Hours according to the Use of Rome

In-4 of 96 ff., fawn morocco, double gilt fillet, gilt label in a small cartouche at the top of the covers, gilt medallion in the center, traces of ties, decorated spine, gilt edges.
16th-century binding.

210 x 141 mm.

Hours in use in Rome. Paris, Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 16 September 1498.

The most famous edition of the Hours printed by Pigouchet for Simon Vostre is dated 16 September 1498. It is one of the most richly illustrated. [… ] The 1498 edition is entirely illustrated and decorated after designs by the painter (except for Pigouchet’s printer's mark and a Mass of Saint Gregory) (see François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à peintures en France, 1450-1520, no. 147). GW, 13253; Brunet, Heures, no. 44; Lacombe, no. 64; Pellechet, 5910; Goff, H395.

Superb incunabulum edition of the Hours of Simon Vostre, printed in Gothic type by Philippe Pigouchet, whose printer's mark adorns the title.

It includes an almanac for twenty-one years (1488-1508) and a calendar with its Latin text, followed by quatrains in Latin and French at the end of each month.

The illustrations, attributed to the Master of the Very Small Hours of Anne of Brittany, also known today as the Master of the Apocalypse-Rose, include an anatomical man figure on the verso of the title, that of the Holy Grail on the verso of the calendar, woodcuts of the zodiac signs in the calendar borders, and 21 large figures illustrating scenes from the Bible (the Kiss of Judas, the Tree of Jesse, the Visitation, the Nativity, Pentecost, the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Flight into Egypt, the Last Judgment, the Crucifixion, Uriah killed in battle, etc.). The text is set within wide borders adorned with various scenes, including a Life of the Virgin, and a Dance of Death in 66 woodcuts spread over twelve pages (30 for men and 36 for women). Also noteworthy in the borders are scenes of stag hunting.

We represent the very abundant production of the Master of Anne of Brittany for the press with only one book of hours; for it is in this type of work that the correlation between his illuminated oeuvre and engraving is most evident and most perfect. The position taken by the Master of Anne of Brittany regarding printing is one of the most interesting phenomena in the history of the book at the end of the 15th century. Indeed, his approach is innovative and forward-looking: he shows awareness of both the artistic and commercial stakes of the new technique, that is, he dares to forgo color and focuses his ambition on the line, adapting to the well-understood demands of the printed plate.

His polished and perfectly legible compositions suit the vocation of printed illustration so well that Parisian publishers compete for the blocks derived from his designs, which appear again in one work or another as needed: his iconography, both secular and religious, was thus used until the following century by Jean du Pré, Simon Vostre, Antoine Vérard, Guillaume Eustace, Gilles Remacle, Gillet Hardouin, Jean Petit or Geoffroy de Marnef, in forms unfortunately increasingly debased. It was the printer Philippe Pigouchet, in his books of hours published by Simon Vostre, who was the most faithful and meticulous interpreter of his style: Pigouchet’s engravings printed on vellum rival most closely the artist’s miniatures, standing out for their elegant distinction from the more rudimentary contemporary production.

The most widespread and famous edition of the Hours printed by Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, which we present here, is dated 16 September 1498. It is one of the richest in illustration and features twenty-two large engravings based on drawings by the Master of Anne of Brittany, fourteen of which were reused from the edition of 17 September 1496. The engravings in Pigouchet’s Hours are nearly replicas of the corresponding miniatures: the compositional schemes are identical, only a few variations distinguish the engraved plates from the miniatures, and above all, to compensate for the absence of color — which played such a vital role in the balance of his miniatures — the artist adds extra backgrounds with ornamental decor or secondary figures, filling the white backdrops. The scenes are set beneath Gothic arches. The 1498 edition is entirely illustrated and decorated after the painter’s designs, whereas the 1496 edition still contained several engravings by a lesser artist. It enhances the 1496 model by adding, at the beginning of the major divisions, a second full-page engraving on the left, forming a diptych with the first: thus the Annunciation is flanked by the Tree of Jesse, a theme popular at the end of the century mentioned by the artist in the margins of the Annunciation in the Very Small Hours and later developed by a disciple in the flamboyant tracery of the west rose of Saint-Séverin; for the penance psalms, the Bath of Bathsheba, similar to that in the Séguier Hours, is accompanied by the death of Uriah in battle; for the office of the dead, a Last Judgment very similar to that of the Salting Hours accompanies the feast of the wicked rich man, and not his damnation as in the Very Small Hours or the Le Camus Hours; moreover, at sext, a very original homage of the shepherds to the Virgin and Child faces the Adoration of the Magi. The edition also contains two new plates of the Anatomical Man and of angels holding the chalice of the Holy Wound, now drawn by our artist, as well as an Adoration of the Trinity at the beginning of the Suffrages, and an Entombment.

The borders of the book of hours printed by Pigouchet in 1498 are very richly decorated with small ancillary subjects, also drawn by the Master of Anne of Brittany, on backgrounds alternately white or stippled: with continuous borders or stacked isolated scenes, one finds, alongside Bible stories or lives of the saints, figures of sybils, Virtues or the Dance of Death, secular scenes of children’s games, stag hunting, fruit picking, as well as the occupations of the months in the calendar, allowing for convincing parallels with tapestries woven after the artist’s cartoons. Decorative compartments with a more Renaissance spirit — with putti, dragons, fantastic beings on stippled backgrounds mingled with budding acanthus and floral ornaments — bring this edition closer to the Very Small Hours. Only the initials, line-ends and paragraph marks are colored by a specialized illuminator.

In addition to printed books — among which are the Seven Sacraments of the Art of Living Well and Dying Well for Antoine Vérard (1492), the Vigils of the Death of Charles VII for Jean du Pré (1493), the Chasteau de labour for Simon Vostre (1499), or the Nef des folles for Geoffroy de Marnef (1500) — one must also mention, though outside our main argument, the contribution of the Master of Anne of Brittany to the field of woodcut: beyond the renowned colored woodcut of the Passion of Christ with multiple scenes, numerous single wood engravings intended for more popular use contributed not only to the spread of his iconographic formulas but also his linear style, enabling him to impose a kind of formal monopoly across all branches of the decorative arts — not only stained glass and tapestries, but enamel, ivory, goldsmithery, stamped leather — even Portuguese azulejos — all strongly influenced by his designs. (Hist.: Salomon de Rothschild bequest, 1922. Bibliography: Claudin, 1901, pp. 25-53, ill.; Courboin, 1923, pp. 62-67, pl. 120-131; Blum, 1928, p. 41, pl. xlvi; Desjardin, 1940-1947, I, pp. 77-78, ill.; Souchal, 1973; Harthan, 1977, p. 170. » N. R. (B.N.F.)

Exceptional copy printed on vellum, with larger margins than that of the B.n.F. described by François Avril and Nicole Reynaud “Les Manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520”, no. 147 (