.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Sold by order of the Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement
Workshop of the Master of Duke Humfrey's Psalms
The Firle Place Hours, use of Sarum, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, probably London, c.1440s]
細節
Workshop of the Master of Duke Humfrey's Psalms
The Firle Place Hours, use of Sarum, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, probably London, c.1440s]
The quintessential English Book of Hours: an iconographically rich manuscript illuminated by the workshop of the Master of Duke Humfrey's Psalms.
255 x 175mm. i + 119 + i leaves, collation: 15(of 6, lacking iii), 29(of 8, viii misbound), 35(of 8?, i bound in the second gathering, iv misbound, lacking vii-viii), 45(of 8, lacking i, v and vii), 57(of 8, lacking iii), 65(of 8, lacking i-ii and viii), 74(of 8, v-viii cancelled blanks), 8-168, 177(of 8, viii a cancelled blank), a few signatures and catchwords survive, 18 lines, ruled space: 140 x 92mm, one-line initials in burnished gold with blue penwork flourishing or in blue with red penwork flourishing and line-fillers throughout, 142 small historiated initials inhabited by heads of kings, queens, saints, instruments of the Passion, the wounds of Christ, etc., with foliate sprays extending into the margins throughout, other large illuminated initials in colours with similar foliate sprays, 4 half-page miniatures and 13 large historiated initials within full-page borders (lacking 10 leaves, of which one Calendar leaf and at least 3 probably with miniatures and/or historiated initials, two leaves misbound, a small hole in the opening two leaves, the miniatures and three of the large historiated initials smudged and defaced, smudges, staining and losses of pigment elsewhere, f.11 with tape residue, top corner of f.83 cut away). Bound in 18th-century quarter calf, edges gilt and gauffered (edges scuffed, spine a little cracked).
Provenance:
(1) The liturgical use is of Sarum, and the illumination, attributed by Kathleen Scott to the workshop of the Master of Duke Humfrey's Psalms, is mid-15th-century English. An added obit on 11 September reads 'Obbitus [sic] Henrice Gairstang anno domini mloccccmoxiiiito (1464)'. This could be the same Henry Gairstang with links to Merton College Oxford (Merton College MS 200 contains a 15th-century ownership note 'qui Iohannes dedit Henrico Gairstang et idem Henricus dedit Collegio Marton’ in Oxonia'). Signs of Reformation-era censorship are evident throughout the book: 'pape' is repeatedly crossed out in the Calendar, Thomas of Canterbury is crossed out in the Calendar and in the memorials.
(2) 16th-century note on final flyleaf, visible under black-light: 'M[emorandum] that I dyd res[eive]? for Richard Wade for hys halfe yere rynte xxxvii s xvi'.
(3) A 17th-century ownership inscription on the first flyleaf reads: 'Liber Fr. Williams pretium vjs. iiiid'.
(4) Sold by order of the Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement.
Contents:
Calendar ff.1-5v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Sarum, with Hours of the Cross intermixed ff.6-37: matins f.6, lauds, with memorials to St John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, Thomas of Canterbury (crossed out), St Nicholas, the Virgins Katherine and Margaret, relics, All Saints, peace (crossed out), ending imperfectly f.12, prime f.21, terce f.24 (lacking opening and end), sext (lacking opening) f.25, none (lacking end) f.26v, vespers f.28, compline f.30, followed by the Salve Regina (lacking end) and Salve Virgo Virginum; Prayer to the Trinity (lacking opening) and a Heavenly Letter, with list of perils and divine names (on which see R.G.A. Hebing, The Cultural and Material Contexts of Heavenly Letter Charms in Medieval England, 2017) ff.38-41; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.42-56; Office of the Dead, use of Sarum, ff.56v-83; Commendation of Souls ff.83-93v; Psalms of the Passion ff.94-102; Psalter of St Jerome ff.102-113v; Fifteen Oes of St Bridget ff.113v-119v.
Illumination:
The illumination of the Firle Place Hours has been linked to the workshop of a Master dubbed the 'Master of Duke Humfrey's Psalms', responsible for the illustration of London, British Library MS Royal 2. B. I, datable to c.1430-1447 and produced for Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester (on which see K. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, 1996, II, cat. no 83, pp.239-241). His work is identifiable in four other manuscripts (London, Guildhall, Corporation of London Records Office, 'Statuta Antiqua Angliae' of c.1430-40; London, Drapers' Company, Patent of Arms, 10 March 1439; Capetown, South African Public Library Grey 4 c 5, a Psalter of c.1440; and London, British Library Harley 2909, a Psalter). His style is quintessentially English 'in its flat, outlined mode of representation. The human face and features are always outlined in dark brown or black; and many have a distinct greenish cast. Male features have a characteristic hooked nose, and older men a white beard separated into hanging curls indicated by rows of white dots' (K. Scott, 1996, II, p.240). We see these same features in the Firle Place Hours, as well as the same dull palette and use of muted tan-pink colour.
