Books of Hours

Commissioned in Rouen around 1480-1490 by a female patron who is portrayed in prayer alongside the Virgin and Child, this Book of Hours is a prime example of late-fifteenth century illumination in Rouen. The twelve ravishing full-page miniatures exemplifies the style of the Master of Raoul du Fou, one of the principal figures of Rouen manuscript illumination at the time. Most remarkable here is the brilliant palette of the landscapes and garments. The imaginative cycle of full borders that enliven every text page of the manuscript, characteristic of the style of Jean Serpin, also indicates the scope and lavishness of the patronage.

ii (modern paper) + 92 + ii (modern paper), foliated by a modern hand in pencil in the top outer corner, lacking three leaves with full-page miniatures and one leaf with text, else complete [collation: i⁶, ii⁸, iii^8-1 (after f. 17, with miniature), iv⁸, v-vi⁴, vii^8-2 (after f. 47, with miniature; after f. 49, with loss of text), viii⁸, ix⁸⁺¹ (f. 67 added), x^8+1-1 (lacking singleton with miniature before f. 68), xi⁸, xii⁸⁺¹ (f. 92 added)], ruled in red for one column of 20 lines (written space: 100 x 65 mm), written in brown ink in a gothic bastarda, capitals touched with yellow, rubrics in red, one-line initials in liquid gold on alternately red and blue ground, line-fillers in same, two-line initials in grisaille on liquid gold ground, in-filled with colored flowers, FULL BORDER ON EVERY PAGE associating three-sided baguettes with an outer-sided floral border, differing from recto to verso, in a variety of combinations of flowers, knots, grapes, trunks, grotesques, and candelabra, with an often compartmented ground of liquid gold, black, red, or blue, TWELVE FULL-PAGE MINIATURES within gold, often jeweled frames, integrating written scroll with a four-lines illuminated initial in grisaille on liquid gold ground (occasional transfer of pigments and ink throughout, some browning on the edges, slight cockling of the parchment, parchment repair on f. 92, else in very good condition). Rebound in 2007 by Rustem Gungor for Scott Schwartz in an elegant twentieth-century dark brown morocco blind-stamped binding, four gilt-tooled crosses on each cover, spine raised on five bands and gilt, title-piece “Horae,” marbled pastedowns (slight scuff on the back of the top outer corner, else in excellent condition). Dimension: 165 x 110 mm.

Provenance

1. This Book of Hours was illuminated by the Master of Raoul du Fou and Jean Serpin in the years 1480 for a lady living in Rouen, as suggested by the liturgical use of the manuscript and choice of local saints in the calendar, and by the depiction of a lady in prayer before the Virgin and Child on f. 90v.

2. It remained in France in the seventeenth-century, as indicated by two partially rubbed ex-libris written on the verso of the last folio, which may be further deciphered. The first mention, dated 28 November 1645, claims the ownership of the book by a M. Louis [Gerard?]; the second mention, as-yet unreadable, is dated 1674.

3. Lady Dorothy Nevill (1826-1913), London, English writer, horticulturist and plant collector, her bookplate with the ironic indication “Stolen from Lady Dorothy Nevill” pasted on the front pastedown (on the bookplate, see Nevill 1906, p. 210).

4. Foster W. Bond, his signature on the first flyleaf.

5. Christie’s, London, 13 December 1984, lot 125; bought by:

6. Maggs Bros, Catalogue 1059, lot 80.

7. Scott Schwartz, New York, acquired on 15 August 1985; his MS 23, as indicated by his bookplate on the front pastedown.

Text

ff. 1-6v, Calendar, with local feasts of Rouen (St. Ouen, May 5, St. Martial, July 3, St. Romain, 23 Oct., St. Mello, 22 Oct.);

ff. 7-11v, Gospel Sequences;

ff, 11v-14, Obsecro te (for masculine use);

ff. 14-17v, O intemerata;

ff. 18-53v, Hours of the Virgin (use of Rouen; beginning imperfectly), with (f. 24) Lauds; (f. 35) Matins of the Cross; (f. 35v) Matins of the Holy Spirit; (f. 36) Prime of the Virgin; (f. 40) Terce; (f. 43v) Sext; (f. 46v) None; (f. 48) Vespers; (f. 50) Compline.

ff. 54-62v, Penitential Psalms;

ff. 62v-67v, Litany (with Rouen saints);

ff. 68-86v, Office of the Dead (beginning imperfectly);

ff. 86v-92, Marian Prayers in Latin and French.

