116 leaves, text complete (collation: i6 , ii-iv8+1 , v-vi8+2 , vii2 , viii8+1 , ix8 , x2 , xi-xv8 , xvi2 , probably lacking full-page miniatures ff. 53 and 93), written on 18 long lines, ruled in pale red ink (written-space 90 x 55 mm.)in dark brown ink in two sizes of a gothic bookhand, capitals touched in yellow, rubrics in red, one-line initials in burnished gold with black flourishing alternating with blue with red penwork flourishing, 2-, 3- and 4-line initials in burnished gold on pink and blue grounds with white-line tracery, eleven large illuminated initials with full borders (4- to 7-line), the initials on burnished gold grounds, in pink and blue with white-line tracery and infill of blue, pink and orange foliage, the borders with narrow burnished gold bars around the text, sprays of pink, blue and orange flowers at the corners, and fine black-line foliage with burnished gold leaves and pink, blue and orange flowers, eight full-page miniatures with full borders, in rectangular compartments with narrow burnished gold frames and borders of orange, blue and pink flowers and burnished gold leaves on sprays of fine black-line foliage, some rubbing of initials and miniatures, staining and darkening of vellum especially in the calendar, some thumbing and general signs of use, bound in a late-seventeenth century brown calf binding, boxed.  Dimensions 150 x 103 mm.

PROVENANCE

1. Written and illuminated in Bruges for English use. The Hours of the Virgin are Use of Sarum, and the Calendar includes in red saints Wulstan (Worcester), Alphege (Winchester), Aldhelm (Sherborne), Alban, Withburga (Dereham), Oswald and Cuthbert, and saints Dunstan, Bothulph, Etheltrude, Kenelm, Arnulph and Edith in black, as well as Netherlandish saints.  The Litany includes saints Swithun and Edith and the style of illumination also suggests that the manuscript was produced in the southern Netherlands for export (see below).

2. The manuscript was in England by 1449, when an erased motto and the date, and notes in Middle English for calculating the dates of Lent, Easter, Rogation Day, etc. were added on one of the blank leaves at the end (f.113v). A sixteenth-century hand also added prayers in Middle English and Latin to be said at Grace on Easter Eve, Easter Day afternoon and after dinner of Easter Day on ff. 114v and 115r.

3. It was owned in the Middle Ages by the Ovray family, when two children, Jane Ovray and Isabel Ovray, inscribed their names with a heart and vulnerasty meum and hic liber constat Jane Ovray on f. 116r.

4. Sir Henry Lawson (d. 1834), of Brough Hall, in the County of York, sixth and last Baronet, late eighteenth-century engraved armorial bookplate inside front cover.

5. James and Elizabeth Ferrell Collection, United States.

TEXT

ff. 1-6v, Calendar with English and Bruges saints;

ff. 7-55v, Hours of the Virgin (Use of Sarum), with Matins (f.7v), Lauds (f.17r), Prime (f. 32r), Terce (f. 37r), Sext (f. 41r), None (f. 44r), Vespers (f. 48r) and Compline (f. 51r);

ff. 56r-73v, Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany;

ff. 74r-97v, Office of the Dead;

ff. 98r-112, Commendation of Souls.

ILLUSTRATION

The subjects of the 8 full-page miniatures are:

f. 7v, Agony in the Garden (80 x 53 mm.), showing, Christ kneeling in prayer, a burnished gold chalice on the summit of the hill before him, behind him the Apostles asleep, among them St. Peter holding an open book;

f. 16v, Betrayal (82 x 52 mm.), showing Judas kissing Christ who reaches out a hand to restrain St.Peter from slicing off the ear of Malchus, who cowers before him, soldiers arriving to the right;

f. 31v, Christ before Pilate (83 x 52 mm.), showing Christ with his wrists bound, brought before Pilate by soldiers, Pilate turning away to wash his hands;

f. 36v, Flagellation (80 x 55 mm.), showing Christ tied to a pillar, whipped by two men;

f. 40v, Way to Calvary (82 x 55 mm.), showing Christ bearing the Cross and accompanied by soldiers, with the Virgin and St. John following along behind them;

f. 47v, Crucifixion (82 x 55 mm.), showing Christ being nailed to the Cross by two men, the Virgin and St.John to the left;

f. 50v, Entombment (82 x 55 mm.), showing the body of Christ placed in a sarcophagus by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, St. John, the Virgin and one of the Marys standing behind;

f. 56v, Last Judgement (82 x 55 mm.), showing Christ enthroned on a rainbow with a tripartite globe beneath his feet, the Virgin and St. John on either side, with the dead rising from their graves.

