Illuminated Manuscript—Four small miniatures on two leaves from a Book of Hours, in Latin with rubrics in French, (France, Brittany or Normandy(?), c.1420

PROVENANCE:

1. Apparently from a manuscript perhaps produced in north-western France in c.1420, enriched with large miniatures added by the Mazarine Master in Paris.

2. Perhaps owned by Vladimir Simkhovitch (1874–1959) of New York, who sold the four leaves with large miniatures (see below) to the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1953 and 1955.

3. Probably owned by Heinrich Eisemann c.1953, from whom bought by: 

4. Eric Korner (1893–1980); his nos. 80–81;

5. sold by his heirs in our rooms, 19 June 1990, lot 26.

Two attractive leaves from a Parisian Book of Hours with miniatures by the Mazarine Master

COMMENTARY:

Two very personal leaves with illuminations by the workshop of the Mazarine Master: the first showing St Christopher carrying the Christ Child and St Denis holding his mitred head; the second depicting St Martin dividing his cloak on the recto and St Mary Magdalene.

The two leaves were excised from a Book of Hours and contain parts of the Suffrages to the Saints. Suffrages are often short, specialised prayers dedicated to an individual saint, intended to seek intercession, protection, and guidance on behalf of oneself or loved ones. These sections were highly personal and tailored to the specific patron, and to the diocese or city in which the owner lived.

The four saints represented in these leaves were popular intercessors, beseeched in practical matters of salvation and protection. They are characteristic of late medieval lay devotion and are frequently found in Books of Hours for the Use of Paris, each being associated with everyday practical concerns of salvation and protection. As patron saint of Paris, St Denis was one of the most popular saintly figures in Books of Hours from the region. St Christopher offered protection against sudden death and was one of the preferred saints of travellers and pilgrims. St Denis was often invoked against headaches — despite carrying his head as a sign of his martyrdom — while St Martin is invoked against poverty, and St Mary Magdalene offers the forgiveness of sins.

All saints are depicted with their traditional attributes against colourful geometrical backgrounds and set within thin golden frames. They are each charmingly rendered, with details that might strike the modern viewer as humorous — St Denis’s halo is placed on top of his body where his head once was, despite its clear absence, and the bright, crisp white braies of the beggar, together with the benevolent expression of St Martin, catch the eye of the beholder.

Apparently from the same manuscript are a handful of leaves, including larger miniatures, four formerly in the Korner Collection, sold in our rooms on 19^th June 1990, lots 21–24. Additional sister leaves from the Suffrages include small miniatures in a style characteristic of Brittany or perhaps Normandy, as well as two leaves from a New York collection, sold in our rooms on 21^st June 1994, lot 26, bought by Maggs (their Catalogue 1222, 1996, nos. 2–3, with col. pls.), and one bought from Korner by Rosy Schilling and sold after her death in our rooms on 5^th December 1994, lot 24.

LITERATURE:

Andrews, Christine Geisler. “The Boucicaut Masters.” The Art Bulletin 63, no. 1 (March 1981): 7–28.

Avril, François, et Nicole Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440–1520. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1993.

Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). “Maître de la Mazarine.” Catalogue général. Accessed June 3, 2026. https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb154998730.

Reinburg, Virginia. French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400–1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Wieck, Roger S. Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art. New York: George Braziller, 1997.