This jewel-like manuscript is illuminated by the so-called Talbot Master, one of the leading French painters in Rouen during the English occupation of the city at the end of the Hundred Years’ War, who worked principally for English patrons.
He is named after two manuscripts made for John Talbot (c. 1388–1453), first earl of Shrewsbury - immortalised by Shakespeare as the heroic leader of the English armies in the last stages of the Hundred Years War - including a Book of Hours given by Talbot to his second wife Margaret Beauchamp on their wedding in 1425 (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 41-1950), and an Alexander romance which Talbot gave to Margaret of Anjou on her marriage to Henry VI of England in 1445 (British Library, Royal MS 15 E.vi). He sometimes collaborated with the Master of Sir John Fastolf, with whom he is easily confused because their styles are very similar. The Fastolf Master probably followed his English patrons to England when they withdrew from Normandy, but the Talbot Master seems to have ceased painting and perhaps died around that time.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
1. (fol. 43r) The Annunciation: the Virgin crossing her arms on her chest at a prie-dieu with an open book on the right and turning to Gabriel kneeling before her and holding a scroll reading “Ave gratia plena d”, all set in a vaulted gothic chapel; the coat-of-arms in the lower margin of the border. On the facing page (fol. 42v) is a heraldic shield with crest and supporters and motto “vray desire”.
2. (fol. 62r) The Visitation: the Virgin standing on the left with a book in her right hand, her left hand on her cousin’s shoulder. Saint Elizabeth bends to touch the Virgin’s belly. Set in a green rocky landscape, a medieval turreted town wall on a distant hill on the left under a starry blue sky; within a full illuminated border.
3. (fol. 108v) The Adoration of the Magi: the Virgin sitting on the left with the Christ Child on her lap, a grey-bearded king kneeling before her, the other two kings standing behind them in conversation, all set in a wooden porch under a thatched roof opening to a starry blue sky; within full illuminated border.
4. (fol. 114v) The Presentation in the Temple: the Virgin on the left side of a low altar handing the naked Christ Child to the high priest, standing on the other side of the altar, the heads of a maid and of a man appearing behind the Virgin, all set in a hall with a vaulted wooden roof; within full illuminated border.
5. (fol. 136r) David in prayer: kneeling with his psaltery at his feet and looking up to God appearing on the left in a radiant halo in the sky, all set in a green hilly landscape with trees in blossom, a turreted castle in the distance on the right under a starry blue sky; within full illuminated border with daisies. On the facing page (fol. 135v) a heraldic shield with the Fitz-Ralph arms impaling Parcy(?).
Provenance:
1. Made in Rouen during the English occupation (1419–49), for an English patron, probably of the Parcy family, and his wife, probably of the FitzRalph family of Warwickshire: with his coat of arms (argent, on a chevron sable, three pierced cinquefoils or) (fols. 42v and 43r), and motto “vray desir” (fol. 42v) impaling her coat-of-arms or, three chevrons gules, each charged with three fleurs-de-lys argent) (fol. 135v).
2. Dorothy de la Pole: with her ownership note “This boke is myn Dorothe de la Pole”, erased but visible under UV light (fol. 359r). This and the next owner were perhaps members of the family of William de la Pole (1396–1450), first duke of Suffolk, who fought in the French wars and was taken prisoner by Joan of Arc; his son John de la Pole (1442–1491/2), second duke of Suffolk, or his son, Sir Edmund de la Pole (c. 1472–1513), earl of Suffolk, all of whom were distinguished statesmen and soldiers.
3. Katren de la Pole: with her signature and motto, apparently “trowt fend me” (truth find me) (fol. 3v). Sold at Sotheby’s London, 1 March 1921, lot 279B; bought by “Boyce”.
4. Alice Parsons Millard (1873–1938), American bookseller, of Pasadena, CA: sold in 1931 to:
5. Estelle Doheny (1857–1958), American book collector and philanthropist: her MS 2, with her gilt leather bookplate (front pastedown); presented to the Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library, St John’s Seminary, Camarillo, CA; their sale at Christie’s, London, 2 December 1987, lot 160; bought by Tenschert:
6. Heribert Tenschert (b. 1947), Swiss bookseller: Prof. Eberhard König, in Leuchtendes Mittelalter, I, cat. Katalog XXI (1989), no. 57; bought by:
7. Joost R. Ritman (b. 1941): with the Bibliotheca Philosophia Hermetica bookplate (fol. i) and his price-code and “BPH 77” (back pastedown); his sale at Sotheby’s, 6 July 2000, lot 20.
8. Private UK collection.
Literature: The Book as a Work of Art, An Exhibition of Books and Manuscripts from the Library of Mrs. Edward Lawrence Doheny, 1935, p. 23, no. 5 S. de Ricci, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, I, 1935, p. 20, no. 2 (identifying the heraldry as “probably Boswell” and “Fitzralph, of Norfolk”) L. V. Miller, Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts in the Estelle Doheny Collection, I, 1940, p. 4, pl. XII C. U. Faye and W. H. Bond, Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962), p. 9 R. H. Rouse, ‘Medieval Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Los Angeles’, in A Bibliophile’s Los Angeles, 1985, p. 79.
