Beschreibung:

Book of Hours, Use of Tournai, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on parchment [southern Netherlands (probably Ghent), c. 1500] 116 leaves (plus two parchment flyleaves at front and back), complete, collation: i6, ii8, iii-v8, vi12, vii8, viii10, ix6, x-xiv8, xv2, some remains of catchwords, single column, 22 lines of precise lettre bâtarde, rubrics in bright red, capitals touched in yellow, small initials in liquid gold on brown grounds, nine small miniatures attributed to a young Master of James IV with full borders in Ghent/Bruges style strewn with white-grey acanthus leaf sprays and naturalistic flowers on dull gold grounds in trompe d’oeil fashion, with notable additions to these borders including an ape in an apron nursing a baby, another playing a harp and an invalid ape, with a missing limb, on crutches receiving alms from a wealthy ape, three large arch-topped miniatures attributed to the Master of James IV, with full borders as before, and with eye-catching and charming additions of an ape nursing a baby, and a peacock, each above large initials in scrolling white acanthus leaves on dull gold grounds, and with 5 or 6 lines of text, small spots and stains, else excellent condition, 135 by 87 mm. (written space: 74 by 44 mm.); in early (and probably original) binding of crushed red velvet over thin wooden boards, missing clasps replaced with modern cloth ones (metal attachment pins original), wear to surface of velvet from use, overall somewhat loose but sound, in fitted half-calf box Provenance: 1. Written and illuminated, most probably in Ghent, for a wealthy patron from Tournai. The Calendar includes the nativity of St. Elutherius (bishop of Tournai, d. 532) in red, as well as his martyrdom (9 October). It may have been bound in red velvet for them. 2. J. R. Ritman of Amsterdam; his BPH 186 (inscription on final flyleaves); acquired from Tenschert, Leuchtendes Mittelalter III, cat.27 (1991), no. 23. Sold in Ritman’s sale at Sotheby’s, 6 July 2000, lot 52, and by descent since then. Text: The volume comprises a Calendar (fol. 1r); the Hours of the Cross (fol. 7r) and the Holy Ghost (fol. 10r); the Hours of the Virgin, with Matins (fol. 15r), Lauds (fol. 29r), Prime (fol. 37v), Terce (fol. 41v), Sext (fol. 45r, wrongly titled ‘none’ here), None (fol. 48r), Vespers (fol. 50v) and Compline (fol. 56r); the Penitential Psalms (fol. 60r), followed by a Litany; the Office of the Dead (fol. 74r); the O intemerata (fol. 90v, male form), Stabat mater and other prayers; Suffrages to the Saints (fol. 105r); Gospel Sequences (fol. 100v); prayers to Virgin (fol. 105r); Seven O’s of St. Gregory (fol. 110r) and other prayers for use in Mass, including one which grants 2000 years’ indulgence; the Obsecro te (fol. 113r, male form). Illumination: The exceptionally fine miniatures here were convincingly identified in 1991 as the early work of the Master of James IV, named after a breathtaking Book of Hours produced for King James IV of Scotland (now Austria, ÖNB, cod. 1897). That artist has since been named as the well-documented Flemish painter Gerard de Horenbout (c. 1465-c. 1540), who worked for a wealthy international clientele. He began his career in Flanders, where he was a member of the illuminators’ guild in Ghent in 1487. In the early 1500s he executed the commission for James IV, and in 1515 he was named court painter to Margaret of Austria. Dürer visited him in Antwerp, before Horenbout travelled to England in the 1520s. He contributed to some of the most celebrated illuminated manuscripts produced in his lifetime, including the celebrated Spinoza Hours, the glittering Grimani Breviary and the fabulously opulent Rothschild Prayerbook (sold Christie’s, 8 July 1999, and again 29 January 2014, lot 157, for £13,605,000), and Kren notes his “breadth of handling quite unlike the Master of Mary of Burgundy or any of his Flemish contemporaries, this illuminator seems to be striving for a monumental scale that belies the smal