BOOK OF HOURS.

Illuminated manuscript Book of Hours on vellum, use of Rome, in Latin.

      Southern Netherlands (Bruges), ca. 1460. Small 8vo, 112 mm x 75 mm (4 3/8 inches x 2 15/16 inches),173 leaves + 2 added vellum leaves at end. Complete, with all full-page miniatures on added sheets, 16 lines, ruled in very pale ink, written-space 60 mm x 41 mm, written in dark brown ink in a small rounded gothic liturgical hand, rubrics in purplish red, capitals touched in yellow, versal initials throughout in blue or burnished gold with penwork in red or black, 2-line initials throughout in burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, FOURTEEN VERY LARGE INITIALS WITH FULL ILLUMINATED BORDERS, the initials 5 lines high in gothic ivy-leaf designs in colors on burnished gold grounds, the borders with blue and liquid gold acanthus leaves and small colored flowers and strawberries infilled with black dots and tiny gold bezants, FOURTEEN FULL-PAGE MINIATURES in gently arched compartments, 65 mm x 42 mm, in colors and liquid gold within narrow burnished gold frames and full borders, early sixteenth-century additions on pages added at end, upper outer extremities of final leaves fractionally nibbled, some thumbing sometimes affecting full borders, border on fol. 34v a little smudged, generally in good state, pale brown velvet over pasteboards, pierced silver clasps and catches, gilt edges, vellum endleaves, in a fitted brown morocco case, title gilt. PROVENANCE (1) Written in Bruges, for male use (fol. 172v), probably for export to Spain or Portugal, not earlier than 1450, since the Calendar includes St. Bernardinus, canonized in that year. There is a sixteenth- or early seventeenth-century signature on fol. 1r, "fray hosef acahla". (2) The collection of Joel and Maxine Spitz, Glencoe, Illinois, bought in 1946 from Wallach, New York (C.U. Faye and W.H. Bond, Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p. 166, no. 6); and by descent to the present owners. Sotheby's 7/6/2000 to Windle. TEXT A Calendar (fol. 1r), with relatively sparse entries including in black St. Donatian, patron saint of Bruges; the Hours of the Cross (fol. 14r) and of the Holy Ghost (fol. 22r); the Mass of the Virgin (fol. 28r), with the Gospel Sequences (fol. 32r); the Hours of the Virgin "secundum consuetudinem romane curie", with matins (fol. 35r), lauds (fol. 53r), prime (fol. 65r), terce (fol. 70r), sext (fol. 75r), none (fol. 80r), vespers (fol. 85r) and compline (fol. 93r), with the Advent office (fol. 99r); the Penitential Psalms (fol. 108r) and Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 129r); and "Obsecro te" (fol. 170r, in male form). ILLUMINATION This is an altogether charming little book in the early style of the Bruges illuminator Willem Vrelant, with the small heads and soft-colored cherubic faces that occur in the Gold Scrolls style of the 1440s. The deep reds and blues and wide palette of greens are all typical of Vrelant, and many of the compositions here echo well-known Vrelant patterns, such as Pentecost, the Nativity, and the Massacre of the Innocents (cf. B. Bousmanne, "Item a Guillaume Wyeland aussi enlumineur" Willem Vrelant, Un aspect de l'enluminure dans les Pays-bas meridionaux, 1997, p. 181, fig. 163; p. 114, fig. 97; and p. 120, fig. 108, respectively). The miniatures here are: 1. Folios 13v-14r The Crucifixion, saints on the left, soldiers and Pilate on the right, landscape background including mountains and Jerusalem with pink walls and blue roofs. 2. Folios 21v-22r, Pentecost, in a gothic church, tiled floor, lattice windows, with the Holy Dove entering from the left. 3. Folios 27v-28r, The Virgin and Child adored by angels, enthroned in a tall chair, angels on either side one with a viol. 4. Folios 34v-35r, The Annunciation, the Virgin kneeling at a prie-dieu below a canopy in a gothic house, Gabriel entering through a door with a scroll "Ave gracia plena dominus tecum." 5. Folios 52v-53r, The Visitation, the cousins greeting each other on a path outside a tall gothic house with blue and red tiles. 6. Folios 64v-65r, The Nativity of Christ, the Child lying on the grass, the Virgin and Joseph in prayer, an angel hovering above, landscape background. 7. Folios 69v-70r, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, three shepherds on a hillside, an angel in the sky, a valley below with a lake and city. 8. Folios 74v-75r, The Adoration of the Magi, the Virgin and Child on the right below a high roof, landscape on the left, a star in the sky. 9. Folios 79v-80r, The Presentation in the Temple, the Child lying full-length on the altar, priests on the right, the Virgin and her attendants on the left. 10. Folios 84v-85r, The Massacre of the Innocents, in a palace, with Herod enthroned on the left below a green canopy, a soldier seizing a baby from its mother 11. Folios 92v-93r, The Flight into Egypt, Joseph leading the donkey to the right through a landscape, with a distant city on a lake. 12. Folios 98v-99r, The Coronation of the Virgin, who kneels before the throne of God as an angel hovers above her. 13. Folios 107v-108r, David in prayer, kneeling before his palace with his harp on the grass before him. 14. Folios 128v-129r, A funeral Mass, a bier in the fore-ground, priests singing on the left, mourners on the right, other priests at an altar behind.