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Book of Hours, use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, Ghent or Bruges, c.1500]
Details
Ghent-Bruges school
Book of Hours, use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, Ghent or Bruges, c.1500]
'A fascinating interplay between reality and illusion': a delightful Flemish Book of Hours with quintessential Ghent-Bruges 'scatter' or 'strewn' borders of cut flowers, birds, snails and insects painted against a gold background on which they cast shadows to create a trompe-l’œil effect.
118 x 84mm. i (paper) + i + 155 + ii + i (paper) leaves, collation: 13(of 4, lacking i), 2-188, 192, 208, 216, traces of catchwords survive in inner margins, 16 lines, ruled space: 59 x 39mm, rubrics in red, one- and two-line illuminated initials throughout, 15 large initials with full Ghent-Bruges scatter borders incorporating naturalistic flowers, birds and insects (lacking the first leaf of the Calendar, else textually complete, all full-page miniatures on inserted leaves removed or perhaps never supplied, occasional slight smudging and thumbing, generally in excellent condition). Bound in 17th-century vellum over pasteboards, gilt edges (lacking clasps, edges a little scuffed).
Provenance:
(1) The border illumination is typical Ghent-Bruges work of the early 16th century. The Calendar singles out St Bavo, patron Saint of Ghent in red on 1 October, and the Obsecro te is in the feminine, suggesting the manuscript was made for a woman.
(2) Théophile Belin (1851-1921), first offered in his Catalogue de livres précieux, riches reliures [...], Paris, 1908, no 327, and subsequently in Manuscrits avec miniatures, livres à figures sur bois des XVe et XVIe siècles, Paris, 1909, no 25, ill. p.34.
(3) Sotheby's, 20 June 1989, lot 71, where it is said the manuscript was 'bought by the present owner's uncle probably in Paris in the 1920s'.
Contents:
Calendar ff.1-11v; Hours of the Cross ff.12-15v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.16-19v; Mass of the Virgin ff.20-25v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome, ff.26-83v: matins f.26, lauds f.44, prime f.56, terce f.60, sext f.64, none f.68, vespers f.72, compline f.79; Advent Office ff.84-92v; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.93-110v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome, ff.111-141v; Psalter of St Jerome ff.142-151; Obsecro te ff.151v-155, with a prayer added in a later hand at the very end.
Illumination:
'Strewn' or 'scatter' borders such as those present in this manuscript would often have been assigned to workshop apprentices or assistants, who took the opportunity to display their abilities to paint naturalistic flora and fauna from nature: individual species are easily recognisable. On the development of Ghent-Bruges scatter borders, see A. M. W. As-Vijvers, 'Flowering Margins: the development of strewn-flower borders in Southern Netherlandish manuscript illumination', The Green Middle Ages, 2023, pp.266-285.
Book of Hours, use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, Ghent or Bruges, c.1500]
'A fascinating interplay between reality and illusion': a delightful Flemish Book of Hours with quintessential Ghent-Bruges 'scatter' or 'strewn' borders of cut flowers, birds, snails and insects painted against a gold background on which they cast shadows to create a trompe-l’œil effect.
118 x 84mm. i (paper) + i + 155 + ii + i (paper) leaves, collation: 13(of 4, lacking i), 2-188, 192, 208, 216, traces of catchwords survive in inner margins, 16 lines, ruled space: 59 x 39mm, rubrics in red, one- and two-line illuminated initials throughout, 15 large initials with full Ghent-Bruges scatter borders incorporating naturalistic flowers, birds and insects (lacking the first leaf of the Calendar, else textually complete, all full-page miniatures on inserted leaves removed or perhaps never supplied, occasional slight smudging and thumbing, generally in excellent condition). Bound in 17th-century vellum over pasteboards, gilt edges (lacking clasps, edges a little scuffed).
Provenance:
(1) The border illumination is typical Ghent-Bruges work of the early 16th century. The Calendar singles out St Bavo, patron Saint of Ghent in red on 1 October, and the Obsecro te is in the feminine, suggesting the manuscript was made for a woman.
(2) Théophile Belin (1851-1921), first offered in his Catalogue de livres précieux, riches reliures [...], Paris, 1908, no 327, and subsequently in Manuscrits avec miniatures, livres à figures sur bois des XVe et XVIe siècles, Paris, 1909, no 25, ill. p.34.
(3) Sotheby's, 20 June 1989, lot 71, where it is said the manuscript was 'bought by the present owner's uncle probably in Paris in the 1920s'.
Contents:
Calendar ff.1-11v; Hours of the Cross ff.12-15v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.16-19v; Mass of the Virgin ff.20-25v; Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome, ff.26-83v: matins f.26, lauds f.44, prime f.56, terce f.60, sext f.64, none f.68, vespers f.72, compline f.79; Advent Office ff.84-92v; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.93-110v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome, ff.111-141v; Psalter of St Jerome ff.142-151; Obsecro te ff.151v-155, with a prayer added in a later hand at the very end.
Illumination:
'Strewn' or 'scatter' borders such as those present in this manuscript would often have been assigned to workshop apprentices or assistants, who took the opportunity to display their abilities to paint naturalistic flora and fauna from nature: individual species are easily recognisable. On the development of Ghent-Bruges scatter borders, see A. M. W. As-Vijvers, 'Flowering Margins: the development of strewn-flower borders in Southern Netherlandish manuscript illumination', The Green Middle Ages, 2023, pp.266-285.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts