Beschreibung:

Workshop of Gerard Horenbout The 'Book of Hours of Charles V', use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Ghent, c.1515] A book of exquisite miniatures and figurative borders associated with the court painter Gerard Horenbout of Ghent, and adapted with the motto of the Emperor Charles V; the entrancing scenes of daily life include one of the earliest representations of the game of golf. 95 x 66mm. i paper + 182 + i paper: 15 lines ruled in pink, ruled space: 53 x 37mm, one- and two-line initials and line endings in gold or white on grounds of red, pink, blue or green, large initials of acanthus and stems, many with flower or fruit infills, on coloured grounds, ten full-page miniatures in full historiated or illusionistic borders, fifteen similar full borders, 24 full historiated borders for the Calendar (lacking five miniatures on inserted leaves before ff.78, 93, 105, 161 and 180). Binding: Second half of the 19th century, French or Belgian, in close imitation of a mid 16th-century entrelac binding: alum-tawed leather over thin wooden boards with inner bevel, gilt with gouges and tools and with painted interlace in red, green, blue, black and white, on the upper cover the central oval with the Pillars of Hercules emblem and motto Plus ultra of the Emperor Charles V under an imperial crown, on the lower cover a simpler interlace with a central roundel with the imperial double-headed eagle under an imperial crown on a purple ground, spine in four compartments, 2 with parti-coloured lozenges with gold dots, 2 with black interlace and single fleuron, edges gilt, gauffered and painted with the Plus ultra motto on banderoles at top and bottom and an imperial eagle on the fore-edge, green silk headbands, two silver clasps, pouch of brown morocco with scalloped flap lined in red velvet (lightly rubbed with loss of some paint); modern brown morocco-backed slipcase. The binding was celebrated in the 1895 catalogue of the Hoe collection as an exquisite Renaissance binding for the Emperor Charles V; in the same year Ernest Quentin-Bauchart revealed it as a recent binding, while confirming that its gilt edges and the internal appearance of the Imperial devise were 16th century (see Provenance below). He attributed it to Theodore Hagué for a M. Paradis; it is of significantly higher quality than bindings executed by Hagué owned by John Blacker. Content: Panel with DEUM TIME/ PAUPERES SUSTINE/ MEMENTO FINIS f.1; blanks ff.2-3; Calendar ff.4v-16; Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome, ff.18-113; Te matrem dei laudamus, the Te deum redirected to the Virgin Mary, ff.113v-118; Penitential Psalms and litany ff.120-151; prayers ff.153-182v: prayer indulgenced if said ‘before an image of pity’ f.153, Psalm 90 f.155v, verses of St Bernard f.158, indulgenced prayer f.160, Obsecro te f.161, O intemerata f.168, prayer attributed to St Augustine f.172, Stabat mater f.180. The injunction, ‘Fear God, Sustain the poor, Remember the end’, f.1, is found elsewhere, including a Ghent-Bruges Hours of c.1500 in Modena (Biblioteca Estense, ms lat.39, f.13v) and an Hours illuminated by Simon Bening c.1540 in the James A. de Rothschild Collection (Waddesdon Manor ms 26, f.126v). Illumination: The illumination belongs to the great tradition that evolved from Simon Marmion in Valenciennes by 1458, and from the Master of Mary of Burgundy and his contemporaries and successors in Ghent, notably the Master of the First Prayerbook of the Emperor Maximilian, often identified with Alexander Bening (d.1519), Gerard Horenbout (active 1487-c.1540), here identified with the Master of James IV of Scotland, and Alexander’s son, Simon Bening (1483/4-1561), who settled in Bruges. In shifting collaborations, these outstanding artists were responsible for some of the greatest Renaissance manuscripts: the Rothschild Prayerbook c.1505-1510 (Kerry Stokes Collection, sold for a record breaking price at Christie’s, New York, 29 January 2014, lot 157), the Breviary in the Mayer