Book of hours

Accession number:

MS M.1154

Title:

Book of hours

Created:

Besançon, France, ca. 1450.

Binding:

French mottled calf, ca. 1800, with spine compartments gilt, tan morocco title label gilt, red paper endleaves, gilt edges.--Cf. Sotheby's.

Credit:

Melvin R. Seiden Collection, 2007.

Description:

153 leaves (1 column, 12 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 220 x 150 mm

Provenance:

Written for female use ('famula tua', fol.146v; 'peccatrix', fol.150v), for the Use of Besançon; late 18th-century armorial bookplate and inscription of [Charles Seguin], comte de Tallerange; sale (Christie's, November 27, 1991); Heribert Tenschert (his Leuchtendes Mittelalter, V, 1993, no. 18); sale (London, Sotheby's December 3, 2002).

Notes:

Ms. book of hours for the Use of Besançon; written and illuminated in Besançon, France, in the mid fifteenth century.
Artist: Simon Bening.
Decoration: 1 design for a large miniature (fol. 24r); line fillers and illuminated initials throughout quire 4 (fols. 21r-28v).
The illumination of M.1154 is unfinished. The manuscript was illuminated in separate gatherings, and only quire 4 has been executed. It includes a detailed design for a large miniature and full border sketched very lightly in pencil or metalpoint and then drawn in some detail in ink. The design shows the Nativity of Christ, with the Child lying on the ground and Joseph holding a candle, with the ox and the ass peering over a wattle fence behind. It marks the opening of Terce.--Cf. Sotheby's.
The Calendar singles out St.Claude of Besançon in red (6 June) and the Litany includes SS.Ferreolus and Ferrutio, third-century martyrs of Besançon, and St.Antidus, bishop of Besançon.--Cf. Sotheby's.
Collation: 153 leaves (2 blank), an inserted leaf missing after fol. 28v, else complete. Present collation: i-ii6, iii-iv8, v-vi10, vii6, viii-x8, xi8+1 [fol. 84 an added leaf], xii-xix8, xx2. With some catchwords; misbound; correct order of gatherings should be i-iii, v, viii-xi, iv, xii, vi-vii, xiii-xx (i.e., fols.1-20, 28-37, 55-87, 21-28, 88-95, 39-54, 96-153); modern pencil foliation erratic.--Cf. Sotheby's.

Script:

large Gothic liturgical hand

Language:

Latin and Middle French

Resources:

Description/Bibliography

Century:

15th century

Genres:

Books of hours

Illuminated manuscripts

Illuminated initials (layout features)