This is an extremely rare edition of a Parisian Book of Hours printed by Thielman Kerver, known in only six other copies. It is remarkable for its profuse illustration, and the high-quality miniatures in our copy are beautifully illuminated in rich colors and generous amount of liquid gold and silver by a leading Parisian illuminator, Jean Coene IV, or his follower. The manuscript is in excellent condition and has a handsome Parisian binding à la cathédrale.

In-8^o format, i + 189 + i folios on parchment, foliation begins after the calendar and ends before the table of contents, “fo. xv-clxxxj”, lacking eleven leaves with illuminated full-page metalcuts, 25 quires (collation a-b⁸ c⁸ [-c4] d⁸ e⁸ [-e7] f⁸ [-f6] g⁸ [-g3] h⁸ [-h1, -h5] i⁸ [-i7] k⁸ [-k6] l⁸ [-l7] m⁸ n⁸ [-n8] o⁸ p⁸ [-p2] q-z⁸ aa-bb⁸), signed in the first half of each quire with a minuscule letter (last two quires with two minuscules “aa” and “bb”) followed by a roman numeral on the second, third and fourth leaf (in the beginning of the book signature sometimes absent): (a), (a ij), a iij, a iiij, ... b, (b ij), b iij, (b iiij), ... c, c ij, ciij, (ciiij), ... bb iiij (justification: frame ruled in red ink c. 127 x 75 mm.), printed in black and red inks in a typescript resembling Gothic bastarda script on 23 lines, capitals touched in yellow wash, 1-2-line initials painted by hand in liquid gold on grounds alternating in red and blue, Kerver’s unicorn printer’s device printed twice and illuminated (sig. a1 and bb8v), THIRTY SMALL METALCUTS and FORTY-EIGHT FULL-PAGE METALCUTS illuminated in bright colors and generous use of liquid gold and silver, full-page miniatures framed with a thick black border, some smudging of pigments, especially the black of the border, titlepage very worn with loss of ink (especially red) in the text and minor pigment loss in the printer’s mark, the lower corner of the titlepage repaired and replaced with skill, pigment worn out on the face of the Virgin in the miniature of the Nativity on sig. f8, stains and signs of use, overall in very good condition.  Bound in Paris c. 1825-1840 in brown calf over pasteboards, covers blind-tooled “à la cathédrale,” framed with a single filet in gold, flat spine gold-tooled and blind-tooled with fleurons, a label in dark brown morocco inserted on the spine and lettered “Heures de Thielman Kerver. MCCCCCXXII.,” marbled edges, leather only slightly worn in the corners, in overall excellent condition, modern case in brown buckram entitled in gilt on the spine “Heures” and “1522”, very worn.  Dimensions 167 x 100 mm.

Provenance

1. Printed in Paris by Thielman Kerver, and firmly dated April 29, 1522 in the colophon on sig. z8v, “furent achevées L’an mil. v. cens et xxii. le xxix. de avril”. Illuminated in Paris soon after printing.

2. An ownership inscription in the lower margin on the verso of the titlepage, erased and illegible, possibly ending with the date “1771”.

3. An ownership inscription, possibly made in the nineteenth century, in the lower margin of sig. a2, mostly erased and illegible: “J. P...heren (?)”. Another inscription erased in the lower margin on sig. a2v.

Text

sig. a1, [Titlepage], “Ces presentes heures a lusaige / de Paris, toutes au long sans rie(n) req(ue)rir, Nou/velleme(n)t i(m)primees a Paris, avec plusieurs bel/les hystoires, Ta(n)t au kale(n)drier, aux heures n(ost)re / Dame, aux heures de la Croix, aux heures du / sainct esp(er)it, aux sept pseaulmes: q(ue) aux vigiles”; [Kerver’s printer’s device, below which is printed the date in red, very worn], “M.CCCCC.xxii”;

sig. a1v, [Almanac / Table of movable feasts for 1522-1536 in five columns], “Almanach pour. xv. ans.”;

sig. a2, [Zodiac and bloodletting practices], “Quant la lune est en aries leo et sagittarius il fait bon seigner au colerique. Feu. ...”;