The Firle Place Hours has a number of unconventional iconographic features: at the end of matins and preceding the Te Deum is a half-page miniature of Sts Ambrose and Augustine, who are traditionally associated with this Ambrosian hymn (f.11), and the hymn itself opens with a historiated initial of the Adoration of the Magi (f.11v). Miniatures depicting the Passion sequence accompany historiated initials depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin (including a rare depiction of Christ appearing before the Virgin, in a historiated initial beneath a miniature with the Crucifixion opening none of the Hours of the Virgin). The Fifteen Oes of St Bridget, a popular text in English Hours of this period, did not apparently come to be illustrated in Hours until the second decade of the century (Scott, I, p.57) and the main iconographic programme dates from the 1440s onwards. Here we have the Man of Sorrows opening the Psalms of the Passion, and the Pietà opening the Fifteen Oes.
These Hours are striking for the sheer number – 142 – of 2-line initials inhabited by human heads (and a number depicting instruments of the Passion and the wounds of Christ). Portrait-like human heads in secondary initials are found in the pre-1408 Sherborne Missal, British Library, Add MS 74236– that unrivalled masterpiece of English book production – and in the Hours and Psalter of John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, British Library MS Add. 42131, but their use here is exceptional to the point, as Scott notes 'of virtually creating a new format for artistic expression' (Scott, II, p.169). The heads in these initials, with their hooked noses, are particularly close to British Library MS Royal 2. B. I.
Some of the miniatures and historiated initials have text written in gold running diagonally in the background: the Crucifixion on f.26v has the opening words of the so-called Virgin's Complaint 'Filius Regis Mortuus Est', while the historiated initial on f.83 has the beginning of the very popular English medieval prayer 'Iesu mercy, Lady help'.
The subjects of the half-page miniatures are as follows: Annunciation f.6; Sts Ambrose and Augustine f.11; Crucifixion f.26v; Entombment f.29v.
The subjects of the large historiated initials are as follows: Nativity f.6, Adoration of the Magi f.11v, Flight into Egypt f.12, Presentation in the Temple f.21, Christ before the Virgin f.26v, Ascension f.28, Pentecost f.30, Assumption of the Virgin f.42, Funeral Service f.56v, Angels with a soul in a cloth f.83, Man of Sorrows f.94, St Jerome at his writing desk f.102, Pietà f.113v.
The Firle Place Hours, use of Sarum, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, probably London, c.1440s]
The quintessential English Book of Hours: an iconographically rich manuscript illuminated by the workshop of the Master of Duke Humfrey's Psalms.
255 x 175mm. i + 119 + i leaves, collation: 15(of 6, lacking iii), 29(of 8, viii misbound), 35(of 8?, i bound in the second gathering, iv misbound, lacking vii-viii), 45(of 8, lacking i, v and vii), 57(of 8, lacking iii), 65(of 8, lacking i-ii and viii), 74(of 8, v-viii cancelled blanks), 8-168, 177(of 8, viii a cancelled blank), a few signatures and catchwords survive, 18 lines, ruled space: 140 x 92mm, one-line initials in burnished gold with blue penwork flourishing or in blue with red penwork flourishing and line-fillers throughout, 142 small historiated initials inhabited by heads of kings, queens, saints, instruments of the Passion, the wounds of Christ, etc., with foliate sprays extending into the margins throughout, other large illuminated initials in colours with similar foliate sprays, 4 half-page miniatures and 13 large historiated initials within full-page borders (lacking 10 leaves, of which one Calendar leaf and at least 3 probably with miniatures and/or historiated initials, two leaves misbound, a small hole in the opening two leaves, the miniatures and three of the large historiated initials smudged and defaced, smudges, staining and losses of pigment elsewhere, f.11 with tape residue, top corner of f.83 cut away). Bound in 18th-century quarter calf, edges gilt and gauffered (edges scuffed, spine a little cracked).
Provenance:
(1) The liturgical use is of Sarum, and the illumination, attributed by Kathleen Scott to the workshop of the Master of Duke Humfrey's Psalms, is mid-15th-century English. An added obit on 11 September reads 'Obbitus [sic] Henrice Gairstang anno domini mloccccmoxiiiito (1464)'. This could be the same Henry Gairstang with links to Merton College Oxford (Merton College MS 200 contains a 15th-century ownership note 'qui Iohannes dedit Henrico Gairstang et idem Henricus dedit Collegio Marton’ in Oxonia'). Signs of Reformation-era censorship are evident throughout the book: 'pape' is repeatedly crossed out in the Calendar, Thomas of Canterbury is crossed out in the Calendar and in the memorials.
(2) 16th-century note on final flyleaf, visible under black-light: 'M[emorandum] that I dyd res[eive]? for Richard Wade for hys halfe yere rynte xxxvii s xvi'.
