An early 16th century Book of
Hours, being a rarer copy printed on paper, and from the workshop of Gilles
Hardouyn.
This book is printed in a 30-line format, in a gothic text, and
is fully rubricated throughout in red and blue, though much of the blue
rubrication has largely faded. While the full suite of near-full and full page
metalcut illustrations are not completely present, more than half remain. This
Book of Hours has been printed with the original margins being left untrimmed,
resulting in a rather large format Hours.
This Hours is profusely illustrated throughout, with 14 of 20
near-full page and full page metalcut illustrations, along with 22 smaller in-text
metalcuts, and hundreds of border metalcuts, with numerous figures, saints, creatures,
and more.
From 1510-1550, the brothers Gilles
and Germain Hardouyn produced hundreds of printed Books of Hours from their
workshop in Paris. Gilles served as the printer, and Germain was the
illustrator, being registered in the Guild of Illuminators, and later printing
and publishing under his own sign. With such quality of works being produced
from their workshop, these printed Books of Hours could often be mistaken as
illuminated manuscripts.
This Book of Hours has been rebound
in 19th century calf, with beautiful and ornate tooling to the covers.
This Book of Hours is lacking quires
A, B, C, and leaves D1 and 8.
One volume in quarto, 74 leaves
This volume is in very good shape,
with minimal rubbing or wear to the binding. There is some soiling and
scattered ink staining throughout, with marginal staining affecting several
leaves near the end. There is a bit a worming at the start, affecting several
cuts and borders, but not obscuring any text, and mostly affecting the blank
margins. There is a small pair of wormholes that develop from the lower right
margin of leaf M2 onwards, not affecting any text or borderwork. There are two
small tears to the right-side margin of the first three leaves.