sig. a2v-b6, Calendar in Latin, one page per month, 28 lines, feasts in two columns, below the feasts are Cisiojanus verses in French, “En Janvier que les Roys venus sont...” (cf. Rudy and Stuip 2010), below which are proverbs of the months in three verses in Latin, “Ungere crura cave cum luna videbit Aquosum...”, and on the facing page, below the miniature, verses of the anonymous French poem Douze âges de l’homme, composed in the beginning of the sixteenth century, beginning “Les six premiers ans que vit l’homme au monde...”;

sig. b6v-b7v, Seven prayers of St. Gregory;

sig. b8-c3v, Gospel Pericopes: b8-c1, John; c1r-v, Luke; c2-c3, Matthew; c3r-v, Mark;

sig. c5-d2, Passion according to John, beginning imperfectly, lacking c4 with the opening miniature and text;

sig. d2v-k5v, Hours of the Virgin (use of Paris) with the short Hours of the Cross and the short Hours of the Holy Spirit integrated; d2v, [verses Isaiah 11:1-2], “Egredietur virga de radice Jesse et flos de radice eius ascendet: et requiescet super eum spiritus Domini, spiritus et intellectus.”, d3, Matins; e8, Lauds, beginning imperfectly, lacking e7 with the opening miniature (Visitation) and text; also lacking f6 with Matins in the Hours of the Cross (and the miniature representing the Arrest of Christ); f8, Prime, lacking g3 with the opening miniature to Prime in the Hours of the Cross (Christ before Pilate); g5v, Terce, lacking h1 with Terce in the Hours of the Holy Spirit (and the miniature representing the Resurrected Christ appearing to Mary); h2, Sext, lacking h5 with the opening miniature to Sext in the Hours of the Holy Spirit (Noli me tangere); h6v, None; i3v, Vespers, lacking i7 with the opening miniature to Vespers in the Hours of the Cross (Descent from the Cross); k1v, Compline, lacking k6 with Compline in the Hours of the Holy Spirit (and the miniature representing Pentecost);

sig. k7-m6, Penitential Psalms (lacking l7 with a miniature, probably representing the scene in which David promises the throne to Solomon, his son with Bathsheba) and Litany (beginning on m2);

sig. m6v-q5, Office of the Dead (use of Paris), lacking n8 (with a miniature probably representing Adam kneeling before God) and p2 (with a miniature probably representing the Last rites);

sig. q5v-t4, Suffrages: Holy Trinity, Holy Father, Christ, Holy Spirit, Salve sancta facies, short prayers to Christ, Obsecro te, O intemerata, Missus est Gabriel,short prayers to the Virgin, Stabat mater, St. Michael, St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. James, all apostles, St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. Christopher, St. Sebastian, all martyrs, St. Nicholas, St. Claude, St. Anthony, St. Denis, St. Roch, St. Fiacre, St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine, St. Margaret, St. Barbara, St. Genevieve, and St. Apollonia; 

sig. t4-u1, Short petitions in Latin for different situations and for the entourage with rubrics in French, “S’ensuivent plusieurs devotes oraisons que sont necessaires a dire a nostre seigneur Jesu christ. Premierement tu diras au matin”, “Quant tu ysras hors de ta mayson d’y”, “Quant tu prendras de l’eaue benoiste d’y”, “Quant tu seras devant le crucifix d’y”, “Quant le prestre se retourne d’y”, “A l’elevation du corps nostre seigneur”, “Quant on lieve le calice d’y”, followed by the prayer of St. Boniface and short prayers for different situations;

sig. u1v-u4v, Hours of the Conception of the Virgin; 

sig. u5-x1, Office de Notre Dame de Pitié (Office of Our Lady of Pity), incipit, “Tous vrays catholiques et devotz serviteurs de la benoiste vierge Marie...”;

