Manor

1977 · ref. BIBLIO-57921 — Published for the National Trust by Office du Livre Fribourg first edition 1977. Cloth large 8vo gilt device on front board top edge gilt 32 cm. 608 pp 46 colour plates some mounted numerous black and white illustrations. A splendid catalogue of a superb collection but more than this since the catalogue was intended also to explainand illustrate Delaissé's method of examining and interpreting manuscripts. The earliest manuscripts in the collection "are a thirteenth century Italian Bible which is decorated but not illustrated and a Liturgical Psalter which was probaby written between 1326 and 1328 and which was decorated and illustrated in the workshop of Jean Pucelle. The remaining manuscripts are all fifteenth or sixteenth century and with the exception of two Italian Books of Hours they are French or Netherlandish. The quality of the collection is rather uneven. The outstanding manuscripts are two Books of Hours illuminated respectively by Jean Bourdichon and by Simon Bening."-from a contemporary review. From the introduction: "The material description of each manuscript in this catalogue .describes in succession: I. The material and its size. II. The construction of the book in quires or gatherings. III. The preparation of the bifolio by pricking and ruling. IV. The text of which contents and script are examined separately V. The decorations in the order of their importance in relation to the text: initials paragraph signs line endings and borders. VI. The illustration of the text with miniatures of which the subjects and techniques are distinguished. VII. The binding. VIII. Additions to the book IX. Provenance. .The analytical description is followed by a commentary that attempts to interpret the material facts discovered to introduce the reader to the life of the books and to understandif possible their social significance.Clearly the value of a catalogue of this kind must depend to a great extent on the illustrations. These have been made as numerous as possible and most of the manuscripts are represented by reproductions in colour. Pages of text are illustrated as well as those with miniatures and one calendar page from each Book of Hours is reproduced." The manuscripts described are: 1. Bible Italy mid-thirteenth century; 2. Liturgical Psalter Paris workshop of Jean Pucelle 1326-1328; 3. Thirteen Miniatures from a 'Bible historiale' Paris f.1405; 4. Book of Hours of Guillebert de Lannoy Southern Low Countries c.1430; 5. Eleven Miniatures from a Book of Hours Southern Low Countries c.1430; 6. Book of Hours Amiens c. 1430-1440; 7. Book of Hours Eastern France c.1460; 8. Christine de Pisan Epitre d'Othéa Lille publishing house of Jean Miélot f.1455 illustrated for Philip of Cleves Ghent c.1485; 9. Book of Hours for a Catalan with additions Bruges c.1460 and c.1475; 10. Book of Hours Northern France c.1470; 11. Jean de Courcy Chronicle called 'La Bouquechardière' Rouen c.1465; 12. Book of Hours Rouen c.1470; 13. Book of Hours Paris late-fifteenth century; 14. Book of Hours Rouen c.1490; 15. Life and Fables of Aesop; Fables of Avianus Ghent c.1490; 16. Book of Hours Florence c.1490; 17. Statutes and Armorial of the Order of the Golden Fleece Flanders 1481-1490; additions up to 1556; 18. Book of Hours Naples c.1497; 19. Missal Paris c.1500; 20. Book of Hours Tours workshop of Jean Bourdichon c.1505; 21. Book of Hours Paris i.1485-1500; 22. André Delavigne Coronation of Anne of Brittany Paris c.1505; 23. Book of Hours Northern France early-sixteenth century; 24. Book of Hours of Jean Regnart Paris Nicholas Forget c.1510; 25. Book of Hours Rouen c.1510; 26. Book of Hours Bruges workshop of Simon Bening 1540. Minor scuffs and marks to boards otherwise Very Good in used dustwrapper. Published for the National Trust by Office du Livre, Fribourg, first edition, 1977 hardcover