[GETIJDENBOEK]

BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome in Latin and Dutch, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM Bruges, ca. 1470 8vo (201 x 135 mm), 143 leaves, 16 (of 8, i as pastedown, ii cancelled blank), 2-108, 113, 12-188, 196 (of 8, vii cancelled blank, viii as pastedown), singletons with miniatures removed from before ff. 7, 14, 21, 35, 18 lines written in black ink in a lettre batarde between two verticals and 19 horizontals ruled in violet, justification: 82 x 166mm, rubrics in red, text capitals touched yellow, one-line initials in burnished gold flourished in dark blue and in blue flourished in red, line-endings in gold and blue, two-line initials in burnished gold on grounds and infills of blue patterned with white and of pink patterned with gold, some pink infills with heraldic lions, fleur de lys and sparking fire-steels, 26 LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS, 17 SMALL MINIATURES and 2 MARGINAL MINIATURES, all these with 45 FULL-PAGE BORDERS around three-sided bar baguettes in gold with blue and gold acanthus. CONTENT: Calendar ff.1-6; Hours of the Cross ff.7-13v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.14-20v; Mass of the Virgin, ff.21-25; Gospel extracts ff.25v-29v; Obsecro te ff.29v-32v; O intemerata ff.32v-34; Office of the Virgin, use of Rome ff.35-79; S alve regina, Five Joys of the Virgin with the only rubric in Dutch ff.79v-81v; prayer on the Seven Last Words ff.82-83v, Suffrages ff.84-96: prayers to be said at the Elevation, to Christ and to the Cross ff.96v-97v; Penitential Psalms ff.98-106; Litany and prayers ff.106-110v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome ff.111-143. Flemish 16th-century panelled goatskin over wooden boards, each cover with two impressions of a panel with a border of vine leaves and grapes around the signature IOHANNES GUILEBERT between compartments of four linked foliage roundels each with a pair of monkeys or birds, between the two panels, metal clasps (catches and clasps renewed, repairs to spine). ILLUMINATION: The extensive illumination is in a style derived from Willem Vrelant, one of the leading illuminators in Bruges. The luxuriant borders are unusually complex for the Vrelant workshop, with their lively figures and grotesques often interacting with the acanthus and flower and fruit stems. Grotesques often mirror the action of the main miniature, brandishing weapons by the Passion initials, for example, and holding the stem of a bunch of grapes, a Eucharistic symbol, below the Deposition. Provenance: 1. The manuscript was made for the couple shown at prayer in historiated initials on ff.21 and 82; perhaps particularly for the wife, as she is shown alone in the borders by St Michael, f.84, and St Agatha, f.94v; her name may have been Agatha. Their costume, signalling noble rank, is identical in fashion to that in the name work of the Bruges Master of 1473 (Brussels, Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique). They presumably lived in, or came from, Ghent since the Calendar has feasts in red for Sts Pharahildis (4 January), Amand (6 February), Bavo (1 October), Livinus (12 November) and in black for Macharius (9 May), whose relics were in St Bavo's Abbey. 2. Bound in Ghent c. 1525-40: Johannes Guilebert's bindings are on books dating from 1532 and 1538 and he has been localised to Ghent from his association with Joris de Gavere, who was active there c. 1530. 3. The Franciscan Joseph van Uitterhoeve: his ex libris ad usum simplicem stamped in red 4. Sold by Christie's in July 2001