sig. x1v-z5v, prayers in French: Memoire de la trinite (suffrage to the Holy Trinity, sig. x1v), Fifteen Joys of the Virgin (sig. x2-x4v), “O Royne qui fustes mise...” (sig. x5-y1), “A toy royne de hault paraige...” (sig. y1-y3v), “Glorieuse vierge Marie...” (sig. y3v-y4), “Doulx Dieu, doulx père...” (sig. y4-y5v), “Mon Dieu mon createur je cognoys...” (sig. y6-y7v), “O Dieu createur du ciel et de la terre...” (sig. y7v-z2v), “Mon benoist Dieu, je croy de cueur...” (sig. z2v-z3), “Glorieuse Vierge Marie, mere de Jesu Christ...” (sig. z3v-z4v), “Ave rosa sine spinis...” (sig. z4v-z5), “O Domine Jesu Christe fili Dei vivi crucifixe...” (sig. z5r-v); 

sig. z6-z8, [Table of contents]; 

sig. z8v, [Colophon], Cy finissent ces p(re)sentes heures a / lusaige de Paris, nouvelleme(n)t i(m)primees. Toutes au lo(n)g sans rie(n) / req(ue)rir, avecq(ue)s plusieurs belles hy/stoires nouvelles. Cest assavoir / les hystoires des douze moys de lan, les hystoires des heures n(ost)re / Dame, mises a prime, tierce, sex/te, no(n)ne, vespres, (et) (com)plie. Les hys/toires des heures de la Croix et du sainct Esperit des sept Pseaul/mes, et aux leco(n)s des vigilles des / mortz. Ite(m) avecq(ue)s plusieurs belles / oraisons ta(n)t en latin q(ue) en fra(n)coys co(m)me il apert par la table yci mise. / Ite(m) a la fin loffice de la (con)ception no/stre dame. Et ont este i(m)primees a / Paris par Thielma(n) Kerver, Im/primeur (et) librarire jure de luniver/site de Paris demoura(n)t aud(i)t lieu a / le(n)seigne de la Lycorne a la gra(n)t / rue sainct Jacques, au dessus des / maturins, (et) fure(n)t achevees Lan / mil. v. ce(n)s (et) xxii. le xxix. de avril.” 

sig. aa1-bb8, Commendations (office of the dead), Commendationes defunctorum officium singulare et devotum; prayers for the deceased, Orationes devote pro defunctis; and the ten commandments; 

sig. bb8v, [Colophon], Les reco(m)mendaces des trespassez nouvelle/ment i(m)primees a Paris par Thielman Kerver, / imprimeur (et) libraire jure de Luniversite de pa/ris. Demourant en la grant rue sainct Jacques / audess(us) des maturins, a lenseigne de la Licorne. / M.ccccc.xxij.

Published references: Bohatta, p. 315; Claerr 2000, vol. 2, no. 285, pp. 99-100; Moreau 1985, vol. 3, no. 329; USTC 72829; Adams, no. L 1082; Pettegree, Walsby and Wilkinson, no. 29264; not in Lacombe. 

This book was printed by Thielman Kerver. Six other copies are known, five of which are in public collections: Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, 235770; Cambridge, University Library, Rit d 352 2; Canterbury, Law Society, R 409; New York, Morgan Library and Museum, PML 125455, and San Marino, Huntington Library, *108 784, which, like our copy, was printed on vellum and was “all beautifully painted and illuminated in a superior style of art”. Another copy printed on vellum belonged to the Earl of Ashburnham (sold in London in 1897, The Ashburnham library...,no. 2017; also Book Sales of 1897-8, no. 3302 (1899)); we have not been able to verify whether it is one of the copies listed above. 

