Illuminated manuscripts

1.

[FRANCE] FRENCH ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours.

Illuminated leaf, 215 x 139 mm., with a panel border on both sides of the leaf composed of blue and gold acanthus and coloured flowers and leaves on shaped grounds of liquid gold, three 2-line initials in pink with white tracery, naturalistic branch line fillers, 24 lines of text in gothic script. Paris or Rouen, circa 1475-1500.

A beautifully illuminated leaf from a luxurious fifteenth-century French Book of Hours. This leaf is from the central text of the Book of Hours, the “Little Office of the Blessed Virgin� (or Hours of the Virgin), which was modelled on the Divine Office and represents a shorter version of the devotions performed at the eight canonical hours of the day.

The panel border on each face of the page is composed of blue and gold acanthus leaves alternating with mauve, red, blue and white flowers on shaped grounds of liquid gold. The text contains three 2-line initials in white on pink grounds, one single-line initial in liquid gold on red and eleven line-fillers in similar colours, including some naturalistic branch motifs.

The delicate initials suggest that it was executed in either Paris or Rouen, while the unusual geometric forms picked out in liquid gold in the margins, clearly show this to be work dating from the late 1400s. $1950 [Click image or search 3504685 at hordern.com]

2.

[FRANCE] FRENCH ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours.

Illuminated leaf, 215 x 139 mm., with an illuminated panel border on each side of the leaf, one 2-line initial, ten 1-line initial and eight line-fillers, 18 lines of gothic bookhand; mounted. France, Paris or Rouen, circa 1475-1500.

Late medieval manuscript leaf.

A beautifully illuminated leaf from a luxurious fifteenth-century French Book of Hours. On the recto the decorative panel border features a grotesque figure riding a Manticore or a hybrid animal with a human head and the body of a lion. The panel border on the verso is composed of blue and gold acanthus and coloured flowers and leaves in fields of liquid gold. The delicate initials suggest that it was executed in either Paris or Rouen. The extensive use of liquid gold in the margins forming unusual geometric forms is typical for manuscripts made in the second half of the fifteenth century. $2750 [Click image or search 2909770 at hordern.com]

3.

FRENCH ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours.

Illuminated leaf, 182 x 118 mm., with a panel border of liquid gold on one side and red ground on the other, nine 1-line and two 2-line initials in red and blue and gold, eighteen lines of text. France, circa 1480.

A well-illuminated leaf from a French Book of Hours with an unusual panel border of red, blue and pink flowers on a liquid gold ground on one side and on a red ochre ground on the other.

The leaf is from the Book of the Virgin, the Hour of Sext (the sixth hour), which was recited around noon. The illuminated initial ‘N’ begins Psalm 123 which appears here in full, ‘Nisi quia dominus erat in nobis, dicat nunc Israel: nisi quia dominus erat in nobis’ (‘But that our Lord was in us, let Israel now say: but that our Lord was in us’). On the verso is the commencement of Psalm 124, ‘Qui confidunt in Domino…’ (‘They that trust in the Lord…’). $1350 [Click image or search 2909716 at hordern.com]

4.

FRENCH ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours.

Illuminated leaf, 215 x 152 mm., with a panel border on both sides of the leaf composed of blue and gold acanthus leaves and coloured flowers and leaves on diagonal grounds of liquid gold, illuminated initials in white tracery on pink grounds, and numerous 1-line initials in gold alternately on red and blue grounds, naturalistic branch line fillers; 27 lines of text in gothic script. Paris or Rouen, circa 1495.

A beautifully illuminated leaf from a luxurious fifteenth-century French Book of Hours. This leaf is from the shorter version of the central text of the Book of Hours, modelled on the Divine Office and performed at the eight canonical hours of the day and which was called the “Little Office of the Blessed Virgin� (or Hours of the Virgin).

The panel border on each side of the leaf is composed of fields of blue and gold acanthus leaves interspersed with mauve, red, blue and white flowers on zig-zag grounds of liquid gold. Additionally, there are four 2-line initials in white on pink grounds; five 1-line initials in liquid gold on blue or red and four line-fillers in similar colours.

The delicate initials are typical of the work executed in Paris or Rouen; in tandem with the generous application of liquid gold in the margins, it places this work as hailing from the late fifteenth century. $1950 [Click image or search 2909699 at hordern.com]

5.

FRENCH ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours.

