Ɵ Book of Hours, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (most probably Paris), c. 1400]

196 leaves (plus an seventeenth-century endleaf at each end), wanting single leaves (probably once with miniatures) throughout, also wanting a few leaves from end (but that way since seventeenth century at least), some catchwords, collation: i4 (all singletons, once a quire of 6, January and February leaves wanting), ii6, iii8, iv7 (wants i), v8, vi7 (probably wants i), vii6 (wants outermost bifolium), viii7 (wants i), ix5 (wanting i and 2 other leaves), x8, xi6 (wants ii and vii), xii7 (wants i), xiii2 (but no text missing, so a bifolium added to complete text section), xiv7 (wants i), xv8, xvi9 (wants i), xvii6 (wants i and vi), xvii8 (wanting ii and another leaf), xviii-xxii8, xxiii5 (wants iv, vi and another leaf), xxiv-xxvi8, single column of 13 lines of two sizes of a good and accomplished late gothic bookhand, Calendar entries in red, blue and gold, capitals touched in yellow, red rubrics, one-line initials in liquid gold on blue and pink-red grounds heightened with white penwork, 2-line initials in same colours, enclosing coloured foliage on burnished gold grounds, one leaf with single-line foliage terminating in teardrop shaped petals emerging from illuminated initials, ninety-nine pages with decorated borders with gold and coloured bars sprouting foliage (usually only one decorated side per leaf, and a few with three-quarter decoration like this, one with full border like this, two with blue fleur-de-lys at their apex), fifty-two pages with similar border decoration terminating in red and blue dragons with spiky manes snapping at their own bodies or at bezants or foliage (these usually only one per leaf, one leaf with two dragons), plus two others with similar borders with dragon-bodied drolleries with a human head and a boar's head, one half-page miniature of the presentation in the Temple, the scene before a gold and red tessellated background, and within thick text bars of coloured fleur-de-lys, flowers and pots on gold, with full border of gold and coloured ivy leaves, trimmed at edges (but noticeable only with miniature page and occasional borders throughout), miniature worn in places, thumbed in places throughout, some leaves cockled (especially those at end), overall fair and presentable condition, 172 by 123mm.; seventeenth-century mottled calf over pasteboards, corners bumped and spine cracking in places, endleaves reused from a French parchment document of that date

Provenance:
1. This was once an impressive example of Parisian book production at the opening of the fifteenth century. It was probably made for a patron who lived near the modern Belgian border, perhaps in Rheims, and has St. Doda, abbess of Rheims in the Litany, and St. Blanchart of Brie in the Calendar (10 March).

2. Maris Gerardot of Rheims in August 1695: inscription at head of first endleaf.

3. Hubert André Dallie, prelate of Ailly, who received the volume on 6 July 1815: inscription at foot of first endleaf.

Text:
The volume comprises: a Calendar (in French); Gospel readings; Hours of the Virgin; the Seven Penitential Psalms with a Litany; Hours of the Holy Spirit (with rubric in French); the Hours of the Cross; the Office of the Dead; ending with prayers in French and Latin.

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