Illustration

Subjects as follows: 

Thirty small metalcuts: 

sig. c1v, Luke; 

sig. c2, Matthew; 

sig. c3, Mark; 

sig. q6, God the Father blessing; 

sig. q6v, Resurrection of Christ; 

sig. q7, Pentecost;

sig. q7, St. Veronica;

sig. r2v, Virgin and Child;

sig. s3, St. Michael;

sig. s3v, St. John the Baptist;

sig. s3v, St. John the Evangelist;

sig. s4, Sts. Peter and Paul;

sig. s4, St. James as pilgrim;

sig. s5, St. Stephen;

sig. s5, St. Lawrence;

sig. s5v, St. Christopher carrying Christ Child;

sig. s6, Martyrdom of St. Sebastian;

sig. s6v, St. Nicholas resuscitating three youths;

sig. s7, St. Claude;

sig. s7v, St. Anthony beaten by devils;

sig. s8, St. Denis;

sig. s8v, St. Roch with a dog and an angel;

sig. t1, St. Fiacre holding a spade and a book;

sig. t1v, St. Anne teaching Mary to read;

sig. t1v, St. Mary Magdalene;

sig. t2, St. Catherine;

sig. t2v, St. Margaret;

sig. t3, St. Barbara;

sig. t3v, St. Genevieve;

sig. t3v, St. Apollonia.

Forty-eight full-page metalcuts (originally fifty-nine):

sig. a2, Bloodletting;

sig. a2v, children playing;

sig. a3v, teaching children;

sig. a4v, hunting;

sig. a5v, courting;

sig. a6v, a couple riding;

sig. a7v, a wedding service;

sig. a8v, a couple surrounded by their children;

sig. b1v, a man paying a worker;

sig. b2v, a man reduced to misery in front of his empty barrels;

sig. b3v, a rich family eating;

sig. b4v, an old sick man with a doctor;

sig. b5v, a man at his deathbed surrounded by the doctor and his family;

sig. b6v Christ with the cross, tomb and the instruments of the Passion;

sig. b8, St. John on Patmos;

sig. d2v, Tree of Jesse;

sig. d3, Annunciation;

sig. f7, Saving souls from Hell;

sig. f8, Nativity;

sig. g4v, Resurrection;

sig. g5v, Annunciation to the Shepherds;

sig. g8, Ecce Homo;

sig. h2, Adoration of the Magi;

sig. h4v, Carrying of the Cross;

sig. h6v, Presentation in the Temple;

sig. i1v, Crucifixion;

sig. i2v, Resurrected Christ breaking the bread (Luke 24);

sig. i3v, Flight into Egypt;

sig. i8v, Doubting Thomas;

sig. k1v, Coronation of the Virgin;

sig. k4v, Burial of Christ;

sig. k7, Bathsheba bathing;

sig. k8v, Uriah killed in battle;

sig. l2, David with prophet Nathan;

sig. l4, David in prayer;

sig. l5v, David makes a sacrifice;

sig. l8v, David hands the crown to Solomon;

sig. m6v-m7, Three living and three dead;

sig. n6, Expulsion from the garden of Eden;

sig. n7, Adam and Eve with children;

sig. o4, Funeral service in the Notre-Dame de Paris; the quatrain below the image explains how during his funeral service, the soul of a canon of Paris announces that he is damned by his vice; in the image the soul is taken by two demons;

sig. o5, Birth; Dying person (Job 14);

sig. o6, Men purging their years of selfish pleasure before they can go to heaven;

sig. p3, Job on Dunghill;

sig. p4, Newborn child is upset about the evils of the world and regrets his life (Job 10:18);

sig. q5v, Trinity with the signs of the four Evangelists;

sig. u1v, Immaculate Virgin Mary.

As Heribert Tenschert and Ina Nettekoven have noted, the series of metalcuts introduced by Thielman Kerver in the Books of Hours painted from 1520 onwards offers a peculiarly mixed style that is difficult to place within the Parisian art of the time, and the designer of the cuts cannot be identified among the known illuminators and graphic artists (Tenschert and Nettekoven 2003, p. 962). Nevertheless, the artist appears to emerge from Paris, as he uses many patterns from Jean Pichore’s workshop, while also borrowing from German prints, especially Dürer's woodcuts. The calendar series on the Ages of Man, the David series in the Penitential Psalms, the illustrations for the different Hours and the Office of the Dead series are all based on designs by Pichore's workshop created for Barbier, Le Rouge and Vivien in 1509 (Tenschert and Nettekoven 2003, p. 962). The miniatures of the Bloodletting (sig. a2), Christ with the Instruments of the Passion (sig. b6v), Tree of Jesse (sig. d2v), Trinity with the Signs of the Four Evangelists (sig. q5v), and the Immaculate Virgin Mary (sig. u1v) are closely based on the old cuts made for Kerver by the Master of the Très Petites Heures of Anne de Bretagne.

