Anonymous Haarlem workshop

Anonymous Haarlem workshop
Book of Hours, use of Utrecht, in Dutch, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Haarlem or vicinity, c.1480-90]
A charming example of Haarlem manuscript production in a fine, contemporary Dutch binding.

192 x 138mm. 178 leaves, complete. 20 lines of text, ruled space: 108 x 65mm, 6 large illuminated initials with three-sided floral borders, 39 mostly 4-line penwork initials in blue with red extensions, smaller initials alternately red and blue throughout, rubrics in red (occasional marginal staining and cockling, else in fine condition). Binding: Contemporary or early blind-stamped calf over bevelled wooden boards ruled with triple blind lines, each cover with a central panel of a double-headed eagle within a floral frame, borders with stamps of fleur-de-lis and a rosette, one engraved catch-plate surviving (rebacked and repaired by Bayntun in 1953 with most of original spine laid on, covers slightly rubbed but the panel stamps very finely preserved); engraved metal fittings from one clasp (of two, lacking strap). Apparently the same as the binding on a c.1505 Utrecht Breviary and another Breviary perhaps from 1510 (Weale, Bookbindings and Rubbings of Bindings, I, no 403; Fogelmark, Flemish and Related Panel-Stamped Bindings, plate XXXIV, R.68 and NM. 32).

Provenance: (1) The use of the Office of the Virgin is that of Utrecht and the Calendar singles out in red the saints especially venerated in the northern Netherlands: SS. Pontian, Pancras, Servatius, Boniface, Odulph, Lebuin, Radbod, Adelbert, Lambert and Willibrord. The diocese of Utrecht covered much of the Northern Netherlands, rather than just the region around Utrecht, and several factors clearly point to an origin in the region of Haarlem for both the manuscript and its illumination: other Saints listed in red in the calendar include the typically Haarlem Aechte, Gheertruud, Margriet and Clement; the illumination and penwork match that in other Haarlem manuscripts; and the spelling also points to the northern Netherlands. (2) John Robinson (d.1848), later rector of Faldingworth and J.P., with presentation inscription on f.1 from Henry Tatham ‘his Schoolfellow and Friend’. Robinson was a scholar at Louth Grammar School, Lincolnshire, c.1785; the donor was probably the son of Ralph Tatham of Stockton in Durham and the elder brother of the architect C. H. Tatham (1772-1842). (3) R. W. Cave-Orme (Robinson ’s lineal descendent) who presented it to the Winchester Cathedral Preservation Fund’s sale, Christie’s, Winchester, 21 April 1959, lot 200. (4) Major John Roland Abbey (1894-1969), his J.A. 6916. His sale, Sotheby ’s 20 June 1978, lot 2987. (5) Reiss & Sohn, 25 October 2000, lot 1496.

Content: Calendar ff.1-12; Hours of the Virgin, use of Utrecht ff.13-49: matins f.13, lauds f.21, prime f.28v, terce f.32, sext f.34v, none f.37, vespers f.40, compline f.45; Hours of the Eternal Wisdom ff.50-70v; Long Hours of the Cross ff.71-92v; Hours of the Holy Ghost, mistakenly repeating the rubric for the Eternal Wisdom ff.93-116v; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.117-135v; Hundred Articles on the Passion ff.136-163v; Prayers for the Holy Sacrament and Ave Maria ff.164-176v; blank f.177; added prayer f.178v.
The Hours of the Eternal Wisdom are rare outside the Northern Netherlands. Somewhat unusually, the Hundred Articles appears in place of, rather than in addition to the Office of the Dead.

Illumination: The style of the illuminated initials is directly comparable to – and very likely by the same workshop as – a Book of Hours in the Ritman Collection (Amsterdam, BPH 12), which was produced in Haarlem and datable to 1480-90 (see A. Korteweg, Kriezels, aubergines en takkenbossen, 1992, no 89, p.110). We see the same delicate tracery in the blue initial staves, the same soft scrolling acanthus within the initial grounds themselves. The text is enclosed by a narrow frame of gold, blue and red, and the foliate borders are filled with tiny ink circles. The penwork decoration is what Korteweg calls ‘S-slinger’ style (see Korteweg nos 90, 92, 93), and dates the manuscript to the final quarter of the 15th century. The present Hours also contains examples of the ‘broeder Meynaert’ style, a designation that now includes a style formerly described as the ‘oogblad/U-bocht’ style – we see repeated elements in the penwork decoration typical of Haarlem manuscripts of this period: the folded-over leaves (oogblad), the ‘ring-flowers’ (ringbloem) and what look like eyelashes touched in green and blue (see Den Haag, KB, 133 D 2; 73 E 7; and 133 H 18 and also Korteweg nos 94-96, pp. 112-113).

The illuminated initials with three-sided borders are on ff.13, 50, 71, 93, 117, 136.

Provenance
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