Book of Hours use of Roma.
Precious and extremely rare Gothic Book of Hours printed on vellum by Philippe Pigouchet for Guillaume Eustace, bookseller to the king.
Gothic octavo of 132 leaves, sign. a-q in 8s and 2 in 4s.
Midnight blue morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, spine with raised bands and gilt decoration, tan morocco title label, gilt edges, gilt inner dentelle, gilt edges. 19th-century binding.
184 x 115 mm.
Hours for the Use of Rome. These present hours for the use of Rome in full, without request...
Paris, Philippe Pigouchet for Guillaume Eustace, 1509.
Precious Gothic book of hours printed on vellum, decorated with 16 large full-page illustrations of remarkable workmanship.
Beautiful Guillaume Eustace device on the title page; Figure of the anatomical man (f.2r); Martyrdom of Saint John (f.8v); Kiss of Judas (f.12v); Annunciation (f.28v); Visitation (f.39v); Crucifixion (f.47r); Pentecost (f.48r); Nativity (f.49r); Annunciation to the shepherds (f.52v); Adoration of the Magi (f.55v); Presentation in the Temple (f.59r); Flight into Egypt (f.62v); Coronation of the Virgin (f.68r); David and Bathsheba (f.78v); Purification (f.79 5); Resurrection of Lazarus (f.91r); Trinity (f.113r).
Each of these large illustrations is framed by magnificent historiated borders whose beauty and delicacy have been noted by bibliographers.
“In these beautiful borders appear new ornaments and arabesques of remarkable taste.” Brunet V. 1646. 288.
Scenes of daily life, scenes from the Scriptures, graceful scrollwork and grotesques compete in finesse and could be thought to have been engraved on metal.
A multitude of initials have been illuminated in gold on a red and blue background.
Brunet highlights the quality of these illuminations: “The letters decorating these Hours seem to us to have been painted with much more care than in most of the other Hours published at the same time.”
The rarity of this Book of Hours is significant.
Brunet mentions only a single copy, considerably shorter in margins (177 mm), which went from the Firmin-Didot collection (1879, no.123) to that of Thomas Brooke and is now preserved at the University of Oxford.
The only other recorded copy in international collections is in the library of Liverpool.
Not in Lacombe – Bohatta, I, no. 919 – Adams, L-1018.
Superb copy, with enormous margins (height 184 mm compared to 177 mm for the Firmin Didot copy), very finely rubricated and of remarkable freshness.
It comes from the libraries of Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), “head of all female book collectors in Europe” according to T. F. Dibdin, with bookplate, and Henry Huck Gibbs (1819-1907), Baron of Aldenham, director of the Bank of England, with handwritten bookplate at Saint Dunstan's (London) in 1864.