Many of the illustrations in our copy are like miniatures in a manuscript rather than printed images that have been enhanced with color afterwards. In other words, the artist effaced the printed images at least partially and painted his own images. The style of the miniatures suggests that they were painted by the Parisian illuminator Jean Coene IV (also known as the Master of the Parisian Entries), or his follower. In some of the illustrations the printed engraving is more clearly visible. In Bathsheba Bathing (sig. k7), the association of print and manuscript is especially close: the figures and a few selected elements of decor, painted in bright colors and gold, stand out against the architecture, which is printed and colored only in light wash. This new metalcut, introduced to Kerver’s Books of Hours in 1520, was an entirely new way of representing the scene, bringing the event from the garden to David’s palace itself.

Thielman Kerver, who was originally from Coblentz in Germany, became particularly well known for his Books of Hours, of which he published 124 editions between 1497 and 1522. He died in October or November in 1522, only half a year after printing our book. Printed Books of Hours were one of the mainstays of Parisian publishers and printers in the Renaissance; countless editions were produced between 1488 and 1568. The new technology of printing introduced Books of Hours, a prayer book for the laity, to a broader audience. Members of the growing urban middle class were eager clients for these books.

Literature

Adams, H. M. Catalogue of books printed on the continent of Europe, 1501–1600 inCambridge libraries, Cambridge, 1967.

Bohatta, H. Bibliographie der Livres d’Heures: Horae BMV, Officia, Hortuli Animae, Coronae BMV, Rosaria und Cursus BMV des XV und XVI Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1924.

Claerr, T. “Imprimerie et réussite sociale à Paris à la fin du Moyen Âge: Thielman Kerver, imprimeur-libraire de 1497 à 1522,” Diplôme de conservateur de bibliothèque, Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2 vols, 2000.

Delaunay, I. “Le Maître des entrées parisiennes,” Art de l'enluminure 26 (2008), pp. 52-61.

Elsig, F. (ed.) Peindre à Paris aux XVe-XVIe siècles, Milan, 2023.

Lacombe, P. Livres d’heures imprimés au XVe et au XVIe siècle, conservés dans les bibliothèques publiques de Paris, Paris, 1907. Available online:

https://archive.org/details/livresdheuresimp00laco_0

Moreau, B. Inventaire chronologique des éditions parisiennes du XVIe siècle: d’après les manuscrits de Philippe Renouard, vol. 3, 1521-1530, Abbeville, 1985, no. 329.

Nettekoven, I. Das Stundenbuch der Herzogin Philippa von Geldern: Jean Coene IV und die Buchmalerei in Paris um 1500, Berlin, 2022.

Pettegree, A., M. Walsby and A. Wilkinson (eds.) French Vernacular Books: Books published in the French language before 1601, Leiden, 2007.

Renouard, P. Répertoire des imprimeurs parisiens, libraires, fondeurs de caractères et correcteurs d’imprimerie, Paris, 1965. Available online (Gallica):

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65711282

Rudy, K. M. and R. E. V. Stuip. “Martin fights in July, and he strikes St. Vaast with the font: A Cisiojanus and a Child’s Alphabet in Oxford, Bodleian, MS Rawlinson Liturgical E 40,” Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes 19 (2010), pp. 493-522.

Tenschert, H. and I. Nettekoven. Horae B.M.V.:  158 Sundenbuchdrucke der Sammlung Bibermühle, 3 vols, Rotthalmünster, Antiquariat Heribert Tenschert, 2003.

(the edition described here is not included)

Online Resources

Universal Short Title Catalogue, no. 72829: https://www.ustc.ac.uk/editions/72829

Master of the Parisian Entries: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C3%AEtre_des_Entr%C3%A9es_parisiennes

BOH 244