Illustration

Twelve full-page miniatures, subjects as follow:

f. 7, St. John on Patmos;

f. 17v, Adam and Eve;

f. 24, Visitation;

f. 34, Crucifixion;

f. 35, Pentecost;

f. 36, Nativity;

f. 40v, Annunciation to the Shepherds;

f. 43v, Adoration of the Magi;

f. 46v, Presentation in the Temple;

f. 50, Coronation of the Virgin;

f. 54, David and Nathan in Prayer;

f. 90, Virgin and Child, half-length with a female donor in prayer.

This deluxe manuscript offers a prime example of late fifteenth-century illumination in Rouen, Normandy. Its twelve full-page miniatures can be attributed to the Master of Raoul du Fou, who was named by Isabelle Delaunay after the illumination of a Missal commissioned by Raoul du Fou, bishop of Évreux, Normandy, in the 1490s (Évreux, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 99; see Delaunay 1995). The artist most likely trained alongside the Master of the Rouen Échevinage and was the most important figure of the so-called “Playfair Group” dubbed by Rowan Watson (Watson 1984). At least twenty manuscripts can now be attributed to the Master of Raoul du Fou, who often collaborated with Robert Boyvin and Jean Serpin (see Adam 2018). These twelve-full page miniatures exemplify his style, recognizable to his solid figures with oval heads, almond eyes defined in shades and frowned eyebrows. Most remarkable here is the brilliant palette of the landscapes and garments.

Several of the models used in this manuscript can be identified in another one in Oxford (Bodleian Library, MS Buchanan e.3), including the Pentecost, Visitation, Coronation of the Virgin, and half-length Virgin and Child with a lady patron in prayer (fig. 1). The layout these twelve full-page miniatures within flat gold frames, some of them incrusted with illusionistic jewels, is a distinctive feature of manuscripts illuminated in Rouen in the 1490s by the Master of Raoul du Fou (see e.g. New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.159 and MS M.151) and Robert Boyvin. A rather unusual theme is that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise, which precedes the opening of the Hours of the Virgin and would have faced the Annunciation (now missing); such diptychs of full-page miniatures are limited to the most expensive Books of Hours illuminated in Rouen.

Also characteristic of the luxurious nature of this commission is the remarkable cycle of full border that enlivens every text page of the manuscript. This imaginative repertoire distributes a variety of colors, geometrical and ornamental motifs, avoiding any sort of monotony from one leaf to the next. This cycle is characteristic of the production of Jean Serpin, a border specialist who is documented from the accounts of cardinal-bishop Georges d’Amboise, for whom he illuminated in 1503 a manuscript of Seneca, historiated by Robert Boyvin (Paris, BnF, MS lat. 8551, fig. 2). The illuminator is especially known for associating illusionistic flowers in the Flemish tradition with a new repertoire of Renaissance motifs comprising grotesques and candelabra, which both recur throughout the present manuscript.

Literature

Ralph Nevill, ed. The Reminiscences of Lady Dorothy Nevill, London, 1906.

Rowan Watson. The Playfair Hours. A Late Fifteenth Century Illuminated Manuscript from Rouen, London, 1984.

Isabelle Delaunay. “Le manuscrit enluminé à Rouen au temps du cardinal Georges d’Amboise: l’œuvre de Robert Boyvin et de Jean Serpin,” Annales de Normandie 45-3 (1995), pp. 211-244.

Florence Calame-Levert, Maxence Hermant, and Gennaro Toscano. Une Renaissance en Normandie. Le cardinal d’Amboise, bibliophile et mécène, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2017.

Elliot Adam. “Retour sur l’œuvre de Robert Boyvin, enlumineur à Rouen vers 1500,” in Peindre à Rouen au XVIe siècle, Milan, 2018, pp. 101-119.