Book of Hours, Use of Sarum, in Latin with rubrics in French and a prayer in Middle English, illuminated manuscript on vellum. [France, Rouen, c. 1440]

BOOK OF HOURS

THE FITZ-RALPH HOURS

Capitals touched in yellow, the Calendar in blue and red with major entries in burnished gold, headings in burnished gold or blue, line-fillers and one-line initials throughout in highly burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, illuminated initials throughout, up to 4 lines high, in foliate designs of red and blue highlighted with white tracery on grounds of highly burnished gold, over 200 illuminated panel borders and six full illuminated borders (fols. 15r, 27r, 35r, 293r, 313r, and 323r) in designs of highly burnished gold, ivy leaves on black hairline stems with sprouting multicoloured flowers and acanthus leaves, the script within full borders framed by bars of highly burnished gold, five large miniatures within full illuminated borders, the miniatures in arched compartments above 3-line illuminated initials and three lines of script, the borders in luxuriant designs of multicolours and liquid gold flowers and acanthus leaves infilled with bezants and details of highly burnished gold, two openings with illuminated coats-of-arms facing two of the miniatures (fols. 42v and 135v).

Manuscript on vellum c. 100 x 75mm. 359 leaves, plus a single modern vellum flyleaf at beginning and end, lacking 7 illuminated leaves (after fols. 92, 102, 119, 124, 189 and 258), otherwise complete; collation: i[12], ii–iv[8], v[4], vi–xi[8], xii[8-2] (3^rd and 4^th leaves missing), xiii[8-1] (7^th leaf missing), xiv–xv[8], xvi[8-2] (1^st and 7^th leaves missing), xvii–xxiv[8], xxv[8-1] (1^st leaf missing), xxvi–xxxii[8], xxxiii[6], xxxiv[8-1] (1^st leaf missing), xxxv–xxxvii[8], xxxvii[4], xxxix–xlvi[8], catchwords, the pencil foliation (followed here) repeats ‘276’, ruled in pale purple ink for 12 lines per page, the ruled-space c. 40 × 30mm, written in brown ink in an elegant French lettre batârde.

Bound in early 20^th-century blind-tooled morocco over wooden boards with rounded edges, sewn on five bands, vellum flyleaves, with metal clasp and catch (the latter probably from an earlier binding), gilt edges, in a fitted dark red morocco pull-off case signed by Rivière & Son, with gilt title.

Text: (fols. 1r–2v) added (near-contemporary) prayer in an English hand, “O bone Jhesu …”; (fols. 3r–14v) Calendar, including in gold the English saints Wulstan, Richard of Chichester, Edward the Confessor, Edmund of East Anglia and Edmund of Abingdon, Thomas Becket and his translation (neither erased), Crispin (anniversary of Agincourt), etc; (fols. 15r–27r) Gospel Sequences; (fols. 27r–42v) Prayers Obsecro te and O intemerata, using masculine forms; (fols. 43r–135r) Hours of the Virgin, Use of Sarum, with Matins, Lauds (fol. 62r), followed by suffrages to the Holy Ghost, the Trinity, the Holy Cross, and to Sts Michael, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter, Thomas Becket, Laurence, Nicholas, Mary Magdalene, and for Peace; Prime (fol. 93r), Terce (fol. 103r), Sext (fol. 108v), None (fol. 114v), Vespers (fol. 120r) and Compline (fol. 125r); (fols. 136r–181v) Seven Penitential Psalms followed by a Litany; (fols. 182r–189v Litany of the Virgin; (fols. 190r–257v) Office of the Dead; fol. 258r–v is blank; (fols. 259r–292v) The Commendation of the Souls (i.e. Psalm 118); (fols. 293r–352v) various prayers to be said on various occasions, e.g. on rising in the morning, when leaving home, when attending mass, at the elevation of the host, etc., including one with an indulgence of 2,000 years (fol. 321v), and others to Christ, the Holy Cross, God the Father and the Virgin, including Gaude flore virginali (fol. 341v), the Verses of Saint Bernard (fol. 346v); (fols. 353r– 356v) Memorials to Sts Christopher and George; (fols. 357r–358v) two added (near-contemporary) prayers in an English hand in Middle English: “O my sovereyn lord Ihesu þe veray sone of almyghti god …” and “I þank þe also gracious lord …”; fol. 359r–v was originally blank and has an erased 15^th/16^th-century inscription on the recto.

£75,000

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BOOK OF HOURS

Book of Hours, Use of Sarum, in Latin with rubrics in French and a prayer in Middle English, illuminated manuscript on vellum. [France, Rouen, c. 1440]

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.

Stock No.

253263

Maggs Bros. Ltd.

Book of Hours, Use of Sarum, in Latin with rubrics in French and a prayer in Middle English, illuminated manuscript on vellum. [France, Rouen, c. 1440]

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