Beschreibung:

Horae. [Book of Hours, Use of Paris (?)] Latin manuscript on vellum. Northern France or Flanders, c.1450. 143 leaves, 12 lines, single column, written in a fine regular gothic book hand in black ink, with illuminated and burnished gold initials on almost every leaf, five leaves with full-page illuminated and decorated floral borders. 12mo (95 x 72 mm) with large margins. Full green crushed morocco extra, gilt-paneled covers, raised bands, gilt decorated backstrip, by Riviere. Occasional soiling and spotting, a few initials with minimal paint loss, otherwise fine. A delightful (though imperfect) tiny Book of Hours, lacking the first leaf (January) and possibly other leaves though apparently textually complete and issued most likely without miniatures as a simple yet quite richly decorated prayer book for a lady or perhaps a child. The text is written in an unusually fine hand of the period and the illuminations, though simple, are rich and generally well preserved though with some rubbing to the full-page borders in two cases. [Phillips, Nov 14, 1991, lot 240.]