Book of Hours, Use of Arras & Tournai, in Latin with some Picard French. Illuminated manuscript on parchment. [Northern France, c.1400]

£35,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Parchment, i+146+i leaves c . 135 × 95 mm, foliated lightly in pencil on every 10th leaf, skipping a leaf after fol. 120 so that ‘130’ appears on fol. 131, ‘140’ on fol. 141, and ‘145’ on the last leaf; collation: 1[8] (fols. 1–8), 2[4+1] (fols. 9–13; fol. 13 is a single-leaf miniature); 3–6[8] (fols. 14–45), 7[4+1] (fols. 46–50), 8–10[8] (fols. 51–74); 11–15[8] (fols. 75–114), 16[6-1] (the last leaf is cancelled; fols. 115–119); 17–18[8] (fols. 120–135), 19[10-1] (one leaf is apparently cancelled without loss of text; fols. 136–144), 20[2] (fols. 145–146); catchwords throughout except at the ends of codicological units, by more than one scribe, indicative of successive rebindings; ruled in ink for 16 lines per page, the ruled space c. 80 × 50 mm; written by at least two scribes (with a clear change to paler ink and more angular script at the beginning of Quire 17) in two sizes of angular gothic semi-quadrata script, with rubrics written in dark red in Picard French or in paler red ink in Latin in a more regular and formal textura quadrata; illuminated with ONE FULL-PAGE MINIATURE ( c. 80 × 50 mm), ONE SMALLER MINIATURE, TEN SEVEN-LINE HISTORIATED INITIALS EACH WITH A GOLD BACKGROUND AND ACCOMPANIED BY FOUR-SIDED BAR- AND IVY-LEAF BORDERS, the borders incorporating exotic birds, butterflies, a dog, rabbit, etc., one four-line puzzle initial in gold and blue with red and blue flourishing at the start of the litany, three-line initials alternately gold with blue flourishing or

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