NOT SOLD. Hours of the Virgin, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Rouen, last quarter of 15th century]. – Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers of Fine Art

ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT 15TH CENTURY

Hours of the Virgin, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Rouen, last quarter of 15th century]. 8.7×6.5 cm. 146 leaves, (sporadic modern foliation in pencil), 14 lines in a single column written in black ink in an elegant Gothic bookhand, 6 full page illuminted arch-topped miniatures. Many coloured initials partly heightened in gold. The subjects of the miniatures are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Crucifixion, the Nativity, the Presentation in the Temple and the Flight into Egypt. Each miniature within a border of coloured flowers, historiated with small figures, animals, grotesques etc. in red, blue green and yellow. Calendar in red, blue, gold with floral decorations, calendar is missing 2 preliminary leaves. Bound in an early 19th century full morroco binding, gilt spine and gilt decorations on both boards, all edges gilt. Titled on spine “Livre d'heures”.

A lavishly illuminated Hours of the Virgin, produced in the last decades of the 15th-century in Rouen, France.

Provenance: Annotated on last leaf in pencil: “De la Bibliothèque de M van Hallen á la Haye 1809”, acquired in 1976 by a Danish collector at Maggs Bros. Ltd. in London.