BARTOLOMEO D’ANTONIO VARNUCCI WORKSHOP (active Florence 1412/13 – c. 1479) and ITALIAN ILLUMINATOR
Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy, Florence, c. 1450]

The core of this lovely Horae is by the workshop of Bartolomeo Varnucci.

ii (paper) + 278 + ii (paper) leaves, foliated in a modern hand in pencil 1–278, single leaves missing after ff. 12, 126, 235, [collation: bound too tightly for precise collation, but apparently in gatherings chiefly of eight and ten leaves; three singleton leaves tipped in at ff. 13, 127, and 236.], catchwords present through initial quires, then trimmed away; ruled in brown ink in one column of eleven lines (justification: 57 mm × 38 mm), written in a gothic rotunda script with, rubrics in red, capitals in alternating red and blue ink, two- and three-line Lombard initials throughout, with penwork embellishments and extensions, SEVEN HISTORIATED INITIALS of four lines in soft pink, blue, and green on gold ground, with marginal extensions of restrained acanthus foliage and penwork tendrils, one of these with full foliate borders of lively, curling acanthus scrolls in saturated blue, green, and pink, enriched with gold bezants and fine black penwork tendrils, accompanied by naturalistic bird, ONE LARGE HISTORIATED INITIAL of seven lines, on a singleton leaf, tipped in and mounted on a vellum guard with a window cut to expose the verso text, in blue on a burnished gold ground with white penwork infill on green, full borders, now mostly trimmed away, originally decorated with acanthus scrollwork in blue and lilac embellished with birds, TWO FULL-PAGE MINIATURES, each on a singleton leaf, tipped in, within gold frames; full borders, now mostly trimmed away, executed in a slightly different aesthetic scheme, with more restrained, geometric acanthus scrollwork accented by dark penwork outlining, gold bezants and putti. Nineteenth-century red morocco binding, covers plain but framed with a single gilt fillet near the edges, spine with raised bands, gilt-lettered “HORAE B.M.V / MSS ON VELLUM/ ITALY CA. 1450” and decorated with a small gilt floral tool, edges gilt, singleton folio tipped in at f. 127, now detached from its guard and loose within the manuscript, minor loss of pigment to both half-page miniatures, some discoloration to the initial and terminal leaves, else in good condition. Dimensions 95 mm × 70 mm.

Provenance
(1) Likely made for a Florentine client, possibly within the elite humanist circle associated with Bartolomeo Antonio Varnucci.

(2) Seventeenth-century inscriptions in Italian document continuing patterns of use. These repeat the same instruction that no commemoration of the saints is to be made at certain points among the hours (“non a fa commemorazione de santi”).

(3) Swann Gallery, purchased 21 January 1982.

(4) Collection of Dr. Scott Schwartz, New York, his bookplate and catalog number “MS 10” on front pastedown.

Text
ff. 1–12, Calendar (Use of Rome); f. 13, tipped in; f. 14–48, Hours of the Virgin (beginning imperfectly: ff. 14–48, Matins; ff. 48–70v, Lauds; 71–79v, Prime; ff 80–88, Terce; 88v–96, Sext; 96v–104, None; ff. 104v–118v, Vespers; ff. 119–126v); f. 126, tipped in; ff. 127–194v, Office of the Dead (beginning imperfectly); ff. 195–230, Office of the Passion; ff. 231–254v, Penitential Psalms; ff. 255–272v, Litanies and supplications (no regional inflections); ff. 273–278, Hours of the Cross.

Illumination
This exquisite Florentine Book of Hours contains a unique compilation of Renaissance illumination and preserves a compelling material history of loss and reconstruction. Attributed by Albinia C. de la Mare to the Florentine illuminator Bartolomeo d’Antonio Varnucci (correspondence with the owner 1986), the manuscript also contains miniatures executed slightly later by a still-unidentified painter. Varnucci’s workshop was responsible for the manuscript’s original decorative program, including the preliminary design and illumination of eight historiated initials. At a later date, however, the manuscript lost three major historiated initials marking the incipits of the Hours of the Virgin, the Office of the Dead, and the Penitential Psalms. Two of these losses were replaced, tipped in likely during the twentieth century, with full-page miniatures excised from another Book of Hours by a different illuminator, who shows the influence of Milanese illumination. Faint dealer’s marks visible on the first tipped-in leaf (f. 13) suggest that these inserted miniatures circulated independently on the art market before their integration into the present volume. The manuscript’s foliation was correspondingly altered after folio 127 to accommodate the inserted leaf depicting the Three Living and the Three Dead for the Office of the Dead. The third missing historiated initial, representing King David with a harp, was rediscovered, likewise probably during the twentieth century, and reunited with the manuscript as a tipped-in folio (f. 231). Mounted on a vellum guard with a carefully cut window exposing the verso text, the initial was reincorporated into the manuscript, restoring the continuity of this portion of the Hours.

