[BOOK OF HOURS - ROMAN USAGE - ILLUMINATED].

Hore B[ea]te Marie Virginis: s[e]c[un]d[u]m usum Romanum, ...Paris, Gilles Hardouyn for Germain Hardouyn, ca. 1518. 12mo in 8s? (12.5 x 7 cm). Latin book of hours (Roman usage) printed on vellum, with 5 (of 14?) miniatures in full-page or double-page borders, painted in opaque gouaches and highlighted in gold (4 painted over the book's 4 printed woodcut illustrations). Set in a fine and unusually large (for this format) French bastarda type with 24 lines/page and a type area of 98 x 47 mm excluding catchwords. Further with hundreds of 2- and 3-line uncial initials and thousands of uncial c...

      (220) of (240) pp. cf. Adams L-1032 (Hardouyn "8vo"/12mo? ed. ca. 1521); BMC STC French, p. 273 (Hardouyn 8vo eds. ca. 1516 & ca. 1520); Bohatta, Livres d'Heurs 918 (Hardouyn "8vo"/12mo? ed. ca. 1516), 935 (Hardouyn 8vo ed. ca. 1518) & 961 (Hardouyn "8vo"/12mo? ed. ca. 1521); Lacombe, Livres d'Heures 283 bis, 291 & 316 (same eds.); the present edition not in Moreau; Karlsruher Virt. Kat.; OCLC WorldCat.Only copy located of a lovely little book of hours, printed on vellum, set in an exquisite French bastarda type and decorated wholly in the manuscript style, with miniatures painted over the woodcut illustrations (and one more on the title-page) using opaque gouaches. Further with thousands of hand-painted initials and capitals, and the entire book ruled in red as if guide lines had been ruled for the writing of the text. The type contributes to the manuscript effect, imitating the gothic cursive book hand popular in northern France in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The book is undated, but the almanac and calendar are made for use in the twelve years 1518 to 1529.The miniatures measure 4.5 x 3.5 cm and appear in full-page or double-page frames drawn in red and filled with gold. That on the title-page, probably designed for the owner of the book, shows a woman playing a lute, perhaps an indication that the owner was a woman. No woodcut is visible under it, but perhaps Hardouyn's publisher's device was scraped away to make room for it. Its simple double-line border surrounds the entire page. The other miniatures are all painted over woodcut illustrations and use the woodcuts as guides without following them exactly. The miniaturist has added an architectural frame at the top and sides of each woodcut, extended at the foot to surround the entire page. One border (opening the Hours of the Cross) has a further extension on the three outer sides of the facing page.The book originally collated A-P8 = 120 leaves, but ten leaves are lacking. The original makeup of the book was: A1 title A1v almanac A2-B2 calendar B2v-B7 Sequentiae of the Gospels. B7-C4 Harmony of the Passion. C4-I4 Hours of the Virgin, opening with prayers, etc., and ending with psalms (main text begins on D1). E6-6v Hours of the Cross. E7-7v Hours of the Holy Ghost. I4v-K6 Seven Penitential Psalms (including litanies K2-K6). K6v-N1v Offices of the Dead (including hymns, M8-N1v). N1v-P7v Suffrages. P7v-P8v table of contents P8v colophonThe hymns at the end of the Offices of the Dead match Clement Maydeston's from the fifteenth century (Wordsworth, Tracts of Clement Maydeston, 1894, pp. 194-196). The surviving illustrative miniatures appear on E6 (Christ bearing the cross, for the Hours of the Cross), E7 (Pentacost, for the Hours of the Holy Ghost), E8 (Nativity, for Prime in the Hours of the Virgin) and G4 (Flight to Egypt, for Vespers in the Hours of the Virgin).Of the ten leaves lacking, three certainly included miniatures, no doubt also painted over woodcuts: B2v (the opening of the main text with Gospels), Iv4 (the opening of the Seven Penitential Psalms, with the extension of the border around the facing page still present) and K6v (the opening of the Offices of the Dead, with the extension of the border around the facing page still present). To these we can surely add D1 (the opening of the main text of the Hours of the Virgin: Matins) and probably five more: D7, F3, F6, G1 and G8 (the openings of Lauds, Tierce, Sext, Nones and Compline in the Hours of the Virgin). The Harmony of the Passion, however, opens with only a three-line initial. One more leaf, D8, may have been lost merely because it was conjugate to D1.The Hardouyns were one of the leading publishers and printers of books of hours, with more than a hundred editions in the first half of the sixteenth century, but few survive in the smallest formats, and many are known only from incomplete copies. The present edition is also unusual for its use of a larger type (and so, a larger number of leaves) than normal in the smallest formats: a lovely and very legible Cicero (82 mm/20 lines or about 12 point) bastarda. Although gathered in quires of eight leaves, the type area and leaf dimensions suggest a duodecimo rather than an octavo (format has little technical meaning in a book printed on vellum, so with no other copy known one would have to check paper copies of similar editions). Bohatta and Lacombe give no dimensions, and some of their "octavos" (sometimes qualified as "petit" or "allongé") may actually be duodecimos in eights: other sources suggest at least some of Hardouyn's true octavos measure about 17.5 x 10 cm. Cambridge University Library describes Bohatta 961/Lacombe 316 (ca. 1521) as a duodecimo and Bohatta describes his nos. 852 and 978 (ca. 1512 and ca. 1523) as duodecimos in eights, all three by Hardouyn. The descriptions of Hardouyn's books of hours from ca. 1508 to ca. 1528 reveal none likely to match the present closely in format, collation and number of lines per page, but Bohatta 918/Lacombe 283 bis (described from an incomplete copy on vellum) may be the closest, described as "petit in-8° allongé" with a calendar for 1516-1525 and originally 120 leaves, but with a different collation and 27 rather than 24 lines per page (the wording of the title-page also differs).Lacking 10 leaves, as noted, and with the title-page somewhat worn, but further in very good condition, with a small hole affecting a few letters in one leaf. The binding is fine, but the chemise is worn at the edges. A unique book of hours in a rare small format, printed on vellum and with hand-painted and gold-highlighted miniatures and initials and red ruling, giving it the look and feel of a manuscript.