Book of Hours - Illuminated Medieval Manuscript - 1490

THE BOOK OF HOURS AND CELESTIAL COLORS – MINIATURE MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, FIFTEENTH CENTURY Masterpiece of private devotion, this illuminated Book of Hours represents the perfect synthesis between calligraphic art, liturgy, and chivalrous spirituality. Copied and decorated in France in the second half of the 15th century, it combines the precision of Gothic batarde script with the brilliance of gilded initials and the elegant vegetal border decorations that frame the text. Each page alternates lapis lazuli blue, minium red, and pure gold, evoking the light of the canonical hours and the musicality of daily prayer. MARKET VALUE French illuminated Books of Hours from the second half of the 15th century are today among the most sought-after devotional manuscripts on the antique market. Complete copies or those with full-page miniatures can exceed €30,000. The present manuscript stands out for the quality of the decoration, the freshness of the pigments, and the rich coloration of the calendar and initials, placing it in a mid-to-high range of provenance. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION Illuminated manuscript on parchment in Latin and French, France, second half of the 15th century. Full-leather brown binding with blind toolings on the boards, reinforced spine. Text in a single column of 22 lines in Gothic batarde script, ruled in brown ink, rubrics in red and blue, ruled with lead pencil. Composed of 91 leaves, fragmentary codex. Decoration including a small miniature, two added borders, and numerous filigreed initials in gold, red, and blue, with foliate and vegetal spiral motifs. Overall good state of preservation, with bright pigments and soft, well-preserved parchment. In many old books with multiyear histories, some imperfections are present that are not always noted in descriptions. (2); 182; (2). FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR Illuminated Book of Hours in Latin and French. France, second half of the 15th century. S.A. CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE Books of Hours represent the most widespread and refined form of late medieval private devotion. Born in monastic circles and adapted to secular use, they contained the Hours of the Virgin, penitential psalms, the Office for the Dead, and a calendar of local saints. The spread of these manuscripts in France in the 15th century coincides with the apex of international Gothic art and with the rise of personal sacred reading. The present exemplar reflects the tradition of the book centers of Upper Normandy, where miniaturists and scribes worked for noble and bourgeois patrons. The gilded initials on red and blue backgrounds and the borders with gilded foliate motifs belong to the decorative language common to Rouen, Amiens, and Paris in the years 1450–1480. BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR Anonymous French copyist and miniaturists of the 15th century, probably active in the Norman-Picard area. The use of batarde script and the Latin-French bilingualism indicate a cultured secular milieu, intended for the private devotion of an aristocratic patron. PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION The Books of Hours were copied countless times between the 13th and 16th centuries, before the advent of liturgical printing. With the spread of Parisian workshop printing in the late 15th century, many of these works were reproduced in engraved and printed form, but the beauty of the illuminated manuscript remained unsurpassed. Manuscripts like the present example attest to the last glory of the Book of Hours on parchment, immediately preceding the typographic Renaissance. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES Roger S. Wieck, Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life, New York, 1988. Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, New York, 1967. Eberhard König, Das Stundenbuch im Mittelalter, München, 1985. Stirnemann, P., Les Manuscrits à Peinture en France 1440–1520, Paris, 1993. de Hamel, C., A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, London, 1994.

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