Beautifully illuminated Book of Hours from the Aragonese Kingdom of Naples.

164 leaves, 7 blank, lacking single leaves after ff. 106, 114, and 156, and possibly the calendar, else complete [collation: i¹⁰, ii¹⁰, iii¹⁰, iv¹⁰, v¹⁰, vi¹⁰, vii¹⁰, viii⁸, ix¹⁰, x¹⁰, xi⁸, xii¹⁰⁻², xiii¹⁰, xiv¹⁰, xv¹⁰, xvi¹⁰, xvii¹⁰⁻¹] catchwords present throughout, ruled in brown ink for a single column of 13 lines (justification: 64 × 46 mm), ff. 155–156 in a single column of 25–28 lines (conclusion of the Office of the Dead and addition of the Athanasian Creed). Written in two hands in a neat rotunda script, rubrics in red, capitals in alternating red and blue, with double-line initials adorned with fine penwork flourishing, FIVE ILLUMINATED INITIALS in blue and deep rose on burnished gold grounds with partial borders of acanthus foliage and fruit, one inhabited by a monk, THREE HISTORIATED INITIALS in blue and deep rose on gold grounds with partial borders, one inhabited by a dragon, TWO HALF-PAGE HISTORIATED INITIALS within gold frames, the corners enriched with meander ornament, these accompanied by FULL BORDERS of scrolling acanthus inhabited by putti, a lion, and a peacock, incorporating a blank cartouche. Bound in nineteenth-century dark green morocco, richly gilt, covers with a wide border of floral and pointillé roulettes, the corners stamped with crowned fleur-de-lys tools and enclosing a small gilt cross at center, spine in compartments elaborately tooled in gilt with lattice and rosette tools, lettered in gilt on a red morocco label “OFFICIUM B. M. V.,” edges gilt, staining and soiling in places, with notable water staining to the opening and final quires (ff. 1–13; 156–164); minor losses to burnished gold, text intermittently faded, endpapers brittle and loose, with noticeable wear to the spine hinges, otherwise in good condition. Dimensions 128 mm × 88 mm.

Provenance
(1) The manuscript’s illumination is firmly rooted in the Neapolitan artistic tradition, but the litany concludes with an invocation to Saint Leucius, the first bishop and principal patron saint of Brindisi. This localized devotional feature suggests that the book may have been produced in Naples for a patron in Brindisi, reflecting the broader circulation of manuscripts between the capital of the Kingdom of Naples and the provincial centers under its jurisdiction.

(2) Louis Pascal Casella (1812–1897) a British scientific instrument maker of Italian descent. He became one of Victorian Britain’s leading designers and manufacturers of precision instruments for meteorology, navigation, and physics. His note on the second flyleaf states: “This book once the property of the Bourbon Family, an attempt having been made to erase the Fleur de Lis during the Revolutionary Period.” This possibly refers to the blank cartouche on f. 1.

(3) Sotheby’s, London, 9 December 1963, lot 30.

(4) Collection of Dr. Scott Schwartz, New York, his bookplate and catalog number “MS 20” on front pastedown.

Text
Lacking a calendar. ff. 1–74v, Hours of the Virgin (ff. 1r–12, Matins; ff. 12v–25, Lauds; ff. 25v–30, Prime; ff. 30v–35, Terce; ff. 35v–38v, Sext; ff. 39v–43v, Nones; ff. 44–52, Vespers; ff. 52v–55v, Compline; ff. 56–74v Seasonal variants); ff. 75–78, blank; ff. 79–93, Penitential Psalms; ff. 93–98v, Litanies (standard Use); ff. 98v–103, Penitential prayers and collets; ff. 104–106, blank; ff. 107–155, Office of the Dead (beginning imperfectly); ff. 155–156v, Athanasian Creed; ff. 157–160v, Hours of the Cross (beginning imperfectly); ff. 161–164, Hours of the Holy Spirit.

