131 leaves (plus an original vellum endleaf at front and back), textually complete, but wanting at least 4 single leaves once with miniatures (miniatures mostly on singletons), collation: i-ii6, iii-iv9 (including a singleton with a miniature), v8, vi9 (as before), vii8, viii9 (as before), ix-x8, x3 (blank cancels at end, and no loss of text), xii-xvii8, most quires with vertical catchwords, text written in 19 lines of a professional late gothic bookhand, rubrics in dark red, one-line initials in red or blue with penwork in contrasting colour, 2-line initials in gold on blue or pink grounds with white penwork overlaid, thirteen large illuminated initials in blue or red enclosing sprays of coloured foliage on burnished gold grounds (these grounds with 'notches' of blank vellum cut out from their four edges), the pages with these initials with full decorated borders of acanthus leaf sprays and other hairline foliage and fruit, four full-page arch-topped miniatures within full decorated borders as before, one miniature removed from volume (originally opposite fol. 38r) and trimmed to edges (perhaps once framed separately for some time) before being pasted onto a more modern vellum leaf and returned to the volume (now facing fol. 14r), some parts of text neatly crossed through, section of border (apparently with an Early Modern ex libris) at foot of last leaf trimmed away, small spots and stains, else in excellent condition, 185 by 130mm.; contemporary binding of dark brown leather over wooden boards, panel-stamped with four impressions of a distinctive panel on each board (see below), slightly rubbed in places and a few scuffed areas, spine restored, small traces of red velvet once completely covering this medieval binding inside front and back boards, gilt-edges and gaufered, in dark red cloth-covered fitted case.
Text:
This charming volume contains: a Calendar (fol. 1r); the Hours of the Virgin with Matins (fol. 14r), Lauds (fol. 29r), Prime (fol. 38r), Terce (fol. 42r), Sext (fol. 45r), None (fol. 48r), Vespers (fol. 51r) and Compline (fol. 58r), with the Advent Office (fol. 62r); the Psalter of St. Jerome (fol. 70r); the Penitential Psalms (fol. 84r) followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 98r); and the Obsecro te prayer (fol. 129r) for male use.
Illumination:
The art here is well-executed and by an accomplished Bruges artist of the second half of the fifteenth century. The characteristic dark blues and burgundy-reds are here, as are the small pink faces with beady eyes, buildings in the background with domes and landscapes with round bushes. Overall, the painting here is crisp and fresh, and is in an excellent state of preservation. The miniatures comprise:
(i) fol. 13v, the Nativity, with the Child on the ground adored by the Virgin and Joseph as an angel soars overhead, in the foreground a small pond with ducks, and a rolling grassy landscape with a distant turreted town in the background;
(ii) fol. 28v, the Visitation, with the Virgin and St. Elizabeth greeting each other before a large medieval fortified house;
(iii) fol. 41v, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, with one shepherd playing the bagpipes as the others gaze upwards to the red angel who holds a fluttering scroll, the towers of Jerusalem surmounted by crescents and crosses in the background; and
(iv) fol. 57v, the Flight into Egypt, with the Holy Family riding through a landscape with a moated city in the background, to the left a pagan statue tumbles from its pillar
Binding: When this book came to light in 1990 it was still covered with red velvet, and its contemporary binding could only be partially detected through the worn areas of that. Subsequent restoration has revealed the fine Bruges panel-stamped binding beneath, and its distinctive panels of tightly scrolling foliage enclosing mirrored and facing birds, hare, hounds (or deer) and pelicans stabbing their own breasts within the inscription "ora pro nobis sancta / dei genitrix vt / digni efficiamur promis / sione xpristi" (or very close variants) can also be found on the 'Huth Hours' (British Library, Additional MS. 38,126), W. 168 in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, USA, the 'Keble-Petrie Hours' sold at Christie's, Foyle Sale, 11-13 July 2000, lot 61, and perhaps also Bruges, Groot Seminarie, MS. 15/76, a Bruges manuscript of John Chrysostom's works in the translation of Francesco Griffolini, made in 1487 for Johannes Crabbe, the abbot of Ten Duinen Abbey and an important Northern European collector of humanist books (W.H.J. Weale, Bookbindings and Rubbings of Bookbindings in the National Art Library South Kensington, II, 1894, no. 134). All of these, apart from the 'Keble-Petrie Hours' are grand Bruges books (the 'Keble-Petrie Hours' was most probably made in nearby Ghent), and the small number of the surviving examples of this panel-stamp suggest this was the work of a single binder who worked in Bruges for an elite clientele there.
Provenance:
1. Written, illuminated and bound in Bruges in the second half of the fifteenth century, evidently for a wealthy male burgher of the town: the Calendar includes St. Donatian (patron saint of Bruges, on 7 August), and St. Vincent Ferrer (canonised in 1455, on 5 April), and the Obsecro te prayer that ends the volume is of male use.
2. Probably re-emerging in the English-speaking booktrade in the 20th century: pencil inscriptions of that language and date on front endleaf, misdescribing the volume as 'French' and 'c. 1490'.
3. Sotheby's, 29 November 1990, lot 151, realising £15,400.
4. Then sold in our rooms, 4 October 2008, lot 467, to the present owner
