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BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM , [Bruges, 1460s
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM , [Bruges, 1460s] 128 x 90mm. ii + 174 + i leaves. FIVE LARGE INITIALS, FOUR HISTORIATED, WITH THREE-SIDED BORDERS, FOURTEEN LARGE INITIALS AND ONE FULL-PAGE MINIATURE WITH FULL BORDERS, ALL IN SEMI-GRISAILLE (lacking at least 20 leaves, including 13 inserted miniature leaves and two leaves with historiated initials and some complete texts, some reordering of texts, offsetting on miniature, side margin excised f.134 and lower margin f.173). Modern blind-stamped red morocco, gilt titles, turn-ins and fore-edges. PROVENANCE : (1) The calendar is for Bruges, whereas the saints in the Litany indicate Ghent. The style of the illumination supports a Bruges origin. (2) Various annotations: on f.153v in a 17th-century hand 'Madame ma tante'; texts have been identified throughout in English. (3) ALLAN HEYWOOD BRIGHT : perhaps responsible for the foliation. CONTENT : Calendar ff.1-12; Gospel extracts lacking Mark ff.13-17; Gaude flore virginali lacking beginning and end f.18; Office of the Virgin, use of Rome, ff.19-78v; Friday Hours of the Cross ff.79-85v, Tuesday Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.86-91; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.92-113v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome, ff.114-153v; Saturday Hours of the Virgin ff.154-160v; Saturday Mass of the Virgin ff.161-165v; Stabat mater , Obsecro te lacking end, O intemerata lacking beginning ff.166-174v. Text is missing from the end of most offices, apparently because it was written on the rectos of the inserted miniature leaves. ILLUMINATION : The subtle semi-grisaille illumination is by the Mildmay Master, named from the Book of Hours owned by the English Mildmay family (Chicago, Newberry Library, ms 35). His style is indebted to one of the favoured illuminators of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, Willem Vrelant, active in Bruges by 1454 and dead in 1481/2 (see J. Backhouse, Illumination from Books of Hours , 2004, pl.36). Distinguished by his graceful elongation of figures and his liking for decorous, contained expressions, the Master here works in warm greys enhanced by gold, and apparently silver given the slight tarnishing, to harmonise with the black of the elegant script. The pink and blue of the small initials are echoed in the borders, where accents of green come with the two birds inhabiting every full-page border. From the orchestration of the satisfyingly limited palette to the minute detail of the historiated initials, the Mildmay Master shows himself an adept at the semi-monochrome painting so fashionable at the Burgundian Court. The subject of the full-page miniature is the Nativity f.49v; the historiated initials are on ff.13, 14v, 16v and 166.