123 leaves (plus one original endleaf at back), main texts complete (perhaps wanting a leaf from later additional material at end), collation: i-ii6, iii-iv4, v6, vi-xiii4, xiv-xix6, xx8, xxi-xxii6, xxiii7 (vi and vii singletons), xxiv5 (last a blank cancel), written in single column of 18 lines in a small and spiky bookhand, capitals touched in red, Biblical quotations underlined in red, red rubrics, blue paraphs, one-to 2-line initials in red or blue, larger initials in blue with blank vellum designs left within their bodies, enclosing finely drawn foliage in red ink touched with green wash, enclosed within similar penwork forming page length borders, five of these with a gold frame around the text, and full borders of penwork, the final three of those with the foliate designs inside the initials and the blank vellum designs in the bodies of the initials infilled with gold, frontispiece and opening of suffrage to St. Francis each with a large initial in brown acanthus leaves edged in dull-gold on pink grounds (or vice versa) and full border of realistic flower clippings and a butterfly, a snail and a bird strewn on dull-gold grounds, a few penwork scrawls in margin, some small chips to paint, three initials smudged in places, slight cockling, small spots and stains, else good condition, 110 by 80mm.; in 16th-century panel stamped binding of dark brown leather over wooden boards, each board with two columns of three roundels containing small animals, within a frame containing an inscription (now only partially visible), much of boards remaining, leather at the edges near the spine once torn away and replaced with modern leather, spine rebacked, some cuts and scuffs, one remaining brass clasp, one clasp wanting
Provenance:
1. Written and illuminated c. 1500, most probably for an itinerant Franciscan preacher, and thus of a small and portable size. The Suffrages to the saints especially honours St. Francis with an illuminated page the equal of the frontispiece to the volume, and the same saint's translation is in the Calendar in May, as well as his stigmatisation in September and his octave in October. His main feast was omitted from October, but as the rubricator missed the Calendar page for October, the space left for 4 October was probably intended for the saint's commemoration in red ink. Other Franciscan saints can be found in the Calendar: SS. Vincent Ferrer (5 April), Clare of Assisi (10 August), Anthony of Padua (13 June, underlined in red) and Bonaventura (15 July), the last two noted as "ord. minorum".
2. Probably owned in the sixteenth century by 'Philippus' and 'Hendrick van nerum' (for Nerom, Wolvertem, Belgium), whose names appear among the scrawled inscriptions on the back pastedown. 3. Most probably passing to the 'Johannes' who made additions to the work in the early seventeenth century, dating these '1617' on the last leaf.
Text:
The volume comprises: a Calendar; the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers and Compline; the Office of the Dead; a Rosary of the Virgin; the Hours of the Passion of Christ, ending with prayers and indulgences; prayers to the Virgin and Suffrages to SS. Michael, John the Baptist, Paul, John the evangelist, Stephen, Laurence, Francis, Jerome, Nicholas, Catherine and Agnes. Then leaves originally left at the end of this book were used in the 16th-century for additional prayers. The last two quires appear to have been added in the 16th century, and were used in turn for the addition of the Seven Penitential Psalms by the Johannes noted above who dates his work to 1617
