Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

Tailored to the devotions of a woman living in Paris, this is a remarkable and complete example of late fifteenth-century manuscript Parisian illumination with its rich cycle of fourteen miniatures with inventive borders attributed to the Master of Jeanne Hervez. 
 
190 x 125 mm, i (parchment) + 116 + i (parchment, foliated 177, lined with paper) + ii (modern paper) leaves, ruled in red for 21 lines (written space: 121 x 70 mm), complete (collation: i6, ii-xiv8, xv6), occasional catchwords, written in light brown ink in a late gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, line-fillers in burnished gold, blue, and pink with white tracery, one-, two- and three-line initials in burnished gold on blue and pink ground with white tracery, EIGHT MINIATURES framed with red and accompanied with a three-sided compartmented floral border of acanthus and flowers on alternately gold and blank ground, framed with red, SIX LARGE ARCH-TOPPED MINIATURES framed with gold, accompanied with a three-lines initial in blue on gold ground in-filled with flowers, and with a full compartment floral border of the same (minor losses of color in the borders and miniatures, slight cockling of the parchment, slight browning of the edges, else in very good condition). Bound in a nineteenth-century black morocco binding with gilt filet, spine with five raised bands, marbled pastedowns (scratches, some scuffs at corners and splits along spine, else in good condition).

Provenance
(1) This manuscript was illuminated in Paris in the 1490s for a woman living in Paris, considering both the liturgical use, the Parisian saints singled out in the calendar, and the inclusion of a list of female saints restricted to St. Genoveva, St. Katherine, and St. Margaret.

(2) The manuscript was most likely still in France in the nineteenth century, considering a French inscription listing fourteen miniatures, that is, eight small and six large, on the first flyleaf.

(3) Private collection, California, USA.

Text
ff. 1-6, Calendar, in red, gold, and blue, highlighting Parisian saints in gold (St. Genoveva, Jan. 3; St. Denis, October 9; St. Marcel, November 3); ff. 7-11, Gospels Sequence; ff. 11-13, Obsecro te, masculine form; ff. 13v-14v, O Intemerata; ff. 15-58v, Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris, with Lauds, f. 30v, Prime, f. 38, Terce, f. 42v, Sext, f. 45v, None, f. 48v, Vespers, f. 51, Compline, f. 56; ff. 59-61, Short Hours of the Cross; ff. 61v-63v, Hours of the Holy Spirit; ff. 64-72v, Penitential Psalms; ff. 72v-76, Litany and Prayers; ff. 76v-108, Office of the Dead; ff. 108v-112, Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, in French; ff. 112-115v, Seven Requests of Our Lord, in French; ff. 115v-117, Suffrages, including St. Katherine, St. Margaret, St. Genoveva, and Prayers to the Virgin and to the Cross.

Illumination
This manuscript preserves a complete cycle of six large and eight small miniatures that can be attributed to the Master of Jeanne Hervez, named by Isabelle Delaunay after the second owner of a Book of Hours, wife to Fleurentin de Renel, a grocer living in the Halles of Paris in 1547 (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, MS 508; see Delaunay 2000, II, p. 208-210). His style is distinguished by a predilection for short figures with large heads, and most importantly a painterly modeling of the faces, aptly enlivened with accumulative touches of white and parallel strokes of red on the cheeks. The models of the large historiated miniatures, as well as the inventiveness of the border decoration both recur in some of the almost ten Books of Hours attributed to him (see e.g. Lyon, Artcurial, 10 January 2018, lot 1), although the present manuscript appears as a particularly refined example of his style.

Most likely of Parisian origin, the Master of Jeanne Hervez often collaborated with the Master of Etienne Poncher in the illumination of several manuscripts. A good example is offered by a leaf which associates a large miniature of Adam and Eve by the Master of Etienne Poncher with a cycle of small miniatures of the Genesis by the Master of Jeanne Hervez (Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Binoche & Giquello, 4 June 2021, lot 6). Considering the painterly modeling of these miniatures, the latter probably trained in the workshop of the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, one of the foremost illuminators active in late fifteenth century Paris (see Avril and Reynaud 1993). His clientele appears to belong primarily to a fortunate, yet anonymous, Parisian middle class, among whom the patron of the present manuscript may be counted.

The subjects of the six large miniatures are: f. 7, St. John on Patmos; f. 15, Annunciation; f. 59, Crucifixion; f. 61v, Pentecost; f. 64, David in Prayer; f. 76v, Funeral Service. The subjects of the eight further miniatures are: f. 30v, Visitation; f. 38v, Nativity; f. 42v, Annunciation to the Shepherds; f. 45v, Adoration of the Magi; f. 48v, Presentation in the Temple; f. 51, Flight into Egypt; f. 56, Coronation of the Virgin; f. 108v, Virgin and Child.
 
LITERATURE
Further literature, see: Francois Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, Paris, 1993, pp. 274-276, 411-418; Isabelle Delaunay, Échanges artistiques entre livres d'heures manuscrits et imprimés produits à Paris (vers 1480-1500), Ph.D. dissertation, Paris, 2000, II, pp. 208-210.

Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.