Illumination
This Book of Hours emerges from the flourishing Neapolitan painting that developed in southern Italy during the second half of the fifteenth century at the Aragonese court. Its closest comparison is found in a Psalter now preserved in the Biblioteca Statale di Montevergine (MS 12; Biblioteca Statale di Montevergine 2019, p. 4, cat. 12), likewise dated to the second half of the fifteenth century. The affinities between the two manuscripts are especially evident in their figure types: the King David miniature in the present Book of Hours and the depiction of David on f. 2 of the Montevergine Psalter share the same rounded, almost swollen facial structure, aquiline nose, softly modeled cheeks, and small fleshy hands. Beyond these figural parallels, the manuscripts employ a remarkably similar decorative vocabulary, with animated borders formed from densely curling acanthus leaves inhabited by playful putti, birds, and animals. Particularly striking is the graceful peacock motif that appears in both volumes, suggesting a shared ornamental repertoire and close. Both manuscripts also reflect the influence of the celebrated Neapolitan illuminator Cola Rapicano, whose workshop dominated manuscript production at the Aragonese court during the second half of the fifteenth century. Characteristic features of this style include brightly colored architectural initials, luxuriant bianchi girari and acanthus borders populated by putti and classical ornament, and a figure style distinguished by a courtly elegance that translated developments in contemporary Neapolitan painting into the medium of manuscript illumination.

Cola Rapicano of Amantea entered the service of King Alfonso V of Aragon in 1455 and remained one of the principal illuminators of the Neapolitan court for more than three decades. Recorded regularly in the Aragonese treasury documents until 1488, Rapicano established, by around 1460, a prolific workshop serving both the royal library and the court chapel. Among his collaborators were his son Nardo Rapicano, the German-born scribe and illuminator Gioacchino de’ Gigantibus, who arrived in Naples from Rome around 1470, and Cristoforo Majorana, one of the leading Neapolitan illuminators active during the final decades of the century. Although the full extent of the workshop’s production remains uncertain, manuscripts associated with Rapicano and his circle include Andrea Contrario’s Defensio Platonis (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 12947), the Epistolae of Phalaris made for Alphonse V (New York, Morgan Library, MS M.1163) and Strabo’s Geographia (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS vat. lat. 2054), among numerous other luxury commissions produced for the Aragonese court.

The evidence of the present manuscript suggests the diffusion of this refined Neapolitan court style beyond the capital. The inclusion of Saint Leucius in the litany is significant, pointing toward an intended owner or ecclesiastical context in or around Brindisi, where the saint was especially venerated as the city’s first bishop and patron. Likewise, the Montevergine Psalter, may have originated beyond Naples, as the Montevergine library developed over centuries through the accumulation of manuscripts from monastic dependencies, regional institutions, and private donors throughout southern Italy. Together, these manuscripts suggest either the activity of Neapolitan workshops exporting books throughout the Aragonese kingdom or the presence of regional ateliers closely informed by the artistic language developed by Cola Rapicano and his contemporaries.

The subjects of the historiated initials and border decorations are: f. 1, Virgin and Child with full border including a peacock, the head of a bird, and two flying putti supporting a blank cartouche (for Hours of the Virgin); f. 12v, A singing monk (for Lauds); f. 30v, a bearded monk with a dragon in the border (for Terce); f. 52v, in border, a half-length monk supporting the initial (for Compline); f. 79, David in Prayer with a landscape background including hills, trees, and a distant city, the border with a peacock and a putto riding a lion (for Penitential Psalms).

LITERATURE
Unpublished; Related literature: Mario Salmi, L’enluminure italienne, Milan, 1954, p. 74, fig. 89; Gennaro Toscano, “La bottega di Cola e Nardo Rapicano,” in La Biblioteca Reale di Napoli al tempo della dinastia aragonese, exhibition catalogue, Valencia, 1998, pp. 385–415; Daniele Guernelli, “Un Petrarca miniato per Giosuè Carducci, “Cola Rapicano e alcune spigolature napoletane,” Letteratura & Arte 10 (2012), pp. 137–58; Veronica De Duonni “Montevergine: Immagini su pergamena,” PhD dissertation, University of Salerno, 2016, pp. 24–25; Biblioteca Statale di Montevergine, I codici miniati di Montevergine: Mostra bibliografica, Mercogliano, 2019, p. 4, cat. 12; Teresa D’Urso, “Manuscript Illustration in the South of the Italian Peninsula,” in A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Naples, ed. Bianca de Divitiis, Leiden, 2022, pp.563–590.

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

Collection of Dr. Scott Schwartz