Nine wallet-format leaves partly of Otto Ege provenance now rebound and by the Master of the Paris Entries

Rebound fragment, i (modern paper) + 9 + i (modern paper) leaves, partially foliated in two different modern hands in pencil (“13,” “41,” “43”) [collation: gathered into modern guard binding], ruled in red ink in one column of thirty-two lines (justification: 170 mm × 78 mm), written in a bâtarde script, catchwards present on two leaves, one knobbed line filler, single-line capitals in gold on alternating red and sable ground, double-line capitals alternating in blue and red ink with decorative penwork infills in white and gold, THREE ILLUMINATED INITIALS of three and four lines in red and blue ink with white penwork filagree on gold ground with floral decorative infills, THREE MINIATURES of nine lines in gold frames inset within text, THREE HALF PAGE MINIATURES set within elaborate tabernacle frames in gold, green, and red with ogee gables and canopy statues, one frame with heraldic device surrounded by green wreath with red ribbons. Bound in cardboard album of plain blue leatherette, light cockling to three leaves and minor soiling to margins, else in excellent condition. Dimensions 223 mm × 109 mm.

Provenance
(1) Parent manuscript produced for a client pictured kneeling in a miniature of the Coronation of the Virgin alongside his patron saint (probably Saint James). A heraldic device of azure semé-de-lis or, a lion rampant sable, over all a bend sinister gules indicates a differenced or derivative coat referencing the French royal arms, often employed in the late medieval period by cadet branches or individuals claiming association with the royal house. The arms appear twice in the manuscript: once framed within a decorative green wreath punctuated by four red roundels and again displayed in a donor scene where they are held by a lion.

(2) Parent manuscript broken up probably in the nineteenth or early twentieth century. Twentieth-century pencil foliation in two different hands suggests that the manuscript existed in at least two fragments by this time.

(3) Twenty-five bifolia from the parent manuscript offered by Dawsons, Catalogue no. 211, 1945, lot 185. Among these are the present leaves with the Coronation of the Virgin (v), the Tree of Jesse (g), and the Resurrection (w).

(4) Otto Ege, who acquired the Coronation of the Virgin, Tree of Jesse, and Resurrection, and probably others, thereafter.

(5) Collection of Dr. Scott Schwartz, New York, assembled from a group of individual leaves acquired from various sources, including Serendipity Books (20 April 1979); Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 1992, lot 15 (Coronation of the Virgin, purchased post-sale, 20 January 1993); Swann Galleries, 19 November 1998, lot 133; and Maggs Brothers, 2 January 2003. The individual leaves corresponding to these acquisitions have not been securely established. The bifolium with the Tree of Jesse was previously in the Zion Research Library (leaf 61a) (see Oliver 1985, pp. 75–76, no. 109) and was later incorporated into the Mulger Library of Boston University. An unknown number of these leaves were also apparently owned by Margaret Catherine O’Reilly, her bookplate incorporated onto the inner cover. Subsequently gathered and bound together, probably by Denis Gouey, after 2003.

Text:
Each leaf bearing fragments of the following texts: f. 1: Office of the Virgin (Lauds); f. 2: Gospel readings from Luke and Matthew; f. 3: Hours of the Virgin (Matins); f. 4: Psalms 18, 23, and 44; f. 5: Gospel readings from Mark and the conclusion of Luke; ff. 6–7: Office of the Virgin (Vespers); f. 8: Office of the Dead (Lauds); f. 9: Office of the Virgin (Matins).

Illumination
This album contains a collection of nine leaves from a lavish Book of Hours illuminated in the early sixteenth century by the Master of the Parisian Entries (identifiable with Jean Coene IV). The parent manuscript remains obscure, with no known record of its appearance intact in collections or on the market. Two sets of foliations written in nineteenth-century hands suggest that the manuscript was already circulating in at least two fragmentary sections by this period. Twenty-two bifolia, including three preserved in the present album, were offered by Dawson’s Book Shop, Catalogue 211 (December 1946), lot 185, and were subsequently dispersed by Otto Ege. At present, the three bifolia in this album appear to be the only securely identified surviving leaves from the manuscript. The original commission was likely made for a noble patron within the orbit of the French court, shown kneeling before the Virgin in the miniature of the Coronation of the Virgin (f. 6), accompanied by his patron saint (probably Saint James). The heraldic device (azure semé-de-lis or, a lion rampant sable, over all a bend sinister gules) appears to represent a differenced or derivative coat referencing the French royal arms, a practice often employed by cadet branches or individuals claiming association with the royal house. The arms appear twice: once enclosed within a decorative green wreath punctuated by four red roundels, and again in the donor miniature, where they are supported by a lion.

