural framing of Anne of Brittany’s Hours. Similarly designed miniature pages are, however, present in an Hours for the Use of Rome in a private collection (Heribert Tenschert, Leuchtendes Mittelalter II (1990), no 52), which, along with the Schøyen Hours and the de Simony Hours (Christie’s, 14 December 2022, lot 43), have been attributed by Ina Nettekoven to an associate of the Master of Anne of Brittany, named from a collection of theological treatises in Paris (BnF ms fr. 9608, Der Meister der Apokalypsenrose der Saint Chapelle und die Pariser Buchkunst um 1500, 2004, pp.56-7), where the Crucifixion on f.3v is an elaborate version of that in the Schøyen Hours, f.105 and could well be by the same hand.
The Master of the Theological Treatises was responsible for most of the full-page illuminations, with the Nativity, f.60, painted in his favoured, attractively muted, colours but with stockier figures. The Annunciation, f.28, and the intensely coloured and dramatic Last Judgement, f.90, are by a different, stylistically related hand. The Master of Anne of Brittany painted a very similar Last Judgement in a Book of Hours in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (MSL/1910/2388, f.19v) and used the design for the cut in the Hours printed by Pigouchet for Simon le Vostre, Paris, 1498. The Schøyen Last Judgement and Annunciation, with their stronger colour and dark lines to detail and contour, show some connection with the Master of Charles VIII, named by Nettekoven from an illuminated printed Hours owned by Charles VIII of France (private collection, Leuchtendes Mittelalter I, Katalog XXI, no 62; Nettekoven, Der Meister der Apokalypsenrose... pp.56-58). Both hands probably contributed to the Calendar, where the framed rectangles of the occupations of the months and the signs of the zodiac contrast with the figures and scenes incorporated into the border decoration; a third hand may have joined them for the small miniatures of saints. Boundaries between hands are blurred by shared models and conventions of technique, like the lavish use of liquid gold to model drapery and indicate the fall of light on landscapes.
The accomplished miniatures are matched by the refinement of the borders, present on every page to make the book a luxurious object, worthy of the divine office it contains; it was still treasured when it received the handsome, personalised binding many decades later.
Full-page miniature with historiated border: the Annunciation, with the opening words of matins written in red on the gold architectural framing, the border with the Birth of the Virgin below, her Presentation in the Temple, lower right, and her weaving in the Temple, upper right.
Full-page miniatures with opening words of text in gold letters on pink scrolls or otherwise incorporated into the framing: St John on Patmos with his eagle holding his pen case and ink pot f.13, St Luke with his ox in a palatial study f.15, St Matthew writing from a book held by his angel f.17, St Mark in a palatial study with his lion f.19, the Virgin and Child with music making angels f.21, the Visitation with the text scroll held by putti f.50, the Nativity in a fictive bejewelled picture frame, the text scroll held by two angels kneeling before it f.60, the Annunciation to the Shepherds with text scroll held by putti f.66, the Adoration of the Magi with text scroll held by putti f.71, the Presentation in the Temple , with text scroll held by putti f.76, the Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity in a glory of seraphim, the text scroll held by putti f.85, the Last Judgement, the resurrecting blessed on the left pray towards Christ enthroned on the rainbow above, between the Virgin and the Baptist with the Apostles behind, below on the right a devil drives a damned soul into a hell mouth, the text written in red on the architectural framing f.90, the Crucifixion, with Christ between the two thieves with the Virgin St John the Evangelist and the Maries to the left and the Centurion on horseback and Jews to the right, the text scroll held by putti f.105.
Small miniatures in the Memorials: Trinity f.156, Sts Michael f.156v, John the Baptist f.157, Peter and Paul f.157v, John the Evangelist f.158, James f.158v, Stephen f.159, Denis f.161, Anthony Abbot lacking end f.161v, Martin f.162, the Lamentation f.162v, Virgin enthroned with Child f.164v, Sts Mary Magdalene f.165v, Margaret f.166, Genevieve f.166v, All Saints led by John the Baptist, Paul and James with a deacon (?Stephen) and a bishop, f.167.
In the Calendar: the occupations of the months in rectangular scenes at the foot of rectos: man dining f.1, couple with dog seated before a fire f.2, two men pruning f.3, two ladies in a flower garden f.4, a a man and a lady on horseback, hunting with hawk and hounds f.5, a man scything f.6, man harvesting with sickle and woman tying a sheaf f.7, two men threshing in a barn f.8, man treading grapes and man filling barrels with the juice f.9,man sowing, watched by his dog f.10, man knocking down acorns for pigs f.11, a man slitting a pig’s throat as a woman collects the blood, the large sheaf of straw will be set to smoulder to singe off the pig’s bristles f.12.
The signs of the zodiac in matching framed scenes on versos: Aquarius standing naked in a river f.1v. Pisces seen against a river f.2v, Aries in a landscape f.3v, Taurus in a landscape f.4v, Gemini, a man and woman holding a golden shield f.5v, Cancer, as the usual lobster, in a landscape f.6v, Leo, seated in a landscape f.7v, Virgo standing between two large sheaves of grain f.8v, Libra held by an elegant lady f.9v, Scorpio in a landscape f.10v, Sagittarius as a centaur with bow in a landscape f.11v, Capricorn as sea-goat in a landscape f.12v.
Figures, in appropriate settings where required, representing the major feasts, unframed to form part of the borders: the Circumcision and the Adoration of the Magi f.1, St Anthony Abbot and the Conversion of St Paul f.1v, the Presentation in the Temple (Purification of the Virgin, Chandeleur) and St Agatha f.2, St Peter enthroned and St Matthias f.2v, a bishop saint and St Gregory f.3, the Annunciation and St Sabina f.3v, Sts Ambrose and Leo f.4, St George killing the dragon and St Mark f.4v, Sts James and Philip and St John the Evangelist in the boiling oil, at the Latin Gate f.5, two bishop saints f.5v, a bishop saint and St Barnabas f.6, the birth of St John the Baptist and Sts Peter and Paul f.6v, Sts Martin and Benedict f.7, Sts Mary Magdalene and Christopher, bearing the Christ Child through the water f.7v, St Peter and the Coronation of the Virgin for the feast of the Assumption f.8, St Bartholomew and the martyrdom of St John the Baptist f.8v, the birth of the Virgin, the Emperor Heraclius embracing the True Cross f.9, St Matthew and St Michael defeating the devil f.9v, bishop saint, ?Remy, and St Denis f.10, St Luke with his ox and Sts Simon and Jude f.10v, God presides over saints in heaven and souls in purgatory, for All Saints and All Souls, and St Martin f.11, Sts Catherine and Andrew f.11v, St Barbara and the Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate for the Conception of the Virgin f.12, St Thomas, the Nativity, St Stephen beside St John the Evangelist and the Massacre of the Innocents f.12v.
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Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts