HEURES. Lot n° 19

Hours for the use of Rome and Sarum. [Besançon or Burgundy, ca. 1460-1470]. Manuscript on parchment of [152] ff, calendar justification: 89 x 62 mm, 17 long lines; text justification: 89 x 61 mm, 15 long lines, textura writing. Collation: I-II6-III8, IV6, V-X8, XI4, XII10-1, XIII8, XIV4, XV6, XVI-XXI8 (ff. 26 and 26v, 79v, 90v-91v, 149v-152v blank, advertisements on ff. 20v, 26v, 34v, 42v, 50v, 58v, 74v, 78v, 87v, 97v, 107v, 114v, 121v, 128v, 136v, 144v) Black morocco, cold-stamped decoration à la Du Seuil, spine decorated with cold fleurons, red edges (Binding of the end of the 17th century). Text ff. 1-12v : Calendar ff. 13-18 : Pericopes of the four gospels ff. 18v-25v : O intemerata followed by the Obsecro te ff. 27-79 : Hours of the Virgin according to the use of Rome ff. 80-90 : Hours of the Cross and the Holy Spirit ff. 92-105v : Psalms of penance followed by the litanies ff. 106-149 : Office of the dead according to the use of Sarum Decoration Six large miniatures f. 13 : Saint John on the island of Patmos (dry tree on which the eagle holding the inkwell rests, hills cut out with red-roofed buildings) f. 27 : Annunciation (the Virgin is reading her hours sheltered under a green and red canopy, covered by a grey stone aedicula, whose wooden vault can be seen; a pink hanging covered with golden motifs separates the space from the angel, reinforced by a low crenellated grey stone wall opening onto a landscape). f. 80 : Crucifixion (Christ is between the Virgin and Saint John; landscape composed of smooth hills topped by four small shrubs). f. 86 : Pentecost (the apostles are praying behind the Virgin; the scene takes place in a church with a wooden vault; tears of fire are painted above the dove of the Holy Spirit). f. 92 : David at prayer (his harp on the ground in front of him; landscape with two large hills cut out; one is surmounted by a castle, the other by a green dead tree). f. 106: Burial in the charnel house (two laymen bury a corpse in the cemetery in front of a church with silver stained glass windows; a bishop holds a goupillon, while a cleric holds the Cross and a silver seal). Wide ornamented borders marking the beginning of the texts on ff. 14v, 16, 17v, 18v, 21v and around the paintings, with bird and peacock (f. 13), grasshopper (f. 27). Initials on red and blue background with white acanthus, body of the letter in gold. This beautiful book of hours can probably be located in Besançon or in Burgundy. Indeed, the variants of the prayer O intemerata make it as close as possible to a book of hours used in Besançon (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M.1154, unfinished manuscript). In the Crucifixion, the reclining Virgin is found in the Hours for Autun (Cape Town, South Africa Library Collection Grey ms. 3 c 4) and in another book of hours (Paris, BnF, NAL 3209, f. 41). Both illuminations are attributed to an itinerant artist: Antoine de Lonhy, active in Burgundy, Savoy, Toulouse and Barcelona (Fr. Elsig, Antoine de Lonhy, Milan, 2018). The face of the penitent David can also be compared to that of David in a miniature by Antoine de Lonhy adorning the Hours of Cape Town (National Library of South Africa, Ms. Grey 3 c 4). The crenellated wall, the portico and the black ribbon around the head of the Virgin are found in a book of hours for use in Paris (Besançon, BM, Ms. 141). The face of the Christ of the Crucifixion is to be compared with the same book of hours, whose realization is located in Dijon (Fr. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, cat. expo. BnF, 1993-1994, n°108). J. Plummer attributes the Book of Hours for Besançon, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M.196, to a follower of Antoine de Lonhy active in Besançon or Savoy around 1470 (The Last Flowering, cat. exp. New York, 1982, n°73). The peacock on the border of the St. John the Evangelist and the beautiful acanthus are found in another book of hours (Besançon (?), ca. 1470, Plummer, no. 75a). Its very jagged, skyward-pointing hills are very recognizable. Provenance Inscription of the XVIIIth century on the first counterplate: Ces heures m'ont ésté données ce jourd'huy 23 aout 1701 par D.D.P.L.Ch. à cause qu'elles connaissait l'âge des enfants de feu Mr. le secretaire Duboy mon oncle (?).