(3) A 17th-century ownership inscription on the first flyleaf reads: 'Liber Fr. Williams pretium vjs. iiiid'.
(4) Sold by order of the Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement.
Contents:
Calendar ff.1-5v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Sarum, with Hours of the Cross intermixed ff.6-37: matins f.6, lauds, with memorials to St John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, Thomas of Canterbury (crossed out), St Nicholas, the Virgins Katherine and Margaret, relics, All Saints, peace (crossed out), ending imperfectly f.12, prime f.21, terce f.24 (lacking opening and end), sext (lacking opening) f.25, none (lacking end) f.26v, vespers f.28, compline f.30, followed by the Salve Regina (lacking end) and Salve Virgo Virginum; Prayer to the Trinity (lacking opening) and a Heavenly Letter, with list of perils and divine names (on which see R.G.A. Hebing, The Cultural and Material Contexts of Heavenly Letter Charms in Medieval England, 2017) ff.38-41; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.42-56; Office of the Dead, use of Sarum, ff.56v-83; Commendation of Souls ff.83-93v; Psalms of the Passion ff.94-102; Psalter of St Jerome ff.102-113v; Fifteen Oes of St Bridget ff.113v-119v.
Illumination:
The illumination of the Firle Place Hours has been linked to the workshop of a Master dubbed the 'Master of Duke Humfrey's Psalms', responsible for the illustration of London, British Library MS Royal 2. B. I, datable to c.1430-1447 and produced for Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester (on which see K. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, 1996, II, cat. no 83, pp.239-241). His work is identifiable in four other manuscripts (London, Guildhall, Corporation of London Records Office, 'Statuta Antiqua Angliae' of c.1430-40; London, Drapers' Company, Patent of Arms, 10 March 1439; Capetown, South African Public Library Grey 4 c 5, a Psalter of c.1440; and London, British Library Harley 2909, a Psalter). His style is quintessentially English 'in its flat, outlined mode of representation. The human face and features are always outlined in dark brown or black; and many have a distinct greenish cast. Male features have a characteristic hooked nose, and older men a white beard separated into hanging curls indicated by rows of white dots' (K. Scott, 1996, II, p.240). We see these same features in the Firle Place Hours, as well as the same dull palette and use of muted tan-pink colour.
The Firle Place Hours has a number of unconventional iconographic features: at the end of matins and preceding the Te Deum is a half-page miniature of Sts Ambrose and Augustine, who are traditionally associated with this Ambrosian hymn (f.11), and the hymn itself opens with a historiated initial of the Adoration of the Magi (f.11v). Miniatures depicting the Passion sequence accompany historiated initials depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin (including a rare depiction of Christ appearing before the Virgin, in a historiated initial beneath a miniature with the Crucifixion opening none of the Hours of the Virgin). The Fifteen Oes of St Bridget, a popular text in English Hours of this period, did not apparently come to be illustrated in Hours until the second decade of the century (Scott, I, p.57) and the main iconographic programme dates from the 1440s onwards. Here we have the Man of Sorrows opening the Psalms of the Passion, and the Pietà opening the Fifteen Oes.
These Hours are striking for the sheer number – 142 – of 2-line initials inhabited by human heads (and a number depicting instruments of the Passion and the wounds of Christ). Portrait-like human heads in secondary initials are found in the pre-1408 Sherborne Missal, British Library, Add MS 74236– that unrivalled masterpiece of English book production – and in the Hours and Psalter of John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, British Library MS Add. 42131, but their use here is exceptional to the point, as Scott notes 'of virtually creating a new format for artistic expression' (Scott, II, p.169). The heads in these initials, with their hooked noses, are particularly close to British Library MS Royal 2. B. I.
Some of the miniatures and historiated initials have text written in gold running diagonally in the background: the Crucifixion on f.26v has the opening words of the so-called Virgin's Complaint 'Filius Regis Mortuus Est', while the historiated initial on f.83 has the beginning of the very popular English medieval prayer 'Iesu mercy, Lady help'.
The subjects of the half-page miniatures are as follows: Annunciation f.6; Sts Ambrose and Augustine f.11; Crucifixion f.26v; Entombment f.29v.
The subjects of the large historiated initials are as follows: Nativity f.6, Adoration of the Magi f.11v, Flight into Egypt f.12, Presentation in the Temple f.21, Christ before the Virgin f.26v, Ascension f.28, Pentecost f.30, Assumption of the Virgin f.42, Funeral Service f.56v, Angels with a soul in a cloth f.83, Man of Sorrows f.94, St Jerome at his writing desk f.102, Pietà f.113v.
出版
K. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, 1996, 2 vols., I: pp.57, 72 n.18, 75 n.52, 77 nn.31, 38, 41; II: pp.169, 234, 240, 250 and Table III.
榮譽呈獻
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts