Lot 43: Charming small-format Book of Hours dated 1442

[MANUSCRIPT]

Prayer Book containing a variety of prayers in Latin addressed to the Virgin Mary, Christ and numerous saints. Perhaps Venice: dated 1442 on f. 267 verso, the final vellum leaf. Brown calf with an arabesque design in gilt, probably a sixteenth-century binding, plain spine with gilt rules (a later replacement) edges rough gilt with the remains of some simple gauffering visible, traces of original clasps.. 4 3/8 x 3 1/4 inches (11.2 x 8.3 cm); illuminated manuscript on vellum, 267 vellum ff. (including several flyleaves contemporary with the binding), 6 paper ff. at end, 13 lines written in black ink in a good Gothic bookhand, 12 ff. calendar leaves at the beginning, f. 13 with an elaborate opening with a fine 8-line historiated initial, with an unidentified coat of arms at the foot; a number of fully illuminated openings throughout, at the beginning of major sections, several with historiated initials; marginal penwork decoration in red and blue throughout. The first leaf of the calendar for May has a curious and well-rendered drawing at the foot of the recto of an eye surrounded by a glory (the so-called Eye of Providence), probably 18th or 19th century, and likely a symbol of of masonic import. The binding worn, rebacked as noted, the opening at f. 161 rather rubbed and soiled, but generally the manuscript is quite clean and of considerable charm. At least two miniatures were likely present at some point, one at the beginning of the Penitential Psalms, and the other at the Hours of the Cross.

A delightful small-format Book of Hours. The added leaves in paper at the end of the work consist of the chants of the Missa pro defunctis, the Mass for the Dead, and are roughly contemporary with the main manuscript, but they are written in a crude Gothic hand, whereas that on the vellum leaves is the product of a professional scriptorium. The Hours of the Virgin are of Venice use, according to the tests for the Hours of the Virgin given by Falconer Madan. The Capitulum for Prime (In omnibus...) and the Capitulum for None ("Et radicavi...) meet his criteria.