WORKSHOP OF THE MASTER OF BOETHIUS OF MONTPELLIER (active Eastern France, Metz, mid-14th century
Leaf from a Book of Hours with large historiated initial ‘D’ showing the Presentation in the Temple and animal marginalia, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France, Metz, ca. 1325–1350]

Tantalizing example of Metz illumination belonging to a coherent group of works, often written in Lorrain dialect, and from a distinctive workshop.

130 × 90 mm. Single leaf of parchment, ruled in plummet for a single column of seventeen lines, written in red and black ink in a highly regular and compact Gothic textura, rubrics in red, one decorated two-line initial ‘M’, painted in light blue and highlighted with white penwork on blue and gold grounds, flanked by two gold bezants to either side of the central descender, one inhabited three-line initial ‘A’, in rose with penwork decoration on a burnished gold ground, containing the head of a man in mail gazing outward from the initial, ONE HISTORIATED INITIAL ‘D’ of nine lines encloses a miniature of The Presentation in the Temple, painted in sable on a rose ground with burnished gold infill, full four-sided border with foliate extensions, gold bezants, and drolleries, including a naturalistically rendered bird in the right margin and a large brown rabbit in the bas-de-page. Well preserved, with only minor pigment abrasion and slight ink flaking in the border vines, margins cropped, likely removing original foliation or marginal notations.

A charming leaf featuring playful bas-de-page marginalia, this folio originates from a Book of Hours produced by a distinctive group of painters active in Lorraine during the first half of the fourteenth century. The group is named after a lavishly illuminated copy of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy (Montpellier, Bibliothèque de la faculté de Médecine, MS H43), whose stylistic features have become the basis for attributing related manuscripts to this distinctive atelier working in Metz. The present leaf contains a miniature of The Presentation in the Temple, marking the beginning of Compline in the Hours of the Virgin. The historiated initial ‘D’, occupying nine lines, depicts the Virgin Mary offering the Christ Child to Simeon, who stands behind a cloth-draped altar. Joseph, holding the traditional offering of doves, stands behind her. The initial introduces Deus in adiutorium—the standard opening invocation for each hour—which, in this case, replaces the more typical Compline incipit Converte nos, Deus. A smaller initial nearby contains the bust of a soldier, rendered in profile within a decorative frame.

Although the parent manuscript is no longer extant, several sister leaves survive and are notable for their inclusion of vernacular prayers in a Lorrain dialect of French, placed before each major division of the Hours. These prayers correspond thematically to the Passion of Christ, thus introducing a meta-Passion cycle embedded within the conventional liturgical structure. This feature situates the manuscript within a rare and distinctive group of fourteenth-century Books of Hours produced in Metz and attributed to the so-called Boethius of Montpellier group. Other examples from this group include manuscripts now preserved in Paris and Baltimore, as well as one presently in the collection of Les Enluminures (BOH 215). While all are linked by their use of vernacular Passion prayers, the French texts differ from manuscript to manuscript, suggesting that each was uniquely composed.

Provenance
(1) The parent volume is unidentified but bears an ink inscription reading “N DP” (possibly Notre Dame de P[...]) in the upper margin of sister leaf in the McCarthy Collection, with a faint bas-de-page inscription that may read “A 2 54”.

(2) The manuscript may have been broken up by Bruce P. Ferrini (1949–2010), who is the earliest confirmed owner. Many leaves from the parent manuscript bear pencil inscriptions with Ferrini’s stock numbers, including “VM 6519” on this leaf.

(3) Marc du Ry. His Catalogue 1 (2001), no.7.

(4) Sotheby’s, 3 December 2013, lot 13(a).

(5) Exhibited at the University of Hong Kong Museum and Art Gallery in 2015–2016.

(6) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 2428.

Parent manuscript and sister leaves
The parent volume has not yet been identified, but related leaves—easily recognized by their consistent style and decorative vocabulary—appear periodically on the market with others in public and private collection. These include: The McCarthy Collection: 4 leaves. Sext, with The Adoration of the Magi; Compline, with The Presentation in the Temple; Vespers, Hours of the Passion, with The Deposition; Litany, with an initial K of two clerics singing at a lectern. Cleveland Museum of Art: 2 leaves. None, Hours of the Virgin, with The Massacre of the Innocents (inv. 1999.126.6); Vespers, with The Flight into Egypt (inv. 2011.56.7). Scott Schwartz Collection, New York: 1 leaf. Compline, Hours of the Passion, with The Maries at the Sepulcher. Private Collection, Pittsburg, CA: 1 leaf. Lauds, Hours of the Passion, with Christ Before Pilate. Untraced: leaves from Lauds, Prime, and Terce of the Hours of the Virgin; Matins, Prime, Terce, Sext, and None of the Hours of the Passion; the complete section of the Seven Penitential Psalms; and a leaf from the Office of the Dead beginning Dilexi, with a funeral service.

LITERATURE
Marc Antoine du Ry, Medieval Art, Catalogue One: Gothic Art (London, 2001), no. 7 (col. ill.), described as “Northern or North Eastern France, c. 1300”; Sotheby’s, London, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, 3 December 2013, lot 13(a); F. Knoche, Illustrious Illuminations: Christian Manuscripts from the High Gothic to the High Renaissance (1250–1540), Hong Kong, 2015, no. 8, no. 10, and no. 16; Thomson Roddick, Medcalf Carlisle, Antiquarian & Collectable [sic] Books, Maps, Postcards, Ephemera & Related Items, 26 May 2016, lot 136; Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection: French Miniatures, London, 2021, no. 67.

We are grateful to Peter Kidd for permission to quote from his catalogue for this entry, and we thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.

The Robert McCarthy Collection

This lot is located in Chicago.