Add MS 69865

BOOK of HOURS: detached leaves from a Book of Hours, in Latin, written and illuminated at Bologna in the school of Niccolo da Bologna; circa 1400. Further leaves from the same manuscript are Add. 52539 (see Brit. Mus. Quart. xxix (1964-1965), pp. 84-89) and additional leaves are in the Rouse Collection in California. Another Hours by the same hand is Add. 34247. The illumination is in the Italian style associated with the so-called Master of the Brussels Initials (see M. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: the Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke (1967), pp. 229-246), but this attribution is not convincing. The manuscript forms part of a distinctive group, the masterpiece of which is the Missal of the Anti-Pope John XXIII, formerly in the collection of Viscount Astor (see Sotheby's sale-catalogue, 21 June 1988, lot 54) and now at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu. Purchased at Sotheby's, 5 Dec. 1989, lot 44.

Vellum; ff. 25. 236 x 170mm.

Two major historiated initials with associated border decoration at f. 5 (the Annunciation) and f. 24v (David sunk in the earth), introducing the Hours of the Virgin and the Penitential Psalms respectively. Four small initials enclosing tetramorphs representing the Four Evangelists at ff. 1v, 2, 2v and 3. The arms of the original owner, with a swan crest, at f. 5, but too badly damaged to allow of identification. Fine penwork initials in blue and gold.