Medieval manuscript.- Prayerbook, in Flemish and a small part in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum, 159 ff., final f. blank, and 9 fly-leaves, complete, collation: i-ii⁶, iii⁸⁺², iv⁸, v-vi⁸⁺¹, vii-xi⁸, xii-xiii⁸⁺¹, xiv-xv⁸, xvi⁸⁺¹, xvii-xix⁸, xx⁴, most with catchwords, pencil foliation (used here) including medieval fly-leaves, 18 lines, ruled in red, written in dark brown ink in a handsome gothic liturgical hand, 7 full-page miniatures in full borders, 7 small miniatures of flowers in three-quarter borders, 7 large initials in full borders, 20 smaller initials in three-quarter or full borders, the borders in colours and burnished gold, with coloured fruit, flowers and leaves, with gold bezants on hairline stems, many one to 4-line initials in gold on pink, blue & white backgrounds, some with marginal decoration of coloured and gilt leaves on hairline stems, gold, blue, pink & white line-fillers, rubrics in red, little marking or rubbing, 17th-century speckled calf, spine gilt, rubbed, front cover scuffed, head of spine and lower corner of front cover worn, 4to (200 x 138 mm.), [Bruges], [second half of the 15th century].

⁂ A very fine manuscript with copious decoration in the style of the Flemish master William Vrelant.

Contents: Calendar, in Latin (f5-16), followed by a large collection of devotional works, including prayers to the Virgin and the Trinity; on the Wounds of Christ, the Passion, the Obsecro and O Intemerata, prayers to Saints George, Katherine, Barbara, and Jerome (the last in Latin), and many others, ending in an account of the suitable times for certain prayers to be used and their merits.

Illumination: This fine manuscript combines the works of two skilled illuminators. It was written c. 1460 in Bruges and partly decorated then in the style connected with Willem Vrelant, with three of the full-page miniatures (f 93v, 107v & 133v) and many of the borders, with fruit, flowers &c on fine hairline stems, dating from this period. About 30 years later, four more full-page in borders containing brightly coloured flowers, fruit, and foliage on liquid gold grounds (f 17v, 25v, 41v & 50v) were inserted on added sheets and most of the small miniatures were repainted or added in previously blank spaces.

The full-page miniatures depict: (f 17v) a lady kneeling before the Virgin and Child in a gothic interior, with angels above, the border includes a bird and an armoured figure fighting a snail, (f 25v) God the Father enthroned in the clouds, folding the body of Christ, with two angels, above a landscape, the border includes at the foot a woman admiring herself in a mirror, (f 41v) the Crucifixion with the Virgin, two other saints and three soldiers at foot, in a landscape with a city behind, the border includes two armoured figures jousting on snails, (f 50v) The Virgin and Child enthroned in the sky, with two angels, above a landscape including a river and a city, the border includes a bagpipe player, (f 93v) the Last Supper, at a round table in a gothic interior, John lying on Christ's lap, Judas holding a purse, the border includes birds, a snail and half-length figures of a man and a woman, (107v) the Virgin and other saints praying at the foot of the (empty) cross, a landscape behind, the border includes a bird and two half-length figures, (f 133v) the crucified Christ displaying his wounds to five kneeling figures in a gothic interior, the border including a rabbit, two grotesques and a half-length woman crowning a bird with a human face. The small miniatures and historiated initials include (f 23v, 55r & 69r) Virgin and Child, (f36r) the Scourging, (f59r & 76r) St George and the Dragon, (64r St Bernard, with crozier and book), (67r) St Katherine, (68r) St Barbara; (f 85r Blessed Sacrament), (f 100r-103r) seven small miniatures of different flowers, perhaps replacing the Wounds of Christ, (f103v) Coronation of the Virgin, (f126r) St Jerome and the lion, (f131r) St John the Evangelist, (f141r) St Christopher carrying the Child, (f144r) Christ before Pilate, (f146r) an angel, (f147r) St Adrian, (f147v) St Anthony, (f148v St Elizabeth, (f150r) Nativity of the Virgin. The borders contain, among much else, figures of birds, squirrels, lions, butterflies, a camel, human figures, including a naked woman with a mirror emerging from a snail shell, and several grotesques.

Provenance: (1) The women depicted in prayer on f 133v & 17v are probably the patrons respectively responsible for the original commissioning of the manuscript in c 1460 and its augmentation c 1490. (2) Nineteenth-century armorial bookplate of the Dutch family of Doedes, with motto 'Sublimia curo', perhaps the scholar Jacobus Izaak Doedes (1817-1897). (3) Later nineteenth-century bookplate 'au Cte Chandon de Briailles', 'MS 51' added in pencil, probably Raoul Chandon de Briailles (1850-1908), scholar, collector, and owner of the well-known Chandon champagne enterprise in Epernay, whose collection was sold by his descendants at Tajan, Paris, 17 December 2003. (4) Sotheby's, 7 December 2004, lot 46, bought privately by the present owner.