The manuscript was illuminated by the Master of the Parisian Entries, a prolific Parisian artist active during the reigns of King Louis XII (1498–1515) and King François I (1515–1547). The artist takes his name from two royal presentation manuscripts commemorating ceremonial entries: the entry of Mary Tudor, second wife of Louis XII, into Paris in 1514 (London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian MS B II), and the Sacre, couronnement, triomphe et entrée de la reine et duchesse Madame Claude de France, celebrating Claude de France, first wife of François I, in 1517 (Paris, BnF, MS fr. 5750 and MS fr. 14116). The large group of approximately thirty illuminated copies of Pierre Choque’s Commemoration et advertissement de la mort d’Anne, reine de France, produced shortly after the funeral of Anne of Brittany in 1514, demonstrates the remarkable productivity and organization of his workshop (Delaunay 2008; Avril 2011). In 1997, Eberhard König proposed identifying the Master of the Parisian Entries with Jean Coene IV on the basis of an inscription in the painted frame surrounding the Crucifixion miniature of a Missal, apparently reading “De Jos Coene” (König 1997, p. 320). Jean Coene IV belonged to a prominent family of Bruges artists who had established themselves in Paris during the fifteenth century.

The present manuscript compares closely with other works produced by the Master of the Parisian Entries during the 1510s that employ elaborate architectural tabernacle frames, including a Psalter-Hours made c. 1505–1515, probably for the Dominican convent of Saint-Louis de Poissy (formerly Les Enluminures, TM 1004). Both manuscripts employ similar architectural settings enriched with classicizing ornament, within which figures are theatrically staged through emphatic gestures and carefully arranged compositions. The present fragment preserves a particularly remarkable and apparently unique miniature introducing the Office of the Dead (f. 8). Here the resurrected Christ, displaying his wounds, embraces the Virgin, who turns dramatically from an open book on a lectern toward him with arms outstretched. Behind Christ stand Adam and Eve, together with a multitude of naked souls released from Hades. Although the composition borrows elements from traditional imagery of the Harrowing of Hell, it transforms the subject by placing the encounter within a contemporary architectural space and combining it with the rarely depicted reunion of Christ and the Virgin after the Resurrection. No direct parallel for this unusual iconography has yet been identified.

The subjects of the three miniatures are: f. 2: Saint Luke seated under an arch, painting at an easel, accompanied by an ox; f. 2v: Saint Matthew holding a pair of spectacles, receiving a book and inkwell from an angel; f. 5v: Saint Mark writing at a desk, accompanied by a lion. The subjects of the half-page miniatures are: f. 3: Tree of Jesse depicting the line of David, featuring kings and prophets, with the Virgin and Child at the center; f. 6: Mary, Queen of Heaven, enthroned with the Christ Child holding a cross with manuscript’s patron kneeling in a fleur-de-lis–decorated robe, accompanied by his patron saint and a lion bearing a heraldic device; f. 8, the Resurrected Christ displaying wounds, embraced by the Virgin before an altar and baldachin, with partially naked souls in prayer.

Parent manuscript and sister leaves
Twenty-five bifolia from the parent manuscripts were offered at Dawsons, Los Angeles, Catalog 211, 1946, lot 185. Three of these (Jesse Tree, Coronation of the Virgin, Christ Resurrected) are included in the present gathering. The location of the remaining leaves is presently unknown. The following lots are listed in Dawson’s: (a.) Saint John at Patmos; (b.) Annunciation; (c.) Visitation; (d.) Nativity; (e.) Annunciation to the Shepherds; (f.) Presentation in the Temple; (g.) Jesse Tree; (h.) Apparition of the Virgin; (i.) Eucharistic Fountain; (j.) Litany of the Virgin; (k.) Adoration of the Magi; (l.) Mary as Queen of Heaven; (p.) Pentecost; (q.) Death of the Virgin; (r.) Peter Cutting the Ear of the Servant; (s.) Christ Before Pilate; (t.) The Scourging of Christ; (u.) Crucifixion; (v.) Coronation of the Virgin; (w.) The Resurrected Christ with the Virgin; (x.) King David Receiving a Message from a Knight; (y.) Job on the Dung Heap.

LITERATURE
Published: Lilian Randall, “Unpublished Mediaeval Illuminations from a Brookline, Massachusetts Collection,” Connoisseur 134 (December 1954), 215–18, p. 218; Judith H. Oliver, ed., Sacred and Secular, Boston, 1985, no. 61a, color pl. VIII; Related literature: François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440–1520, Paris, 1993, pp. 270–73; Eberhard König, Boccacio und Petrarca in Paris: Leuchtendes Mittelalter, Neue Folge 1, Ramsen, 1997, pp. 320; Isabelle Delaunay, “Échanges artistiques entre livres d’heures manuscrits et imprimés produits à Paris (vers 1480–1500),” Ph.D. dissertation, Université Paris IV–Sorbonne, 2000; Isabelle Delaunay, “Le Maître des Entrées parisiennes,” in Art de l’enluminure 26 (2008), pp. 52–70; François Avril, Nicole Reynaud, and Dominique Cordellier eds., Les enluminures du Louvre, Moyen Âge et Renaissance, Paris, 2011, pp. 222–23; Ariane Adeline and Isabelle Delaunay, “Paris 1480–1520, “ in Peindre en France: ans de recherche sur les manuscrits à peintures (1440–1520), ed. Frédéric Elsig, Samuel Gras, Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, Milan, 2025, pp. 84–115.

We thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale and Elliot Adam for consultation on this entry.

Collection of Dr. Scott Schwartz