(Book of Hours) | Commendation of Souls, from a Book of Hours

(Book of Hours)

Commendation of Souls, from a Book of Hours in Latin, manuscript on vellum. [Northern France, first half of the 15th century]

8 leaves (a complete quire) (207 x 150 mm), on vellum, written in Latin with a French rubric, 16 lines per page in a formal gothic textura, one large illuminated foliate initial with a three-sided border, ten small champié initials, numerous one-line initials alternately gold with blue penwork or blue with red, line-fillers in blue, red, and gold; three margins of the first leaf excised. Later paper boards with tan sheepskin spine; worn.

The text comprises the full Commendation of Souls (Psalms 113–116 and accompanying prayers), introduced by the French rubric “Sens(uivent) les comendasses.” The sequence was common in French Books of Hours of the fourteenth century but declined in use during the first half of the fifteenth. It is distinct from the longer Sarum Commendation of Souls centered on Psalm 118, frequently found in Flemish Books of Hours made for the English market.

PROVENANCE

Likely Maggs (clipped bookseller description and pencilled dealer codes) — Alexander Scott (pencil inscription, “Ex libris Alexander Scott Carlin, London 1921,” and “MS No. 5.”) — Sotheby's London, 30 November 2021, lot 63