Illuminated leaf, 215 x 139 mm., with an illuminated panel border on each side of the leaf, one 2-line initial, eleven 1-line initial and nine line-fillers, 18 lines of neat gothic bookhand. Northern France (probably Paris), circa 1475-1500.

A beautifully illuminated leaf from a French Book of Hours with all the hallmarks of Paris- or Rouen work at the end of the 1400s. On the verso, the decorative panel border features a spikeyhaired grotesque with a ruddy snout, happily playing a flute and a drum. The panel border on the recto is composed of blue and gold acanthus and coloured flowers and leaves in roundels of liquid gold. $2750 [Click image or search 2909769 at hordern.com]

6.

GERMAN SCRIBE.

Bifolium missal leaf.

Bifolium on vellum, 458 x 318 mm. (each leaf ), each leaf written in double columns of 32 lines, ruled with ink, dark brown ink with rubrics and brown ink initials, two with decorative penwork, capitals touched with red, full margins. original sewn repairs in lower margin, a couple of original marginal creases; in fine original condition. Germany, circa 1400-1500.

A handsome bifolium leaf from a large lectern manuscript. The decorative penwork initials, in one instance forming a human profile, are characteristic of the German style of this period. Large volumes, like the one from which these pages derive, were introduced by the Carolingians and eventually replaced the multi-volume sets required for the performance of religious observances: A proliferation of private chapels with minimal staff and a burgeoning quantity of regular observances, often paid for by the donations of the faithful, necessitated a streamlining of the religious process.

Complete bifolia are rare on the market, and this one, with particularly wide margins and in a fine gothic script, is particularly impressive. Another leaf from this impressive manuscript is in the Shøyen Collection, Oslo and London. $3250 [Click image or search 3010830 at hordern.com]

7.

GERMAN SCRIBE.

Leaf on vellum from Graecismus of Evrard de Bethune.

Manuscript leaf, 215 x 170 mm., fine calligraphic initial at top of each page, on recto enclosing sketched head of a man, capitals touched in red, 26 lines in gothic hand. Germany, 1386.

The initial D which begins the text contains a sketched head of a man. This decoration is characteristically German, and is very similar, for example, to the decoration in a late-thirteenth-century Bamberg Bible, sold at Sotheby’s London in December 1998.

This leaf has come from a fragment of eight leaves, the last with part of a dated colophon recording that the manuscript was completed before the feast of St Hedwig (16 October) 1386. This leaf contains lines from Book 10 of this grammar in Latin verse. $2250 [Click image or search 2909742 at hordern.com]

8.

[ILLUMINATED LEAF] FRENCH ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Missal.

Illuminated leaf on vellum, 265 x 175 mm., double-column text written in an attractive bâtard script in dark brown ink, lightly ruled, rubrics in red, handsome 4-line initial in burnished gold leaf on a blue and red background with delicate white filigrans, initial two lines alternatively red and blue with red and blue penwork extending to the margin. France, circa 1420.

Grand leaf from what must have been an impressive missal, profusely decorated with exquisitelydrawn initials in red and blue with free-flowing marginal extensions, and an outstanding 4-line initial R in burnished gold leaf.

The Missal was a service book containing the texts necessary for the performance of the mass (including chants, prayers and readings), together with ceremonial directions. The prayers and other texts recited by the priest were originally contained in the Sacramentary which was used together with the Gradual, the Evangelary, and the Epistolary for the performance of high or solemn mass. The Missal was introduced in the Carolingian period and by the thirteenth century had supplanted the older Sacramentary, combining in one volume the various components for the performance of the mass. Its development was prompted by the custom of saying private masses and low masses, which were performed by the celebrant alone. $2950 [Click image or search 2909771 at hordern.com]

9.

[ILLUMINATED LEAF] ROUEN ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours.

Illuminated leaf, 166 x 112 mm., panel border on each side of the leaf composed of blue and gold acanthus, coloured flowers on hair-line stems; 4-line initial in dark red and heightened in grey and white on a liquid gold panel enclosing a coloured flower, three 1-line initials in liquid gold on blue or red grounds; 20 lines of text in an accomplished lettre bâtarde, ruled in red; outer edge of border trimmed. Rouen, circa 1480-1500.

A fine leaf from a French Book of Hours with illumination typical of the Rouen scriptoria of this period.