This is an important Book of Hours illuminated by The Master(s) of Otto van Moerdrecht (fl. c. 1420-50) with miniatures stamped with printed artist’s stamps, in this case the small gothic letter “b” in white in a red circle just outside the upper right-hand corner of the frames of the miniatures. These marks acted rather like masons’ marks and were officially recognised symbols of an individual’s work.  Their purpose was first realised by James D. Farquhar, “Identity in an anonymous Age: Bruges Manuscript Illuminators and their Signs,” Viator, 11 (1980), pp. 371-83, figs. 1-12, who related them to Bruges’ guild regulations requiring illuminators to register and acquire a permit to paint miniatures for books from the painters’ and saddle makers’ Guild of St. Luke. This statute, which was in operation by 1426, limited the production of miniatures to authorised locally registered miniaturists and in theory prevented Bruges’ booksellers buying images made elsewhere. Clearly not many Bruges miniaturists took the statute seriously, and Bruges miniatures are consistently found without any artists’ marks.

The only surviving groups of miniatures with this type of stamped marks are in the present distinctively northern Netherlandish style, however, and are associated with the Utrecht workshop of the Master of Otto van Moerdrecht (James Marrow et al., The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, New York, 1989, pp. 75-88). Although the artist was once identified with Nicolas Brouwer (for the “b” stamp), Saskia van Bergen has shown that this can not be the case.  These artists presumably marked their miniatures precisely because their style is so unlike that of native Bruges painters, and their work could easily have been mistaken for undesirable illegal imports from the North.

The very similar style appears in a Book of Hours described in the sale in Sotheby’s, London, 6 December 2001, lot 87:  slightly stiff, elongated figures with oval faces with apparently closed eyes, stylised landscapes with jagged hills and mushroom trees, distinctive pink, orange and green pigments, black and white tiled floors and striking orange skies. In some cases the same compositions were used in reverse in the two manuscripts, e.g. for the Agony in the Garden. In that manuscript, however, the miniatures are stamped with an “i”: the stamps may also have helped identify the work of different artists within a workshop with a very consistent style. Other illuminations from the same workshop include a Book of Hours sold at Sotheby’s, London, 18 June 2002, lot 49; the leaf sold at Sotheby’s London, on 18 June 1991, lot 33, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum (A. Arnould and J.M. Massing, Splendours of Flanders, Cambridge, 1993, pp.118-19, no.34); and a Book of Hours recently exhibited in Philadelphia (J.R. Tanis, ed., in Leaves of Gold, Manuscript Illuminations from Philadelphia Collections, Philadelphia, 2001, pp.121-2, no. 40).

Unusual in either south Netherlandish or English Books of Hours is the use of a cycle of the story of the Passion to illustrate the Hours of the Virgin.  In fact, this feature is typical of north Netherlandish books produced in the milieu of the Devotio Moderna, a pre-Reformation reform movement within the Catholic Church much interested in the suffering during the Passion of Christ as a model for human devotion.

LITERATURE

James D. Farquhar, “Identity in an anonymous Age: Bruges Manuscript Illuminators and their Signs,” Viator, 11 (1980), pp. 371-83, figs. 1-12;

L.M.J. Delaisse, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968;

James Marrow et al., The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, New York, 1989.

Saskia Van Bergen, “The Use of Stamps in Bruges Book Production,” in Books of Hours Reconsidered, ed. Sandra Hindman and James H. Marrow, London and Turnhout, Harvey Miller/ Brepols,  2013, pp. 323-337.

BOH 128