TEXT

ff. 1-12v, Calendar;

ff. 13-19, Gospel Sequences;

ff. 19-2 v, “Obsecro te”;

ff. 22v-24v, “O intemerata”;

ff. 25-87, Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome, Matins (f. 25), Lauds (f. 44), Prime (f. 56), Terce (f. 60v), Sext (f. 66), None (f. 70), Vespers (f. 74v), Compline (f. 82), with variants for the liturgical year, ff. 87v-96v;

ff. 98-101, Short Hours of the Cross;

ff. 103-105, Short Hours of the Holy Spirit (lacking opening);

ff. 108-127, Seven Penitential Psalms (lacking opening) and Litany;

ff. 128v-169, Office of the Dead, use of Rome;

ff. 169v-192, Suffrages, including the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Spirit, St. Veronica, St. Michael the Archangel, St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. James the Great, St. Stephen, St. Laurence, St. Christopher, St. Nicolas, St. Claude, St. Anthony Hermit, St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine, St. Margaret, St. Barbara, St. Apollonia.

ILLUSTRATION

Full-page miniatures are as follows:

f. 13, Saint John on Patmos;

f. 25, Annunciation, within architectural frame incorporating fictive sculptures showing scenes from the life of the Virgin;

f. 44, Visitation;

f. 56, Nativity;

f. 60v, Annunciation to the Shepherds;

f. 66, Adoration of the Magi;

f. 70, Presentation in the Temple;

f. 74v, Flight into Egypt;

f. 82, Coronation of the Virgin;

f. 98, Crucifixion;

f. 128v, Job on the Dungheap.

Half-page miniature:

f. 169v, Trinity.

Small miniatures;

f. 15, St. Luke;

f. 16v, St. Matthew;

f. 18, St. Mark;

f. 19, Virgin and Child;

f. 22v, Pietà;

f. 171v, God the Father;

f. 172, Ecce Homo;

f. 173, Pentecost;

f. 173v, St. Veronica;

f. 175, Crucifixion;

f. 177, St. Michael Archangel;

f. 177v, St. John the Baptist;

f. 178v, St. John the Evangelist;

f. 179, Sts. Peter and Paul;

f. 179v, St. James the Greater;

f. 181, St. Stephen;

f. 181v, St. Laurence;

f. 182v, St. Christopher;

f. 184, St. Sebastian;

f. 185, St. Nicolas;

f. 185v, St. Claude of Besançon;

f. 187, St. Anthony;

f. 187v, St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read;

f. 188v, St. Mary Magdalene;

f. 189, St. Catherine;

f. 189v, St. Margaret;

f. 190v, St. Barbara;

f. 191v, St. Apollonia.

This handsome, richly illuminated Book of Hours is a good example of manuscript production in the age of print. It was painted by a prolific multitalented artist, Guillaume II Le Roy, who was active as an illuminator at the same time that he supplied drawings and designs for illustrations for the printing industry and executed large-scale media (panel-painting and ephemeral art tied to royal entries or celebrations). Guillaume II Le Roy or Guillaume Le Roy the Younger was the son or nephew of the first printer established in Lyons, probably of Flemish stock given that the name sometimes occurs in archival records as “Guillaume le Flamand.” Indeed well documented in the archives, Guillaume the Younger painted both secular and liturgical manuscripts for local Lyons humanists, prelates, and noblemen. His oeuvre on parchment counts some 28 (or perhaps 30) extant manuscripts and other painted printed books or cuttings (see Burin, 2001, cat. 95-136). The archives reveal that in 1523, Guillaume Le Roy lived on rue Mercière, in the center of the Lyons book trade.

It is now generally accepted that Guillaume Le Roy’s career corresponded to that of a woodcutter and engraver known as the “Maître au Nombril,” who produced woodcuts in imprints published between 1494 and 1529 (see A. and H. Joly, 1963; Avril, 1993, p. 362). The woodcutter was so named because of the recurring peculiar vertical line drawn from the navel to the pube on most of his nudes. Amongst the woodcuts formerly attributed to the “Maître au Nombril” and now to Guillaume II Le Roy (himself or his workshop according to his designs and guidance) there is an edition of Jean Lemaire de Belges, Illustrations de Gaule et singularitez de Troyes (Paris, G. de Marnef, 1513). He clearly collaborated with other printers such as Etienne Gueynard (for instance he provides the woodcuts for a Biblia, Lyons, 1512 and 1516) or Simon Vincent, who printed Barthélémy Chasseneux (1480-1541), Catalogus gloriae mundi, Lyon, 1527. The latter imprint on encyclopedic knowledge and on legal precedence is illustrated with full-page woodcuts, attributed to Guillaume II Le Roy. These woodcuts present notable similarities in figural and facial types and compositions with illuminations in our Horae. The architectural frames with the arch seen from below and the Renaissance columns and pilasters are also repeated in our Horae, as well as the ornamentation in the spandrels. On Guillaume II Le Roy and his work for the printing trade see in particular H.-J. Martin (ed.), 2000, pp. 212-219.

