Books of Hours

Bound in maroon levant morocco in the Jansenist style and signed “Kauffmann-Petit” and “Maillard,” this example of the woven Prayer Book typifies what might be called the standard presentation, here in extremely good condition. Initials are hand painted on the inside of the front cover, which also features turquoise silk doublures.

[iv] + {6} (unnumbered) + 44 + [iv] = 58 silk pages, small in 4o, 43 pages numbered in Roman numerals, plus 6 preliminary pages, plus 4 pages front and back of mounted silk, text block 170 x 135 mm., text in one or two columns, with one half-page and three full-page illustrations, in addition to various styles of decorative borders and initials throughout on every page, woven entirely in silver-gray and black silk, with a greyish-silver texture to the cast, fore edges gilt head and tail. Bound in Jansenist-style maroon levant morocco by Kauffmann-Petit and Maillard, with turquoise silk doublures, at front with painted initials “M” and “G” with blue flowers on stems set on square gold, with gilt edges and fold-ins, gilt stamped “kauffmann-petit” inside front and “maillard” at back, with five raised bands, spine stamped “livre de prières;” in extremely good condition, with small stains on p. i and pp. 26-27. Dimensions 175 x 145 mm.

Bound in maroon levant morocco in the Jansenist style and signed “Kauffmann-Petit” and “Maillard,” this example of the woven Prayer Book typifies what might be called the standard presentation, here in extremely good condition. Initials are hand painted on the inside of the front cover, which also features turquoise silk doublures.

Provenance

Woven in Lyon by the firm of J. A. Henry, perhaps passing through the Parisian agent J. Kauffmann; initials “M” and “G” painted on front silk doublure.

Text

p. {1}, Half-title page, “Livre de Prières”;

p. {2}, Escutcheon (see physical description where customized);

p. {3}, Title-page, “Livre de Prières Tissé d’après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon mdccclxxxvi.”;

p. {4}, official sanction of the content of the volume, incipit, “Varias precum formulas,” with the date September 8, 1886 and the name of Cardinal Louis-Marie Claverot, archbishop of Lyon and Vienne, with his arms and motto, along with the archiepiscopal arms of Lyon and the motto “Prima sedes Galliarum,” a reference to the importance of the city as a seat of Christian faith from the late second century on;

p. {5}, “Les Prières du Matin et du Soir”;

pp. 1-4, “Prières du Matin”;

pp. 5-10, “Prières du Soir”;

pp. 11-24, “Le saint Sacrifice de la Messe”;

pp. 25-32, “La Messe de Mariage”;

pp. 33-43, Prayers, for Communion (p. 33), to the Sacrament (p. 36), to the Holy Spirit (p. 38), to the Holy Virgin (p. 39), and diverse prayers (p. 42);

p. [44], “Table des Matières”.

Illustration

Every page is surrounded by border decorations of a wide variety; listed below are the half- and full-page illustrations:

p. {6}, Nativity (full-page), after paintings by Fra Angelico (no single source is identified, but best compared to the Nativity on a panel from the Armadio degli Argenti (Silver Chest) at the Museo nazionale di San Marco, Florence);

p. 11, Elevation of the Host (historiated initial ‘M’);

p. 12, Crucifixion (full-page), perhaps derived from a painting attributed to Fra Bartolomeo;

p. 26, Virgin and Child surrounded by Angels (full-page);

p. 33, Christ with the Virgin and St. John the Baptist (half-page), after the fresco of the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican City.

Literature

The Livre de prières tissé was reviewed in print immediately after it was exhibited in 1889, with commentary and technical information appearing in French journals by Marais, Lailler, and Rouveyre, and in Le Livre. Its exhibition in Chicago in 1893 is noted by Gargan. The most comprehensive study of the woven Prayer Book remains that of Lilian Randall, published 1981. The most recent information furnished by Maximilien Durand follows the donation of Jean Hervier’s drawings and related pieces to the Musée des Tissus in Lyon in 2015. Literature is listed here in chronological order.

Paul Marais. “Note sur un Livre de Prières en Tissu de Sois,” Bulletin du Bibliophile 1889, pp. 163-166.

Le Livre 10, no. 112 (10 April 1889), pp. 207-208.

Alfred Lailler. “Une merveille artistique: Notice sur un livre de prières tissé en soie,” Bulletin de la Sociéte Industrielle de Rouen 18, no. 1 (1890), pp. 267-271.

Édouard Rouveyre. Connaissances nécessaires à un bibliophile, vol. 3, Paris, 1899, pp. 93-99, fig. 33.

H. L. Gargan. “Silk Exhibit of Lyons, France,” in Report of the Committee on Awards of the World’s Columbian Commission: Special Reports Upon Special Subjects or Groups, vol. 2, Washington, D.C., 1901, p. 1418.

Georges Vicaire. Manuel de l’Amateur de Livres du XIXe Siècle, 1801-1893, vol. 5, Paris, 1904, no. 341.

Emile Leroudier. Les Tableaux tissés de la Fabrique lyonnaise, no. 1 (“Objets divers”), Lyon, 1922 [exhibition catalogue].

John Harthan. Books of Hours and Their Owners, New York, 1977, p. 174.

Lilian M.C Randall. “A Nineteenth-Century “Medieval” Prayerbook Woven in Lyon,” in M. Barasch, L. Freeman Sandler and P. Egan, eds., Art, The Ape of Nature: Studies in Honor of H. W. Janson, New York, 1981, pp. 651-668.

Rita J. Adrosko. “The Jacquard and Woven Silk Pictures,” Ars textrina 1 (1983), pp. 9-75, esp. p. 35, figs. 20-23.

Bernard Berthod and Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier. Paramentica: tissus lyonnais et art sacré, 1800-1940, no. 29. Lyon, 1992 [exhibition catalogue].

Michael Laird. “Livre de prières tissé,” catalogue entry in Cynthia Burlingham and Bruce Whiteman, ed., The World from Here: Treasures of the Great Libraries of Los Angeles, cat. no. 63. Los Angeles, 2001 [exhibition catalogue].

Musée d’Art et d’Industrie de la ville de Saint Etienne, Images de soie, de Jacquard à l’ordi­nateur, cat. no. 39, p. 41. Saint Etienne, 2004 [exhibition catalogue].

Florence Charpigny and Odile Blanc. Tissu/Papier, échanges d’impressions: question de points de vue. Lyon, 2005, p. 16.

Maximilien Durand. “Manuscrit du Livre de prières tissé” [online catalogue entry], Musée des Tissus, Lyon, inv. no. 2015.5.57. www.mtmad.fr.

BOH 164