Lotto 4502* - A212 Libri - mercoledì, 26. marzo 2025, 13h30
HORAE B.M.V. -
Bourbon, Marie de.
Book of hours from the possession and with annotations of a Marie de Bourbon. Latin manuscript on vellum. With 11 large miniatures in architectural frames, some with coats of arms at lower edge, each opposite a similarly designed page frame around an initial of several lines, as well as 6 small miniatures and numerous initials of one or two lines, all in gold and colours.
France (Paris?), around 1520-30. 15,5 × 11 cm. [188] leaves (instead of 192; 4 removed leaves were verifiably white). Leaf size: 14,5 × 11 cm, scripture: 10 x 7 cm. 24 lines. Gothic bastarda. Black-stamped 16th century parchment binding, small fleurons to spine, both covers with scrollwork cartouches to corners, chain borders, star-shaped semée, hexagonal frames in the centre with identical sovereign medallions in a laurel wreath (worn, browned, superficial worm marks, joints broken, lower corner of the front cover heavily bumped and with cover defects).
The actual book of hours with the miniatures extending to p. [120]; according to a collation by Sotheby's from 1964, four white following leaves have since been removed. The rest of the volume contains appendices, some of which are somewhat later. In the calendar at the beginning, at the end of the volume and in places in between are entries dated 1567-89 by or for a Marie de Bourbon, possibly the regent of the county of Neufchâtel (1539-1601) after the death of her third husband, Léonor d'Orléans, in 1573. - The miniatures: fols. 11r, 11v, 12v, 13r: small portraits of the Evangelists John, Luke, Matthew and Mark. - 18v: Annunciation of Mary. - 27v: Mary and Elizabeth. - 32v: Birth of Christ. - 35r: Annunciation to the shepherds. - 37r: The Magi. - 39r: Presentation in the temple. - 41r: Flight into Egypt. - 44r: Assumption of Mary, at the foot the three Bourbon lilies (a later equation of the Queen of Heaven with the Proprietress). - 46v and 48r: small miniatures of the Crucifixion and the Feast of Pentecost. - 50v: King David in prayer. - 59v: Job. - 120v: Mary with the child in a sailing yacht, at the foot two donor figures and a coat of arms containing the lilies, which can already be found more clearly on the first calendar page (colouring of the frame incomplete). - The appendices (each according to the original numbering in pencil every 10 leaves): 125v-129v: ‘Heures a lusaige des trivieres’, a kind of occasional prayer book. - 130r-178v: ‘Hore sume savientie dulcis Jesus’, with a treatise on the Eucharist and quotations from Origines and St Augustine. This long section is again in the main hand and with initial decoration. - The personal entries, some of which are barely legible: In the calendar, for example, 6r: ‘ma fille de Bourbong fut ne lan 1567’ (an entry on the same subject from 1589 may refer to the following generation); or 1r: ‘Ces presentes [heures] furent pillees avecq tous mes meubles lorsque la tresne fut rompue la nuit’ [rest illegible]; also 2r: ‘Jay este prisonniee par mes propres soldats [...] 1577’. A noteworthy acrostic on p. 179r, inscribed in textura for Maria BMV/de Bourbon, including the name ‘Maria de Borbonio’ (at the head in cursive hand the note ‘ceste Marie de Bourbon est este allie avecq ung de la mayson de harcourt’). This is followed by 180r-189r ‘Supplicatio’ of the Virgin, the hymn ‘Ave maris stella’ and the ‘Stabat mater’. Finally, 189v-190v a ballad in five French stanzas with ‘Envoy’ on Marie, ‘plaine en sa forme et plaine en ses espritz’. - Several further notes, some of them detailed, require evaluation. - Many leaves worn, also stronger and with loss of colour in the architectural frames, these mostly trimmed at the head, last miniature creased and rubbed. - Recent provenance: Sotheby's 18 December 1964, lot 159 - Swiss private collection.
CHF 20 000 / 30 000 | (€ 20 620 / 30 930)
Venduto per CHF 18 750 (incl. premio)