Bartolomeo d’Antonio Varnucci was among the leading illuminators active in Florence during the second quarter of the fifteenth century. Working alongside his brothers Giovanni and Chimenti at the Badia Fiorentina, the Varnucci workshop produced manuscripts for many of the city’s most distinguished ecclesiastical and humanist patrons. By the 1430s, Bartolomeo had emerged as a major figure in Florentine illumination, specializing particularly in liturgical and devotional manuscripts commissioned for institutions such as the Badia Fiorentina, Florence Cathedral, and the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore. His artistic language combines both innovative and conservative tendencies. He has been associated with the introduction of the winged putto into bianchi girari decoration, while his figures often retain the flattened color fields and restrained physiognomic variety characteristic of an earlier Florentine tradition. Bartolomeo’s career intersected with some of the most important intellectual and political circles of Renaissance Florence, and the present Book of Hours, executed in miniature, was likely made for a patron in that milieu. During the Council of Florence in 1439, he worked for several eminent patrons, including Tommaso Parentucelli, the future Pope Nicholas V, Pope Eugenius IV, and the humanist Antonio Rosselli, whose Monarchia sive tractatus de potestate imperatoris et papae was presented to Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 4237).

The subjects of the historiated initials and miniatures are as follows: f. 13, David holding the head of Goliath and gazing at the decapitated body (beginning of the Hours of the Virgin); ff. 71, 80, 88v, 96v, 104v, and 119, portraits of the Virgin in alternating blue, green, and pink robes, in initials ‘D’ and ‘C’ (opening each hour of the Virgin, except for Lauds, which begins with a large Lombard initial); f. 127, the Three Living and the Three Dead, with a skeleton standing atop coffins and a monk beside him, facing the viewer (beginning of the Office of the Dead); f. 195, the Man of Sorrows in a historiated initial ‘D’ (beginning of the Hours of the Passion); f. 231, David with harp in an initial ‘D’ (beginning of the Penitential Psalms); f. 273, Christ bearing the Cross in an initial ‘P’ (beginning of the Hours of the Cross).

LITERATURE
Unpublished; Related literature: Albinia C. de la Mare, “Vespasiano da Bisticci as Producer of Classical Manuscripts in Fifteenth-Century Florence,” in Medieval Manuscripts of the Latin Classics: Production and Use, ed. Claudine A. Chavannes-Mazel and Margaret M. Smith, Los Altos Hills (CA), 1996, pp. 166–207; Anna De Floriani, “Per Bartolomeo Varnucci: Un Messale e alcune precisazioni,” Miniatura 5/6 (1996), pp. 49–60; Francesca Pasut, “Bartolomeo d’Antonio Varnucci,” in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani, ed. Milvia Bollati, Milan 2004, p. 979–982P; Angela Dillon Bussi, “Albinia C. de la Mare, Vespasiano da Bisticci e la miniatura: Il caso di Bartolomeo Varnucci,” in Palaeography, Manuscript Illumination and Humanism in Renaissance Italy: Studies in Memory of A. C. de la Mare, ed. Robert Black, Jill Kraye, and Laura Nuvoloni, London, 2016, pp. 323–32; Daniele Guernelli, “Aggiornamenti su Bartolomeo Varnucci,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 84 (2021), 325–64.

We thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.

Collection of Dr. Scott Schwartz

This lot is located in Chicago.

BARTOLOMEO D’ANTONIO VARNUCCI WORKSHOP (active Florence 1412/13 – c. 1479) and ITALIAN ILLUMINATOR Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy, Florence, c. 1450]

BARTOLOMEO D’ANTONIO VARNUCCI WORKSHOP (active Florence 1412/13 – c. 1479) and ITALIAN ILLUMINATOR
Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy, Florence, c. 1450]