ÆŸ Book of Hours, Use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France, c. 1475]

220 leaves, wanting single leaves throughout and slightly misbound in fourteenth gathering, collation: i12, ii8, iii5 (vi a cancelled blank), iv5 (i, iv and vii wanting), v7 (v wanting), vi8, vii6 (i wanting, last a cancelled blank), viii-ix8, x7 (iv wanting), xi3 (i, ii and v wanting), xii-xiii8, xiv8 (slightly misbound), xv4, xv6 (ii wanting, last leaf a blank cancel), xvi7 (i wanting), xvii8, xviii6 (wants last leaf, that apparently originally a singleton), xix8, xx8, xxi8, xxii8, xxiii7 (iv wanting), xxiv7 (wants last), xxv8, xxvi8, xxvii8, xxviii8, xxix8, xxx2, single column of 16 lines of two sizes of a good late gothic bookhand, dark red rubrics, Calendar with entries in red, blue and liquid gold, line-fillers in blue and pink panels heightened with white penwork and gold dots, one-line initials in gold on coloured grounds, 2- to 4-line initials in colours enclosing foliage sprays on gold grounds, leaves with larger initials with decorated panel borders of rinceaux foliage terminating in coloured flowers and gold bezants, ivyleaves and seed pods, thirteen large arch-topped miniatures by Maître François or his workshop, above a 3-line initial, the text and miniature encased on three sides by a decorated bar border of coloured foliage and shapes on burnished gold, these within a full border of acanthus leaf sprays and densely packed rinceaux foliage ending in coloured flowers and fruit, gold ivy leaves and bezants, a few small illuminated initials cut out leaving holes, trimmed at edges with some losses to edges of borders, slightly thumbed in places, a few miniatures with some chipping and cracking (this with serious affect to only two), last leaf once loose and now attached on paper guard, small spots and stains, else in good condition on fine parchment, 155 by 110mm.; nineteenth-century chestnut velvet over pasteboards, with plaited gilt thread sewn in fillet and central chevrons on each board, worn at spine and edges, rebacked and restored with nineteenth-century velvet overlaid

Provenance:
1. Written and illuminated in Paris apparently for a patron who lived in that city or its vicinity: with SS. Genevieve and Denis in gold in the Calendar.

2. William Constable Maxwell, most probably the namesake who lived 1804-76 and from 1868 10th Baron Herries of Terregles: his ex libris dated 'July 1833' at head of front pastedown. Perhaps from him to the owner of the unidentified armorial bookplate pasted in the middle of the pastedown.

3. Owned in twentieth century by one A.R. Burn, then E.J.W. Vaughan in 1982, gifted by him in 1999 and thence by descent.

Text:
The volume comprises: a Calendar (in French); Gospels readings; the Obsecro te and O intemerata; the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (wanting opening), Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline (wanting opening); the Seven Penitential Psalms, followed by a Litany; the Hours of the Cross (wanting opening); the Hours of the Holy Spirit; the Office of the Dead (opening wanting); a long series of prayers in French opening with Les Quinze Ioyes de Notre Dame.

Illumination:
Surviving examples of the work of Maître François show that he directed an extremely productive Parisian atelier between c. 1460 and c. 1480, with his first name recorded in a single document of 1473. He has tentatively been identified as the artist François le Barbier who was documented in Paris 1455-72.

The large miniatures here comprise: (1) fol. 13r: the evangelist John, seated and writing in a scroll; (2) fol. 43r, St. Anne and the Virgin; (3) fol. 52r, the Nativity; (4) fol. 57v, the Annunciation to the shepherds; (5) fol. 62r, the Adoration of the Magi; (6) fol. 66r, the Presentation in the Temple; (7) fol. 70r, the Flight into Egypt guided by a gold winged angel; (8) fol. 78r, David in prayer within a gothic setting; (9) fol. 98r, Pentecost; (10) fol. 99r, the Crucifixion; (11) fol. 140v, the Virgin and Child seated as angels play music; (12) fol. 146r, the Trinity, with Christ and God the Father enthroned as the Holy Spirit descends; (13) fol. 166r, the Pietà at Golgotha between two angels.

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