The text of the prayers is in French, indicating that this Book of Hours was produced for the local market and not intended for export. The exquisite 4-line initial ‘D’, which is intricately worked with white tracery and a red rose, introduces Les Sept Requestes. $1750 [Click image or search 2909743 at hordern.com]

10.

[ILLUMINATED LEAF] SAVOYARD ARTIST.

King David in Prayer.

Arched miniature depicting King David kneeling in prayer, 91 x 65mm., set in elaborate illuminated border on three sides; 4-line illuminated initial D (of “Domine” - O Lord), eight lines of gothic text on the other side; mounted. Southern France, circa 1475.

Superb illuminated miniature of King David A superb late fifteenth-century miniature of King David from a French Book of Hours. The image of David, with his harp, kneeling in prayer, introduces the opening of the Seven Penitential Psalms, of which King David was traditionally identified as the author. The quality of the miniature is very fine; the king’s face, drapery and the naturalistic landscape in which he kneels are all delicately rendered. The intense colours, differentiated landscape, and the elaborate border decoration of acanthus and gold leaves and flowers on swirling hairline stems all point to an artist in southern France.

The group of Seven Penitential Psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143) is particularly expressive of sorrow and repentance for sin, and was first given the name by Saint Augustine of Hippo: the title was originally only associated with the fifty-first psalm, ‘Miserere’, the psalm which was conventionally used to close daily morning service.

King David also appears here as a model of penitence: after his commission of the dual crimes of adultery, with Bathsheba, and the murder of her husband Uriah, by sending him to be killed in battle, David was rebuked by the prophet Nathan and reprimanded by God. He repented and withdrew to live in exile, devoting himself to prayer.

The miniature dates from the end of the fifteenth century, and is a reminder that even after the invention of moveable print and the Gutenberg revolution, the older tradition of manuscript transmission was still the dominant medium of the period, and that the traditions of artistry associated with the illumination of manuscripts were still of the highest quality. $8750 [Click image or search 3108951 at hordern.com]

11.

PARIS ARTIST.

Illuminated Miniature of St. Matthew.

Fine illuminated leaf, 165 x 109 mm., double-sided, with a fine miniature of St Matthew, 42 x 40 mm., with three-quarter ornamental border divided into geometrical compartments, with blue and gold acanthus and coloured flowers and leaves; one 2-line illuminated initial C, 19 lines in a lettre bâtarde; mounted. Paris, circa 1500.

Exquisite late medieval manuscript leaf A fine leaf from a late-fifteenth-century Parisian Book of Hours with a delicate miniature of St Matthew, introducing the gospel reading from Matthew (2:1-12), ‘Cum natus esset Jesus in Bethleem in diebus Herodis regis, ecce Magi ab Oriente venerunt Hierosolimam…’ (‘When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of King Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem…’).

The miniature is rendered in a style close to the Master of Philippe de Guelders. The evangelist sits in robes of blue and pink writing his gospel in an open book on his lap, which he copies from a manuscript held up for him by a white-clad, youthful angel (the symbol of Matthew as one of the four evangelists). $4500 [Click image or search 2909739 at hordern.com]

12.

ROUEN ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours.

Illuminated leaf, 182 x 116 mm., with an exquisite panel border on both sides of blue and gold acanthus leaves with unusual orange and red flowers on the verso and red and white flowers on the recto, with ten 1-line initials and two 2-line initials in red and blue, 18 lines of text in a lettre bâtarde; small stain in upper right margin of vers,o slight perforation in fourth line of text from the bottom, else very good.

Rouen, circa 1480.

A delightfully decorated leaf from a French Book with fine panel borders, typical of the work of the Rouen illumination workshops of the late fifteenth century.

The leaf comes from the Matins service in the “Hours of the Virgin”; the illuminated ‘Q’ on the recto begins the hymn ‘Quen terra ponthus…’. $1600 [Click image or search 2909712 at hordern.com]

13.

ROUEN ILLUMINATOR.

Illuminated leaf from a Book of Hours.

Illuminated leaf, 166 x 112 mm., panel border on each side of the leaf composed of blue and gold acanthus, coloured flowers, fruits and leaves; 15 1-line initials in dark red and blue alternately. Rouen, circa 1480-1500.

Fine leaf from a French Book of Hours with a typical Rouen decorative border of acanthus leaves, flowers and fruits, on both sides of the leaf. $1450 [Click image or search 2909747 at hordern.com]

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