Beschreibung:

The Hardouin Hours, illuminated manuscript in Latin, on parchment [France (Paris), end of fourteenth century or opening decades of fifteenth century] 186 leaves, mostly bound in gatherings of 8 (with Calendar in 6s, and ending on a 3 to complete text), uncollatable, but wanting a leaf from Calendar (May), 2 leaves before fol. 12, and single leaves before fols. 35, 46, 50, 53, 57, 58, 60, 66, 68, 76, 102, 103, 126, 161 (perhaps with large miniatures), else complete, some catchwords, modern pencil foliation (missing out 2 leaves, and repeating 150-9, but followed here), ruled in pink for single column of 14 lines in two sizes of an angular early gothic bookhand of the highest quality, one-line initials in burnished gold on burgundy and blue grounds heightened with white, line-fillers in same with bezants, geometric patterns and tiny and delicate fleur-de-lys picked out in white penwork, larger initials in blue or pale pink with white penwork enclosing coloured ivy-leaf foliage and orange sun-like patterns on burnished gold grounds, every text leaf with a border on three sides of gold and coloured bars, long foliage terminating in coloured ivy-leaves tipped in white and bezants set within crosses of hairline penwork, this foliage enclosing or supporting numerous dragons with orange heads and legs (approximately 125 leaves with one or more dragons, that on fol. 81v with a bearded human face), most with long jutting lower jaws, some with long trailing manes, an array of other animals (some performing anthropomorphic or comic acts; see below for listing), one small miniature on fol. 160v (Christ standing in his sarcophagus surrounded by the objects of the Passion, all before a burgundy ground with scrolling liquid gold foliage), prayers added in fifteenth century to blank space on fol. 101v, a few spaces left for rubrics, some small stains and areas of discolouration, a few smudges, else good condition, 185 by 120mm., in a nineteenth-century binding of profusely tooled leather in neo-gothic style, over wooden boards (perhaps early), sewn on 5 large double thongs (again perhaps early), binding structures as visible within book perhaps early or original, but refreshed in nineteenth century and endbands restitched Provenance: 1. Written and illuminated in Paris around the turn of the fifteenth century for a wealthy and influential patron from Brittany: the local saints in the Litany focus on Breton saints, including in a single block all the ‘founding saints’ of the region: such as Samson, bishop of Dol (d. c. 565), Magloire (a Welsh saint who moved to Brittany as Sampson’s companion, d. 586), Tugdual (Irish hermit, d. 564, and one of the founder saints of Brittany), Brioc (Welsh saint, first abbot of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany, d. 502), Corentin of Quimper (d. 460), Padarn (also Paterne as here, Welsh saint, founded abbey in Vannes, d. c. 550), Paul (doubtless Pol Aurelian, Welsh vegetarian saint, originally buried at Saint-Pol, d. 575) and Malo (also Maclou as here, founded Saint-Malo, d. 621). The William who appears amongst these is probably St. William Pinchon (bishop of Saint-Brieuc, d. 1234), and the “Kecoleduce” is recognisable as St. Ke Coledoc (d. early sixth century), a saint from ‘the Old North’ ie. southern Scotland and northern England before the Anglo-Saxon incursions there. Many of these saints are also in the Calendar, where there are a handful of others indicating devotion to saints based in Central France, from Chartres (St. Leobin, his translation on 15 September), to Bourges (St. Austregisilius, 20 May), and to Besançon (St. Ferreoleu, 16 June). The lack of focus on a single region within Brittany, and inclusion of all the founding saints, might suggest that the book was made for a figure with close ties to Brittany as a totality, such as the duke or archbishop. 2. By the end of the fifteenth century, the book was owned by ‘Gualtier Hardwne’, who added his ex libris to fol. 101r, and the book passed through several g