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Book of Hours, Flanders, 1438

Extraordinary illustrated book of hours with miniatures and initials, latin and dutch manuscript on vellum

Flanders, probably Bruges, 1438 A.D.

You bid on an extraordinary illustrated book of hours made in Flanders, 1438.

The book of hours is decorated with several wonderful miniatures and initials as well as some borders. It contans a calendar, a table for determining Easter in the years 1438 till 1458, notes for the determining of advent and church feasts. Also contained are weekday hous and votive masses: Sunday of the Trinity, Monday of the Dead, Tuesday of the Holy Spirit, Wednesday of All Saints, Thursday of the Holy Sacrament, Friday of the Cross, Saturday of the Virgin, Mass of Our Lady, Hours of the Virgin, etc.

Both the volume's construction and its style of illumination are consistent with conventions of book production in Bruges in the second quarter of the 15th century. Large miniatures on inserted single leaves face large initials, forming double-pages openings with matching full-page borders.

The bright, appealing palette adopted in the miniatures is echoed in the reddish oranges, blues, pinks and bright greens found in the border foliage. A further link to the decorative forms in the borders is provided by the illuminator's appealing way of enlivening grassy grounds with symmetrically fronded plants in green and yellow.

His miniature compositions often follow established designs by the Masters of the Gold Scrolls, active in Bruges from 1420-1450, as seen in the Agony in the Garden with its emphatically enclosing fence. Although the decorative backgrounds that gave the Masters their name are also a feature of these miniatures, the elongated figures with their tubular draperies are less typical and seem more closely related to the style associated with Claes Brouwer, the illuminater who apparently moved from Utrecht to Bruges in the 1430s.

The Easter table allows this manuscript to be dated to 1438 or soon afterwards, making it one of the few datable examples of Bruges illumination in the first half of the century. With its vivid colouring and simplified compositions, it has an engagingly direct appeal, seen most endearingly in the miniature of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, shown hurtling down towards a reassuringly large floor cushion held by angels. Bruges book producers were geared to the export market and this hours may have been intended for someone outside the town, who wanted a particularly extensive sequence of devortions and a lavish cycle of miniatures.

Provenance

1.
The generalised calendar in Dutch and the litany include saints appropriate to the southern Netherlands, including Sts. Bavo (1 October) and St. Donatian (14 October) in red. Of note is St. Houdeburghe in red on 4 August, which may refer to St. Walburga. The devotional requirements of the original owner have been accommodated by a careful selection of prayers in Dutch.

2.
Prayers in Latin have been added in the near contemporary hand on blank leaves, with spaces left for large initials.

3.
Three ownership inscriptions on the first blank vellum leaf chart the history of this Hours in the 16th century.

The first refers to Helena Denys, alive in 1545 as the widow of Jan du Quesnoyt, who is living in Antwerp in the Steenhouwers Vest and promised a reward of wine for the safe return of her book: "Item desen bouck hoort towe de Huysvrouwe Jans du Kenoyt Tot antverpen wonnende of de steenhouwers vesten so wien vint die gheslen weder en mensal gherne de wyn scincken". Since "huysvrouwe", and the proper names of the address are written in a different script over erasures, the book presumably belonged to Jan du Quesnoyt himself or a named first wife at an earlier address.

The second refers to Anna van Grevenbroeck (died 1577), since 1564 the third wife of Jan van den Dycke (died 1572), councillor in the Chambre des comptes in Brussels, where they were both buried in the church of the Sablon; among the many lordships he had accumulated was that of Zandvliet by Antwerp. Jan van den Dycke's first wife, married in 1525, was Johanna Maria van der Genst (died 1541), the mother of Charles V's illegitimate daughter Margaret, Duchess of Parma and Governor of the Netherlands for Philipp II (1559-1567); the couple had nine children who benefitted from their royal connection. Jan van den Dycke's second wife, married in 1545, was Cecile, heiress of Jan du Quesnoyt and Helena Denys, who bore him no children, so that he could pass her mother's book of hours to his third wife, who was also childless. "Nu der huysvrouwen Mr Jans vanden Dycke Raet Anna van Grevenbroeck".

The third, dated the year after Anna's death, refers to Barbara van Grevenbroeck, possibly her sister since Erasmus Joannes van Grevenbroeck, lord of Mierlo in North Braband (died 1532), had daughters with these names from his marriage circa 1520 to Barbara Martensdr. Barbara was the wife of Francois Resen, from 1550 bailiff of the land and town of Tholen, north of Antwerp in Zeeland; in 1579 he and Tholen joined William of Orange. "Nu toebehoernde barbara van grevebroe .../ huysvrauwe van franschois Rezen balliu .../ lande en stat vandenthoel / 1578".

A line from Ovid has been written on the blank verso in a 16th-century hand before the calendar: "Donec eris felix multos numerabis amicos / Tempora si fuerint nubila solus eris".