[VIGLIUS van AYTTA]

The Prayerbook of Viglius van Aytta, in Latin, Dutch and French, finely illuminated manuscript on vellum [Flanders, 16th century ( c. 1516, and 1552-1577)] 194 leaves (plus 2 original flyleaves at front and 4 at the back), bound too tightly to collate but perhaps wanting single leaves with miniatures before fols. 114 and 122 (opening the Hours of the Cross and of the Holy Spirit), else apparently complete, modern foliation in pen excluding the Calendar leaves at front from that count and skipping a leaf after fol. 17 (but foliation followed here), written in single column of 17 lines of a hybrida hand, red rubrics, an architectural pillar heightened in liquid gold enclosing a gilt putto’s face and the date ‘1516’, Calendar with full decorated borders with scenes of the occupations for each month with additional scenes depicting aspects of life in the Low Countries in the 16th century, each of these arranged as a double opening with one small roundel containing the appropriate zodiac symbol, three full-page miniatures in arch-topped frames and within full borders in the Ghent/Bruges style or architectural features, one miniature added after 1552 (probably replacing an earlier miniature), 160 x 95 mm.; modern white vellum over thin pasteboards This fine Renaissance volume is the prayerbook of Viglius van Aytta. Provenance: 1. This prayer book was produced in an accomplished Flemish atelier (almost certainly in Bruges) in the years up to 1516 as a commission for a patron whose arms were covered over with the petalled flower in the bas-de-page of the text leaf facing the present ownership miniature of Viglius van Aytta. Those arms were flanked by geometric knots in silver enclosing the initials ‘S M’. 2. Viglius van Aytta (1507-1577): with his arms on a hanging shield added to the border decoration of fol. 2r. 3. A. Hachette: this book lot 23 in his auction sale in 1953, and acquired there by Fl. Tulkens. 4. From Tulkens to a private collector, and exhibited in Bruges in 1981 (in the exhibition Vlaamse kunst op perkament). Thereafter passing by descent to present owner. The Patron: Viglius van Aytta was a senior Habsburg statesman under Emperor Charles V. After the death of his wife, he became a coadjutor-abbot of St. Bavo’s (Ghent) Text: Calendar (unfoliated, but arranged as a series of facing double-page spreads, so this on 13 leaves); Latin prayers ; the Passion Readings from the Gospels of John (fol. 8v), Luke (fol. 10r), Matthew (fol. 12r), and Mark (fol. 15r), followed by further prayers ; the Penitential Psalms (fol. 36r), followed by a Litany of Saints and further prayers; the Office of the Dead (fol. 61r); the Hours of the Cross (fol. 114v) and of the Holy Spirit (fol. 123r); the Seven Prayers of St. Gregory in Dutch (fol. 130r); the Cinq requestes in French (fol. 133r) and other prayers in French ; the Gospel Readings for the Passion according to the Gospel of John in Latin (fol. 164r), followed by Latin prayers to Christ and a prayer in Italian against the plague (fol. 179r). Illumination: The artist of the initial stage of this volume was a close follower of the Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximilan; that artist now widely believed to be Alexander Bening (d. 1519), and thus the father of the Simon Bening. In particular, the Calendar border scenes here show a strong affinity to the same leaves of the Mayer van den Bergh Breviary. The decoration here comprises: (i-xii) the twelve Calendar scenes : January: a man warming his feet by the fire and his wife and son place a fish on the table and cut bread; February: the cutting of wood and bundling it into staves; March: the digging and laying out of ornamental gardens; April: the herding of sheep and the milking of cows; May: a boating party eating at a table set up in the boat and a hunting party; June: the shearing of sheep and jousting; July: making hay,; August: harvesting corn,; September: ploughing the fields and hunting deer; October: the sealing up of barrels and the killing of an ox ; November: threshing wheat and separating it from the chaff: December: killing a hog and sleigh rides in the snow; and the full-page miniatures: (xiii) the additional miniature of Viglius in episcopal regalia; (xiv) David in prayer, the borders filled with scenes of Bathsheba bathing naked ; (xv) Christ lifting his hand to point it at Lazarus, ; (xvi) St. Gregory kneeling before an altar as Christ appears to him surrounded by the Cross, the borders in Ghent/Bruges trompe d’oeil style, flecked with liquid gold.