FERMENT, Louis.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Officium sancti Gildardi. A truly striking illuminated manuscript, unusually strewn with glitter, of unrecorded liturgies for two Rouennais saints. The illumination is exuberant and freely drawn, quite unlike the crisp regularity of contemporary courtly manuscripts. Such informality and its vivid blue, red, and ochre palette perhaps reflects a vernacular context, recalling Rouen's "grand feu" faience.Gildard, also known as Godard (c. 448–c. 525), bishop of Rouen and traditionally the twin brother of St Medard, was venerated both locally and in England. His feast falls on 8 June. The manuscript is chiefly devoted to his office, followed in its final pages by one for St Romanus. He was celebrated for legends including his capture of a dragon using his stole and his resistance to a demon disguised as a naked woman. Intriguingly, a book of liturgies for both saints was printed in Rouen the year previous to this manuscript, but the latter differs significantly.The illuminator is untraced. An ownership inscription on the final page, dated 1778, reveals that the manuscript was once in the library of a priest. It is overlaid with the inscription of François-Pierre Quillebeuf, a charcutier known to be working in Paris in 1817.

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