At the time of Guillaume II Le Roy’s activity, Lyons was the third capital of the realm, and the artist undertook numerous commissions from the courts of Kings Louis XII and Francis I (see Avril and Reynaud, 1993, p. 357; and Burin, 2001). A series of literary manuscripts shows that throughout the first quarter of the sixteenth century, when prominent authors and humanists visited Lyons and the court, it was to Guillaume Le Roy that they turned to illustrate their work. His artistry is found, for example, in Johann von Morsheim’s Chronique des Rois de France written for Louis XII in 1503 (Paris, BnF, MS all. 84), in Michel Nagonius’s celebratory poem, Prognostichon Hierosolymitanum in honor of Pope Julius II (Vatican City, BAV, MS Vat. Lat. 1682), and in three manuscripts by his eminent contemporary, the humanist Pierre Sala (Paris, BnF, MSS fr. 584, 10420; and Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 2618; see Avril and Reynaud, 1993, no. 205, p. 364-65; and Burin, 2001, cat. 134). To these three manuscripts for Sala, we can add another, a Vie des philosophes, previously unknown, by the artist (Les Enluminures, Cat. 15, no. 17).

In 1993, before Burin’s study on Lyons illumination (1473-1530), Avril noted that Guillaume II Le Roy rarely painted Books of Hours and liturgical manuscripts but specialized instead in secular works popular with local humanists and the court; he cited the present manuscript as the only Book of Hours attributed to the artist (Avril and Reynaud, 2003, p. 363). Since then, Burin has assembled quite a substantial oeuvre for the artist. She identified some thirty manuscripts by him, along with six other manuscripts on which he collaborated, three single leaves, and three printed books. Among these are some nine Books of Hours, which nevertheless still take a back seat to the large number of interesting and unusual secular texts (Burin, 2001, cat. 95, 97, 98, 101, 111, 126, 128, 129, 130).

In excellent condition, this Book of Hours, with its brightly colored pictures and striking simulated porphyry borders, is one of his best and most unusual works of the genre. It is tempting to see the influence of Italian art in the use of these borders imitating the monumental use of porphyry and marble also found in manuscript illumination in Italy. Since Lyons was at the crossroads between France and Italy, and there were numerous ties between the Lyonnais and Italian book trade, it comes as no surprise that Guillaume II Le Roy was affected by Italian art and printing. Richly illuminated, with its lavish use of gold throughout, this Book of Hours bears all the hallmarks of Le Roy’s style. Large, heavy figure types with wide, almost child-like faces dominate each miniature. The colorful palette used for the drapery typically includes bright enamel like reds and blues. The figures stand out against distant landscapes with tiny towns perched on hilltops and rendered in soft blue tones. The miniature of St. John on Patmos in particular shows the artist’s characteristic treatment of mid-grounds with mounds covered in dense clumps of trees and scattered tufts of vegetation, all painted in broad brushstrokes. Classicizing gold architectural frames inhabited with putti, typical of Lyonnais illumination and familiar from the workshop of the earlier illuminator Guillaume Lambert, surround each full-page miniature. All are placed on simulated porphyry grounds of green, red, grey or purple, to striking effect. The delightfully rich and varied borders on every page can be attributed to Le Roy himself. Full of invention, they contain carefully drawn naturalistic flowers, fruit, birds, frogs, grasshoppers and grotesques placed upon variously shaped grounds of liquid gold.

Our manuscript compares well with one of his masterpieces, an Horae purchased by the city of Lyons in 1995 (London, Sotheby’s 20 June 1995, lot 117; now Lyons, BM, MS 6881; see Burin, cat. 101, pp. 219-222). However, the camaïeu d’or and porphyry borders in the present manuscript are highly original and quite unlike those more traditional acanthus and floral borders that decorate the Lyons manuscript. Our Annunciation is similar to a large single leaf of the same subject from an unidentified parent manuscript (see Les Enluminures, cat. 5, no. 19). Burin included the present manuscript in her catalogue and study of the artist (Burin, 2001, cat. 95, pp. 212-213). Clearly the present Book of Hours was painted for an important patron – the list of Guillaume Le Roy’s patrons and clients is impressive – that further research (archival and stylistic) on this artist might eventually reveal.

LITERATURE

Avril, F. and N. Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1480-1520, Paris, 1993, pp. 357-63, citing the present manuscript, p. 363.

Burin, E. Manuscript Illumination in Lyons 1473-1530, Turnhout, Brepols, 2001, citing the present manuscript, cat. 95, pp. 212-213.

Joly, A. and H. “A la recherche de Guillaume Leroy ‘le peintre’,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6e série, 61 (1963), pp. 279-292.

Martin, H.-J. (ed) et alia. Mise en page et mise en texte du livre français. La naissance du livre moderne (XIVe-XVIIe siècles), Paris, 2000.
 

ONLINE RESOURCES

For Lyons, BM MS 6881, Hours of Chalon-sur-Saône:
http://sged.bm-lyon.fr/