[Liber horarum - Use of Rouen].

[Book of Hours].

Verlag: Rouen, Normandy, ca. 1480.

Beschreibung

Small 4to. Latin and French illuminated manuscript on vellum, 160 ff. Ruled in red ink for 14 lines per page (16 in the calendar). Gothic textura, major feasts in calendar in burnished gold, others alternately red or blue. Text pages illuminated with panel borders of flowers and plants on gold, and blue and gold stylised acanthus on a plain ground. Calendar has 24 small square miniatures set into panel borders; major text divisions marked by 12 large miniatures; 2 historiated initials; hundreds of smaller initials and line-fillers throughout. 18th century French red calf over pasteboards, gilt cover borders, spine gilt titled, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. A Rouen Book of Hours of outstanding quality and in slightly larger than usual format, commissioned by a female patron who is portrayed in the last miniature awaiting the arrival of the Messiah. - The style of illumination is typical of that practised in Rouen during the late 15th century. Characteristic features include the profuse use of gold highlights on draperies and hillsides, often cross-hatched; cross-hatching of grassy areas in landscapes; a palette predominantly based on pink, blue, brown and green, and the use of grey for the modelling of facial features, men having rather swarthy flesh, and women very pale skin; the rather peremptory manner of painting hands; the grey-blue acanthus on flat gold backgrounds for borders. Also the liturgical use points to Rouen as the place of production: the sparse calendar includes St Romanus (23 October) in gold, as well as St Evodius (8 October) and Mellonus (22 October), all three were bishops of Rouen; Romanus and Mellonus also appear in the Litany. Prayers are written for the use of a female supplicant, and a conventional portrait of the original owner appears in the final miniature. - Contents: calendar, in French (f. 1r); Gospel extracts (f. 13r); prayers "Obsecro te" and "O intemerata", using feminine forms (ff. 20v); Hours of the Virgin (f. 31r), Lauds followed by suffrages to the Holy Spirit, Nicholas, and Katherine; Seven Penitential Psalms (f. 83r) followed by (f. 98r) a Litany of saints (Clement, Fabian, and Sebastian, at the bottom of f. 100r, are mistakenly repeated at the top of the verso); Hours of the Cross (f. 105) and of the Spirit (f. 109r); Office of the Dead (f. 113r); "Les quinze joies nostre dame" (f. 151r) and "Les sept requestes" of the Lord (f. 157r), both in French. - Illumination: the calendar (ff. 1r-12v) has occupations of the months on rectos, and zodiac signs on versos. January: feasting; Aquarius. February: warming at a hearth; Pisces. March: pollarding; Aries. April: half-length man in a garden; Taurus. May: man and woman on horseback, hawking; Gemini: a naked man and woman embracing. June: scything; Cancer. July: reaping; Leo. August: threshing; Virgo. September: treading grapes; Libra. October: sowing seed; Scorpio. November: knocking acorns from trees to feed pigs; Sagittarius. December: killing a pig; Capricorn. - The major texts are each introduced by a large miniature, including the individual Hours of the Virgin, except Vespers and Compline which have historiated initials: - 1. (f. 13r) The Four Evangelists, in a four-part miniature characteristic of Rouen. - 2. (f. 31r) The Annunciation, surrounded by a border composed of nine smaller compartments: three with angels, the other six with scenes from the life of the Virgin: Gabriel appearing to Joachim; Meeting at the Golden Gate; Nativity of the Virgin; Presentation of the Virgin; Virgin at the Loom; and Marriage of the Virgin to Joseph. - 3. (f. 44v) The Visitation. - 4. (f. 59r) The Nativity. - 5. (f. 65v) The Annunciation to the Shepherds. - 6. (f. 69v) The Adoration of the Magi. - 7. (f. 73r) The Presentation in the Temple; the infant has his arms outspread, visually prefiguring his Crucifixion. - 8. (f. 76v) The Flight into Egypt (historiated initial). - 9. (f. 78r) The Coronation of the Virgin (historiated initial). - 10. (f. 83. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 62779

Bibliografische Details

Titel: [Liber horarum - Use of Rouen].

Verlag: Rouen, Normandy, ca. 1480.

Einband: Hardcover