Book of Hours, Use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum, [Southern Netherlands (probably Bruges), c.1460], 103 × 60 mm., 74 leaves (plus 2 modern paper endleaves at each end), collation: i5 (wants first leaf), ii6, ii4 (wanting 2 leaves), iv-x6, xi4 (wanting a leaf once between fols. 59 and 60 with the opening of the Office of the Dead, and perhaps another without text), xii6, xiii7 (wants last but one leaf, with part of the O intemerata), lacking the Calendar from the opening of the volume, if one was included in the original volume, foliated in nineteenth-century pink ink, text written in a single column of 19 lines of a professional gothic bookhand, red rubrics, capitals touched in yellow (some also in calligraphic penstrokes, see for example fol. 1v), one-line initials in blue with red penwork or gold with black penwork (some line-fillers also in blue and gold), 2- to 5-line initials in gold on blue and pink grounds, the largest with border decoration on three-sides of thin gold and coloured bars and single-line foliage ending in gold bezants and coloured flower buds, large initials at main textual divisions (fols. 1r, 3r, 6r and 49r) in blue or pink on gold grounds and enclosing foliate sprays, these large initials with full borders of coloured and gold bars and foliage including birds and a lion with a shaggy mane (the latter on fol. 49r), one full-page miniature of the Last Judgement (fol. 48v), with Christ seated on a rainbow, blessing and displaying his wounds, with a lily and a sword at his mouth, praised by the Virgin and John the Baptist, while souls rise from their graves, contemporary repair to last leaf, slight cockling, spots and stains in places, wormholes in margin of last leaf, else good condition; bound in nineteenth-century Italian red leather over pasteboards, boards with gilt frames of palmettes, the spine with “Uffizio” in gilt, and the name “Anna Bays” added later in gilt to front board, some small bumps to edges, else good condition

⁂ Provenance:

1. Written and illuminated for a patron in the Low Countries in the middle of the fifteenth century. The presence of the Obsecro te and O intemerata prayers in the masculine forms may suggest the book was prepared for male use.

2. In Italy by the early nineteenth century, when an inscription on the front endleaf was added recording its purchase by a member of the noble family of the “Caissotti di Chiusano” (likely the noted bibliophile, Count Carlo Francesco Giacinto Caissotti di Chiusano, 1754-1831) on 22 February 1827 for 24 lira, from a market stall in the region of “Bò” (probably the Palazzo del Bò in Padua).

3. Then apparently passing to an “Anna Bays”, who had her name added in gilt capitals to the front board.

4. Gilberte Levesque (1892–1970), wife of Comte Adolphe Le Gualès de Mézaubran, he a French horse-breeder, politician and along with his wife a member of the French Resistance; her named sale in Sotheby’s, 2 July 1951, lot 29 (described there as “Franco-Flemish”, but recording distinctive addition of Anna Bays name to binding).

5. W. A. Foyle (1885-1963) of Beeleigh Abbey: his burgundy-morocco gilt bookplate added to front pastedown; and passing by descent to his son, Christopher. The latter’s collection dispersed after his death in 2022.

Text:

This handsome devotional book comprises: the Hours of the Cross (fol. 1r); and of the Holy Spirit (fol. 3r); the Mass of the Virgin (fol. 6r); the Hours of the Virgin (fol. 14r), with Lauds (fol. 21r), Prime (fol. 29v), Terce (fol. 32v), Sext (fol. 35r), None (fol. 37r), Vespers (fol. 39v), and Compline (fol. 44v); the Seven Penitential Psalms (fol. 49r), followed by a Litany of saints; the Office of the Dead (fol. 60r); the prayers Obsecro te (fol. 70v) and O intemerata (fol. 73v).