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All auctions / Books, Maps & Manuscripts / HOURS for daily use in Rome, from beginning to end, without - Lot 21
HOURS for daily use in Rome, from beginning to end, without requiring anything else. With illustrations depicting the life of man and the destruction of Jerusalem. (L8:) Printed in Paris by Gillet Hardouyn, residing at the end of the Pont Notre-Dame in front of Saint-Denis-de-la-Chartre, under the sign of the Golden Rose, undated (circa 1514). In-4 (235 x 152 mm), 18th-century red morocco binding, gilt fillets on the covers, smooth spine decorated with the initial B in a medallion at the tail, interior garland, gilt edges. Calendar covering 1514 to 1529. Collation: 96 ff., signed A–M8 One of the finest editions of Gillet Hardouyn’s Grandes Heures. Twenty large metal-engraved plates, not including the publisher’s centaur mark (Sylvestre, 54) on the title page (f. A1) and the Zodiacal Man on the verso of that same title page. These plates, attributed to the workshop or circle of Jean Pichore, appear in the Hours published by the Hardouyns beginning in 1507; some were inspired by or copied from plates drawn by the same artist for their rivals Philippe Pigouchet and Simon Vostre. They are divided into two series: one in 8vo format, and the other—reserved for the Grandes Heures—in 4to format. The remarkable in-4 series comprises ten very large plates that occupy the entire page without a border; their sculptural treatment strongly reflects the influence of the German masters Dürer and Schongauer. These are: 1. The Martyrdom of Saint John (f. A6). 2. Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane (A8v). 3. The Annunciation (B5). 4. Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate (C3). 5. The Flagellation (C7v). 6. The Crucifixion (C8). 7. The Nativity (D2). 8. The Adoration of the Magi (D7). 9. The Massacre of the Innocents (E4). 10. Bathsheba at Her Bath (F7). The in-8-format plates, presented in frames shaped like colonnaded porticos, are: 1. The Four Virtues of the Church (B4v). 2. Pentecost (D1). 3. The Announcement to the Shepherds. 4. The Presentation in the Temple (E1v). 5. The Death of the Virgin (E7v). 6. The Death of Uriah (F6v). 7. Lazarus and the Rich Man (G5v). 8. The Resurrection of Lazarus (G6). 9. Emblems of the Virgin (F7). 10. The coat of arms of Portugal supported by two angels and surmounting an armillary sphere bearing the initials M.R.O.E. (used as a secondary mark by Gillet Hardouyn, Sylvestre 55). Among the many remarkable vignettes found on every page in the borders framing the text, the Dance of the Dead, comprising 23 figures spread over as many pages and forming the cycle of the Life of Man, is particularly noteworthy, as is the cycle depicting the destruction of Jerusalem by Emperor Vespasian; all are accompanied by captions in French. An extremely rare complete copy of Quire M. In most known copies, the text consists of only 88 folios and ends with a table occupying folios L7v and L8r, followed by the colophon; Hardouyn’s mark, featuring the coat of arms of Portugal, appears on the verso of folio L8. There is, however, an additional quire of eight folios, signed “M,” containing the Seven Psalms translated into French and a remarkable “Very Devout Prayer to Our Lady,” a beautiful poem in twelve stanzas of twelve lines each: I know well that death will come / And that I must die / Then I will be unable to hear a thing / Because of the anguish that will grip me / For the enemy will seek to take / My soul; merciful and tender Virgin / Lady, come and defend me this day / So that he may not take me. The vignettes in the borders framing these two texts are taken from the rest of the volume. This supplementary quire, described by Brunet (V, 244) and by Lacombe (255) based on the BNF copy, appears to be known only from this latter copy, as well as from two or three others: a copy preserved in Bordeaux, the Fairfax-Murray copy, the Libri copy cited by Brunet, and our own copy, the latter three likely being one and the same. The absence of any mention in the table of contents of the texts contained in this final quire might indicate that its inclusion was optional (see Fairfax-Murray, *Early French Books*, 273). A very fine copy on paper, perfectly preserved with very wide margins (h = 236 mm, compared to 226 mm, for example, for the Tenschert copy, II, 109) and uncolored, in 18th-century red morocco. Provenance The H. Tenschert Library holds an edition of the Grandes Heures de Vostre (Horae B.M.V., II, 94) in a binding that is exactly identical to ours and bearing the same small “B” in a medallion at the bottom of the spine. Based on another volume in his collection bearing, in addition to this mark, the ex-libris of its owner, Mr. Tenschert identified the latter as Henri Boissier (1762–1845), a professor of literature and archaeology, who later became rector of the Geneva Academy. The Geneva Library holds a collection in his name. Furthermore, the “Libri” copy of this Book of Hours (sold in London in 1859), the only one cited by Brunet, was bound in morocco leather
Estimate:£12,783.52
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Estimate:
£12,783.52
OCT 8 | 3:00 PM
OCT 8 | 3:00 PM
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