Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

Engaging miniature by an important mid-fourteenth century illuminator working in a distinctive late Gothic idiom in Metz.

110 x 83 mm. Single leaf, ruled in plummet for one column of 17 lines (written space: c. 83 x 64 mm), written in black ink in a rounded gothic bookhand, capitals touched in red, one-line illuminated initials in burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, ONE EIGHT-LINE HISTORIATED INITIAL in light brown on pink and blue checkered ground, with white tracery and burnished gold disks, extended into the margin to form a full text frame terminating in foliage and ivy leaves in orange, light brown, pink, blue, and burnished gold (marginal extensions trimmed on all edges, some flakes in the ink, small dampstain in the initial, slight losses in the burnished gold, bookmark affixed to outer border, pasted on card).
 
This leaf comes from an early Book of Hours which was produced in Metz in the 1340s. The text contains the beginning of the Litany until the list of Apostles, reading on the recto from “Kyrieleyson…” to “Sancte Mathia” on the verso. The Litany is introduced by an historiated initial “K,” for “Kyrie,” in light brown on pink and blue checkered ground with two standing clerics reading and singing from a book on a lectern.

The most unusual and interesting feature of the book from which the present leaf comes is that each of the main hours, in Latin, is preceded by a prayer in a Lorrain dialect of French, written in red, concerning the corresponding Hours of the Passion. This ties it to a group of fourteenth-century Books of Hours made in Metz, including one in Paris (Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 570), one in Baltimore (Walters Art Museum, MS W.91), and a third, the Thourotte Hours (Les Enluminures). The French texts in each are not the same, however: each is apparently unique.

Regarding the present leaf, it is very unusual in medieval Books of Hours, Psalters, etc., for the Litany to have a historiated initial; in this respect the present book may be compared with a Psalter-Hours in Baltimore (Walters Art Museum, MS W.104), attributed to Artois, probably Arras, in the first quarter of the 13th century.

Scholars have consistently attributed this miniature, its sister leaves, and the related manuscripts to an artist working in Metz around the middle of the fourteenth century, the Master of the Boethius of Montpellier. He is named after a manuscript of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy in the holdings of the Bibliotheque de la faculte de Medicine in Montpellier (MS H43). His engaging and late Gothic style features animated figures with pink cheeks, pronounced eyebrows, and slight smiles on their faces. His production merits further research as additional manuscripts and miniatures, including this one and its sisters, have come to light in recent decades.

Provenance
(1) Paulus Swaen Old Maps, Indian Rocks (FL), Cat. 67e: #94755.

(2) Thomson Roddick & Medcalf, Carlisle, 26 May 2016, lot 136.

(3) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 2566.

Parent manuscript
1. The indications on this leaf may lead to an identification of the parent manuscript, for it is inscribed in ink "N D P" (perhaps Notre Dame de P…) in the rector of the upper margin. The bas de page is inscribed indistinctly, perhaps "A 2 54".
2. Perhaps broken up by Bruce P. Ferrini (1949-2010), Akron, OH, since he is the earliest identified owner of the leaves, which are inscribed with his inventory numbers VM5470, VM6517, 6519. The non-sequential numbering suggests that other leaves have yet to be found.

Sister leaves
Sister leaves are found in several public collections, including two at the Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1999.126.6, inv. 2011.56.7. There are a further four leaves in the McCarthy collection, published together with the present one as no. 67 in his catalogue (see below).

LITERATURE
On the present leaf as well as its sister leaves, published: Marc Antoine du Ry Medieval Art, Catalogue One: Gothic Art (2001), no.7; Sotheby’s, 3 December 2013, lot 13(a); F. Knothe, Illustrious Illuminations: Christian Manuscripts from the High Gothic to the High Renaissance(1250-1540), Hong Kong, 2015, no. 8 (cat. 67b), no. 10 (cat. 67a), and no. 16 (cat. 67c); Thomson Roddick & Medcalf, Carlisle, 26 May 2016, lot 136; Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, Vol. III, French Miniatures, London, 2018, no. 67e, pp. 224-229 (with further literature).

We are grateful to Peter Kidd for permission to quote from his catalogue for this entry. Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.